Double Duty for Monk

I noticed tonight that Monk is airing on ABC.  I'm a big fan of Tony Shalhoub, ever since his not so glorious days on 'Wings' and the prematurely-cancelled 'Stark Raving Mad'.  ABC originally passed on this detective story about an obsessive-compulsive germaphobe with a gift for noticing the details.  USA Network, which co-produced the show with Touchstone Television (owned by Disney), picked up the show, where I caught the premiere and the next few episodes.  I really enjoyed it, but since I'm seldom up on the part of the dial where USA makes its home, I forgot about it for a month.  Tonight, I just happened to catch an ad for it on ABC, and got caught up. 

Now, apparently, in a very interesting turn of events, ABC is airing re-runs from USA Network.  Putting this together with ABC's recent deal to have HBO produce original content for the network makes me wonder if the power is shifting in the television world, or if this is just a sign of ABC's slow and steady demise under the guidence of Der Mouse.

Incidently, in relation to world-affairs, Tony Shalhoub is just one of a large batch of Arab-American celebrities.  I'm, of course, not surprised by this, but its something I hadn't thought of until recently.  Now, I knew Tony was Lebanese, but some of the names on this list surprised me, not because they're of Arab descent, but because I had no idea they were of Arab descent.

For those that don't like to follow links, here's the most surprising of the bunch for me:

• Helen Thomas - LONG time White House correspondent
• Doug Flutie - the quarterback
• G.E. Smith - the SNL band leader
• Marlo Thomas - the actress
• Christa McAuliffe - the Challenger astronaut
• George Mitchell - the Senator
• Frank Zappa - yeah him
• Tiffany - yeah her