Writers The Talk Of Late-Night TV Talkies

Most Shows Return, Some With Writers, Some Without; Were They Funny?

(CBS/AP)  A Republican, a Democrat and two bearded hosts walked into TV studios Wednesday night ...

... and so did Robin Williams, Bob Saget, Emeril Lagasse, Chingy, Helio Castroneves, and three clean-shaven funnymen, as the late-night TV universe tried to right itself two months into the writers' strike.

The results were uneven. David Letterman had reached an agreement to enable writers to return to work on his show; Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel returned without theirs.

A fully-bearded Letterman walked onstage amid dancing girls holding picket signs supporting the striking writers; Kimmel called picketers "ridiculous."

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Photos: David Letterman

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Leno delivered a monologue that included jokes he said he had crafted beforehand. Whether that violated rules of the striking Writers Guild of America - to which Leno belongs - was not immediately clear.

"We are not using outside guys," Leno said in the monologue. "We are following the guild thing ... We can write for ourselves."

The union said Wednesday it was withholding comment until it spoke to Leno about his show, which, like the other returning programs, was laden with references to the strike.

The walkout, Leno joked, "has already cost the town over half-a-billion dollars. Five hundred million dollars! Or as Paul McCartney calls that, `A divorce."'

Guests on the shows included two presidential candidates - with Democrat Hillary Clinton making a cameo appearance on Letterman's union-sanctioned "Late Show," while Republican Mike Huckabee ventured across picket lines to play bass guitar and trade jokes with Leno on "Tonight."

Letterman had the biggest celebrity guest, Robin Williams, who teased Letterman unmercifully about his beard, alternately comparing him to Gen. Robert E. Lee, a rabbi and an Iraqi mullah.

Meanwhile, over on NBC, Leno segued from Huckabee to chef Emeril Lagasse, then the rapper, Chingy. O'Brien welcomed Saget to pitch a new NBC show. Race car driver and "Dancing With the Stars" champ Castroneves came to ABC's Kimmel.

Craig Ferguson appeared with no guests, but a full complement of writers on "The Late Late Show" on CBS; his show is produced by Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants, which struck a separate deal with the Guild.

"I just want to send a message to the D-list celebrities of Hollywood," Ferguson said. "You're still welcome here."

Creative stretch marks were immediately evident on the shows without writers. O'Brien, sporting facial growth to match his red hair, showed off Christmas cards, danced on his table as his band played the Clash's "The Magnificent Seven," and tried to see how long he could spin his wedding ring on his desk. Leno took questions from his audience.

There was plenty of free on-air promotion for the Guild's cause.

"The writers are correct, by the way. I'm a writer ... I'm on the side of the writers," Leno said.

"I want to make this clear. I support their cause," O'Brien said. "These are very talented, very creative people who work extremely hard. I believe what they're asking for is fair."

Letterman brought writers on to recite a "Top 10 List" of their strike demands. They included "complimentary tote bag with next insulting contract offer" and "Hazard pay for breaking up fights on `The View."'

"You're watching the only show on the air that has jokes written by union writers," Letterman said. "I hear you at home thinking to yourself, `This crap is written?"'

Not all the hosts were as charitable. During his opening, Kimmel criticized WGA members picketing Leno and O'Brien: "I don't want to depart too much from the party line, but I think it's ridiculous. Jay Leno, he paid his staff while they were out. Conan did the same thing. I don't know. I just think at a certain point you back off a little bit."

But Leno's remarks were more typical of his fellow late-night hosts.

"A Jew, a Christian and a Muslim walk into a bar," Leno quipped. "The Jew says to the Muslim -- see, I have no idea what they say, because there's a writers' strike! We don't know what they say. ... I'm doing what I did the day I started. I write jokes and wake my wife up in the middle of the night and I go, 'Honey, is this funny?' "

That was, Lynette Rice of Entertainment Weekly observed to Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman, "vintage Leno. You've gotta put a little self-effacing humor in the monologue. It was Leno as we know him. It really felt like he didn't skip a beat."

Taking that one step further, TV Guide Editor Stephen Battaglio told The Early Show's Maggie Rodriguez Thursday, "I don't think any of these shows really missed a beat.

[grammawhamma]

Looks like crossing the picket lines didn''t hurt Huckabee in Iowa. I''m glad Leno is back...wonder what he would look like with a beard hiding his famous chin. LOL

[keithle1]

Dave looks terrible with his beard. Five years older. I think Conan has one too.

[figuy30]

Funny? Talent? I was thinking maybe I''d just gotten older. Then I changed my mind. This stuff is ***! They don''t need writers. They need new shows.

[hypnotoad72]

Thank you, Conan O''Brien.

[shortmama2]

Excellent coverage - thanks!