What We're Missing

We’ve reached the third day of the Writers Guild of America strike, and while you may not see the immediate affects of the strike, the ripple effect is sure to take its toll soon. We seem to take for granted the stories and ideas that flow out of these writers minds, sometimes on a daily basis. Maybe it takes a strike like this to remind us about how good we have it.

Each day millions of people turn on their televisions or visit theaters to be entertained by the stories and dialog that wouldn’t be their without writers. With the rise of the Internet as a form of distribution, many companies in the entertainment business have found a new source of revenue while the writers and creators of the shows they sell have seen no increase in there royalties. Without an increase in pay the WGA had no choice but to strike.

For the most part writers are middle class workers unless they are show creators. They rely on royalties to keep money coming in well after a project is over. To lose writers is like losing the idea guy. The success or failure of any movie or television show these days depends on good writing. All the people from directors, to camera guys, to the post production team, need writers to get the ball rolling. No matter how many special effects or great actors you throw into a movie they are nothing without solid writing to tell them what to say or do. Without writers to think and imagine for us we are left with things like reality television, something that has lost sight of reality altogether (e.g. The Hills aka scripted reality).

Right now many of my favorite shows have shut down their sets and sent their crews home as the writers join the picket lines at studios in Hollywood and New York. The late night comedies like Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and The Daily Show are shut down and forced into reruns. It’s a horrible time to see a show like the Daily Show go down when political satire is so necessary in our country right now. Sitcoms like The Office and 30 Rock are closed as stars like Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and B.J. Novak have all made their careers by being writers as well as actors. As if that isn’t bad enough, Heroes is going to be forced into a shorter season with only 11 episodes being showed compared to 22 last season. The spin off series, Heroes:Origins has been completely cancelled due to the timing of the strike. Last but not least Lost will be pushed back indefinitely, which kills me to have to wait even longer for the next season.


For now the movie business caries on with the projects that are in their production phase but many of the future projects are on hold until everything can be resolved. It’s early in the strike but it won’t be long before you will notice your favorite shows are suddenly showing reruns a lot earlier than before. To take their place you might start seeing reality shows and unscripted television. There may be nothing we can do but wait and hope that corporate greed doesn’t win out and the people who really run Hollywood are given their due. When all the things they do are suddenly gone I think we’ll see that they really should get the recognition and funds they deserve.