The Sacramento Bee, Calif., Rick Kushman Column: Strike on the Minds of Stewart, Colbert

Jan 08, 12:30 PM

Jan. 8--First thing about the return of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" Monday night: No beards. At least no real ones.

There were, of course, beard jokes. Stewart drew himself a unibrow as his gesture of solidarity with the striking Hollywood writers, and Stephen Colbert had a long fake beard during the crossover chat between the two Comedy Central shows

"There's a strike on. Don't you see my strike beard?" Colbert told Stewart, just before he managed to get it caught in a paper shredder. "And Jon, I watched some of your show tonight, and I'm very alarmed by how well prepared you seemed."

With their writers on strike and as guild members, Stewart and Colbert aren't supposed to write even for themselves, a point both mugged about through their shows.

Both stars, actually, were well prepared, with clips and subject matter, though their openings had the feel of riff not monologue. And both started, of course, with strike talk.

Stewart's was more pointed, saying his show will have a temporary change. "'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'" is a show we do with our very creative team of field producers and correspondents and studio people and video people and, of course, our writers," he said. "From now on, until the end of the strike, we'll be doing 'A Daily Show with Jon Stewart.' But not 'THE Daily Show.'"

Colbert went the route of confusion for his blustery commentator.

"We've got a little bit of a technical snafu," he said. "No one is to blame here, other than my director Jimmy. There are no words in my prompter ... where are my words?"

Though Stewart wandered occasionally into the world of politics, his first show back rooted itself in the strike. His guest was Ron Seeber, a Cornell University professor and a labor expert. They talked, basically, about how far off a resolution seems.

Stewart, though a vocal supporter of the writers since the strike started Nov. 5, also was clearly unhappy the writers guild did not negotiate a separate agreement with Comedy Central that would have allowed both shows to return with writers and without picket lines.

The only late shows that reached agreements with the guild are "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late, Late Show with Craig Ferugson" on CBS. They're both owned by Letterman's small production company. Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, one of the biggest of the corporations in the network/studio alliance fighting with the writers.

Besides the first-show-back shenanigans, Stewart and Colbert gave a good sense of what their half-hours look like during the strike. They both chatted into the camera and used clips of news and past shows, then spent the second half interviewing guests. There was no sign of "The Daily Show's" cadre of senior correspondents.

Also on the late-night TV front, there is one less beard in the mix after Letterman shaved on his show Monday night. He also took some guff for doing it from his guest, Tom Hanks.

"Shaving beards on TV," Hanks said. "That's what shows without writers do."

-----

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:VIAB, The Sacramento Bee, Calif., Rick Kushman Column: Strike on the Minds of Stewart, Colbert
Back to Current Headlines