So, the Writer’s Guild of America is on strike.
On the one hand, it makes me sad, because rumor has it that shows I’m enjoying — such as Heroes — are going to get truncated seasons. And it makes me nervous for a show I’m really, really enjoying — Journeyman — which no one else seems to understand. I’m worried it’ll get cancelled.
(Seriously, who watched Bionic Woman, which is like a really cheesy 90’s show, but not Journeyman which is the most intelligently written time travel piece I’ve seen on TV?)
On all the other hands, I’m really glad the WGA went on strike. This wasn’t sudden, there had been rumblings and complaints about the problem which led up to the strike for awhile now, and I disliked them when they were first mentioned. Writers are getting the shaft. Money aside, if you give in, you get walked on.
Anyway, here’s some really good articles to fill you in on everything.
Here’s how the strike will affect various networks and TV series.
This article explains why they’re on strike, and what’s been going down.
And this is an interview with Judd Apatow (writer of, in particular, the movie Knocked Up which against all odds became the coolest comedy of the year for my wife and I.)
I’m also glad to see that people like Tina Fey and Steve Carrell are going on strike. Good for them.
This affects a lot of the working-class writers, most of all. I mean, it’s not going to affect people like Jeph Loeb, or Joss Whedon, or even Steve Carrell, in terms of how long they can stay on strike. It doesn’t involve their living wage so hugely as it does with, for example, the writers of the David Letterman show (if he still has any, which I doubt). I mean, Joss Whedon can’t write TV…well, so he’ll have more time to write comics. Neil Gaiman’s on strike from TV. So he’ll have more time to write all those other things.
I’ll be very, very interested to see how this gets resolved, and what happens along the way.
Addendum: On the blog, “Was it Something I wrote?” there’s an article from one of the Nickelodeon writers who got reamed when a number of Nick writers suggested that maybe they would like to get paid more than pittance. It’s very worthwhile to read, and it applies to the situation that the WGA is currently standing up against.
