Friday, January 18, 2008

Bemused, Confused, And Amused...

Okay okay...I'll get back in the saddle soon...sheesh. Snarky comments and emails from expectant readers...let an old man take a breather, 'kay?

But in the meantime, I'm admit I'm a little confused.

Did The...erm...I mean 'A' Daily Show and the Col-bert Report sign some kind of interim contract or waiver or something? Because while the first few shows after returning to the airwaves reflected their scribes being on strike (looser...more guests...fewer 'bits'), this week both programs seem more or less same as they ever were. Sure, we don't have Colbert's 'The Word', but with sketches and reporter field reports and moments of 'zen', it sure feels written.

What's up with that?


And some Friday Fun...just to remind us all what the WGA writers are up against (or what they're missing), the great Tony Shalhoub as movie producer Ben Geisler giving the gears to John Turturro in the Coen Brothers classic Barton Fink...




"Writers come and go...but we always need Indians. "

.

4 comments:

DMc said...

I don't know. I think there's definitely prep, but you can really, really see the looseness, too. For one thing, I've seen the same thing twice now. Last night, John Oliver and Stewart were riffing on the 10th anniversary of Monica Lewinsky thing, and using it as examples to show old clips of Stewart and making fun of his hair, jacket, etc. They came back from one seg, and repeated a whole chunk of tape of interplay of the two of them. It was a bad edit. I've seen that a few times now. I think they're stopping and starting a lot more than they usually do. The interview with the guy who wrote that ridiculous book blaming fascism on the left, Stewart even had to apologize for how choppy it was and how obviously edited it was.

The smooth slickness of both shows has definitely taken a hit. And the satire isn't as sharp. Colbert last night, they replayed this old Lou Dobbs interview and had Colbert pretend to redo the interview as his Spanish-language doppelganger. It wasn't really that funny -- it was clearly there to fill time.

wcdixon said...

Yes Denis, you're absolutely correct and noticed those things as well...but I think you'd have to be really watching with attention to catch - Joe Viewer, not so much.

But the field reports? And 'Bush's Bucket List'? Someone is writing these, no?

Callaghan said...

I was wondering the same thing. They're certainly more loose than usual, but at the same time, how come Leno was crucified for having a monologue, but these two critical darlings are getting away with what appears to be prepared material?

Just sayin'....

Jaime J. Weinman said...

I noticed that while A Daily Show no longer shows writing credits, it still lists writer David Javerbaum as an executive producer. Maybe he (and other writer-producers who show up to do their "producing" duties) is still writing some material. Would be against the rules, of course, but there's no question, as everyone notes, that these guys are still doing at least some prepared jokes and they can't be writing them all themselves.