Well...looks like my favorite show WON'T be returning in February after all! In case you've been under a rock, there's a writers strike. This, I'm afraid, will be the result:
"Look for lots more unscripted shows, which were not a major commercial force (if they existed at all) during the last WGA strike nearly 20 years ago. “The Real World” didn’t arrive on MTV until 1992. The first three major-network reality shows – “Survivor,” “Big Brother” and the ABC version of “Making the Band” – didn’t arrive until eight years later.
Variety reports that CBS is contemplating the first-ever spring edition of “Big Brother” – possibly a celebrity edition – to launch in March should the strike prove lengthy. The highly rated “Brother” is a particularly potent network weapon as it affordably provides CBS three hours of new primetime programming weekly. "
Variety reports that CBS is contemplating the first-ever spring edition of “Big Brother” – possibly a celebrity edition – to launch in March should the strike prove lengthy. The highly rated “Brother” is a particularly potent network weapon as it affordably provides CBS three hours of new primetime programming weekly. "
GREAT! Just what the world needs...ANOTHER edition of BIG BROTHER! (As if the one in Washington wasn't enough!) My question is this- Is this going to be akin to the Baseball strike of a few years ago? Is it going to drive TV watchers away in droves? Is this finally going to be the death knell of scripted TV? I hope not, but when you look at the less than stellar ratings most of these shows get anyway, then add in a potentially lengthy strike? I'm afraid many of the consumers may say "No thanks!" when these shows return. There is actually discussion I've read that perhaps one of the major networks is considering going to , and staying WITH, an "all reality format". There are also TONS of viewers who'd rather watch their shows (particularly those with a continuous story arch) on DVD or the web. I just bought Season 3 of VERONICA MARS (a DAMN fine show, btw) and I never watched a single episode on TV.
Perhaps in this day and age of so much new media and new ways of distribution, the old TV model is broken. (I've thought for years that the Nielsen ratings were an absolute joke! How many times have we seen a show die an premature death, only to have the network bombarded with MILLIONS of protests from angry fans, ALL of whom must be watching in some fashion?)I've also wondered for years why studios don't do more direct to dvd releases with shows (or shows that the networks foolishly cancel that OBVIOUSLY still have a big market, i.e. the aforementioned VERONICA, or Buffy, Alias, etc...) Perhaps a good by-product of this strike is that it might usher in a different model for creating and distributing these products. Who knows...all I know is that Howie Mandel is most likely about to get an unexpected contract extension from NBC!
I won't get into the reasons for this strike, and whether or not it's warranted (probably only one person who comes to this watering hole with a truly learned opinion on that subject), and I was raised to respect the work that Unions do in this country. I just can't help but wondering, though, if perhaps some of these folks might not be shooting themselves, and the fans of their work, in the foot .
Thoughts?
.
12 comments:
I heard a comment on one of the morning news shows today about a past writers' strike. They mentioned that the show "Moonlighting" never recovered from the hiatus that it had to take because of that strike. I agree with you that there is definitely a noble purpose to the union and I am all for negotiating fair terms and backing those negotiations with a strike, if needed. But, sometimes, the "right" thing isn't necessarily the "best" thing.
The worst part about this all: some well-written shows might go under and the vacuum be filled by more shitty reality TV! Bleccchhh! Let's hope a balance is met.
On the other hand, if TV goes to shit soon, I might get more done.
I don't know if this will be the death-knell for scripted TV shows, but it may be the death-knell for the three major networks as networks (of course, they'll still have all their cable stations).
X, new delivery systems is precisely what a great deal of this strike is about. The Studios and Nets want to sew up all the delivery systems and not pay the creators (writers, actors, directors, and independent producers) for their work. The issues of the strike are simple. If the Studios and Nets profit from our work; we want our cut.
Personally, I don't think a further glut of reality TV can continue to sustain itself. I think viewers are going away in droves because the creators are being second-guessed by the paper-pushers and bean-counters. I also think the days of Reagan-Bush big business/anti-union may be over. When the entire middle class is feeling the pinch and squeeze of Republican Big Business favouritism, Big Biz is going to get a lot of sympathy. When one CEO of one of these companies can make more in a year than what the increases the Unions are asking for are worth, they cannot cry poor.
And there is solidarity among the creative unions on this, I suspect. Because the actors and directors know if the writers get screwed, they're next.
Go to the Huffington Post and read the Strike Blogs.
And there is a great op-ed piece in the LA TIMES by Marshall Herskovitz ( producer of 30 something and My So-Called Life), ARE THE CORPORATE SUITS RUINING TV? (The answer is an emphatic YES) who talks about how the FCC deregulation has allowed Networks to own shows and, because of it, everything on TV has gotten shittier, both in quality and for the
creative people producing it.
The above should read: "Big Business ISN'T going to get a lot of sympathy."
The average middle class worker in America is confronted with exactly the same screwing by Big Biz as the creative unions are: Screwed on salary, pension and health, outsourcing, etc....Less for the little guy, so the big guy can make more in a year than most people can spend in a lifetime. How many steaks in fancy restaurants, how many homes, how many private planes, how many millions does it take to make these CEOs happy? Here's a clue...they have all this and most of them still aren't happy! They're just fucking evil!
Interesting takes,Chuck. Although I don't agree that EVERYTHING is getting shittier on TV. Granted, lots of it is pure shite, BUT in the last 5 years, I think we've seen some of the finest scripted shows in TV Hitory (LOST, BSG, Veronica Mars,Boston Legal, West Wing, etc...)So it ain;t all bad...
24, Alias, Journeyman, Life, Brothers & Sisters, Gray's Anatomy,The Office, 30 Rock...to name a few more
I wish I could have a dog in this hunt, but I don't even get T.V. channels. I sympathize with the writers, I believe that their work is their work no matter what form it takes to reach the consumer. They should be paid, god knows the nets are gettin a few dimes.
X, I really wouldn't know about the state of TV writing these days. I haven't watched anything on the big three (four, if you count Fox) networks for years.
The propensity of commercials just ruins any sort of continuity for me and, frankly, life is too short to spend the kind of time Americans devote to TV each night.
These days I go for the quirky off-beat stuff or contained, limited series that I can watch a season of on DVD all in one fell swoop...something like Slings & Arrows. Right now I'm leisurely plowing through boxed sets of Noel Coward plays, Ibsen plays, Shaw plays, and a set of Judi Dench performances. Much more preferable to me than yet another variation on CSI ot some other crime show. I think the only thing I watch regularly on TV anymore is any new episodes of South Park and Real Time With Bill Maher.
I saw a great episode of REAL TIME just last night...too bad it was at a hotel and I don't get HBO at home.
So Broadway stage hands went on strike today and shut down all but 8 shows on Broadway. The ones still running, like Cymbeline at Lincoln Center, run under different contracts but this is a strike that could go on for a while as well...
Peace
Rick
The Marshall Herskovitz article I spoke of in my earlier post has been re-printed in the Herald-Leader's Sunday opinion page. I urge every creative artist and arts lover to read it.
After seeing THIS recently, I'm starting to REALLY feel for some of the innocents effected by this strike...and starting to wish that all these folks would pull their heads out of their asses and get this thing settled.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071201/tv_nm/leno_dc
People should read this.
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