Writers on Strike

There are a few shows on that I love and I love them primarily because of the writing. I do support the strike because what they are striking over is a legit complaint: the networks and producers claim the writers shouldn't get a share of the profits made through alternative media outlets (primarily the internet and DVDs) because they claim there are no profits in that. But if there are not profits, why are all the networks scrambling to get their content online and sue YouTube every time one of their shows shows up there? There are definitely profits to be made, and if the writers get a cut every time their show is shown on TV, why not the internet?

I'm not like slitting my wrists or anything over the strike. I will live. I don't have cable and we only get like 5 channels, but I will miss my few favorite shows. There is quality on TV right now. You just have to look for it.  

They aren't striking for "better pay" as such, they are striking for a higher percentage of the DVD sales.  This makes sense, because box sets of TV shows are becoming more and more popular, so they shouldn't have to settle for the same %age as they had to 5 years ago when less were sold.

Honestly, it's your opinion that the shows are junk.  There are some truly original, well acted and well written shows on TV right now.  I can understand that you have concerns regarding their appropriateness for your kids, and it is your job to prevent their exposure to that....but it doesn't mean the shows are bad, just that they aren't for you. 

I support the strike too, but I have to admit that there a lot of shows I'm going to miss. But ... I've got cable and a bazillion channels to  choose from so I'll probably just watch some movies I haven't seen or a lot more of HGTV.  Or - maybe I can just use that time to get something constructive done.

Joyce

I dont have cable or satellite so i'm stuck with either whats on tv or what i have in my video collection...

what i heard on the news was they were striking , yes for a better percentage, but the shows that will be affected will be talk shows first... late night shows.. radio shows... so what? i thought these guys were smart mouths and didnt need writers?

 

i am not saying the strike isnt for a noble cause.. they helped create this stuff so they should continue to get a profit from it.... except maybe they should have read their copy rights better....... they work FOR this company... the company OWNS that material now. they paid them their commission but the writers want a cut every time that material is reproduced or sold in stores.... ssooooooo is that saying for example: if i sell my car i have to give part of that money back to the dealership....?

 I also heard on the news that the last time there was a strike that so many billions of dollars was lost..... so?
so a lot of people didnt spend money on lousy entertainment.. maybe they went outside and got some fresh air, or actually talked to their kids instead of gluing their faces to the tv....

Thankfully i dont NEED to watch tv for entertainment and thank GOD i'm not addicted to desperate housewives or grey's anatomy... my mom is though... but like i said.. maybe its a good thing because she is the worst when it comes to doing absolutely nothing when the tv is on...

And yeah when i turn my tv on and see some dead teen ager with a bloody gaping mouth staring me in the face i get really annoyed. No i dont watch that crap and i dont HAVE to keep watching it, but i DO have to turn my tv on first to switch modes in order to watch a DVD. So when i do that, surprise! bloody mangled teenager!!

one thought did occur to me though..... maybe the creative aspect has gone down hill because they were tired of not getting a better percentage.... hmm?

DumDog

ssooooooo is that saying for example: if i sell my car i have to give part of that money back to the dealership....?

Completely illogical analogy - you did not design your car, the manufacturer did.  The dealership is only, effectively, a distributor that *could* be a branch of the manufacturer, but isn't necessarily.  Either way, the dealership had no part in making the car the machine it is, only selling it. 

DumDog

they paid them their commission but the writers want a cut every time that material is reproduced or sold in stores

They were already getting a cut, which means it has already been taken as read that the writers deserve a cut.  They're just asking for a bigger one.  To say that they shouldn't ask for a higher percentage is essentially saying that nobody should ever ask for a raise.  

DumDog

 I also heard on the news that the last time there was a strike that so many billions of dollars was lost..... so?
so a lot of people didnt spend money on lousy entertainment.. maybe they went outside and got some fresh air, or actually talked to their kids instead of gluing their faces to the tv....

Sorry, but not everyone thinks it's lousy, not everyone has kids or even a partner to spend the evening talking to, and some people take pleasure in the escapism of a TV show they enjoy.  You don't like TV, that's clear...but derogatory and presumptuous statements on people that do?  Please.  

