BRITTANY YEAROUT
Perspectives Editor
You probably will not see Clair Bennett grow back a body part, discover what the future holds for Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd’s relationship or hear Colbert’s latest crack at the president. “Heroes,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” the “Colbert Report” and many other favorite programs might not have a full future this season, because the innovative people who write these popular scripts have gone on strike, and rightly so.
Hollywood’s film and television writers went on strike early Monday morning after no negotiation was met with the studios regarding residuals for DVDs and shows offered on the Internet. Although many say the strike can potentially be worse than the last one in 1988, which lasted 22 weeks and cost the entertainment industry about $500 million, the strike needs to continue until the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) decide what is a fair and appropriate payment for the writers who spend months, and sometimes years, crafting a script that millions of people enjoy.
The strike has already taken its toll on shows that are written day-to-day, such as Jon Stewart’s “The Daily show,” Steven Colbert’s “Colbert Report” and “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.
Besides late-night shows, soap operas will be next and then most prime-time shows. Prime-time scripted series have episodes through mid-January or early February, but it depends on how many reruns they space out, according to the Los Angeles Times. Get ready to watch lots of reality TV shows like “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race.”
Writers are getting paid 4 cents for every DVD sold under a pay formula agreed to in the 1980s, when people were buying VHS. Now, it costs less to produce a DVD than VHS, meaning the studio is making more of a profit, whereas the writers aren’t. And they should be. No negotiation needed. It is the right thing to do.
In addition to this rip-off, AMPTP is not willing to pay the writers more for digital downloads because they say it is premature to set pay formulas for shows that are downloaded online because it is an experimental medium, according to a Nov. 5 article in the Los Angeles Times. What a joke.
I know plenty of people who only download shows online and don’t even watch shows on television anymore. That is not experimental, it is a fact.
The profit is only going to get bigger. Why do you think Comcast, the country’s largest cable operator, just spent millions to buy Fandango? They spent millions “with a notion to turn the online ticketing site into a guide to TV shows available online,” according to an article in Business Week, “Comcast joins the party,” on May 7.
AMPTP, if you are really worried about what the future brings, just make a yearly contract for Internet residuals.
This strike isn’t just the writers hitching to get rich. After the shows are on air, residuals help writers stay afloat and keep their jobs.
Look at Marc Cherry, the writer of “Desperate Housewives” who found success on NBC’s show “The Golden Girls.”
If it weren’t for the reruns of “The Golden Girls” that brought in the residual checks, ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” would have never been written, Cherry told the Los Angeles Times in on Oct. 16.
It is not just the shows that are going to be affected by this strike or even the producers, writers and directors, but every single person who helps put together a television show – from the coffee boy to the actors and actresses. This strike is like a pebble being dropped into a pond, each ripple represents a person who is going to be affected. I don’t think people realize how serious this strike will get.
Former Pepperdine Alum Taylor Williams, who is now an office production assistant for “Ugly Betty,” said the best-case scenario is that he has a job until the beginning of December.
This isn’t just going to stay in the Hollywood bubble, eventually it is going to affect the whole economy and trickle down to you and me – it is bigger than just being upset about not being able to watch your favorite TV show.
11-08-2007
