Week (unlucky number) 13!

April 10th! New 30 Rock! We were going to talk about resolution of the WGA strike, but the contract still hasn’t been ratified, and the details haven’t been released, so why should we? Especially, when we can talk about the best show on television, Tina Fey’s 30 Rock. We know you’re confused because we spent the entirety of Tina Fey’s SNL reign complaining about SNL, and we haven’t forgotten, nor have we flip-flopped. SNL was terrible. Now, it’s only mostly terrible, but the cast is way better than it was, so it’s entirely possibly that it wasn’t Tina’s fault. She wasn’t getting any help, and the format is stale and awful. Two mediocre songs by a mediocre band, and then 42 minutes of sketches trying to get a new movie franchise going does not make for good television.

Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, and Scott Fucking Adsit, however, provide enough help to make great television. Who are we kidding, everyone on the show is great. The entire cast is amazing week in and week out. Jane Krakowski does an amazing job playing a multi-dimensional character that on every other show (save, perhaps, Arrested Development) would be a one-note joke at best (Also, those other shows would have hired Pamela Anderson instead of someone who is a great comedic actress).

Of course, what good is a great cast if the writing staff isn’t getting it done? The only time this has worked was strike-era Conan, and that couldn’t have lasted forever. Or could it? We’ll never know now. Anyways, every episode is sparking with wit and chock full of jokes and references. The show requires multiple viewings just to get most of the jokes, and that’s why we had the strike. This isn’t American Gladiators or laughing at Karaoke losers, this is the real deal, and it hurt when it was gone. We were just going to throw up a bunch of clips so the few of you who aren’t watching yet could understand what we’re talking about, but how to decide? Every scene is funny, every episode is gold, picking clips is like Sophie’s Choice.

Instead we’ve chosen some peripheral clips that should give you the flavor. First up is Tracy JordanMorgan being intreviewed by an El Paso morning show:

Tina Fey doing a monologue on UCB’s A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. show on Bravo:

Screw it, we’re sick of trying to find clips to make you get why a piece of art is great (it’s like dancing about architecture or something), so let’s end with another Tracy Morgan interview:

Monday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Reese Witherspoon, Alex Cambert, Gary Allan
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Dennis Quaid, Daytona 500 winner, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien - Larry the Cable Guy, Tim Gunn, Jim Lauderdale
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Wyclef
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Hulk Hogan, Niki Taylor, Sum 41

STEPHAN: Somebody should tell Jimmy, Scots Craiggers & The Zone that the strike is over because they don’t seem aware of it yet. Also, I thought Niki Taylor was dead. Or was that Nikki Sixx?

ERECH: I thought she was dead too, I’m confused.

What I’m not confused about, is how awesome this highlight clip of writer-less Conan is - and how great that time was. As happy as I am for the WGA getting to go back to work, and I guess thinking they achieved some kind of win - but man, seeing the written material on Conan since Wednesday - it needs to step up its game! Especially when the unwritten stuff was just clearly SO. MUCH. BETTER. I’m not gonna get on any soapbox here now though, so let’s just bow our heads and remember the awesome that the Strike-Zone was:

Now go ahead and skip tonights episode, Larry the Cable Guy? Yikes.

Tuesday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Will Ferrell, Hayden Christensen, the Hives
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Randy Jackson, Saffron Burrows, Ray Davies
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien - Bill Hader, Jake Shimabukuro
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Andre Benjamin, Craig Bierko, Melinda Hill
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Rerun TBA

ERECH: Is there much of a chance that Dave isn’t going to make significant amounts of fun at Randy Jackson’s expense? AND RIGHTFULLY SO!

Andre 3000 shows up on fake-Craiggers tonight, and I think might actually be interesting to watch. I originally had planned to do a joke about ‘Dre coming out of the closet on this episode, but that’s just petty and also probably not that original either. That said, the odds are still in it’s favor to happen.

STEPHAN: Things are starting to come around. Good to see that nobody cares that Leno was pretending the strike wasn’t happening for the last few months. It would have been a shame to not learn that Britney Spears is crazy, gay guys and straight guys like different kinds of dogs (and genitalia), and that people on the streets of Los Angeles are horribly ignorant.

Should be a good Conan tonight. Bill Hader is good, even if the movies he’s in aren’t, and Jake Shimabukuro is that guy that’s awesome at the ukulele.