DumDog

one thought did occur to me though..... maybe the creative aspect has gone down hill because they were tired of not getting a better percentage.... hmm?

 

No creative person will intentionally make bad "art" because they feel like their paycheck isn't high enough.  People don't get into the arts for the money.  As for unintentionally, well, burnout is a problem in any job, but it's statistically unlikely that all the writers burned out at once. 

DumDog

its all sex and murder

 You must not watch "House" or "Monk" or anything else that isn't full of sex and murder.  I have ZERO trouble finding pleasant things to watch. 

DumDog

i just dont think the writers deserve better pay because the shows they write for are mindless, stale, over processed, unoriginal junk.

I don't think it's really about the money, it's more about intellectual property and the rights to it.  But if you want to believe that it's only about money, that's probably what you're going to believe.  Just like you believe that it's all "Sex and murder" which it clearly isn't.
 

That they aren't on strike doesn't bother me at all. I pretty much watch sports, and that's it. Network shows have had very little to offer me.

I watch only two shows on tv, one on sunday and one on thursday.  Amazing Race on sunday luckily doesn't need the writers on strike.  Grey's Anatomy however, I will miss.  I agree with dumdog that a lot of shows have sex in them, but i guess that's one of the things that might sell them.  I get irritated with Greys when there is too much junk about relationships there, however, the last episode had nearly NOTHING on their relationships and was awesome.

I think I do agree with them wanting a bigger cut, I mean, sooo much money comes from the DVD sales, I love buying tv shows on dvd.  why shouldn't they get a higher percentage.  If the demand for them increases so should the wages.  Because the actors pocket so much money already, and well, I think the writers who come up with the stuff the actors act should get paid more, It could almost be something like if a composer composes something and then another musician wants to cover it, the original composer gets royalties, do they not? I;m sure they do.

I think you guys are missing the point:

Because of the strike, SCRUBS MIGHT NOT HAVE A SERIES FINALE!

Truly this is despair-worthy!!!!!!!!

!! 

Cita

Because of the strike, SCRUBS MIGHT NOT HAVE A SERIES FINALE!

What??? Like, ever?? I JUST found out like 3 days ago that this is the last season..I'm still depressed over that. Now you're telling me they won't even be able to end it right?

Series finale is not yet written, series is ending very soon, strike looks like it will be going on for a long time...... :'(

 http://www.tvseriesfinale.com/2007/11/scrubs_nbc_sitcom_may_not_get_series_finale.php
 

And just for the record, though I'm picky with my TV watching, there are plenty of things I enjoy watching. But "basic cable" (e.g. channels 1-13) just doesn't cut it - for the good stuff, you need channels like TNT, Comedy Central, FX, Spike TV (Star Trek reruns!), SciFi Channel... Not to mention things like Discovery Channel, TBS has some good movies sometimes, and even Animal Planet has some interesting shows every now and then. 

Benedict: No creative person will intentionally make bad "art" because they feel like their paycheck isn't high enough.  People don't get into the arts for the money.

i disagree... being an artist myself and hanging out with artists(professionals that have worked for the big time movie makers and ordinary hobby artists like myself).. burnout DOES make you want to do these things!! its a form rebellion and one of the reasons why i dont like to turn my art into WORK... it all started when i was in 8th grade and the art teacher would give us assignments then make us do it HER way. No creativity and no teaching.. "Put the Flower here.... Make that Black, not Blue... " sure she was following a guideline from a book... but i have been to many art classes in many different schools... hers was too much like Paint by Number... She didnt show us shading and perspective.. she was telling us "EVERYONE WILL DRAW GREEK URNS JUST LIKE IN THIS BOOK!!!" .. if i had known she was like that i wouldnt have signed up for the class..
one assignment we were to make paper mache ducks.. she kept bullying me around with mine.. she didnt like the colour ( i painted mine brown... but none of the ducks in the field guides were brown..) so i got fed up and made mine a brown dead duck... wings spread out, beak open, tongue hanging out... X's for eyes... she made me paint over the X's... and lectured me for doing that..
The ducks were to go on display in the library.. so everytime i went to the library i would put my duck on the lower shelf in his proper position.. flat on his stomach! the next day he would be back on the top shelf standing upright again... looked like he was flapping his wings..

you start mucking around with an artist's creativity and the FREEDOM to be creative there is no telling what they might do.... writing crummy scripts is quite tame actually!

