From: ddrewc@verizonSPAMBEGONE.net   
      
   On 2009-07-28 8:59 a.m., Joseph Nebus verbated:   
   > 	Having William Shatner do a `spoken-word rendition' of   
   > miscellaneous Sarah Palin word product is so wonderfully loopily wild   
   > that it pretty much validates the whole wisdom of the big Tonight Show   
   > takeover.   
      
   I don't know if I'd go that far, but yes, this was a well-conceived comic   
   bit, and Shatner played along gamely.   
      
   > 	You know, being in Los Angeles might work out if it is going to   
   > make it so much easier to have celebrities or quasi-celebrities like   
   > Shatner popping in for whimsical bits like this.   
   >   
      
   If the show were still in New York, James Lipton would have been the go-to   
   guy for a pseudo-dramatic reading like this, but Shatner, with that   
   spoken-word record he did in the '60s and his reputation for overacting,   
   added another layer of zaniness to it all.   
      
   Leno often had celebrities do cameos when he hosted "Tonight," so there is   
   precedent. I recall that Paris Hilton popped in for a bit last month as the   
   purported successor to Bob Hope (who was a frequent visitor on Johnny   
   Carson's Tonight Show), but we haven't seen her since, alas.   
      
   Shatner is just right for this sort of thing -- he's someone who doesn't   
   take himself too seriously and is willing to have a little fun with his   
   image or even act like a fool for the sake of a laugh.   
      
   I'm reminded of clips I've seen from talk shows in the '50s and '60s in   
   which the host coaxed guests out of their comfort zones to do comedy bits,   
   song-and-dance routines, and other wacky stuff.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)