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Craig Ferguson has only been the host of CBS's The Late, Late Show, 12:35 each week night right after the Late Show with Dave Letterman, since about the first of last year, but Great Scot, he's making a fast and lasting impression.

Roseanne, a guest of Craig's on The Late, Late Show one night recently, commented that Craig Ferguson "just wings it" in his nightly monologues.

I don't know if that's true. I have a feeling that a lot more thought and writing go into Craig Ferguson's comedy than it would appear. Highly talented people always make hard work and creation look deceptively easy.

But the bottom line is, as a viewer, I don't really care how Craig Ferguson gets there, I only know that he gets there like a bat outa hell, and thankfully, he takes the viewer with him.

However, Roseanne is right in one sense-- Craig Ferguson does wing it in that he takes flights of fancy every night. Oh sure, sometimes, like most birds do, he flys smack into the picture window and falls back into the shrubs leaving the viewer to rub her head and wonder what the heck that was, but most of the time Craig Ferguson soars high above the neighborhood sky taking his viewers on a thrilling, aerial view of "a great day in America".

Each late night talk show host has their own strengths--the late, great Johnny Carson was the consumate professional, another talent who made it look easy. He was funny, debonaire, and yet with a boyish, midwestern charm night after night managed interviews that brought out the character and personality of each guest.

Craig is easy and affable with his guests, but could perhaps relax a bit in the give and take of their exchanges; and sometimes Craig's ending of conversations seems abrubt. I think as he gains experience that his interview style will develop.

Of course, Dave Letterman's strong point is that he is quirkily funny and irreverent while Jay Leno is, in the tradition of stand up comedy, highly adept at topical humor and winking asides.

Ahhh, but now there's the Scottish new kid on the block. I wish I had been lucky enough to catch Craig Ferguson from the beginning, but I discovered this Scottish gem about halfway through the year. Purely from the stance of an interested study of talent, I would have liked to have watched his growth from the beginning as a developing talent finding his way--the amazing, the awkward, and the clunkers.

Even though he's a thankfully mature 44, it's a joy to watch his youthful exhuberance as he careens onstage each night waving at the crowd and at the same time always including the audience at home with his impish smile and warmth. It's exciting to be privy to the creative process as Craig Ferguson gains momentum as a talent and a star.

Each night Craig Ferguson's meandering monologues are practical, common sense takes on everyday events, Hollywood gossip, politics, and American issues that he manages to infuse with a bawdy freshness even as he seems wide-eyed in wonder that anyone would think he is anything but sincerely simply discussing his day and current thoughts.

He also liberally sprinkles in remembrances from his childhood growing up in Cumbernauld, a town just outside of Glasgow, Scotland as well as interesting asides about what Scotland is like today.

It's refreshing to hear his ideas and views coming from a European prospective that is both a disspassionate third party overview of America in tandem with his seeming love of his new home being equal to that of his homeland of Scotland.

Craig Ferguson also occasionnally brings up the fact that years ago he fought a battle with alcohol addiction....and won. In fleeting serious moments he describes what that battle was like, and conveys to the viewer a camaraderie in facing life's challenges that are common to us all.

It's an unexpected source of inspiration and motivation--"heck, if Ferguson can make it from the darkness he once inhabited to the healthy place he enjoys now, maybe we can beat our demons, too.

Craig Ferguson is very much a natural phenomena--like the craggy moors of Scotland, like the vast Grand Canyon--at times rocky and difficult as witnessed in skits where his Sean Connery portrayal once mentioned Connery's bathroom habits (groan...anyone who would dare do that to the dignified, sexy former 007 is crazy with his head out the car window on a full moon night, and yes, there's some of that in Craig Ferguson, too).

And Ferguson's Larry King impression?...
we won't even go there...at times Craig Ferguson is like a goofy date in high school who makes your eyes roll with his obvious, corny humor but heck, he's on the chess team plus he's a great kisser...who would part with that?

Craig Ferguson is not so predictable and carefully honed as his peers, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Jay Leno, among others, but that's the unique beauty of Craig Ferguson's landscape. Yes, at times he may present a rocky, unstable path, but overall he's an amazing vista full of wide-open fascination and a stunning horizon of auroral displays.

Yes, I know 12:35 a.m. is awfully late, or way too early, to be awake, but if you have to record The Late, Late Show with TV's Craig Ferguson. It's definitely worth the effort--Craig Ferguson is intelligent, creative, exciting, and funny, no doubt, and yes, ladies, he's easy on the eyes. All that, and a Scottish burr, too--Craig Ferguson will not leave you cold on a chilly, late night.

Craig Ferguson is also a new novelist. His "Between the Bridge and the River" has received wonderful reviews from Publishers Weekly and Book List among many other reviewers....