Letterman Prepares His Viewers For The Writers Strike
As nearly every article we've read to date on the possible impact of the writers strike has pointed out, the first victims of the walkout will be late-night talk shows; without the script lead-times enjoyed by sitcom and drama productions, their hosts will immediately be pushed in front of the cameras without material produced by their absentee writing staffs, forced to read from cue cards offering no more detailed commentary on the day's events than [NEXT THREE MINUTES: RIFF UNCOMFORTABLY ON HOW YOU HAVE NO ONE TO WRITE JOKES ABOUT WHATEVER IT WAS THAT BRITNEY SPEARS/GEORGE BUSH/HILLARY CLINTON DID TODAY.]
On last night's Late Show, David Letterman tried to gird his audiences for the unpleasant TV realities that await them, even allowing for the possibility that he and Paul Shaffer could suddenly disappear, a network mercy-killing that would spare them from months of trying to fill dead air with agonizingly strained banter punctuated by Shaffer's trademarked blasts from his Hammond organ.
