Bloated with mulled wine and green bean casserole, it would have been nice to spend my holiday weekend sprawled in front of the television. Unfortunately, my TiVo queue is looking pretty dismal these days. Of course, I have a stockpile of “Masterpiece Theatre” and “Battlestar Galactica,” but I never thought it would come to that.
Now entering its third week, the writers’ strike in Hollywood has forced the cancellation of most worthwhile programming on TV. “The Office” shut down production after one week, and nightly broadcasts such as “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” fell into reruns almost immediately.
The Writers Guild of America and its subsequent union leaders halted production after the group became gridlocked in talks with major studios over DVD and digital media profits. So, with the creative well suddenly tapped, television and even some movie productions have come to a virtual standstill. The release of the movie adaptation of Angels and Demons, prequel to that dime-store romance novel, The Da Vinci Code, has been delayed more than a year because of lingering issues with the script.
With economic losses estimated at $21 million each day the strike progresses, studio executives and the public at large must finally confront the reality that the most under-appreciated segment of the entertainment industry might be its most vital. You can’t do much in Hollywood without money, but without an idea you do even less.
Forty-four hour-long dramas and 21 sitcoms may get the exe in December because the studios refuse to acknowledge the changing landscape of media. Like most disputes in Hollywood, this has less to do with the plight of the starving artist than with the resistance of autocratic media moguls to embrace the digital revolution.
Currently, writers receive next to nothing from DVD sales and literally nothing for downloads from sites such as iTunes. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is looking to keep it that way. I guess audiences will just learn to live with vintage Leno while these primetime billionaires wait out the Internet fad.
Pro-WGA sentiment is even spreading into the political realm, with news writers from CBS threatening to walk out on their parent corporations. This could potentially derail the next Democratic presidential debate, with no one around to write questions for candidates to ignore or misinterpret. Hillary Clinton was quick in pledging not to cross picket lines and the others soon followed suit.
While more than 10,000 lower-level workers in the industry stand idle, fearing for their own livelihood, negotiations are set to resume this week. Hopefully, the Alliance can take a moment away from being self-congratulatory social progressives to end a labor dispute over pennies on the dollar.