I know, he's dead. But I'm thinking about what his philosophy of television might bring to the writer-struck medium right now, especially for the late-night talk-show hosts who are Allen's heirs.

Then again, I saw Jon Stewart back on his game Tuesday night, and wondered if this whole idea was really "Naah." More after the jump …

I started thinking about the Steve Allen scenario while looking at my recording of Monday's Conan O'Brien show. Conan is getting some good notices for his efforts without writers, and Monday's show was all right. A bit based on items in the NBC Store was funny if a bit overlong. And in the interview segments, Conan seemed completely engaged — pretty much wired by the stimulation of a conversation that, even with notes and (I'm figuring) a pre-interview, still felt as if it could go anywhere.

I then went back and looked at Craig Ferguson's first show since the strike began. Not very good, and Craig can seem nuts. (I also think he's right about the resemblance to Liza Minnelli.) And this with writers! But the show also seemed ready to try almost anything, including sketches and weird Ferguson monologues in lieu of guests.

At this point, let me bring Steve Allen back from the grave, courtesy of his book "Hi-Ho, Steverino," although he made this point plenty of other times, including in an interview I did with him in the early '90s.

"I indeed did a talk show," Allen said, "but it's not correct to describe 'Tonight' during ny three-and-a-half years as host … as essentiallya talk show. It was something much more creaitve — an experimental TV laboratory. One night we'd book, say, the Count Basie band and let them do twenty-five minutes of music. The next evening our show might be structured in the form of a debate …; on other occasions, we might present a full-fledged, thirty-minute drama, ad-lib comedy routines in the street, or do exciting remote telecasts from Hollywood, Miami, Chicago, or Niagara Falls."

Allen also notes that he did single-guest shows (with Fred Allen among others) and on another show ended up singing "Home on the Range" with Carl Sandburg and the actor Charles Coburn.

In other words — and I mean this in the best possible way — Allen did a lot of messing around.

Right now, there seems to be a big opportunity for messing around. Conan, to be sure, has always had some of that, and a bit like the German disco light show could easily fit into the pre-strike Conan telecasts. Ferguson, for that matter, had his writers back when I watched him. But I think there was still a feeling at the show that it was a good time to mess around.

So the biggest mistake that the late-night hosts might make right now, with or without writers, is to try to replicate their old formulas in some fashion. Instead, this is the time to break out of the formula and to do so enthusiastically. Look at what the People's Choice Awards did last night — as Queen Latifah said, "a little different from last time." And I won't pretend that what they tried actually worked. It took the spontaneity and the potentional for surprise out of the show, and leaned heavily on clips. But it was an attempt to do an awards show outside of the traditional format.

So should programmers use the strike as a reason to blow things up? It would be interesting to see them try. But, as I said, the People's Choice Awards format wasn't all that good. And then there's Jon Stewart.

In a previous post I argued that his show had a lot of problems on Monday night. Tuesday was a refreshing, smart, funny return to the sort of political commentary and poking at authority that the show does best. The monologue had more bite. And Stewart's interview of conservative author David Frum was classic, Stewart ripping up the overmatched Frum in very funny, but pointed fashion.

Frum works for Giuliani, which not only gave Stewart an opening for another joke about Giuliiani's use of 9/11 (and I loved Stewart's earlier reaction to the Giuliani-on-Hillary's-emotions clip.) But the best moment may have been when Stewart argued that fringe candidate Ron Paul was the most conservative candidate in a party that claims to be conservative.

"He's one of those people, the more you learn about him, the more disturbing a personality he becomes," Frum said.

"You should check into your guy," Stewart replied.

And, gleefully: "My brain's not on strike, brother!" And proved it later with the "President Homer" line.

So is Stewart demonstrating that the old formats are fine once people get back in their comfort zones? Probably. But that doesn't mean occasional daring is called for. Opportunities for such wholesale change come rarely. The last time I can remember in late-night was after 9/11, when the talk-show hosts were trying to figure out how to do their shows and deal with the immensity of that event. But, soon enough, it was back to the old way of doing business. And once the strike is over, collective amnesia may come fairly quickly.

Unless, of course, in this window, people see a new way of doing things that actually works. And the best way to find that is to just mess around.

Conan and beard. Photo from the New York Observer.

After the jump is a transcript from NBC of comments Conan made about the writers strike at the taping of tonight's telecast. (Some adult content.)

Let's talk for a minute about the situation we find ourselves in. As you know, 2 months ago the Writers Guild of America went out on strike and we took our show "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" off the air in support of the writers. This has been a tough time not only for our show, but for a lot of people in the entertainment industry. Good people right now are out of work. And possibly worse, with all the late night shows off the air, Americans have been forced to read books and occasionally even speak to one another, which has been horrifying.

Everywhere I go, "What are you gonna do?" It's one guy who follows me. Everywhere I go in the city for the last couple of days I hear, "What are you gonna do? You got a whole show to do. What are you gonna do? You got no writers." We have no writers and an hour show to do every night. Well ladies and gentlemen, we're going to start by talking about my beard. That's right, I know this looks fake. It looks like it ties on in the back, but believe it or not I actually grew a beard. Two birds, one stone. I never grew a beard in my entire life. I grew it out of solidarity for my writers, and to prove that I have some testosterone. The biggest comment I'm getting the last couple of days is that I look like the character of Kris Kringle in "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

[a split screen demonstrates the similarities]

I've been taking a lot of flak for this beard, but I think you'll find that if you look closely at this beard, it's actually quite amazing. Let's do that now in a quick Strike Beard Moment.

Adds NBC: O'Brien finished the top of the show by demonstrating his wedding ring spinning prowess and showing a video package of what he and his skeleton crew staff have been doing during the strike. The guests were Bob Saget, comedian Dwayne Perkins and musical guest Robert Gordon & Chris Spedding.

Conan,, Jay statements added below, and an item from Deadline Hollywood Daily. Here's the NBC announcement:

After two months of repeats, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" will resume broadcasting all-new episodes beginning Wednesday, January 2, 2008 (11:35 p.m., 12:35 a.m., respectively).

Guest lineups for the shows will be announced at a later date.

I note that Jay not long ago said he was "an empty shell" waiting to be filled with the work of his writers. But he issued a terse statement about his return:

"This has been a very difficult six weeks for everybody affected by the writers strike. I was, like most people, hoping for a quick resolution when this began. I remained positive during the talks and while they were still at the table discussing a solution "The Tonight Show" remained dark in support of our writing staff. Now that the talks have broken down and there are no further negotiations scheduled I feel it's my responsibility to get my 100 non-writing staff, which were laid off, back to work. We fully support our writers and I think they understand my decision."

Conan has issued a very tortured-sounding statement and admits the show will not be as good without the writers. Here it is:

"For the past seven weeks of the writers' strike, I have been and continue to be an ardent supporter of the WGA and their cause. My career in television started as a WGA member and my subsequent career as a performer has only been possible because of the creativity and integrity of my writing staff. Since the strike began, I have stayed off the air in support of the striking writers while, at the same time, doing everything I could to take care of the 80 non-writing staff members on Late Night.

"So, it is only after a great deal of thought that I have decided to go back on the air on January 2nd. I will make clear, on the program, my support for the writers and I'll do the best version of Late Night I can under the circumstances. Of course, my show will not be as good. In fact, in moments it may very well be terrible. My sincerest hope is that all of my writers are back soon, working under a contract that provides them everything they deserve."

Meanwhile, Nikki Finke at DHD says the Writers Guild is warning Jay, Conan and whoever that they can't do monologues.