Paying for the WGA’s Bigger Slice of Entertainment Pie
As everyone probably knows by now, the Screen Writer’s Guild of America went on strike this week. The main issues are DVD residuals and, probably most importantly, “new media” sales. In a nutshell: the entertainment business is a different animal now than it was in 1988 (when the WGA had their last strike). We didn’t have YouTube, IPTV, TV programming on phones, TV shows sold over iTunes, and so on. The WGA is fighting for a reasonable piece of a suddenly changed–and much bigger–pie. It’s easy to imagine record industry execs smiling in their beards, thinking “We knew you had it coming too…”
I expect that with such comedic talent walking the picket lines we will get the funniest picket line placards ever. Letterman’s writers should have a field day with this one: “Top 10 reasons our demands should be met”. With any luck, they’ll be able to use some of it on the show when the strike is over. “Stupid Industry Exec Tricks” perhaps?
It’s understandable that sitcoms would go off air as soon as already recorded episodes run out. After all, we can’t expect actors to be funny too (except Wonder Woman Tina Fey!). But how about evening talk shows? Letterman, Leno, Conan and co. have all gone to re-runs immediately. Why couldn’t the shows be rearranged temporarily to have less focus on topical humor and more on interviews? Couldn’t a program director extend the celebrity interviews by 5 minutes each and get the musical guest to play 2 songs (which works perfectly fine on Saturday Night Live) to make up a 1 hour show? After all, Letterman didn’t sign a contract with us stating he has to provide a Top 10 every night, right?
Photograph (c) 2007 by “Paul”. Some rights reserved.
I’ll probably display a shocking level of ignorance about the entertainment industry here… but seriously, can’t an accomplished comedian and professional such as Letterman come up with a handful of Top 10s and other segments? Leno’s said he considers himself a working comedian who still performs 300+ nights per year to keep his skills sharp. Can’t he come up with some original material to pull off a 5 minute monologue? The kids on Last Comic Standing (if you haven’t seen it, think American Idol for stand-up comedians) are sometimes forced to come up with entire sets in a matter of hours, and they’re newbies! Ellen DeGeneres will not be going off the air because she writes the majority of her material herself. What a novel (or old-fashioned?) concept: a talk show host/comedian who actually writes jokes! What’s next? Will we be stuck with reruns again when the guy who types the jokes into the teleprompter goes on strike?
It’s my hope that the main reason these late night shows are going off the air is the fact that the on-air talent are standing by their writers. After all, many of them were writers once, too. It’s wonderful to see that some actors are standing side by side with their staff writers. (Ladies, your McDreamy fix right here.) My favorite story so far is on the United Hollywood blog: (The Office’s) Steve Carell informed NBC that he is unable to report to work because he is suffering from “enlarged balls.”
On the other hand there are some reports that the industry, in an effort to keep the daytime dramas going, is already employing scab writers: typically experienced soap writers who aren’t currently working on a show. They can write undercover to keep the show going and get paid when the strike is over. From the networks’ financial perspective it makes sense to do this, and I’m sure an unemployed writer can stand to earn a few bucks. But you can imagine these folks won’t be too popular with their peers…
One comment posted on the WGA video team page on YouTube reads “Boiled down, it’s the ‘writers are highly paid cry babies’ against the ’studios are greedy pigs’” and is signed “the many TV watchers who make your jobs possible”. Maybe a bit extreme, but the end result for many of us who aren’t involved in the entertainment industry is simply no new TV shows for a while. Some people I know are already reactivating their Netflix accounts. It’s sad that in this on-demand entertainment age TV has become such a solitary experience, with people Tivo’ing their favorite shows and watching them whenever they want. It’s been a while since I heard people talk enthusiastically about yesterday’s episode. More often now you hear “Wait, don’t tell me, I recorded it.”
Final note, going back to Steve Carell’s cojones: according to some sources NBC is considering airing the original British version of The Office in place of the American one. While I fully support Carell and love the American show, it would be nice to have the brilliant original show aired here on network TV.
Submitted by Stefan Raets. Stefan is a refugee from the corporate world. When he isn’t reading or writing, he’s probably feeding or diapering his newborn son.