And yes artists do get into it for the money.... in the right field of art there is GOOD money to be made.  But its up to you to surrender your art and allow someone else to put their name on it.... some artists feel like its prostitution... and in a way it is...

Xerxes:  You must not watch "House" or "Monk" or anything else that isn't full of sex and murder.  I have ZERO trouble finding pleasant things to watch. 

i watched house once... the episode where the dog ate the sick guys medicine and died... the same episode where house made it a game to find out why this guy was sick.... no i didnt like it. didnt agree with it.. dont intend to watch it again...

and i like the actor that plays monk but... again.. enough the with the murder already.. I admit its cleaner than some of the other stuff... i mean is it REALLY necessary to make it look THAT realistic?? one show i watched... Bones i think.. showed a rotting corpse found a by a boyscout.. it had maggots and decaying flesh, whole nine yards.... lovely thing to watch.... bad enough i get to see rotting dead animals on the side of the road... now i get to watch rotting dead people on my tv.. thanks!

OK .. I have all of seven channels... three of them go off the air at 6pm... Florida Channel, Florida Knowledge Network, and the ONLY good channel... Create TV.... the others are all prime time PBS, ABC CBS CW.. what ever its all called... once King of Queens goes off so does the tv set.. Now.. if i switch over to Analog i can get two, sometimes three extra channels.... Fox, 40, and Retro TV.. so i can watch some vintage homicide shows!! Matlock for example.... woohoo..  though i dont think i'll get tired of Are You Being Served reruns...

Xerxes:I don't think it's really about the money, it's more about intellectual property and the rights to it.  But if you want to believe that it's only about money, that's probably what you're going to believe.  Just like you believe that it's all "Sex and murder" which it clearly isn't.

ok i'll rephrase that... the writers might be coming up with some GREAT material but who knows what gets thrown into the trash because the producers didnt like it? they dont deserve to get the shaft if people are really buying this stuff....
I say its about money because it IS.... these guys want material that sells.... they pack it full of commercials and propaganda so you'll go out and buy stuff.. and these writers want a bigger cut because, lets face it... Americans are consumer HOGS! you cant walk two feet without seeing an advertisement for something.

  Look at Saturday morning tv and notice all the cartoony cereal commercials, or the Barbi play sets... why ELSE are they doing what they're doing? they do the same thing to adults that they do to little kids.. the only difference is .. who tells the adults NO when they see some piece of junk that they just HAVE to have?

And yes... i do believe that sex and murder is really popular right now, more popular than it once was... which is why its shoved down our throats on local networks... oh and i left out the medical shows... Scrubs is cute, i only recently discovered that show and once in a while i can pick up the signal.. but ER, House, Private Practice, Greys Anatomy.... i know i am probably forgetting about ten or fifteen more...

....and yep... i'm a bit cheesed off at the selection and again quite happy there is a strike because i'm hoping things will improve as a result!

 

one more thing.... about the car dealership... yeah yeah yeah i meant to say the manufacturer.... it still makes as much sense to me... giving the MANUFACTURER a cut of the money if i buy or sell a car... i do agree they should change their contracts around if they want a cut of the extra profits.... there is clearly extra money to be made in that department.... if there is a breach of contract then someone is going to get sued.. but there isnt... the big suits dont WANT to change the existing contract... hence the strike. money money money!
 how can you not see that its about the money?

I don't watch much TV and what I watch is often just the classic stuff.  Frankly, I am delighted because it means no new darned SITCOMS for a while.  DH loves that inane crap and it literally sets my teeth on edge. I watch "Cops" (it's my one guilty pleasure) and, since it's filmed live, has no writers! Otherwise, give my my classic movies, "Perry Mason" or a good BOOK.