Last night The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was at the top of its game when talking about Sarah Palin and Joe “the plumber” going rogue.
You can see the full Fox News segment between Shepard Smith and Joe “the plumber” here.
Meanwhile, rougeness seems to be contagious. Last night on The Colbert Report, prominent conservative pundit Stephen Colbert endorsed (but does not support) Barack Obama for President.
Hey! Remember when I used to mostly post about TV? Those were the days. I’ll be rolling out somewhat of a Fall TV Preview this week, but there aren’t many shows to be excited about….
In the meantime, the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards were held in Hollywood Sunday night.
I thought about watching the show then I realized I wouldn’t. I haven’t watched the Emmys in years. It’s not that I don’t care — even though I don’t — it’s just that I didn’t see a need to watch three plus hours of kudos and commercials. Perhaps if this year’s host was worth watching, but they were not. The five reality host nominees, Tom Bergeron (Dancing With the Stars), Heidi Klum (Project Runway), Howie Mandel (Deal or No Deal), Jeff Probst (Survivor), and last year’s solo host Ryan Seacrest (American Idol) had joint hosting duties. The first five minutes of the awards ceremony was more than enough awkwardness than even I could tolerate. Thank Gob for DVR.
Highlights
• 30 Rock swept the comedy categories, including outstanding comedy series. AMC’s Mad Men took home outstanding drama, making it the first basic cable program to do so.
• Michael Emerson, LOST’s deliciously maniacal Ben Linus, was robbed in the supporting actor in a drama series category. I call shenanigans. Shenanigans!
• Stephen Colbert and the brilliant writers of The Colbert Report were finally recognized. But Colbert is gonna be pissed on Monday night’s show that he lost out to Don “Mr. Warmth” Rickles in the performance in a variety, music, or comedy program category.
• Alec Baldwin 30-rocked best actor in a comedy series. Then left a voicemail for his daughter.
• Though they weren’t the best choice for hosti, the funniest moment of the awards show had to be when Jimmy Kimmel present the Emmy for outstanding reality competition host. Kimmel milked the unveiling of the winner, which was probably expected. Kimmel joked that the winner would be announced following a commercial break — and then they actually cut to a commercial. It was poetic genius.
• Ricky Gervais took his Emmy back from Steve Carell.
Not since the days of Rudi Bakhtiar on CNN Headline News have I felt this way about a newswoman…
She’s stunningly beautiful, sexy, funny, intelligent and, I imagine, smells incredible — like milk and honey laced with vanilla dreams. She’s Lara Logan of CBS News and she’s going to be my wife. Please. 
Last night she graced Jon Stewart with her presence on The Daily Show.
Now that the Writer’s Strike is over, the TV industry, can start picking up the pieces. According to The New York Times, some shows will resume production immediately, while others will sit out the rest of the season.
24, which already had the start of its seventh season delayed indefinitely, will now sit out the entire year and return next January. Heroes will not be back on the air till the fall. The best new show of the season, ABC’s Pushing Daisies, also won’t return until the fall. But at least it won’t have to deal with American Idol.
The worst news is that ABC will (probably) cut LOST’s season order from 16 to 13 segs. This is a step-up from the 8 episodes that were completed before the strike shutdown production. So, at least we’re getting a little more.
Saturday Night Live will probably be the first weekly scripted show back on the air and could return as soon as February 23. Daily shows, like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, should have their respective writers back this week.
According to Variety, powerhouse shows — like Desperate Housewives, The Office, CSI, and Two and a Half Men — will likely be back on the air by the end of March. They’ll probably produce four to eight episodes for broadcast this season.
Lastly, the San Francisco Gate has a piece that talks about how even the writers won the strike, they might still lose in the long run.
One thing’s for sure, the industry will be feeling the effects of the strike for some time to come.
The WGA Strike is still going strong but late night TV returns tonight, some with writers.
The Chin returns, sans writers. Can Leno improvise the whole show? He’s not very funny to begin with. Among Leno’s guest tonight will be Jesus’ BFF and Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee, who will “graciously submit” to an interview. Conan also returns, sans writers.
Letterman and Craig Ferguson returns, with writers, after the Worldwide Pants and the WGA reached an agreement. Hillary Clinton will make a surprise appearance on The Late Show.
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report return Monday, sans writers.
After a mediocre season premiere last week, The Simpsons was back in top form Sunday night with an episode about Homer becoming an Opera singer – a storyline they haven’t done yet. A cameo by famed tenor Placido Domingo, or P. Dingo as he prefers, was put to good use and not contrived like most of their celebrity cameos in recent years. Maya Rudolph also had a cameo as an opera fan obsessed with Homer.
Family Guy on the other hand is barely tolerable these days. I constantly find myself staring at the screen for 22 minutes realizing that I’m not laughing. Everything they do has been done before. By them. The random jokes unrelated to the plot, and drawn out, endless routines just aren’t enough anymore. Last week’s Star Wars episode stirred up a few laughs but not enough for the hour-long running time. At least half of the episode was lifted directly from the film. It was quite the let down. Sunday night’s episode was a slight improvement but was still overflowing with the usual been there, done that. When Family Guy is funny, it’s a treat. But when they fail, it’s rather painful to watch.
SNL on the other hand was quite refreshing Saturday night. Lebron James was the host. While he can’t act worth a damn they did put him to good use in most of the sketches. He played himself at least half of the time. The opening of Hillary Clinton, with Bill peaking around the corner, was classic, and not one of the rest of the sketches induced boredom. Weekend Update though seems more irrelevant than irreverent these days. Seth and Amy are great together but with The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and the Onion News Network do we really need Weekend Update anymore?
The Simpsons B
Family Guy C-
Saturday Night Live B-