GOODBYS FROM HEART TO HARTMAN

Clips of David Hartman flying. David Hartman playing baseball. David Hartman serenading Miss Piggy. David Hartman in the Soviet Union. David Hartman in India. David Hartman riding the range. David Hartman photographing gorillas.

There was only one thing wrong with David Hartman’s last day as host of ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday. Not enough David Hartman.

Just kidding.

The two-hour tribute to Hartman--who will be succeeded Monday by Charles Gibson--was somehow a metaphor for Hartman’s dominance on “Good Morning America.” For most of Hartman’s 11 years hosting the program, Joan Lunden and his earlier female partners were mere appendages relegated to fringe tasks.

The arrangement apparently suited viewers. Hartman was an enormous force in the morning-TV arena, leading “Good Morning America” to years of ratings supremacy while proving to skeptics that a perceptive, articulate, well-informed actor could assume the mantle of journalist with intelligence and dignity.

Even if he did neck with Miss Piggy.

Hartman is still under contract with ABC to do specials. He leaves “Good Morning America” at a time when the show has slipped to second in the Nielsens behind NBC’s venerable “Today” program.

His successor is a journalist by trade--a strong interviewer and Washington reporter who has demonstrated a hard-edged toughness as an occasional substitute for Ted Koppel on “Nightline.”

Friday’s program, meanwhile, said something about the transitory nature of TV programs and personalities. Anyone else who spends a mere 11 years on the job goes away with a service pin or a gold watch at best. No big deal.

TV has its own definition of longevity, though. So Hartman--a sturdy survivor in an industry that rarely takes prisoners--got a ticker-tape send-off, a sort of modified “This Is Your Life” that included testimonials from First Lady Nancy Reagan, Vice President George Bush, former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger and oodles of Hollywood celebrities.

Through it all, Hartman wore an “All-this-for-little old-me?” expression that was a bit much. And there was the typical goo. Hartman thanked Kissinger. Then Kissinger thanked Hartman. Then Hartman thanked Kissinger.

The morning’s most intriguing thank-you was Hartman thanking Ford and Carter for their “personal advice and counsel over the years.” He’s advised by ex-Presidents? That puts the rest of us in our places.

There were so many thank-yous and old Hartman clips that Lunden, his “Good Morning America” partner of seven years, was barely able to squeeze in her own thank-you.

If anyone should thank Hartman, it’s ABC.

With him as star, “Good Morning America” rose from the ashes of ABC’s earlier “A.M. America” to give “Today” its first strong ratings competition. There were ongoing reports that Hartman was difficult and egocentric. But he was also talented, popular and a winner.

“Until I see you again,” he told viewers Friday, “make it . . . a really good day today.”

Nice.