Notes From My Recliner 11.07.07: Ben Moser's Guide to the WGA Strike!
Posted by Ben Moser on 11.07.2007
Everything you need to know about Writers' Guild strike in a column you can read while pretending to work.
My morning ritual is pretty standard. I wake up, shower, fix breakfast, and take a seat in front of my TV. I've found that the best way to prepare to face the day is to watch the previous evening's Daily Show while I eat my oatmeal and wait for my coffee to brew. Tuesday morning, I was faced with a rerun. It's happened before, but this was no planned vacation for Jon Stewart and company. Nope, it was the first noticeable effect of the Writers' Guild strike. Confused? Don't be. I proudly present:
Ben Moser's Guide to the WGA Strike!
So why strike?
Basically, it all comes down to entertainment's evolution and the fact that the writers have been left out in the cold even as studios find new ways to make money off of their labors. It would seem I've already tipped my hand and showed you whose side I'm on. Allow me to explain.
I'm not asking you to feel the least bit sorry for the hotshot Hollywood writer who commands a bidding war every time opens his laptop. That's the guy you always hear about when you're reading your entertainment news, and he'll be fine. I am asking you to consider Johnny No-Name, who was just happy to have landed a gig.
Johnny No-Name's work is generating revenue in bold new ways. DVD sales are hitting all-time highs as many people now prefer stocking up their state-of-the-art home theater to going out for a movie. Of course, TV on DVD is also gaining popularity by the minute. Johnny, though, isn't only seeing $0.04 for each DVD sold. He's asking for $0.04 more.
Now Brandy No-Name(no relation) got a sweet gig on a TV show and she's loving life. She's also getting practically shut out of DVD sales, the same as Johnny. Even worse, though, is that clips of her writing are on the website run by the company that owns her show. See the annoying commercial you can't skip that plays before the clip from Brandy's show? Someone payed to put that there. Brandy No-Name sees $0.00 of that. Not. One. Penny.
The main thrust of the WGA strike is the fact that they are entirely shut out of any money earned by their work that's broadcast on or downloaded from the fastest-growing branch of the entertainment industry. Studios know this, and are guarding that treasure chest pretty fiercely.
Tina Fey walks the picket line knowing we may not see a complete 30 Rock season
How does this affect my movie-going experience?
The strike will have to go on for some time(the last one, back in 1988, lasted 5 months) before movie studios start feeling any real pressure. They tend to work pretty far ahead, and 2008's movies are all pretty much 100% ready to roll. Furthermore, 2009's bigger flicks have also been polished off from a writing standpoint.
Beyond that, scripts were picked up left and right in anticipation of a strike, so there's plenty of material. The first thing that happens to your time at your local cinema that you'll notice if the strike goes on for long enough, is a huge dip in the quality of the pictures available. If the best most studios can do are sequels and remakes when everyone is writing, just imagine what they probably gave a green light to when it looked like no one was going to do any writing for a while.
What's the bright side?
The flip side to all of my doom and gloom, of course, is that maybe maybe a studio was forced to take a risk on a different kind of script that they normally wouldn't have. Maybe that risk will pay off and bring something new to the big screen. From the movie end, this really is the silver lining.
How does this affect my coach potato experience?
Your live, topical, daily/weekly shows are already in full-on rerun mode until this is over. Saturday Night Live, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and the like won't be producing new material until this gets settled. The talk shows will, if the strike lasts, eventually scale back the material needed from writers - monologues and comedy bits - in favor of more interview time or recycled material(old Top Ten lists on Letterman, for example)
There won't be an immediate impact on the sitcoms and dramas you're currently enjoying. They're stocked up for the time being. In January and February, expect networks to have to put these shows into a rerun holding pattern or shuffle them off the air until either the strike ends or the summer arrives. For a serial drama like Heroes, that may mean that everything the season has been building to might not be revealed until next Fall, if the fans are still around for it after being cheated out of an ending this season. For a show like Scrubs, that's on its last season, a proper ending to the series may not be seen until the show arrives on DVD.
The mid-season shows will probably appear as planned, but maybe in new time slots to compensate for shows that have already or are close to running out of episodes. Lost for example has between 9 and 14(depending on who you ask) of their 16 episode season completed.
If you're into the daily daytime soaps, you're likely looking at about a month before your new material dries up and networks have to scramble for material.
Letterman fans shouldn't expect new Top Ten lists for some time
So shows are going to be shuffled off the air after they run out of material. In favor of what?
Unscripted TV, of course. The 1988 strike let Fox slap us in the face with America's Most Wanted and Cops, two series that are still running and finding audiences. This time around, with reality TV an already accepted and(much to my chagrin) beloved concept, expect even more unscripted television. This will almost certainly include a glut of prime time game shows in the vein of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Deal or No Deal.
The slate of reality TV shows ordered by the major networks is staggering, with new seasons of old favorites as well as nightmares-in-waiting like Oprah Winfrey's The Big Give, The Donald's Lady or a Tramp, and Jingles(where contestants try to make commercial tunes for real products). While some will surely see this as a new Golden Age for television, fans of writing and acting will be lined up on window ledges.
Oh, Regis will have a new game show, too.
Is there a bright side here?
No. While movie studios were forced to take risks, TV producers couldn't just green light some new show that might not have enough scripts to constitute a season. So instead of taking risks, we get the afore-mentioned reality TV nightmare.
Who are the real losers here?
In some cases, it's the smaller cable networks that are going to lose ad revenue once they have to resort to reruns and won't be able to afford elaborate game shows to keep viewers' eyes glued to their networks.
Mainly, like in most strikes, the real losers are the people who aren't involved. You know, the folks who just passively watch the shows. Most likely, studios and networks will start charging for online content(while keeping the commercials, of course) and DVD prices will go up much more than the $0.04 the writers are asking for with whatever contract is worked out used as the excuse. We can't help that, unfortunately.
We don't have to be losers on the entertainment side, though. We can do some reading when the reruns hit. Or maybe I can finally finish that screenplay I've been working on. Maybe when it's finished I can wait for the strike to end and get it produced. Maybe the next time there's a strike, I'll be striking too all because of the time away from the TV that this strike afforded me. Who knows?
