Just a follow up to the writers’ strike coverage. From The New York Times:
Scripts Reappear on ‘Daily Show’
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: February 18, 2008The teleprompter was working again on Wednesday at “The Daily Show,” as Jon Stewart performed his news satire on Comedy Central with the support of writers for the first time in more than three months.
Viewers might not have realized just how scriptless Mr. Stewart and his fellow late-night hosts really were. It appeared that Mr. Stewart worked without a teleprompter or any script for the duration of “A Daily Show,” a moniker he temporarily gave the program, apparently to show solidarity with his fellow Writers Guild of America members who were on strike.
Spokesmen for the network and the host would not confirm the lack of any script or teleprompter use. (Mr. Stewart and his producers have never commented publicly about the strike.)
The strike rules dictated that guild members could not write material for television or film, and both Mr. Stewart and his fellow Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert apparently obeyed the rules carefully.
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Its says they did not comment publicly. Oh come on! It was all one huge statement. And I was rather satisfied with the quality of education they put on the air. Guests who chose or chose not to appear was also an interesting angle which in itself drew more attention to the cause.
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Interesting factoid about the TCR ratings improvement year to year, might some of that be due to an NFZ bump? ;)
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One of the best lines that night: “Vending machine upstairs out of Funyuns?”. I will say, nothing will beat Stephen’s introduction of the writers back on his show…with, of course, Kevin Bacon and Tiki Barber. Well done, gentlemen.
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@Lisa: The appearance of NYTimes reporter and Bush martyr, Judith MIller, gave the folks at huffpo hte vapors.
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