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The line for Wednesday’s show, the first in eight weeks.

These are dark times for fans of television. The writers are in the middle of a seemingly endless strike that has effectively wiped original scripted programming from the networks (both broadcast and cable) for the foreseeable future. While there are some new series in the can, only a few have any significant buzz behind them (like, say, half a season of Lost). Two and a half days into 2008 and there are only two television events that I was genuinely excited about. The first is the fifth (and final) season premiere of The Wire this Sunday (an episode which I’ve actually already seen on HBO On-Demand). The second, and dare I say the more culturally significant of the two (at least when it comes to ‘the now’), was Wednesday’s return of the late night talk shows, specifically The Late Show with David Letterman. More after the jump…

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Photo via Flickr

Last Friday the AMPTP released a statement saying:

The AMPTP today unveiled a New Economic Partnership to the WGA, which includes groundbreaking moves in several areas of new media, including streaming, content made for new media and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels.  The entire value of the New Economic Partnership will deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year.

The WGA then lifted their media blackout and said:

Among the rumors was the assertion that the AMPTP had a groundbreaking proposal that would make this negotiation a “done deal.” In fact, for the first three days of this week, the companies presented in essence their November 4 package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers.

Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us. It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback.
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Talks are scheduled to resume on Tuesday. Given the current tone it doesn’t sound like a deal is close. More stuff after the jump…

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Pic via Flickr

I’m going to forgo the usual episode recaps today as I 1) haven’t actually watched anything from last night and 2) feel like dedicating some space to the WGA strike as tomorrow night will mark the first significant casualty of the work-stoppage. Thursday’s episode of The Office entitle “The Deposition” will be the last new episode we can expect from the show until the strike ends. The Office was one of the first series to close up shop due in large part to the fact that a good chunk of the cast happens to also write for the show.

The Futon Critic has a really handy guide with the amount of episodes each show has left to air before going dark. Most of the networks biggest series will have trouble making it past the first week in December (which, luckily for them, is traditionally dark). We should expect little (if any) scripted programming come 2008.

In the meantime, treat yourself to the endless supply of strike blogs popping up on the internet, the most informative being the guild’s official blog United Hollywood. Here are some others:

Late Show Writers on Strike
Scribe Vibe (Variety)
Show Tracker (LA Times)

One last note: since the major sticking point for this strike is writer’s compensation for ad-supported material posted on the web, I would encourage everyone to avoid using the networks’ video services until a deal is made.

Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star publishes the ratings for the most recent late-night period. Check it out. It’s interesting. Especially the numbers for The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and Adult Swim– not exactly industry shifting figures (though it is the dead of summer).

First of all, I do read books. I’ve read many books. Some, in fact, aren’t even about television. Last week I finally got around to reading Bill Carter’s The Late Shift. Why I hadn’t read this book is a mystery to me as “Late Night” shows are one of my favorite kinds of programming– they’re, in a way, the last remaining installations of television’s golden era.

The Late Shift is a really good read, but its especially interesting a dozen years after the fact. Knowing the after-effects of this late-night-battle makes for a delightful bit of history-via-Miss Cleo. Also interesting was finishing up Carter’s book right around the same time I heard this fascinating follow-up to a recurring story on WNYC’s “On the Media” detailing what Bob Garfield refers to as his “Television Chaos Theory.” These seemingly unrelated areas, “Absolte Chaos” and “Late Night,” might not be all that far apart. Their inevitable collision could equate to CERTAIN DISASTER (a gorey tragedy for those who take television history a least half seriously, though great fodder for television and technology bloggers). Keep reading after the jump…

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A little about the past couple night’s worth of TV:

Dog Bites Man
(Comedy Central, Wednesday’s 10:30pm)

The second new mockumentary to hit the cable spectrum this week is about a fake news team. Comedy Central probably has some sort of graph with fake news running down one side and mockumentary running down the other. Statistically, Dog Bites Man is a can’t miss, and based on the first episode, the math seems to be correct. What’s impressive about the show is the unexpected bit of gravity it seems to be carrying (exactly whats missing from Lovespring International. It never gets heavy like The Office, but it suggests that there might be a little more to these characters than simple quips. And really, that’s just it: characters. The speedy 22 minutes of the premiere didn’t give a lot of room to get much out of the four primaries, but Matt Walsh’s character, Kevin, proves that Walsh isn’t just the better improviser than most of the people on shows like this, but he’s also a better actor.

Rescue Me (#302)
(FX, Tuesday’s 10:00pm)

First and foremost, this episode might have been the funniest one they’ve ever aired, peaking with what has to be the greatest sound cue on television in years (ever?). In addition to having the second sugar-induced-vomiting from a child I’ve seen on TV this week, the episode also managed a teriffic rug-pull, where all the laughs and all the fun just stopped, suddenly and violently. GREAT episode (rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiip).

The Late Show with David Letterman
(CBS, weeknights 11:35pm)

They’re doing this new runner involving Sue Hum, the costume designer walking up behind Dave’s desk holding some sort of food and then just standing there. Hillarious.

The Hills
(MTV, Tuesdays 9:00pm)

My DVR screwed me and this didn’t record. I wonder if MTV will rerun it this week?

In this segment, “DVR Catch-Up,” I hope to discuss things that catch my attention while trying to burn through some of the shows on my DVR that I watch in groups (i.e. Instead of watching Letterman everynight, I usually watch it twice a week, but see 2 or 3 episodes at a time and fast-forward through the slow parts).

On The Late Show Monday night Dave had on “Kid Scientists” in one of the segments. Fans of the show will be familiar with this as they have the kids on every year and it’s always a hoot. But this year I’m sitting there watching it with my lady-friend next to me and we’re both laughing out loud and something dawns on me: “Kid Scientist” is PURE Letterman. What I mean by this is not that the segment has been around for the past twenty years (I assume) and we’re all familiar with it, but that the parameters of the segment cater to Dave’s strengths more than anything else that is done on the show. “Kid Scientists” is David Letterman’s The Blue Album. It’s what you get if you reduce the show to its roots. Regular viewers will note that he seems to be having the most fun not with the written material or the interviews (natch), but when he’s interacting with people in the audience or on stage during specialty acts. But with Stupid Human/Pet Tricks and Know Your Current Events and Stump the Band etc., he’s playing off of adults who understand the significance of television and understand what Dave Letterman is doing. In short, they laugh at his jokes, and they play along and all is right with the world. With the kids, however, you don’t have that wall built up. Dave can crack wise to a 12 year old and be greeted with absolute dead silence. Sometimes it seems that they are actually bothered by his presence and they if he wasn’t there they could, perhaps, really teach these idiots in the audience a thing or two about science, and he seems to LOVE it. Combining the two you get this perfect combination of, basically, everything that The Late Show stands for: smart comedy coming out of the seemingly bland.

People swear by Conan, and I won’t disagree that his sketches are some of the wildest on television, but as a performer he simply can’t come close to screen presence of David Letterman, a presence that comes into complete focus once a year for “Kid Scientists.”