Media Criticism

I joked a few weeks back that Carson Daly was returning to the airwaves without striking writers to fulfill the entertainment needs of stoners and students who need a distraction late at night. The toll of the strike has apparently caused experienced and talented hosts like Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman to return to their studios. The major late night and news parody shows will be returning at the beginning of 2008 without the help of writers under the guise of helping production staff keep their jobs. I think that the shows that will result from the minds of people like Letterman and Stewart without writers will be less than stellar.

I think these hosts should stay at home to show their support for the striking writers but, more importantly, to save us the trouble of watching their act. David Letterman may be fine because his show is on auto pilot and he can have Paul tap the keys for 60 minutes. Jon Stewart has been crowned the king of entertainment by sycophantic reporters and stands to lose a lot if his show is terrible. There is no doubt that Conan O’Brien, Stewart and Stephen Colbert are talented and got to this point through their comedic abilities. The problem lies in the increasing reliance by experienced hosts on their writers to vet material on a daily basis.

As a fan of Conan O’Brien and Jon Stewart, I feel it necessary to encourage them to stay home. I know that the rash of reality shows, the glut of great news to make fun of (Britney’s sister would give Conan O’Brien about a month’s worth of material) and the return of American Gladiators makes a return seem necessary. I know that if I turn on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and it stinks without the writers, it will give me one more reason to hope for a protracted strike. I cannot wait until the actors go on strike in the summer and movie studios put out their straight-to-DVD collections featuring Clint Howard, Kato Kaelin and Chyna. A long strike means that studios and fans will finally appreciate the power of the pen to entertain.

I hate the crass rhetoric of hawks in America who say that anyone who opposes the president’s war does not support the troops. It is patently absurd to say that I cannot hope that soldiers stay safe and sound overseas while the American government is pulling a Three Stooges act on foreign policy. I despise the war in Iraq but I want every soldier to avoid harm. With this statement in mind, it may be surprising to die-hard hawks that I support Freedom’s Watch in its fight with NBC.

NBC recently refused to run an ad by Freedom’s Watch during the holiday season asking people to continue supporting troops overseas. The reasoning behind NBC’s decision was part of a policy to avoid advertisements authorized by the network that deal with policy issues. There was also a problem of the URL of the Freedom’s Watch website being displayed on the ad (which makes no sense whatsoever as a reason for prohibition). I can understand the butt-covering that NBC executives are using in refusing the Freedom’s Watch ad. The problem is that the idea of money as free speech should actually be allowed to take its course in this case.

My support for the Freedom’s Watch ad is contingent on another ad being run at the same time. This ad would be funded by a group that opposes the war with the exact same amount of time and exposure as the Freedom’s Watch ad. NBC’s refusal to run the ad is certainly going to increase hits on the Freedom’s Watch site which may be more important to the organization’s leaders than running the actual advertisement. I think there is a real opportunity to initiate a standard of networks encouraging both sides to address major policy issues in America.

NBC needs to reconsider its decision as a way to surpass other networks in terms of encouraging discourse. This is an incredibly naïve attempt on my part to apply an unrealistic standard on cold, heartless networks who are more interested in getting shows like Kid Nation on the air than helping out the public. A debate over the politics of the war instead of the black/white debate between hawks who apparently LOVE the war and doves who HATE the troops can increase the viewership of NBC. I just hope that the writer’s strike continues so that NBC will start to consider new ways to draw in new viewers.

I want you all to prepare yourself for the news I am about to tell you. Put on a helmet, buckle yourself in and take a deep breath. Here we go: Carson Daly, former host of the obnoxious MTV show Total Request Live, is coming back to the air. Daly made a unilateral decision to bypass the writers strike and begin producing new episodes next week. Is everyone OK? I know this is earth shaking news.

Carson Daly’s decision to head back to work will make little to no difference on the overall TV landscape much less the larger problems of the writers strike. Daly is not a member of the striking Writers Guild though his writers are likely part of it. If you have ever accidentally seen Carson Daly’s show deep into the night, you will know that professional writers have had little to do with what is happening on the show. Carson Daly’s ability to completely ruin humor, music and entertainment in one fell swoop means that he can produce new shows without concern.

In addition to Daly’s lack of union credentials, his influence on the entertainment industry has dwindled since he left MTV. Daly may host a show on New Year’s Eve and make the occasional appearance on other shows but he is a lightweight in the media world. I say let Carson Daly put on his show but push it even further into the night. I can’t wait to see commercials during reruns of Conan for Carson’s new shows at 3:35am ET. He will be surrounded by a Ronco commercial and the early NBC news in every market.

One of the great success stories in television over the last decade has been Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy. I was an enormous fan of the show during its initial run on Fox in 2000 and was sad to see it go away in favor of the crappy sitcoms that Fox seems to favor. Family Guy has helped spawn a movement within the diehard TV community to protest the early cancellation of favorite shows. The success of the DVD sets of the first few Family Guy seasons helped bring the show back from the depths of television’s garbage pit.

The reason I bring up these points is that Fox’s recent announcement that they will produce new episodes of Family Guy without the input of executive producer/creator MacFarlane is a slap in the face to fans as well as writers. The final new episode of the acerbic series ran this past Sunday and the Writers’ Guild strike has now shut down material for new episodes. MacFarlane has criticized this move by Fox and has a long history of criticizing network television for its various faults.

I don’t understand why Fox is even bothering to try and create new episodes of the show without MacFarlane. After all, it seems that Fox should have a stash of great reality shows like Syphilis Island, Ted Danson’s Journey across America, and What is That? that do not require any creativity or structure. If Rupert Murdoch is so concerned about keeping Family Guy on the air, they should band with other studio executives to resolve the writer’s strike. I would say that Fox is trying to insult the intelligence of the average TV viewer but they already do this by putting shows like Back to You on the air.

I think that this move by Fox signifies a long strike ahead for writers, studios and TV fans. Family Guy may seem like a disorganized mess that relies on pop culture references to function but you need writers and producers to weave these elements together. Fox’s cartoon lineup requires animators and other creative types to make some of their most popular shows function. A Fox-created version of Family Guy will sound like the “wrong sounding” Muppets that were made a subject of a joke on the legitimate version of Family Guy.