fastidium

Not only is tomorrow Halloween, it is also the day that the Writer’s Guild of America goes on strike. What that means is the television studios will lose their writers for the immediate future. And its really too bad since there are so many good television shows to watch these days.

Not only do they write the scripts for television, Guild members play an important in the production process as well. Every show needs to have rewrites and scene edits when a director or producer decides that something isn’t working out. All of the pithy dialogue on late-night television shows are written by teams of writers. Most networks have a collection of shows in the bank for those currently running. My favorite show, Pushing Daisies, is supposed to be finished through its 9th episode. But starting in about early December we will start to see re-runs, more reality television (not written by Guild members, go figure), and current events/news shows (Hard Copy was born during the last writer’s strike). The monologues of Letterman and Leno will be greatly shortened.

So what are the issues on the table? The writers simply want their share of residuals not currently in their contracts, like iTunes downloads, DVD sales, and other income generated from online transactions (e.g., advertising during online playbacks). They deserve their share, or so it seems to me. They probably deserve more than they’re asking. We all know that television studios are just getting into the act of using the online community and allowing content to be broadcast on the internet. Similar to Bill Gates and Microsoft in 1995, they just don’t know what to do with this “internet thing”.

Hopefully the dispute will be resolved because I don’t do reality television, Hard Copy, or Dancing with the Stars. American Idol is a big waste of time. I’ll have to get out my DVD copies of News Radio, Firefly, and Arrested Development. I bet the boys at Neflix and Blockbuster are licking their lips.

Hot Topic: Writers Strike (Variety)