CBS Returns With Writers For Late Night Lineup

The Late Show With David Letterman

Dave Letterman returned sporting a Grizzly Adams look, a full beard upon his face. Dave was pretty much the same as he always was when I became a fan in junior high when he made his celebrated switch to CBS. He still runs his jokes into the ground. More importantly, however, is that those jokes were written by the same people they've always been: the writers. Letterman, who owns his own production company that does his show, The Late Show With David Letterman, as well as his network ally's program, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. Based on the ratings, Dave Letterman's decision to hire back his writers is paying hefty dividends with his viewing audience up 50%. What follow are my observations on both shows post-strike:

January 2, 2008: Politics has sorely missed having the late night talk shows as an outlet for "earned" (political terminology for "free") media coverage and Hillary Clinton took full advantage of Dave's return with his writers, making a cameo at the beginning lamenting Dave had been off for 8 weeks and, unfortunately, all good things come to an end. ;-) Dave remarked on his beardedness, making the obligatory self-effacing jokes. Bill Scheft stepped into one of Dave's jokes giving a scathing rebuke to the management's position against the Writer's Guild and blaming them for why the audience couldn't hear Dave's flaming boxers joke. It got a laugh out of me, left me with no illusions about whose side Dave's production company is on in the strike and convinced me that the writers' demands aren't unreasonable. Dave then moved on to a pretty funny themed Top Ten list about the WGA's demands. Letterman had a good interview with Robin Williams, who was animated as always. The show rounded out with Nancy Agostini, an associate producer, explaining what she does.

January 3, 2008: Dave opened the show with a bit about his beard, the scruffy animal pelt-esque object receiving the Key to the City from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The show then launched into a segment that could have used some Ritilin which covered quickly all the events it would have mocked over the last 2 months it had been on the air. A confused-looking striker then stood behind Dave's desk for an extended period of time after which Dave informed "Joe" that the WGA strike was over at the Sony building that particular day. The striker obliged by leaving. LOL The ever-popular Great Moments In Presidential Speeches was back showcasing this gem from President Bush: "Hope I didn't spill any sauce on my shirt after I had barbecue at the Whole Hog." Dave them did an Iowa presidential campaign timeline that I thought was easily his best gag since coming back on the air; it was full of laughs. The Top Ten List, not so much. It was hit or miss and it was a miss this night. Maher had a pretty boring interview with little to no talk of the strike and his only insightful remarks came on political issues, particularly about why the Republicans were not distancing themselves from Bush despite the president's poll numbers.It's hard to tell whether Hal Gurnee's Network Time Killer is a dig on Jay Leno, Letterman's heated rival, going back to production without his writing staff. I think it is and if their point is to prove that Jay's show is markedly more boring without his regular writing team, the viewership numbers bear that out. The Ellen Page interview was unremarkable, other than he seemed to be interviewing an offbeat teenager that is popular but doesn't know nor care that she is. The show closed with a performance by the Young Frankenstein crew doing Mel Brooks' reinterpretation of the popular production.

January 4, 2008: Dave liked the beard, I liked the beard... Save's shaving the beard off? Why, you ask? The best answer that I could conjure up was he's doing it for the same reason he tests the aerodynamic properties of No. 2 pencils by winging them from the backdrop of the stage: Dave is Dave. ;-) Letterman shows a purported video from Osama Bin-Laden and then poses a question: Will Bin Laden last longer than Bush? Who'da thunk it? The best jokes have an element of truth at their core. The support for the WGA continued as the show did a bit on how the WGA wants 2.5 cents per every dollar made for when their shows are seen on the Internet. The show says this is ludicrous since everyone knows you can't cut pennies in half. What, do they have magic penny cutting scissors? Plus, the management wants to keep the two pennies and their third penny intact anyway, so it works out. It was also revealed that Rosie O'Donnell has become unhappy with Dave because of a joke he made about her having to shave her back. Will it escalate to the Oprah feud? We'll have to stay tuned to find out. ;-) The Fun Facts were, predictably, all about the writers' strike. The Top Ten List was political: The Top Ten Signs That Your Presidential Bid Is In Trouble. #9 was my favorite: "When you're described as John Kerry without the charisma." LOL Had me rolling over and laughing hard. Dave then had a boring interview with Donald Trump. He talked about being a grandpa and doing Celebrity Apprentice *snore, could somebody grab me a breathe-right?* ;-) Dave returns with a boring fake product endorsement. Then he goes with a Know Your Staff segment with Sarah Billington, the talent coordinator from the Late Show. She related two stories, one about Courtney Love and one about John Goodman. They're lovely but the entertainment value makes me wish the strike had ended yesterday. To end they had Shooter Jennings perform and he is one of my favorite artists. Always gives a great performance and he has his father's flair for performance.

Dave Letterman and the Writers Guild of America are in a win-win situation. The WGA gets great press coverage and Letterman gets to destroy his competition with new and fresh material Monday-Friday nights. His ratings are up 49% and expect that to rise further the longer that the strike goes on. The writers will get what they want, eventually, and the biggest losers will be NBC and ABC (NBC in particular) for holding out on them and being stubborn. The Tonight Show was already Three Mile Island... the WGA strike is going to turn it into Chernobyl.

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