Late-night comics return amid strike

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - America's late-night TV comics returned to the air on Wednesday with dueling politicians, newly grown facial hair and expressions of sympathy for striking screenwriters whose labor dispute threw the shows into reruns for two months.

But only David Letterman, and lesser-known CBS cohort Craig Ferguson of "The Late Late Show," came back with their writing teams intact, and without the stigma of picket lines, thanks to a special deal Letterman's production company reached last week with the Writers Guild of America.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the only show on the air now that has jokes written by union writers," Letterman declared during his opening monologue, then added, "I know you're thinking to yourselves at home -- 'This crap is written?'"

The return of television's late-night funnymen marked a symbolic threshold for Hollywood's worst labor clash in 20 years, coming eight weeks into a dispute between the WGA and studios over how much film and TV writers should be paid for work distributed over the Internet.

While the dynamic of stalled contract talks was not expected to be altered, the late-night comeback focused new attention on the writers' cause.

The host of the CBS "Late Show with David Letterman" walked onstage through a chorus line of dancers holding signs that read, "Writers Guild of America on Strike," and sporting a full beard he grew during his eight-week break.

"Ladies and gentlemen, two long months, but by God, I'm finally out of rehab," he told the audience. "Here's what I learned about myself -- show or no show I really enjoy drinking in the morning."

RIVALS HOBBLED

Letterman's late-night rivals on NBC, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien, as well as ABC's Jimmy Kimmel, also resumed production of fresh broadcasts for the first time since film and TV writers launched their strike against major studios on November 5.

But those shows are produced by their networks' sister studios, leaving them unable to negotiate independent agreements with the WGA like Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants Inc.

The Writers Guild has insisted that its strike rules bar the NBC and ABC hosts, who like Letterman are WGA members, from preparing scripted material for their shows that union writers would normally produce, including monologues.

Still, Leno and O'Brien opened their shows with jokes that seemed prepared in advance, though peppered with lines voicing support for writers while taking jabs at their networks, whose programming the strike has thrown into disarray.

"The strike is especially hard on NBC," said Leno, host of "The Tonight Show." "Do you know there are actually more people picketing NBC now then watching NBC right now?"

O'Brien, who also came on wearing a beard he said he had grown in "solidarity for my writers -- and to prove that I have some testosterone" -- said, "I support their cause" and added that "What they're asking for is fair."

Letterman's deal with the WGA also could make it easier for him to book celebrity guests who otherwise might balk at crossing picket lines.