The Strike

Six days and counting. I get the feeling that the WGA strike won’t be ending anytime soon; and while this will seriously affect my favourite television shows, I am rooting for the writers every step of the way. In a time where we are subjected to crappy reality shows polluting the airwaves, we need to take the time to appreciate the well-crafted, sharply written series. Here’s the lowdown, as I’ve heard, concerning the strike.

Why are the writer’s striking? Mainly, the studios are not paying writers fairly or at all when it comes to rerunning television episodes online. The studio makes big money off the ad spaces; the writers get squat. The studio lawyers have found a loophole that suggests that a webisodes (like the ones The Office made two years ago) is a promotion tool and not an actual episode. The writers also want some more money when it comes to DVD sales since studios keep releasing each show and film a billion times with different special editions.

Why won’t the studios budge? If they give in to the writers, they will have to do the same for the actors and directors when their contracts expire next June.

How is the strike going? The writers have gotten a lot of support from the actors and those involved in the day-to-day running of television shows. The biggest support has come from the showrunners (producers who are often writers themselves.) who refuse to cross the picket lines. These producers understand that all the editing and filming are just an extension of the writer’s script. Unfortunately, the studios have threatened to fire some these showrunners if they refuse to do their producer duties. Imagine JJ Abrams getting fired. The studios need to make sure they don’t back themselves into a corner creatively. The biggest problem is that both sides refuse to meet and discuss. It’s hard to end a strike this way.

How does the strike affect you, the television viewer? Well you might have noticed that late-night talk shows and the upcoming SNLs will be in repeats until the strike ends. That’s what happens to shows that deal with current events.The soap operas are written well in advance, so they should be good until January or February. So you can still get your Days of Our Lives fix. Most current television shows have enough episodes to make it to early December when reruns would happen anyway over the Christmas break. And some shows have scripts for more episodes but the kicker is that some actors are also writers. A good example is The Office where Steve Carell (Michael), BJ Novak (Ryan), Mindy Kaling (Kelly) and Paul Lieberstein (Toby) are part of the Writers Guild of America. They are refusing to film anything. Of course, the studios will threaten them, but who really has the guts to give Steve Carrell a pink slip?

What happens when a network runs out of scripted shows? Any and every reality show conceived will make it on the airwaves. Among the regulars like American Idol, America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars, there are ones called Farmer Takes a Wife and My Dad is Better Than Your Dad. Sigh.

What about 24 and Lost? Well Fox said that they’ll be delaying the premiere of 24 so that the show will run uninterrupted from start to finish. They have a handful of episodes done, but Fox will wait it out. Lost is a different story. They have 8 episodes completed of their 16-episode season. ABC will run the first eight episodes in February on its own if the need arises. Luckily, producer Damon Lindelof (also on strike) says that the eighth episode ends in a cliffhanger so it’ll seem like a natural stopping point anyway.

What about movies? The big studios have stockpiled a bunch of scripts and are racing to get things filmed by June when the actors and directors are up for renegotiation. If the writer’s strike isn’t settled by then, you can expect the actors and directors will join them on the picket line. We should have movies until late next year so you can still count on The Dark Knight and Indy 4 this summer.

How long can this strike last? In 1998, the writer’s strike lasted five months which delayed the fall season by several weeks. Who knows how long this one will last? I am all for well-written scripts but it’s going to be a scary time in a couple of months. Let’s just hope the talks resume.

Where did you get all this information? Entertainment Weekly explained it well and there's some helpful info at Zap2it.com (http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2007/10/what-a-writers-.html).

Let the panic begin this January.