On November 5, 2007, the Writers’ Guild of America officially went on strike. Soon after, shows began to run out of original content, and now, 12-weeks-later, we’re starting to feel the full effects. Unscripted reality TV and game shows are dominating the line-ups and will likely continue to do so into next season. There are a small number of already produced, un-aired episodes of popular shows that we’ll start to see soon— two episodes of House and eight of Lost. Even those will be aired before the end of the season, leaving networks to look to reruns for filler. And so, in the midst of a strike over compensation for “new media,” networks have ironically turned their attention to the nostalgia-fueled goldmine of resurrected “old media.”
Two weeks ago we saw the premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a show you may have flipped on after the new episode of American Gladiators, where you probably caught a commercial for the new Knight Rider. In the absence of writers, television seems to have been catapulted back to the late ‘80s faster than the gargantuan lady-gladiator “Hellga” was rocketed from her perch. Gladiators revels in its status as trashy filler and pushes its cheesy ‘90s, “extreme” vibe to the point of self-parody. With the ridiculous Hulk Hogan as host and the show’s equally laughable gladiators, the result is surprisingly watchable (especially if you’re looking for something to flip on while you tip back some cold brews). Gladiators airs at 8 p.m. Mondays on NBC, and a second season has already been ordered.
Unfortunately for fans of time-traveling killer robots, Fox’s The Sarah Connor Chronicles takes itself far too seriously. It’s essentially Terminator Two without special effects, competent writing, and enjoyable actors. The first episode immediately breaks one of the fundamental rules of time travel in the Terminator universe. There’s no jumping forward through the years. The show also completely ignores the third movie of the series; the characters face off against horrendously outdated Terminator models while trying to circumvent Judgment Day (an event we learned in T3 was unavoidable). The show is also mind-numbingly boring, and for a plot with killer machines and time travel, that’s not only unacceptable, it’s completely inconceivable. Most disconcerting about all this is that the scripts for this show were actually completed before the strike.
For those unfamiliar with the specifics of the strike, the WGA is at odds with the Producer’s Association because they want to be paid for their work on “new media.” The problem is that they basically do work in the growing realm of the Internet for free. Shows are being aired almost immediately online and with the growing popularity of new downloadable or streaming content, they want to get a percentage of the profits. The writers of The Office produced a series of online shorts starring much of the show’s cast, it even won awards, and NBC wasn’t required to pay them anything. According to Wall Street experts, the sum of all of the Guild’s demands would be a very small, largely negligible amount, and many speculate that they’re only afraid to meet them because it might embolden the Screen Actors’ Guild to make similar demands in their upcoming contract negotiations.
The Screen Actors and Directors Guilds’ current contracts expire this July, and the actors have already expressed concerns over “new media” compensation, with many currently refusing to work or making similar displays of solidarity with the writers. If the writers’ strike isn’t resolved by then, the entirety of Hollywood could grind to a halt. At the very least, the effects of a complete collapse of the entertainment industry will be incredible to watch. I’m personally pulling for the directors to hop in on it too—if only to see what people do without television or movies.
If you absolutely need something to watch you can rest easy, writers outside of the Guild currently handle some shows, while others have been forced back on screen by threats from the networks that their staffs would be fired. South Park heads Trey Parker and Matt Stone are not Guild members. They handle a large portion of that show’s production and South Park should continue, strike or not. the Daily Show, Colbert Report, and other late night talk shows have also returned without writers under threats to their staff. Conan O’Brien actually seems funnier without writers. Every night, viewers are treated to the brilliant comedian going to outrageous lengths to fill time. Recent episodes have included a maze that guests must navigate before being interviewed, and Conan living out his dream of riding a zip line through the audience to his desk while wearing a helmet spewing smoke. It also seems that most of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of programming is unaffected, including the absolutely brilliant Tim and Eric Awesome Show: Great Job. Recent episodes of this have actually benefited from the strike, as Rainn Wilson of The Office has been guest-starring.
While television isn’t entirely a barren wasteland yet, it’s getting there. The last such strike in 1988 lasted over 21 weeks, and cost the industry an estimated $870 million dollars. The current strike is at roughly half that length, and has already cost an estimated $1 billion. With the majority of the public on the writers’ side, the actors aching to join, the fairness of their demands, and the massive losses the industry is accruing, it’s only a matter of time before the producers cave. So why don’t they just do it already so we can watch a complete season of Lost?
