You've probably heard about the new comedy show on Fox News that appeals directly to conservatives and you've also probably heard some of the negative buzz in the blogosphere. Some bloggers have even called on Fox's big boss Roger Ailes to kill the program outright before its premiere since it's allegedy an embarrassment to the conservative cause. One commentator known as "Hog On Ice" (who had watched only a few minutes of the new show) even argued that "sometimes a late term abortion is not a bad thing."

That sort of plea is inappropriate and overstated, since the network has already invested considerable money and cache' in the project and the intense publicity all-but-guarantees a solid audience (in Cable TV's modest terms). 

For most people, the big question is whether The 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour, which debuts this Sunday night, February 18, is worth thirty minutes of your time?

After watching the first two episodes of the show, my answer is an unequivocal "Yes" -- it's worth watching, worth supporting, even if the project is very much a work in progress which, along with a few laughs, delivers a few moments of embarrassing, unfunny, ineptitude.

For me, the worst moment in the first two shows comes with a lame skit in the second show involving Peter Marshall of Hollywood Squares concerning the new demand by Jesse Jackson that everyone cut down on their use of the N-word. Marshall promises to reduce his "frequent" deployment of that racial epithet by 80% -- but opines that no one could be expected to eliminate it entirely. Obviously, the writers intend irony, since it's difficult to imagine Peter Marshall in his "stand-up act" ever using the N-word at all. But the humor's too subtle by half, and I'm virtually certain that some mainstream or liberal critics (that's largely the same thing, by the way) will use this segment to prove that conservatives make jokes about the most hateful racial epithet in the lexicon. Prepare to hear considerable hand-wringing about how we don't understand the wounding nature of such language, we shouldn't treat the hideous noun so lightly, etc., etc., ad nauseum. The last thing conservatives need at the moment is more fodder for liberals to attack us a racist.

In that context, it's too bad that the producers didn't make a point of innoculating themselves against such charges by using some "people of color" to deliver the jokes, the satiric barbs that fuel the entertainment.  The only darker skin shades on the show turn up among targets of the humor, not from those who administer the teasing. Unfortunately, the engaging male-female hosts and the various "experts" featured in skits, remain lilly white. The only "minority" is a curvaceous starlet who appears briefly in a mildly funny make-believe ad mocking entertainment industry earnestess and called, "Hollywood Helping Humanity." One of the slogans used for these mock-public service messages is particularly apt: "Remember, there is no 'I' in Hollywood."

Despite such concerns, there's scant justification for the hysteria from some malcontents on the right who've seen only moments of The 1/2 Hour News Hour on YouTube. For several reasons, the full shows aren't nearly as lame as claimed and there are several reasons that angry observers have gotten the show wrong.

First, the brief excerpts  that have been most widely viewed quite naturally (and inevitably) involve the two biggest names involved in the project: Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. They introduce both shows in very brief skits in which they play the President and Vice President, respectively. The two rightie icons play their parts energetically and look like good sports, but their material is feeble. Any page of a Coulter book, or any five minutes of a Limbaugh broadcast, provides more wit than their two minutes on camera here.

Does this mean that producer Joel Surnow (of 24 fame, of course) made a big mistake to feature the conservative movement's number one sweetheart and number one stud to open his broadcasts? Of course not. No matter how silly the skits, there's a guilty thrill at the very idea of these two as President and Vice President and their well-advertised presence here (no matter how awkward) will help bring an audience.

And then what does that audience get? A few laughs, a few telling jabs, a few comments that hit the mark so well that you'll want to repeat them to your friends. For instance, in the "newscast" segment that dominates the shows, there's a segment about that little rascal, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying (and I paraphrase from memory here): "And in other news, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke about the recent Holocaust Denial Conference in Teheran -- and denied that it ever happened. And if it did take place, he said that the number of participants had been greatly exaggerated."

Beyond the hit-and-miss pleasures of the first two shows, there's every reason to expect improvement. First, because any comedy-sketch show takes a while to find its way, to figure out its niche. None of the established comedy shows looked slick, excellent, and accomplished right out of the box.

Second, the producers worked under particularly difficult constraints with the first two shows. They had to produce the programs more than a month before the air dates--- undermining topicality and immediacy. When Fox News Channel gives an ongoing commitment for more shows, they'll be able to cover the news of the week just passed -- instead of covering stories that seem either "evergreen" or, even, a bit stale.    

Meanwhile, there's enough to enjoy in the launch of this enterprise to make it worth a few laughs (or titters), and all hopes for improvement (and an important new conservative resource in the media) depend upon the shows drawing strong audiences.

The efforts to bad-mouth, undermine and even kill the new program before it's even born amount to one more demonstration (if one were needed) of the conservative death-wish that seems to afflict too many of us in this Brave New World of Pelosi-and-Reid.

No, The 1/2 Hour News Hour doesn't count as dazzling, deathless television but if it fails -- particurly after the collapse of the Dennis Miller Show -- it will be a long, long time before right-wingers get another shot at entertaining our own troops via TV and demonstrating that conservatives do, after all, possess a sense of humor.