January 08, 2008 - Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Are Back - and Are Terrific

What a pleasure it was to have Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert return to TV last night. Both hosts hit just the right tone with everything, right from the start.

Stewart, as always, scribbled wildly on his script as the audience applauded to open the show - except, there being a writers' strike, he had no script, and wrote directly on the desk.

He also made it clear from the start that, without his writers and correspondents and field producers, his show wouldn't be the same. That's why, he announced, that for the duration of the strike, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart henceforth would be known as A Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Nice distinction. Nice call.

Stephen Colbert changed the name of his show, too, in sympathy with the Writers Guild of America strikers. Instead of The Colbert Report, the host explained last night, his Comedy Central program would be known, for the length of the strike, as The Colbert Report. Okay, it may look the same, but he's now pronouncing both words with a hard, rather than silent, "T."

Both comics stayed true to themselves, and their shows, while honoring the no-writers guidelines.

Stewart presented, as his return-night guest, Ron Seeber, professor of labor relations at Cornell University. They discussed strike histories, tactics and negotiations, and the interview, as usual, was both informative and amusing. Colbert's big guest was Richard Freeman of Harvard University - another professor, and another labor specialist. Again, both informative and amusing.

Colbert presented a montage of previous programs in which Mike Huckabee, on three different occasions, offered Colbert a spot on the ticket as his vice president. (The clips, by the way, weren't doctored.) Then he interviewed Andrew Sullivan about Barack Obama - and that interview, big surprise, informed and amused.

Colbert even managed to do what Stewart didn't try, and showed all the Democratic candidates in Saturday's New Hampshire debate talking repeatedly - incessantly, in rapid-fire edited excerpts - about "change."

And in one delightful touch, Colbert's "The WORD," last night, was... nowhere to be found, though Colbert looked for it.

So far as I'm concerned, though, the WORD should be spread: Stewart and Colbert are back. And even without their writers, they've got two of the most entertaining shows on television.