Dave made his triumphant return to the small screen last night, sporting a grizzly beard ("[I] look like a cattle-drive cook"), bragging that he's finally out of rehab ("show, or no show, I really like drinking in the morning"), and featuring Rockettes carrying WGA picket signs. "The Late Show," of course, is the only show on television written by actual writers ("this crap is written?"), and even Hillary managed to sneak in an appearance ("Dave has been off the air for eight long weeks because of the writer's strike; all well, all good things come to an end.")

And for a guy who starts each and every morning with the previous night's show, I'm feeling invigorated this morning. Bring on the Heigl, bitches.

I also forced myself, for the hell of it, to sit through the first few minutes of "The Tonight Show," and Leno's lame attempt at a writer-free monologue (complete with rim shots? Is that normal for "The Tonight Show"?). It was, as expected, a train wreck in which Leno failed spectacularly to add some humor to the strike. He did, however, talk about Dave's deal with the writers, and pitted himself against Letterman: "We have to go by ourself, up against the CBS machine. One man against a monologue!" Oh, please. It was even more cringe-worthy than usual, and the highlight of show was a particularly unfunny Jib Jab cartoon (a creative way of working around the writer's strike). All in all, though, it wasn't really any better or worse than a regular "Tonight Show" episode and, as much as I  dislike Leno's brand of comedy, I admit to feeling some sympathy for his position. He's a big supporter of the strike, and he was clearly uncomfortable with the position he'd been put in.