Courtesy Chicago Tribune

(January 13, 2009) Let's say you set the alarm early so you wouldn't miss a moment of Monday's debut of "Monsters in the Morning," the long-anticipated 6-to-9 a.m. weekday TV reunion of long-time radio partners Dan Jiggetts and Mike North on Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

You were groggy but figured the fireworks between these two would wake you up. Plus Mayor Richard Daley and Blackhawks boss Rocky Wirtz would be stopping by.

It should have been great. But if expectations were all it took to succeed, there would have been a big parade in Chicago in late October. Execution counts.

Alas, almost all of the premiere fell squarely in the amiable but hardly invigorating 80 percent of topics on which North said he tends to agree with Jiggetts.

Wirtz and Daley were all right, but for much of the rest of the show, it took restraint not to surf channels for something faster, funnier or otherwise engaging.

The show's first three interviews were with the manager of the band Chicago, the head of the show's title sponsor and the man in charge of CSN.

Business is business, and North seems acutely aware of it, addressing advertisers at one point: "If you want to get the best bang for your buck, I'm not begging, we got plenty, but we'd like more."

It initially might have seemed a good idea to start off by fussing over the men who gave his show its theme, a shot of cash and its TV slot.

But if the real program isn't going to begin until 7:30 a.m., don't tell everyone to tune in at 6 a.m.

This is a franchise that needs a wake-up call before it can reliably be one.