It’s official! So I guess I can retire this picture I took on the very first day of the strike.

Oh thank goodness. The long national nightmare is over! More information on the particulars can be found at the Deadline Hollywood Daily blog , which has pretty much owned strike coverage. CBS honcho Les Moonves said “everybody won,” so, yay, right? What’s important to us fans is that writers go back to work tomorrow, and shows like “The Office” should have a few more episodes, rolling out in April or so. Expect some more “30 Rock” episodes, about five more “Lost”s - to go with the eight already produced this season. No “Heroes” until the fall and no “24″ until 2009. I’m alright with that. Still no word on if “Scrubs” will get its proper ending.

Also, how did I miss the return of “Jericho” in my What’s on entry for today? Sorry, Jerichoholics! I hope it was everything you wished for.

“Saturday Night Live” hasn’t aired since Nov. 3, 2007 - exactly two days before the writer’s guild strike officially hit. It was a pretty good episode, too, hosted by the always delightful NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, with musical guest Feist and a surprise cameo from Barack Obama. The current cast (especially Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig, pictured) is great, and I’ve definitely missed them these last few months.

With the strike all but over pending the WGA member vote, “SNL” is returning Feb. 23 (so not this Saturday, but next), though the host and musical guest have yet to been announced. Hopefully it’ll be, you know, someone good. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was supposed to host the Nov. 10 with Amy Winehouse as the musical guest - that would have been awesome, but probably wouldn’t work now (no movie for The Rock to promote, Winehouse couldn’t make it to America for the Grammys). Jonah Hill was scheduled to hose Nov. 17 according to his MySpace blog , and he could do that “fat kid that curses and yells at people” thing he does so well.

A banner currently on NBC.com:

Yeah, that makes sense! People will forget all about the strike since we stockpiled new episodes of shows to last us…one week! Which is the same week that most of these shows would have come back with new episodes anyway (since there’s usually a few weeks of repeats during the holidays); perhaps they’re trying to hypnotize the audience into thinking everything is going fine and the repeats they’ll see in subsequent weeks are in fact, new (NBC used to have a slogan “If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you!” for repeats, this is “If you act like you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you, kind of, right?”).

To their credit, there is a lot of new stuff on NBC this week. “Medium” finally gets its season premiere. The final new “30 Rock” and “My Name Is Earl” eps are on Thursday (”ER” still has some left). There’s still a lot of “Law & Order” to go, and uh, new “1 vs. 100″! Everything is great!

NBC isn’t the only network with new episodes to burn. Oh, that’s right, baby - “Carpoolers” is back this Tuesday! And there was much rejoicing throughout the land.

Oh boy, does Letterman look awesome with that beard.

Of course, his show might have been the least “interesting” of Wednesday’s returning late night talk shows, given that he actually had writers, unlike Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien or Jimmy Kimmel. That being said, Letterman still had plenty of filler, like “Know Your Staff.”

I only watched some of Leno, since my interest in both Mike Huckabee and Emeril Lagasse is rather low, but it seemed to be pretty much what I expected - more about interviews (the Huckster got two segments) than hilarious bit like that fat kid going places and asking dumb questions. I thought it was weird that he wrote a monologue, I wonder if that means comedy writers are going to break his legs sometime tonight.

Conan’s beard was EVEN MORE AWESOME, though. Seriously, he looked way manlier than ever before, for whatever that may be worth. And the video package of him playing Rock Band with his staff (which was an integral part of both Thanksgiving and Christmas in the Ching household) was pretty entertaining, although I wonder what kind of scores he was getting for that Edith Bunker doing Sabotage routine (that’s pretty much what I do, too, although less hilariously and consciously. It usually works pretty well).

I didn’t see much of Jimmy, but when I finally remembered to switch over it was a performance by Kid Rock. DO NOT WANT. I’m sure Craig Ferguson was charming in his own Scottish way.

It really shows how starved I am for new TV (and not new, Jeremy Sisto-fueled “Law & Order” ) that I was SO PSYCHED for tonight. Really, it was sort of weird. What ended up happening was not the wacky trainwreck many thought it might be but not as good as fully-staffed episodes of the non-Letterman shows usually are (although I have heard people say that Leno’s monologue was funnier than usual, that could be true but I don’t dig it either way). So really it was just kind of boring episodes of late night TV. But with beards! Next week with Colbert and The Daily Show without writers should really be interesting (maybe).

And what the heck, there was a new “Gossip Girl” tonight?! Usually when I check my DVR these days, it’s just a sad, hollow gesture, but now I have something to watch and fall asleep during! Hurray!

Though talk between Letterman and the writers had reportedly stymied as of late, today it was announced that he’ll be coming back Jan. 2 with his writing staff in tow. Basically, since “Late Show with David Letterman” is produced by Worldwide Pants, which is owned by Letterman, they were able to reach their own agreement. “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” is also a Worldwide Pants production, so he’ll probably be able to come back with his writers, too, if anyone cares or notices.

Not only is this a really cool move on Letterman’s part, it seems to put him at a huge advantage over “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” which will also be back Jan. 2, but sans writers. That show will likely be some sort of awkward-sounding interview show hybrid of what it used to be, while Letterman can continue business as normal - monologues, top 10 lists, “Know Your Current Events,” “Will It Float?” (I at least assume “Will It Float?” has writers). This might turn things around for Letterman, who has been trailing behind in the ratings something like 11 seasons in a row, ever since bombing at the Oscars and Hugh Grant apologized on Leno for getting inappropriate acts with a prostitute. It’ll also probably be more fun to watch than whatever Leno and Conan come up with - not that Letterman needs writers to be more entertaining than Leno.

