Conan's First Writers' Strike Show (Beards)

I didn't catch all of Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien last night, but what I saw from his monologue to the first guest (Bob Saget) was pretty good. He's obviously a funny guy and his ring spinning bit was conceptually hilarious as he was literally counting the seconds until the first guest. And the video of him in the office was great, but how many times can he go back to that?

You'd figure it will wear thin eventually. Perhaps this is all part of Roger A. Trevanti's plan to bring the stars over to their side: cut their legs from underneath them and wear them down. That and not letting them shave may crack them.

If there's any silver lining at all to this (and there really isn't, it sucks) it's that there's some spontaneity back on television. Conan can thrive in this type of environment because he can be goofier and more self-deprecating than the rest. I would love to see his show turn into awkward improv scenes (with Max?) and interviews with fake celebrities.

The NBC "bug" (small watermark with the channel's logo) during the show was downright creepy. It was the words AMERICAN GLADIATORS and the Olympic rings incorporated into the NBC logo. Maybe I don't watch enough television, but I've never seen a network do that. It's usually cable channels like TLC that put up annoying bugs to promote shows like Your House Is So Dirty Tues. 9/8C. It was a not-so-subtle reminder of what they've got in store for us if this strike doesn't end: physical competitions that no one cares about!

Hopefully the strike will end soon, as I don't want Letterman looking like Walt Whitman.