Picket, Fences
Tony Peters | November 17, 2007
Don't know how I feel about it....I've missed the Daily Show, Colbert and the like. It's also amusing that the midseason filer shows are starting now instead of Jan, but beyond that I know little to nothing about the "strike" or the reasons for it.
Kelly Lee | November 17, 2007
There's a writer's strike?
Jackie Mason | November 17, 2007
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Amy Austin | November 17, 2007
OMG. My entire nightly entertainment is practically ruined. I can't deal with any more DS, CR, & Bill Maher reruns. I have to actually look at the news now... this sucks. Must be nice to have a life like Kelly & Jackie... I can't believe you're serious, Kelly.
On the one hand, I feel sympathetic to the writers... I don't really think that it's about the money so much as the principle -- if Viacom thinks they deserve kickbacks from Google, then yes, that money should be distributed all the way down the ladder. I think that the writers all believe that the lawsuit is full of shit, too, though -- I don't think they really believe that Viacom is entitled... therefore, I don't think they're really putting their hands out, just trying to make a point.
On the other hand... I get the point. Now give me back my TV!!!
Jacob Martin | November 17, 2007
Ya it sucks i am always eager for the new SNL episode every saturday but theyve been showing the same dang episodes
Lori Lancaster | November 17, 2007
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Kelly Lee | November 18, 2007
Aren't we too much a slave to the TV? I mean, I'm a slave to the computer, but I pretend at least to accomplish things. I was slightly kidding about the "I didn't know there was a writer's strike" thing. I watched the news the other day, (found out a guy on my block was beaten to death there on Friday) and just the other day I had it on as background noise while I was working cause I have no sound card anymore...sigh. I heard "My name is Earl" "Scrubs" and a few moments of "ER"
Meh. Take it or leave it, but I would prefer to me more productive with my time. Movies are better anyway.
Amy Austin | November 18, 2007
Well, yes... it *is* my computer that I'm a slave to, actually -- take that away, and you'd almost certainly be guaranteed to see some DTs! However, the TV is always the ambient entertainment... droning on and soothing in its simultaneously cause/cure fashion of most modern ailments. I think TV is actually the "gateway drug" to computers... but the best high is doing both at the same time. ;-p
And hey... I *pay* for my TV -- I don't have HBO/Starz for nothing... this *is* how I watch my movies! Not only is it not that much fun to go to the theater alone (it has its moments), but cable is cheaper (not to mention the snack bar, too... or delivery, if you really want to splurge!), I can look/dress/not dress however I want, and I can watch them on demand at my own convenience... complete with the ability to pause when I need to go to the bathroom midway through. I will have to be relying a little more heavily on this option, but I really just like all the other trashy options that go with.
Kelly Lee | November 19, 2007
Meh. I am continually finding pop culture and society at large becoming more and more distasteful. TV is merely a medium for that culture to invade my life without my control. At least on the internet I can choose to click what links I want to, I am not forced to choose between three or four channels with varying degrees of "infomercial" to waste my time on.
Jackie Mason | November 19, 2007
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Scott Hardie | November 24, 2007
I've gotten so hooked on watching old TV shows on dvd that I rarely watch movies any more, at least compared to how many I used to see. Every night, not only do I want to catch up on the latest adventure with familiar characters like Det. Briscoe and Dr. Greene, I think to myself, I don't want to sit through a 90-minute movie when I can watch a TV episode in 45 minutes. Then I proceed to watch another TV episode after the first one. :-\ It's a dangerous habit, like taking up movies instead of books.
Denise Sawicki | November 24, 2007
I find it easier to watch TV on DVD rather than movies, too.
Tony Peters | November 25, 2007
OK I admit that I live under a rock at times but why exactly are they striking???? and how long will it be before we run out of TV and things come to a point where they actually negotiate
Scott Hardie | November 25, 2007
Essentially, the writers are striking for a cut of the Internet profit. When you watch an episode online at the network's official site, whether you pay a small fee or it comes with advertisements, they're making money. The studios claim there's no money to be made in it, that when you watch every episode of every show this season on cbs.com and each one carries ten commercials, that it's "promotional only." I read this in the news recently:
Former Disney chief Michael Eisner has called the current Writers Guild of America strike "stupid" and "misguided." In an interview with Fox News's Neil Cavuto at a media conference in New York, Eisner maintained that the writers, by demanding a residual plan for movies and TV shows downloaded from the Internet, are asking for a piece of "nonexistent" revenue. He predicted that revenue from digital media will remain "nonexistent for the next three years" and that the WGA was jumping the gun. "For a writer to give up today's money for a nonexistent piece of the future -- they should [strike] in three years, shouldn't be doing it now -- they are misguided." Asked why, if the studios aren't making money on digital distribution, they simply don't give in to the writers' demands since a bigger piece of nothing is still nothing, Eisner responded: "They don't know what to give. ... Digital will eventually be the dominant medium for distribution but not yet." Eisner also suggested that the studios were partially to blame for the current situation since "they've been talking about how great [the Internet] business is, and now they have to open their books and explain that there's no business."Really? There's no value in Internet media? Then how come Viacom just sued YouTube for $1 billion? That's right, one billion. Sounds like it's fair for the writers to ask for a small chunk (1-3%) of that.
Some of the writers are good at making their case, like the Daily Show writers in the clip that I linked at the beginning. Others, not so much.
The strike continues to draw little sympathy from most of the press, which has suggested that it will result in more financial harm to writers and other members of the industry than can possibly be gained -- even if the writers' demands are met. In the Washington Post, TV columnist Lisa De Moraes quoted an email sent out by Shonda Rhimes, producer and co-writer of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, in which she explained her decision not to cross the picket lines by saying, "How am I supposed to look at myself in the mirror or look at my child years from now and know that I did not have the courage of my convictions to stand up and put myself more at risk than anyone else?" Commented de Moraes: "No word as yet from the Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice cameramen, costumers, lighting crew, etc. -- some of whom will be laid off as the shows go dark -- in reaction to multi-millionaire Rhimes's 'more at risk than anyone else' gag."The WGA has also gone far out of its way to criticize member Ellen Degeneres for continuing to host her talk show. Her studio defended her by saying that she's contractually obligated to continue production even if the WGA strikes and so she can't strike with them, but they've been PETA-like in their efforts to drag her name through the mud.
Denise Sawicki | November 25, 2007
What I heard on the radio was that the writers' contracts were negotiated before DVDs were popular. Apparently they used to get a fairly big cut of VHS sales but they get very little from DVD sales. I haven't heard anything about it on TV since I don't watch live TV :-P. Now the radio show I heard this on was Seven Second Delay with Andy Breckman, the writer of Monk, who is a big joker, so who knows if it's true or not. But if it's a joke it wasn't especially funny
Tony Peters | November 26, 2007
OK I can understand the DVD sales thing just looking at my own DVD purchases....I am much more likely to buy a TV show on DVD than I am to actually watch it during the year because I travel to much to keep up during the season
Jackie Mason | November 27, 2007
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Scott Hardie | November 16, 2007
What's your take on the writers' strike?
To me, there's a lot of duplicitous double-speak on both sides of the fence, so I don't much care which side "wins" in the end or how soon it gets resolved. But I'll give the writers credit for knowing how to get sympathy, with statements like this. Both the actors and directors' guilds are scheduled to strike next summer if deals can't be struck beforehand, so watch the writers soak up all of the nation's good will and leave nothing for the other guilds.