One of my most favorite gigs ever was writing the “TV Best Bets” (later titled “Channel Surfing,” thus the name of this blog) column right here at the East Valley Tribune. I did it for a year-and-a-half straight and never got bored of it. I could plug stuff that I liked on TV, make fun of things I didn’t, and somehow was able to get paid for it. But on days like today, all I can say is, holy crap I’m actually kinda glad I’m not doing it any more.

From the indisputably helpful Web site The Futon Critic :

Yes, that’s right. That’s ALL THAT’S NEW ON TV TONIGHT, of course not counting sports like ASU in the Holiday Bowl. Even Christmas Day itself was better than that. Now, I wouldn’t go blaming the writer’s guild strike for this - this time of year is always pretty dead for shows - but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it quite that bad. To make it worse, I know that list is actually out-of-date, since Sci Fi moved the airing of “ECW” back to its usual Tuesday slot this week (apparently they originally figured no one would watch it on Christmas Day, but then realized that no one would watch it two days after, either). So your only options for fresh programming is another professional wrestling show, TNA Impact - considered by at least some experts to be among the worst in the history of the genre - “Varsity Inc.,” which I have never heard of before and apparently Google hasn’t either, and “The 9th Annual Family Television Awards,” yes, on the very same network that airs the “Search for the Next Pussycat Dolls” show.

Now, that list probably isn’t quite complete and exhaustive - The Futon Critic doesn’t index every network; last night’s “Transform and Roll Out!” special on Cartoon Network apparently wasn’t on their radar. But still. Bleak times.

So what to do, in lieu of resorting to “reading” or other such unwholesome activities? Well, there are a few good repeats on tonight. Will Arnett’s second guest spot on “30 Rock.” Michael and Darryl negotiating salary on “The Office” (did everyone see Darryl SING in “Walk Hard”? It ruled). It’s also a good day to catch up on online shows - like “Wainy Days,” created and starred by “The State” and “Stella” vet (and “Wet Hot American Summer” and “The Ten” director) David Wain , with copious help from all of his talented friends (Elizabeth Banks! Michael Ian Black! Callie Thorne! Julie Bowen! Thomas Lennon! Ken Marino! A.D. Miles! Other people!). If your idea of hilarity is a quadriplegic Jonah Hill using a Stephen Hawking-esque voice box (which it really should be), check it out for sure.

So Jay and Conan are going back to work Jan. 2. Unsurprisingly, this has incurred the wrath of some people - notable, those commenting on the Deadline Hollywood blog (which is down as I write this but hopefully comes back soon).

The basic gist is this: Leno and Conan are filthy scabs for daring to go back to work. Conan is even more egregious, being that he cut his teeth as a writer on “The Simpsons.” Traitors, right?

These folks are ignoring two relatively obvious principles - first, that O’Brien and Leno won’t actually be doing any “scab work.” As WGA members, they’re not going to be writing monologues or skits, and they won’t be hiring picket-crossers to do so, either. The shows will probably be fairly awkward as a result - like a hopefully less dry Charlie Rose - but ultimately, they’re not saying they disagree with the strike.

Which is of course, the second, perhaps even more obvious factor - they don’t want their non-writing staff members to go unemployed. Leno made reference to about 100 employees that have lost their jobs as a result of this strike, and it’s pretty classy to try and do something about that. There’s no real great answer to it, either way someone gets screwed.

It looks like Letterman, though, might be finding a way around it .

Just TEN DAYS after premiering on Sci Fi, “Battlestar Galactica: Razor” is on DVD today. The home release promises to be both “unrated” and “extended,” though anyone viewing it hoping for some revealing Ensign Ro bits will surely be sorely disappointed.

It actually seems like a pretty worthwhile purchase - the main feature clocking in at 16 minutes longer than the broadcast version, with the adventures of li’l Adama apparently doubling in duration. And Ronald D. Moore commentaries are usually pretty good.

In further “BSG” news, apparently Jamie Bamber is getting into the strike spirit in a distressingly creepy manner by allowing producers to offer his worn towels in support of the pro-WGA Pencils2MediaMoguls campaign. Naturally, it’s brought out nothing but the best in humanity:

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It’s actually rather disorienting since it’s made me realize that unlike the fans of lots of other nerdy shows (of which I am clearly one), “Battlestar” folks haven’t really had to face any kind of adversity - it’s been a good success nestled in the comforting bosom of the Sci Fi Channel. There’s been no need for things like mailing candy bars of nuts to studio execs. But now there is a cause, so the lunatic fringe (again, which I am certainly not removed from) can finally let their fraking freak flags fly. Fantastic.

Sup.

This blog is about television - specifically, TV shows, not really about the devices themselves (although those are pretty cool, too). I know what you’re thinking - “What a perfect time to start a TV blog!” But hey, there’s a lot of stuff to talk about even if we’re not going to see a new “Office” in 10 or so months. At least I think there is. There is, right?

First, how about a little of scintillating Channel Surfing history - I started the original Channel Surfing blog in September 2006, click the link to find about 250 super sexy posts from yours truly. At the time I was writing the daily “Channel Surfing” blurbs for the East Valley Tribune, which is where I got the name from - although now I prefer to refer to the blog as “ALBERT CH(annel surf)ING” - thanks, Sam ! It went on a sort of hiatus from February to August of this year while I was working for the Arizona Daily Star and contributing to their “Remote Controlled” blog. But now I’m back at the Tribune and here we are!

To commemorate this historic blog, here’s a link to the “Poop Tube” sketch from last night’s second season premiere of Adult Swim ’s absurdly hilarious “Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job,” a program that my friends and I have become cultishly devoted to this year. Yeah, it’s about as gross as it sounds. Watch at your own risk (and lulz). I tried to embed it but there’s so much about this crazy freedomblogging interface I don’t understand yet. Probably for the best, really.