Archive for January 2008
If this Writer’s Guild strike goes on any longer, I’m gonna strike!
The sting of the writers’ strike is now burning even the occasional television viewer. Since Nov. 5, the members of the Writers Guild of America, a labor union representing film, television and radio writers, have been picketing the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers regarding residuals and new media sales.
The people responsible for House’s sarcasm and for making “McDreamy” a common name are not getting paid when episodes of their shows are streamed over the internet. Nor are they receiving the money they deserve when a customer purchases a DVD.
Currently, for every dollar spent on a DVD, writers receive less than three cents in residuals. The AMPTP argue writers hold no copyright to their work and should not receive residuals at all. With the strike now in its thirteenth week, the effects are more obvious, even to the occasional viewer.
Because no show had a full season’s worth of completed scripts prior to the walkout, networks
have had to rewrite this television season. Most shows spread out their episodes to last as long as possible.
Others, like “Heroes,” adapted their last completed script to serve as a season finale. And yet other shows, like “Scrubs,” are wondering if they will return to finish their seasons at all.
In order to fill the now empty prime time slots, networks are ushering in a new wave of reality
television. Some old favorites like “American Idol” are returning, but many new shows are also gracing the airwaves with their unwelcome presence.
Shows like “The Moment of Truth,” which has contestants hooked up to a lie detector in order to win money, are beginning their runs. These are the types of shows networks think will fill the void left in our hearts without our regular programming.
Is the American public too dependent on television for entertainment?
Instead of reruns of our favorite shows to hold us over, the networks are subjecting us to reality shows that require little to no writing staff and little to no thinking. And we sit there because we are addicted to our television sets, not just the shows.
We associate these shows with the actors, but we do not think about the people who write the scripts for the actors to repeat.
Why is it only when a union strikes that we take notice of those who do the hard work? We do it because we are no longer watching the dramas that plague the women of Wisteria Lane on “Desperate Housewives.”
We notice because the only thing to watch is a show where Americans embarrass themselves in order to win a singing competition. Or washed up celebrities try to regain their fame and their health at once on VH1.
Let’s hope that the informal talks that began last week between the WGA and the AMPTP, the first since early December, will lead to formal negotiations and eventually an end to the strike.
Because Conan O’Brien is not as funny without his writers, and because we all really just want to see Jim torture Dwight on “The Office.”
FROM: Volume 146, Issue 13: January 31, 2008
