"Pundits who thought the strike would cripple Leno misunderstood something fundamental about his art: His act is already essentially crippled. Real stand-up comedy is famously time-intensive; it converts months of solid work into minutes of material, and its tiniest successes depend on superhumanly precise calibrations of tone, pace, and gesture—a discipline antithetical to the relentless, workaday schedule of a talk show. A monologue is, by definition, wounded comedy. We should assess late-night hosts, then, not by their rare bursts of excellence but by how they cope with mediocrity. Leno and Letterman both, at this point, deal mainly in terrible jokes. The question for viewers is what attitude—what existential garnish—do you want on top of them?"

- Why The Writer's Strike Couldn't Cripple Jay Leno

Conan, though I love him, could be on that list too.

THE WIRE WIRE: NEWS AND UPDATES ABOUT THE WIRE

- Beadie (aka Amy Ryan) was received a best supporting actress nomination for her role in Gone Baby Gone. Stringer's work on Daddy's Little Girls was snubbed by the academy.

- Six Degrees of the Wire - both Beadie and Omar appear in Gone Baby Gone. Both Omar and Bunk appear in I Think I Love My Wife. Literally everyone that has ever been on The Wire appears on Law & Order.

- Did you know Bunk was in Hackers? He played the bumbling FBI agent who doesn't believe the hackers. But don't take my word for it! Someone posted Hackers, in it's entirety, over 11 parts on YouTube. Bunk pops up at 6:30 in part 10. Hack the planet!

- BustedTees now sells a Carcetti for Mayor shirt. It's a new day in Baltimore!

Bold prediction!

According to the Las Vegas Sun (via Paul Scheer), Obama loves The Wire and his favorite character is Omar.

This video is supposed to make you think about the writer's strike, but all I got was a severe case of the "Don't I know you from somewhere?"s.



Look for:

- Ryan O'Riley from Oz, who was also Liz' deadbeat beeper-salesman boyfriend on 30 Rock.

- Ryan Chapelle from 24 (who has one of the most absurd exits from that show, which is really saying something).

- Judge Phelan from The Wire (he helps out Jimmy in season 1).

- The priest from Oz, who I'm pretty sure was also on Margaret Cho's short-lived sitcom All American Girl.

- THE BAD GUY FROM UNDER SIEGE 2!!!

- Chris Noth, who I have to admit I recognize.

(written without IMDb)

Sam's blog post about Ricky's blog post about not reading blogs anymore raises some interesting points.

I am very excited to see Persepolis. The animation reminds me of the Critic, but with more depth.

THE WIRE NEWS ROUND-UP FOR THURSDAY, JANUARY 10th

The Wire superfans know that the actor who plays the deacon, Melvin Williams, was once a notorious drug dealer and the inspiration for Avon Barksdale.

BUT DID YOU KNOW?.... BET's American Gangster series, which has no relation to the movie, profiled Melvin this year. If you're interested in the real life Avon, check it out. Here's a torrent, but those with loose rules at work can watch it on BET Blast. I can't link through their crappy flash site, but go to American Gangster season 2.

In sad Wire news, this season's premiere had dismal ratings even by the The Wire standards. I suspect the number with DVR, on demand, and downloads would be substantially higher - can you even watch the show without a rewind button? This is a show that was never going to be for everyone but if you enjoy a good serialized story with characters, you really don't know what you're missing.

A lot of CollegeHumor people have messaged me about one of our "Morning After" columns for The Wire. I can only assume they read this blog, or my fanaticism is somehow coming through in Parents Just Don't Understand. Guys, if you can figure out a funny way to write about this show on a weekly basis I know I'd love to read it.

Over at the Freakanomics blog, Sudhir Venkatesh watches The Wire with real life thugs.

Greeting Card

Notes and observations on American Gladiators.

"It was far too epic to be covered by just one man, so this morning I sat down with Dan Gurewitch, Sarah Schneider and Patrick Cassels to discuss Hulk Hogan and his army of spandex-clad beasts."

The Perry Bible Fellowship book is about to enter it's third printing. Congratulations, Nick!

"I heard the other day that Mitt Romney is so careful with his weight that he will pick the cheese off his pizza. Then I heard from another source that he eats pizza with a knife and fork. That's two sources, two angles: That's practically confirmation.

I just can't imagine the American people electing as president someone who does that to pizza. I'm not saying a president has to have a special knack for eating pizza - what you call 'pizza talent' - but he or she has to respect the pizza, and look comfortable with it.

You want, as a voter, to be able to say, 'He looks like he knows his way around a pizza.' "

- The Washington Post, via Slice

This blog is about to turn into TheWireTheWire.com, as my favorite show returns tonight for it's fifth and final season.

I think I'm better at writing about things like Kid Nation than The Wire, but if you seek commentary I'd highly recommend TV critic Alan Sepinwall's blog. He writes reviews for New Jersey's Star Ledger, and for shows he really enjoys (The Wire, Dexter, Friday Night Lights) he blogs a weekly in-depth analysis. I recently rewatched The Wire season 4 (best season yet of the best show of all-time) and his reviews pointed out things I missed even on my second time through.

He hasn't posted his review of the season premiere yet, but he did write up a preview (which is a little spoiler-y if you are anal about these things like I am, but not too bad) and a handy guide to how the first scene each year establishes that season's theme.

Still want to read more about The Wire? I know I did this morning! Here's a (lengthy) guide to The Wire's credit sequence. Several people from the show reply in the comments, including David Simon.

Now on sale at Nathan's...

VocationVacation is a company that offers "dream job" vacations.

I'd say Dude Rancher is the only one that really jumps out at me.

Here's the trailer for a Pixar knock-off called Ratatoing. It's totally real.

2008 is already awful. According to Wikipedia:

On December 31, 2007, Nick GAS went off the air after its final airing of Figure It Out and was replaced by The N, which became a 24-hour channel after splitting from sister channel Noggin.

I wasn't going to say anything on my blog, but this is the kind of story where I think it's almost more suspicious if I stay quiet.

No news on why GAS went off the air, but if I had to guess I'd say it was their business plan of showing sports tips and trivia instead of commercials. I'll also never understand why they only showed 4 or 5 game shows from Nick's orange, splattered vaults. They were airing Figure It Out 8-12 times a day, every single day, for several years. Would it have killed them to show a What Would You Do?

NBC is bringing back American Gladiators. Maybe it's time to update GUTS for a new millennium too.

Phil Moore, Mike O'Malley, Kirk Fogg, Mo, and even you Summer Sanders - thanks for the memories. I only hope the Internet can deliver 10 years from now when I'm feeling nostalgic and have an itch to watch a temple guard scare a child.