It's a strike!

[yendi]

Yes, the TV Writers Strike is in effect.

Since I don't watch talk shows or soaps, this won't affect me as a viewer until January (assuming it continues). Although I do have to wonder about South Park, given the Parker/Stone policy of writing up until the last minute (is the current half-season scheduled to go past Imaginationland III?).

I don't pretend to know enough about the industry to know who's "right" on the various issues in dispute, although I'm generally inclined to assume that, given any contract between a writer and a corporation, that the writer's the one who's a lot more likely to get screwed.

Comments

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

Does Hollywood even have any writers anymore?

I know they have plenty or remakers and repackagers, but original writers?

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Cheap shot, as many writers would be glad to point out to you.

Your beef is with the studio execs wanting a sure thing and thinking remakes comprise said sure thing. Plenty of Hollywood writers butt their heads against that attitude.

Serious recommendation: see the movie The Player if you haven't yet. Tim Robbins's character breaks it down by numbers at one point: Hollywood studios field tens of thousands of movie ideas every year, and his studio can make maybe 12 films in that year. The numbers vary by the size of the studio, but not by much; even with plenty of studios, you're talking the ability to make several hundred films, certainly not thousands and thousands. And with the cost of filmmaking, it's very prone to being conservative in the not-taking-chances sense.

OK. I'm starting to bore myself, so I'll stop.

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

My point is that, if the writers go on strike and stop producing new scripts, that won't prevent Hollywood from continuing to simply re-shoot existing scripts. Nor will it stop so-called "reality" shows.

[litch.livejournal.com]

The studios need writers, doing that would piss them off at least and might violate their contract.

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

It affects my favorite show, The Daily Show - I'm seriously not sure I can handle week after week with no new Daily Show episodes.

Here come the shakes...

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

That was my one big concern. No Daily Show! No Colbert!

...or, they could do it, but it would be all interviews. Which wouldn't suck, totally, but it wouldn't be quite the same.

...are Jon and Steve allowed to write their own material?

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I wonder if improv counts in these circumstances as writing; if not, then I guess we'd see how well Stewart and Colbert think on their feet. I do know that in the 1988 writer's strike, Johnny Carson and David Letterman continued with their shows, heavier on both the talking and the odd stunts (Letterman spent one episode either getting shaved or having his hair cut, I'm not sure which).

Of course, the decision to have the show air at all is probably made higher in Corporate than in the Daily Show/Colbert Report offices.

Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? 'Cause I'm not sure I do.

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

How about if shows just improv and ad lib?

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Someone with as weird a comedy mind as Conan O'Brien might actually flourish in the strike. And Stewart and Colbert probably have the chops. They all probably could really make hay out of this no-writing situation.

Y'know, the thought actually gets me kind of excited. Yay to comedy weirdness! (I'm an Andy Kaufman fan, and he was the king of comedy weirdness.)

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

Jon and Stephen are both members of the writers union:

http://community.livejournal.com/thedailyshow/1603907.html

[litch.livejournal.com]

Gee, ya think that colbert and stewart might tend towards supporting unions

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

There's nothing saying that they WON'T tend that way...

[yendi]

I don't watch TDS or Colbert that often, I'm afraid -- just don't have enough time. But they're both damned funny. That sucks.

[allroads.livejournal.com]

Can manatees go on strike?

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

XD

They are very ethical writers...

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

Only if the Mohammed ball is removed from their tank.

[wishiwasnt.livejournal.com]

I'm sad, like Kristen, for Chuck, by far the best new show this year. It was really getting good, too. I hope it doesn't fall apart over the strike weeks.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

I like Chuck, but the best new show this year is easily Pushing Daisies. Which also requires writers.

[yendi]

Agreed. Although PD, at least, has gotten a full-season pickup. Chuck is in limbo until after the strike.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

As I Understand It, the biggest bone to pick is the pittance (or lack thereof) that writers get from DVD sales; the Writers' Union put that formula on the short list of things to overhaul in this round of negotiations.

But the Producers not only refuse to back down on the DVD formula, they're trying to force it onto online downloads as well. And they've refused any attempt to change it.

This is a battle for the future of the media.

[yendi]

Ack. Yeah, sounds like writers most definitely getting screwed.

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

Veteran of 3 writer strikes Ken Levine talks about this strike in hsi blog (http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007/10/wga-strike.html)