Wednesday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Garth Brooks, Christina Ricci
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Kelsey Grammer, national grocery bagging champion Erika Jensen, Foo Fighters
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien - Randy Jackson, the Whigs
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Dario Franchitti, Ziggy Marley
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Johnny Knoxville, Ben Kronberg

STEPHAN: Ugh. Remember when the strike was on, how we’d always talk about how when it was over, we’d have things to say again? That was a total lie. These are the same D-Listers we had to pretend we knew anything about as during the strike. Um, I think Dario Franchitti is married to Ashley Judd, and Ziggy Marley is Dan Fogelberg’s son or something. That’s pretty good.

ERECH: Randy Jackson rounding out the New York trifecta (Dave/Regis/Conan) - blah. The awesome difference between Dave and Conan is that when Conan has a boring guest on he cares nothing about, he still for some reason pretends to. Dave has a guest on he doesn’t care about, we can all tell, and the hate seeps through - and it makes for better teevee to boot. Not saying one is better than the other (although one actually is), just pointing out some differences and telling how things are.

Fergie has some race-car driver as his A-guest?! OH HOW THE TIDES HAVE TURNED! All you slimy actors who wanted to keep up appearances by not going on Leno, Conan or Yimmy during the strike - who gave you an open door to peddle your wares?! FERGS DID. Hey Alba, who let you come on twice during the strike? FERGS. Now the strike is over, what - nobody gives Fergs a chance anymore? WHAT ABOUT FERGS?? You’re all too good for the Late, Late Show now? What’s with all this fairweather? Is it too late for me to go pro-AMPTP (again)?

SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT WILL GO UNANSWERED!

I hate you Hollywood. Really.

Thursday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Heidi Klum, James McAvoy, John Fogerty
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Steve Martin
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien - Black Mountain
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Don Rickles, Joe Mantegna
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Taylor Dayne

ERECH: Earlier today I thought Conan’s listing here was a communication error, but after triple-checking it a few times, as well as several emails confirming it, then seeing who Yimmy has on… I’m just gonna go with a sigh.

Running down tonight’s schedule quickly with my rating system based on noises Tim Allen makes while coked up - Jay is margh, Dave is ooorreh, The Zone is brawlp, Fergie is hrrrom(?), and finally Yimmy would be ghwaaaaaargh!

LNT - nice pulls from the year 1996!

STEPHAN: Taylor Dayne!? Are you kidding me? I wish I could find a clip of Kenny “The Jet” Smith’s reactions to Dwight Howard’s dunks on Saturday so I could adequately (and ironically) explain how confusing that listing is. It’s okay though because Don Rickles is great, and if you don’t think he’s going to spend his entire segment ripping on Fake Craiggers, you don’t know nothing about nothing.

Friday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Bill O’Reilly, Patricia Arquette, Herbie Hancock
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Diddy, Brian Regan
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien - Nathan Lane, Secondhand Serenade
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Fred Willard, Rachel Bilson, Steve Mazan
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Damon Wayans, Sam Champion, Colbie Caillat

STEPHAN: Brian Regan? Nathan Lane? Fred Willard? It’s not all bad tonight. Of course, every other guest is worthless. We’re gonna have to start doing Colbert and The Daily Show or something because this is ridiculous. Are the Bookers still on strike? Someone should let them know they need to start doing their jobs again. That being said, Diddy on Letterman should be Capital-S-cintillating.

ERECH: I actually like the Regan boys enough to tune in to Dave - coupled with watching Dave have Poofy Combs (oh how clever I am!) on slutting for the CBS nod to “Sorry for all the slavery” month, “Raisin in the Sun”. Do you think there is any way in hell Dave cares about this at all? NOT LIKELY. Do you think he’ll spend most of the interview schmoozing over Ophrah? LIKELIHOOD HIGH!

Oh, and Leno and O’Reilly - it’s like two version of the same asshole face to face - thanks a lot flyover states!

And with that, we bring to close yet another fine edition to the LNT library of posts. Remember, you can always send in your questions, comments, or inquire about having us book talent for your show by dropping us an email here. Also, a quick note to remind all our readers that Stephan and Erech will be at the Eau Claire Border’s this weekend, signing copies of their latest book “If It Was Our Couch” from 2-5pm - see you there!

Read Past LNT’s:
Week 12
Week 11
Week 10
Week 9
Week 8
Week 7-5
Week 7-4
Week 7-3
Week 7-2
Week 7-1
Week 6
Week 5
Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1