By now, you've probably heard about the 2007 Writer's Guild of America Strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The Guild is made up of two organizations: The Writers Guild of America, East and The Writers Guild of America, West. These two organizations represent film, television and radio station writers in the United States. The AMPTP represents the interests of the producers and the film industry.
The strike began on Nov. 5. AMPTP and WGA then halted negotiations after WGA began its strike. The two
groups had been in negotiations since July. Get a solid rundown of the primary issues here...
Me? I'm interested in the issues, but more interested in the winners and losers during the strike.
Losers - TV viewers like me. Probably the writers long term, since the network will jam thousands of hours of reality TV down our throats as an alternative and never come to the table. Think you saw a lot of American Idol last year? If the strike isn't resolved, you'll get to see Simon berating the parking attendant at Denny's to fill the programming hours. Notes of interest from the strike from MSNBC:
"Among the picketers was Greg Daniels, executive producer of “The Office,” who said filming stopped on the show after star Steve Carell refused to cross picket lines. Writers and actors from the show used their time on the picket line to make a video and post it on YouTube.
Production of at least seven sitcoms has been halted because of the strike, and the hit ABC drama “Desperate Housewives” was scheduled to finish filming its latest episode because it had run out of scripts."
Winners - As usual, Oprah Winfrey. I kid you not. A sidebar on the same MSNBC article notes that "The Oprah Winfrey Show” doesn’t employ union writers and will continue uninterrupted. I gave Oprah a hard time a few months ago for being a taskmaster and working her PA an average of 87 hours per week one quarter.
Regardless of the work-life balance at the show, it's good to know Oprah runs a union-free shop. She'll work you hard, but make sure the hours are reported and you get paid. That's one way to remain union-free....
It seems to me that we owe the very concept of reality TV to a writer's strike. If the strike goes on for a while we will see more reality shows and showlets. We can create names for shows. Begin with the possessive "America's" then select from (next, newest, biggest, shortest, fattest, dumbest) and (model, house painter, police officer, cosmetic surgeon, retail manager). An example might be "America's Newest House Painter" or "America's Dumbest Cosmetic Surgeon." You can make up your own word choices.
That might not be bad, but the shows won't go away when the strike is done. The quest for short term profit will rule the day, since the studios, like the recording industry are terminally puzzled by the new world they've found themselves in and seek to maintain their margins rather than the talent that makes profit possible.
Posted by: Wally Bock | November 25, 2007 at 04:48 PM
I think it's a jump to maintain that b/c Oprah does not have unionized writers, she runs a union free shop. If you can back up that statement, let's see a link.
As for the writers and union part, Oprah is still on for the same reason that Martha Stewart is on and the same reason all those reality Television shows will be on air soon. They all don't use writers. Period.
Posted by: byteb | December 12, 2007 at 01:34 PM