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Tuesday, November 06, 2007

TV writer’s strike: Will your favorite show be pulled?

Photo credit: actress Julia Louis- Dreyfus on the picket line; Reuters news

These are dire times, Tubers. TV is shutting down, and it’s not pretty.

The writers whose names we’ve come to know through the years, and even those we don’t, have put down their pencils and picked up picket signs. Check out this explanation letter from the Writers Guild of America of what this strike means. It’s signed by many of our favorite show writers: Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy); David E. Kelley (Boston Legal); Greg Daniels (The Office); Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) and a myriad of others.

The L.A. Times has a nifty chart listing the show titles and networks with how many episodes ahead each show has in the can. It gives you an idea of when your show will go off, if the writer’s strike isn’t resolved quickly.

The last writer’s strike was in 1988, ran 22 weeks and cost the industry an estimated $500 million. Let’s hope this one doesn’t last that long.

7 comments:

tube talk girl said...

Good one, Black Hornet!

Anonymous said...

This whole thing just sucks. Why can't they give these people what they want? It's not like there isn't millions of dollars to be made. Don't they realize that writers create television? Without them the whole system collapses.

Anonymous said...

The thought of no Office or no Grey's Anatomy is unbearable. They are my releases for the week. Nothing makes me laugh like Dwight or the McDreamy/McSteamy awkward bonding.

Anonymous said...

I support the writers.

Networks, please give in to their demands. No one wants a TV world of reality TV and news.

Anonymous said...

I just read the WGA letter, wow...I forgot about all the great writers working in TV. What a shame to lose such talent as the Greg Berlanti's and Greg Daniels' of the TV world.

I hope they fix this soon.

LD said...

I think it's funny how they say that it's too new to quantify - when they're making hard quantifiable money. It makes me distrust these groups even more when they sue individuals for piracy for denying money to the talent. I call BS.

tube talk girl said...

Excellent point about piracy, Black Hornet. They certainly want their cut when someone posts an episode or a clip on YouTube.

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