Talk Shows Without Writers

I missed Jay Leno and David Letterman’s return on the 2nd, accidentally thinking they came back on the 3rd.  Not that I missed much — Leno was so dull I quit watching after 10 minutes (no difference there), and Letterman recapped his thoughts from the previous night anyway.

I really don’t like Jay Leno.  Not because he tried to side-step the WGA and turned himself into a scab… I didn’t like him before all this.  I’ve tried, he’s just… not funny.  And he’s annoying, with his little chin bobble that he does, and the gray hair with the one streak of black.  He is a cartoon character all the time.

But I’ve always liked David Letterman.  Sometime in 7th grade I started setting my VCR to tape his show at night and then I’d watch it in the morning before school.  This continued pretty much until I left for college (I mean, I missed a few episodes here and there, but Dave and I were pretty tight for a while.)  I’d even go as far to say he molded my sense of humor quite a bit.  Anyway, I’ve kind of rediscovered how good his show is and I figured I should enjoy it while it lasts because he’s getting old and might not be hosting for much longer.

He’s also the only late night show I’ll allow myself to watch at this point, because his company was able to work out a deal with the WGA and therefore actually runs a legit show.  (He also owns Craig Ferguson’s late night show, but… c’mon, it’s Craig Ferguson.)  I’m not sure how cable companies track ratings (do they monitor your DVR?) so I feel like it’s better safe than sorry… I wouldn’t want to help the ratings of a non-WGA show.

So… Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are back as of yesterday as well.  I was waiting for this, even though they are also back without writers and so I probably won’t watch much more than I already have.  The reason I was waiting for them to come back is because I knew they’d use their 30 minutes to do nothing but be pro-WGA, and rightfully so.  If the networks want them back on the air without contracts, they should understand a political satire show will satire the shit out of them.  It will be the first time the WGA’s interests are fairly represented on TV.

Jon Stewart spent the first 15 minutes of his show talking about the strike, and the last 15 talking to a labor union expert who answered good questions, such as “doesn’t what the AMPTP doing constitute anti-trust?”  He led right into Stephen Colbert, who did a better job than Jon Stewart without a script, and the best part was when he introduced his show with the transitions he always uses, except there was nothing to transition to… “Welcome to the show… tonight! [pause]  THEN! [pause]  PLUS!  [pause]  Hey. …  THIS, is the Colbert Report.”

I really don’t get why this strike is still going on.

Anyone see American Gladiators?