I can’t believe it, but I’m relieved I’m not in Los Angeles this winter. At the time of my writing this, the Writers Guild of America was approaching its third week of striking; hopefully, by the time this is printed, everything will be resolved (but remember, the last writers’ strike lasted five months back in the 1980s). For those who haven’t been following the strike, it came about thusly: whenever a scripted show airs on TV the writer gets a fee. When shows are streamed on the network Web site or downloaded from iTunes, the writers receive nothing. The writers are demanding a whopping 2.5 percent of the revenue from online markets. The studios are arguing that the online market isn’t profitable and even if it was, there’s no way to determine what it’s worth – meanwhile, network execs are telling investors that within three years the online revenue will be worth billions (not to mention that Viacom is suing YouTube for one billion dollars for posting its programming on their Web site for free).
Unfortunately, the strike is lose-lose for everyone. Late night shows like “The Tonight Show” and “The Daily Show” have been in repeats for weeks (some have suggested that if the strike continues, the shows may come back interview-heavy and with fewer gags – but that will depend on if the talent are willing to cross picket lines). Drama and comedy series generally have a script backlog to last several weeks, but these are beginning to run out. If you think TV is a vast wasteland now, just wait until all we have are third-tier reality shows and the same episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” you’ve seen five times. Even worse, we may never know if marooned characters on “Lost” make it off the island, and Jack Bauer can’t save the world from terrorists if no one’s writing his adventures.
Needless to say, once shows go out of production, it affects more than the writers and studios. Writers’ assistants have already been laid off, and soon production assistants and other technical crew (i.e. all my college friends) will be out of work also. They’ll all have their jobs back when the shows go back into production, but it could be a hard couple of weeks (or worse, months).
Matters are more complicated with actors. Some actors (like the cast of “The Office”) are refusing to cross picket lines. Eventually, studios will have to choose between continuing to pay actors while they’re not working or terminating their contracts – leaving the actors free to pursue other projects.
We’re in for a long and sad winter with no new shows. And since TV is my bread and butter in this column, I’d like to know that I’ll continue to have topics to cover. If you can survive solely on “Dancing with the Stars” and “American Idol,” fair enough – but for those who need more sustenance, visit UnitedHollywood.com for updates and ways to help.
Elizabeth “Liz” Gartley, of Houlton, has a BA in media studies from Emerson College in Boston. She has studied abroad in the Netherlands and Australia, and most recently interned at a production company in Hollywood. She can be reached online at egartley@gmail.com or leave a message for her at your local newspaper office.
