I may be the only one who's pretty excited for the two-hour Knight Rider reboot airing this Sunday night...or I may be the only one who's admitting it.  But I'm trying to manage my expectations, because many of the things that made the original KR so awesome won't be present, including:

1. Hasselhoff.

2. Devon and April/Bonnie's "oh, Alice" reactions to the old-married-couple banter between Michael and KITT.

3. Garthe/Goliath.

4. KARR, an even bitchier queen than Kitt.

But we'll still be able to fashion a drinking game around KITT freaking innocent bystanders out by talking and driving himself, locking prospective car thieves in the back seat and delivering them to the authorities, jumping over large crevasses with the help of creative camera angles, and so on.  And KITT is now voiced by Val Kilmer, which I for one think is awesome.  Will Arnett is great, he could have made it work, but...the gig did seem like kind of a weird fit for him.  Not beneath him exactly, just kind of...down-market. 

Kilmer, on the other hand, is perfect.  Notoriously difficult to work with and notoriously hammy?  Perfect recipe for this dish.

Now that we know the ceremony is definitely on...should it be? Host Jon Stewart and his writers will have less than two weeks to assemble some material, which everyone involved seems to think is a very very very tight deadline. On the other hand, maybe if they don't have days and days to futz around with it, it'll mean less time spent second-guessing what are probably good comedic ideas. And let's face it, it's not as though past telecasts that have been written over a period of months have generally been all that uproarious anyway. In fact, maybe the real question will be whether we can tell the difference, quality-wise, between this show and others that have had longer to gestate.

If you live outside New York (or just don't read New York magazine), you probably haven't been following the ongoing analysis of Jay Leno's Tonight Show performance during the WGA strike. First, Sam Anderson wrote (essentially) that his monologues weren't much affected by the loss of his writers because they weren't so hot to begin with. Then the Vulture blog did a detailed breakdown of Leno's last scab monologue. Finally, there was a brief post-mortem this morning on the first monologue involving the Guild. Thank God so many dedicated New York-ers are watching this -- for science -- because I certainly couldn't do it.

Happy Valentine's Day! How are you going to celebrate? Dinner? Dancing? Throwing a Molotov cocktail through the windows of as many Hallmark stores as you can find? Many performers around the world will be participating in productions The Vagina Monologues as part of V-Day, playwright Eve Ensler's ongoing project to end violence against women and girls. But only one of them interrupted millions of Americans' pleasant mornings by totally saying the C-word (yes, that one) on Today this morning. Way to go, Jane Fonda! (I assume it goes without saying that the clip may not be safe for work...depending on where you work.) Also, if any Today producers are reading this: there's no such thing as a "playwrite."

Different writers spent their ninety-day down time during the WGA strike in different ways. Our Pamie, for instance, got heavy into crafts. Whereas My Name Is Earl executive producer Greg Garcia apparently spent a month working at an unnamed fast-food restaurant. He says it helped him to get back in touch with his audience, and that he worked with great people in an impeccably clean location. So...we can probably rule out Taco Bell as his erstwhile employer, then.

The WGA membership is back at work, as of yesterday. Yay! If the AMPTP doesn't smarten up, SAG could go on strike next. MAN ALIVE WHAT IS THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY TRYING TO DO TO ME?!

Maybe it's just because I only hang out with people who watch TV and love TV and make TV, I kind of feel like the result of the WGA strike has been to turn public support toward the producers of content as opposed to the wieners in the giant offices with the gianter annual bonuses. But if that were the case, any notion that NBC and/or the Hollywood Foreign Press Association might sue the Guild over the cancellation of the Golden Globes would never get any further along than some goober's fevered dreams. And yet, here we are. Huh.

According to TV Guide, a scheduling shuffle at ABC is going to result in a lineup, starting in about April (I assume), of Ugly Betty at 8 PM, Grey's Anatomy at 9 PM, and Lost at 10 PM. While Ausiello sees this as an enormously powerful 1-2-3 combination, I think it's more of a 1-2 punch, given that I don't think, unfortunately, that it will do much for Ugly Betty, which will still be against Survivor, which, by hook or by crook, is ratings-formidable. With Lost being an awfully difficult show to pick up in the middle, I'm not sure how much moving it is going to help, but it will be interesting to see whether, as Ausiello expects, it shifts the power on Thursdays more towards ABC. I realize it's endlessly naive, but I continue to be one of those people who's really irritated by the insistence of scheduling everything watchable at the same time, because...do we really need to put all this stuff and 30 Rock and The Office on the same night? Save some love for stupid, neglected Tuesday.

With the strike reportedly just about to wrap up (yay!), E! Online is reporting that Saturday Night Live will return on February 23 with host Ellen Page (that's the night before the Oscars, y'all). And The Futon Critic has a list of which shows are going back into production and how many episodes of your favourite shows you can expect to see in the near-ish future.

A nation was enthralled last week by the scrap that spanned A Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Late Night With Conan O'Brien (culminating on O'Brien's show, here). And with a dearth of new material as the WGA strike winds down, Late Night has posted some great behind-the-scenes outtakes. I have to say, I loved the brawl; my favourite thing is when Colbert or O'Brien gets to do a field piece and goof off because they're both so hammy. Stewart is always kind of too cool for school, but he did his best with this thing. (Link via EW Popwatch.)