Jay and Conan Returning - Good or Bad?

Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien today announced that their shows will return to NBC on January 2 after two months of reruns because of the WGA strike. Both hosts are union members but have nevertheless decided to return in order to help everyone else who’s working on the shows. O’Brien acknowledged the fact that he will return with a show that is decidedly inferior to what he has previously delivered: “I will make clear, on the program, my support for the writers. Of course, my show will not be as good. In fact, in moments it may very well be terrible. My sincerest hope is that all of my writers are back soon, working under a contract that provides them everything they deserve.”

I can’t help but feel that this is a cop-out. There are constant reports that the talks between the studios and the guild are headed for a positive direction, but the fact that Leno and O’Brien are returning to their shows sends a signal that they can go on without the writers and perhaps even make shows that are good enough. I get the feeling that this is the moment when the stars should have waited just a bit longer for the studios to come around. Hollywood’s writers deserve more of the profits, that’s for sure. This round-table talk between screenwriters Ben Affleck, Ronald Harwood, Paul Haggis, David Benioff and Diablo Cody sheds more light on the issue. Those who are interested in the other, moronic side, there’s always Rupert Murdoch.

tv ben affleck tv movies jay leno wga strike conan o’brien

Published 17 December 2007

Remember This?

“There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply am not there.”

Christian Bale (American Psycho, 2000)