Critics Notebook: They're back, take 'em for what they are
By Robert Llloyd, Times Staff Writer
After two strike-bound months, we are once again a nation in which late-night network television is up and running -- trotting, anyway. (Limping, at times.) This is possibly a victory for the studios, who have persuaded Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel and (some weeks ago) Carson Daly to return to the air -- for the sake of their staffs, all inarguably declare. Or it is possibly a victory for the writers, whose guild made a deal with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company that allowed the independently owned Letterman and Craig Ferguson shows to come back with union scribes attached. Either way, it probably isn't going to end the strike -- or prolong it, for that matter.
Guild-sanctioned Letterman had Wednesday's only real star guest with Robin Williams; Leno's booking of Mike Huckabee probably did Huckabee more good than it did Leno, even factoring in whatever negative publicity the candidate may have incurred by crossing the picket line. Andy Dick crossed for Kimmel, guild member Bob Saget for O'Brien. Ferguson -- possibly the host most able to fill an hour solely from the contents of his head -- went without guests: As if in tribute to his returned writers, his hour was filled entirely with sketches and digressive monologues.
