Since most of my TV viewing is post-prime time, you'd think I would be thrilled with the return of the shows. I wasn't.
If the writers' strike teaches me anything, it's that I can take or leave TV.
Still, I was interested in the return of late night TV on Wednesday.
A quick summary:
Hillary Clinton's appearance on David Letterman's show was just a cameo measured in seconds. She wasn't a guest, as had been rumored.
Letterman was sporting a really gross beard. What was the point? To show the audience what happens to him after a two month absence from his hair and makeup people?
Host David Letterman appears on 'The Late Show with David Letterman' on the CBS Television Network in New York January 2, 2008. The January 2 episode is the first original show taping since the start of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. (John Paul Filo/CBS ©2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved/Reuters)
Conan O'Brien also had a beard. It wasn't as bad as Letterman's, but it wasn't good.
In this photo provided by 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien', a bearded Conan O'Brien returns to the late night show on Wednesday Jan. 2, 2008, after a two month hiatus due to the Writers Guild strike.(AP Photo/ Dana Edelson/NBC)
Although he was back at work, O'Brien made it very clear that he supports the striking writers. Without his writers, he looked for ways to burn some seconds off the clock. At least twice he resorted to spinning his wedding ring on his desk, timing it, and trying to beat his record.
It seemed like what TV would be like if a natural or manmade disaster wiped out half of humanity.
Jay Leno seemed less awkward without his writers. Like O'Brien, he stressed that he supports the striking writers.
Leno had the advantage of hosting a big guest, Mike Huckabee.
Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (L) is interviewed by talk show host Jay Leno during a taping of the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in Burbank, California January 2, 2008. REUTERS/Paul Drinkwater/NBC/Handout (UNITED STATES).
In this photo released by NBC, presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee plays his bass guitar with Kevin Eubanks, music director of the 'The Tonight Show' band during a taping of the 'The Tonight Show' on Wednesday Jan. 2, 2008 in Burbank, Calif. (AP Photo/NBC, Paul Drinkwater)
His appearance was rather boring.
The most interesting/entertaining part was when Leno showed a clip of a brief segment Huckabee did with him years ago when he was significantly heavier.
Read more here.
Huckabee's stint on The Tonight Show was complicated by the picketing.
Striking writers attempted to capitalize on the fact that presidential candidate Huckabee crossed the picket line.
Striking Writers Guild of America members carry picket signs, including one protesting U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, in front of NBC studios in Burbank, California, January 2, 2008. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is scheduled to resume taping at the studio today without its writers and with a scheduled appearance by Huckabee.(Phil McCarten/Reuters)
Pickets including TV movie writer Anna Sandor, lower left, march outside a scheduled appearance by Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on the 'Tonight Show With Jay Leno,' which was to tape its first show without making a deal with striking Writers Guild of America writers, at NBC studios in Burbank, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008.(AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
People march outside a scheduled appearance by Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on the 'Tonight Show With Jay Leno,' which was to tape its first show without making a deal with striking Writers Guild of America writers, at NBC studios in Burbank, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008.(AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Normally, an appearance on network TV show would be a plus for a candidate, especially, until recently, a second tier candidate like Huckabee.
The scab thing might be a problem for him.
The Nation -- Mike Huckabee's foray onto secular television -- via an Iowa-caucus eve appearance with Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" -- seemed like a smart political move. Iowa Republicans who are leaning toward backing the former governor of Arkansas Thursday want to know that they are not going too far out onto a limb, so an appearance on a top national talk show on the night it returns to the air provides some necessary reassurance for folks who like Huckabee but want to be sure they are backing a winner.
Unfortunately for Huckabee, who has worked hard to position himself as a Republican who actually respects unions and their members, he had to cross a picket line to make the appearance.
Huckabee, the one Republican contender who has regularly appeared at national union conventions and forums and who actually won an endorsement from the Machinists union, says he's 100 percent behind the Writers Guild of America members who have gone on strike in an effort to secure a fair share of the money reaped by the producers of the programs they create.
"I support the writers, by the way, unequivocally, absolutely," chirped Huckabee. "They're dead right on this one. And they ought to get royalties off the residuals and the long-term contracts."
But right does not trump political opportunity for the man who claims to embrace higher moral standards than his foes.
The bottom line:
I don't like this much drama mixed with my comedy.
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