TVSquad

I was confused too. When the video matches up with the jokes, I think we have to assume we've entered the scripted realm.

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Well put, Bob! I was pondering this question as well. I love Stewart and Colbert, and I know they want the strike to be over as much as anyone else. I'm not faulting them for not wanting to give a dull performance. This illustrates exactly what I (as a writing instructor)always tell my students. Writing doesn't have much to do with paper or a keyboard and computer. Writing is thinking out loud, or thinking on paper/screen. All of us are writing when we improvise with words or narrate our own lives to ourselves or others. I'm glad the strike is elevating the discussion about writing.

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Stewart has been catching flak all day for his graphics. You can chalk that up to prop comedy, I guess? According to what I can determine, Stewart and Colbert are riding a line that they will eventually fall from. Busboy's writers, which I assume include Stewart and Colbert, fought to get WGA status a few years ago. They believed in the Guild and I'm sure that they support them.

However, there is also the rest of the Busboy staff to consider. It's been 9 weeks and Jon has been paying staff without any income coming in from Viacom/Comedy Central. I think that once one talk show host crossed the picket line (Leno) everyone else had to just to stay viable.

Speaking of viable, it looks as if some of the casualties of the strike will be daytime soaps. While some writers are scabbing for Y&R and DOOL, only B&B is 100% behind the WGA. The networks have been threatening to cancel soaps for years. Now, they have a reason.

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I just received notice from the Paley Center for Media that Jon Stewart will be hosting a tribute to Sumner Redstone, one of the chief weasels of the AMPTP in February.

Now I'm thinking he's gone over to the dark side totally......

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Bob-

Andrew is now a writer at The Atlantic Monthly, and is no longer affiliated with TIME as of about a year ago. Check the massive banner at the top of Sullivan's blog as a check

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I totally hear you on this. I kept saying the same thing while watching both of them last night. For instance, doesn't every graphic that Jon used mean that they would have had to have prepared that ahead of time? Colbert seemed even more prepared, and well, if he came up with some things off the top of his head, well then he is a comic genius. (He is.) Conan, during his monologue last night, also had like on screen facts appear about his personal life. They were graphics that appeared on the screen, and it all seem very prepared. Conan has been the most spontaneous I think (German laser show? Brilliant!), but this was the closest he has come too to "writing."

If you get a definitive answer on this i'd love to hear it.

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It's fairly clear, as the hosts can't prewrite whole segments, but they can get the bare structure of the show down beforehand. Leno crossed the line because he clearly was reading his monologue and other segments directly off the teleprompter, which means they were entirely written beforehand. I thought it was really low class. He could have tried at least one day to do the show the way the WGA wanted, and if it was a horrible disaster, he could have gone the way he ended up anyway, with more support from the WGA. But he didn't even try, and I think he deserves to be bitten in the ass because of it.

It is less clear on the Daily Show, Colbert Report. Clearly some of the show was prepared beforehand, but how much writing was completely finished is unclear.

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Colbert has a background in improv so his teleprompter bit could of been made up that second and we couldn't tell. Look at Whose Line is it Anyway, sometimes that comes off as written comedy but its all improv.

As for the graphics Stewart had to of written that, but it was during a speech about the strike so the WGA may not call him on it because like every other host he was explaining the situation. Those explinations had to planned out somehow and the WGA didn't yell at them for that (even Leno). They were yelling at Leno for doing what he usually does, a full monologue planned out completely. None of the other shows are doing that. They seem to be going, "Lets do this and see what happens." After that its all unwritten.

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I think the writers (and I do support them) need to place their focus on someone else besides the backlash that Leno is having to take. Yes, he's been writing his monologues, but I do believe (and my improv actor friends will concur) that whether it is improvised or not it is still "writing". Improvisation is usually what sparks the creative process in these types of shows. And have we forgotten, that only two days into the strike Ellen returned and followed the same format of her show with or without writers? Set aside the excuse that her show is syndicated, she returned and wrote for herself under the same creed that Leno used. "As host you are allowed to write for yourself".

Again, I support the writers, but I think their focus is on the wrong people. Leno has always been a class act and has always been an integral part of his show (he shows up at 8:00 in the morning and I wouldn't doubt if he's one of the last to leave with his staff). Let's ask the writers what they received from Leno when he celebrated his 10th year as Tonight Show host...

I just want to get back to work and it's becoming a silly feud over $$ between the writers and producers when it's those of us who are the below the line folks who are suffering the most.

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I think it has to do with the "capacity" in which the host is acting. I seem to remember reading something about how material that would normally be written by the writing staff on the show is considered written material, and material that would not normally be written by a writer on the show is not considered written material. Hence, a monologue, which would normally be written by the writing staff, is written material, even if the host just does it himself. When something is done by a host who is also a writer, and it is not something his writing staff would normally have written for him, they don't consider him as doing it "in his capacity" as a show writer, but in his capacity as the host. Pre-written monologue, normally done by writers = writing. Extemporaneous monologue or interview, not normally written by writers = hosting, not writing... at least that's how I'm understanding this thing, anyway. Clear as mud, right?

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Can someone explain why Letterman is allowed to work a deal with writers? I am confused.
Thanks

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Apparently Letterman and his own independent production company struck a separate deal with the Guild in which he accepted their terms and the writers for his shows went back to work.

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Well apparently John Oliver will be deported if he strikes, so maybe he's taking over writing duties at The Daily Show??

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This has got to be the most useless discussion ever. It is their show, if they want to "write" for it that is their perogitive. I generally support labor, but everything has a limit.

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Yeah Bob, I wondered that too. I think Colbert and Stewart should've stood up against that mini-company Viacom and, in the process, get their shows cancelled, so we can finally return to Fox News and enjoy unbiased reporting.

Speaking of unbiased reporting... ah wait. Wrong blog-entry to do that...

To be blunt: get over yourself. Is blogging about the strike not writing? Shouldn't you support your fellow writers by not blogging? Shouldn't Ken Levine fully shut down his blog? No? Why? Is not-blogging about American Idol good or shouldn't he stop blogging altogether, since writing is writing is writing? Or is writing just writing when you publish your stuff on TV? Is a newsbit on BBC America, which Levine was proud of recently, not writing for TV? Or is BBC America just not "US TV"?

Or, to sum it up: BLAH!

Ít's bad enough we had to live without Colbert and Stewart for 10 weeks. Go bash Leno, he's a nitwit. It's an election year, you should be glad we finally get some sarcastic insight again on the BS that's on the news-channels.

Seriously. Chucking Colbert and Stewart in the same category as Leno is blasphemy. Shame on you.

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"I'm behind the writers 100%, but that doesn't mean I understand what's going on."

If you don't understand what's going on, how can you possibly support one group or another?

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