What Happens To Summer TV Binges If Hollywood Writers Strike (bloomberg.com) 205
An anonymous reader shares a report: There also should be plenty of new video fare if Hollywood's writers and studios can't agree on a new contract by Monday. The beautiful thing about a contract is everyone knows when it ends. In this case, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents some 350 production companies, and the Writers Guild of America, which comprises 12,000 professionals in two chapters, have had three years to prepare for a standoff. In these situations, show makers typically rush to complete a pile of scripts before the deadline. Jerry Nickelsburg, an economist at the University of California at Los Angeles, calls this stockpiling "the inventory effect." This is precisely what happened the last time writers walked off the job, from November 2007 to February 2008. If the writers do, in fact, go through with the strike they approved on Monday, jokes and soaps will be the first things to take a hit. Late-night talk shows and soap operas are to entertainment writers what delis are to hungry New Yorkers -- a daily frenzy of high-volume production. If the sandwich makers don't show up, everybody gets hungry quickly.
What happens? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What happens? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I can verify that in the 1980s it was still considered acceptable to let children run around unsupervised away from home using the "be home before dark" system. And if somebody wondered if it was OK or not, they would ask, "Does the child have experience navigating city streets on their own?" If you could read street signs and knew the general layout of the city, it was considered OK.
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Acceptable in the 90's as well, at least in large cities. We were taught the suburbs were filled with pedos in vans, though.
Re:What happens? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hire new writers, and stop getting recycled retreads of movies that have been done three (or more) times before?
I mean, how many Fast N Furious movies are we at? 8 ? ....
How many Star Wars Movies?
How many Superman/batman/thor/wolverine/xmen
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Hire new writers, and stop getting recycled retreads of movies that have been done three (or more) times before?
Nah, it just means more reruns.
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Will the talk show hosts/comedians have to actually *GASP* remember how to be funny on their own, and create their own material?!?!?!
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at the very least this will display to the world what anyone who watched SNL in the early 00's will tell you, that Jimmy Fallon is the unfunniest person on tv.
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Well, he *was* quite adept at laughing at everyone else's jokes and bits on SNL when he was a cast member.
LOL..that guy could NOT keep a straight face during any skit....
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I read that one of Lorne's ideas was that he did *not* want the kind of comedy variety shows that were on around then. Where part of the shtick were the stars and their sidekicks (and the audience) getting into laughing jags (often due to an ad-lib).
Stars are expensive, too. Ensemble casts, not so much.
Jimmy does seem to have a charmed life.
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The HORROR.
at the very least this will display to the world what anyone who watched SNL in the early 00's will tell you, that Jimmy Fallon is the unfunniest person on tv.
Jimmy Fallon is a gleeful, energetic fanboy. He's not a comedian (not a credible one) but he found his niche with pop culture talk show host, about the only thing where that attitude can actually work.
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His first 100 shows or so were ok.... Then he sold out.
Sold out? Are you suggesting that during the first 100 shows he didn't care about his sponsors? Making TV shows is a business - Shows are made to be sold.
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Consider this: a late night host shows up on TV and does a 5 minute monologue 5 nights a week. Most comedians spend about 3-6 months writing and testing material to do 15 minutes.
Using writers is the only way to create more than a small fraction of the TV time people demand.
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Well, there are talented people out that that *can* do it. Hell, Robin Williams (rip)...could pretty much riff off anything any time anywhere....
There's talented folks out there that can do it daily and don't need a ton of writers be
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There's YouTube content generators that could run circles around late night and even premium channel (I'm looking at you, John Oliver!) comedy shows. Some put out a new show 3-5x a week. Writers simply help fill out a 22 minute show, but good hosts should be able to pull it off on their own in the event of a strike.
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Ha! Your last open-mic was disappointing, eh?
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Wrong writers, which means we get to enjoy shitty unoriginal movies AND TV reruns.
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How many Superman/batman/thor/wolverine/xmen ....
Still at 1. They keep retelling the origin story again and again and again and ...
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Obligatory The Onion review addressing just this point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Thank you Peter Rosenthal.
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Great link, thanks. It does beg the question of how many Citizen Kane's an average person can stick up their ass.
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Okay.. you're an outlier; ... you're making it far worse than it actually is.
You're right. He's a complete sourpuss. Hollywood has at least 20 different scripts, if you can comprehend the depth of their subtlety.
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It's pretty easy to predict an AC's character arc and motivations by around the 3-paragraph mark.
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I was hoping for a tsundere but all I got was this yandere.
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And nothing of value was lost.
What *could* happen? (Score:2, Interesting)
Yep. Hey, you know what's great? Talking to people. Sex. Building models. Organizing one's rock/stamp/severedhead collections. Writing code. Playing with the cat/dog/cockatrice. Martial arts. Photography. Reading. Taking courses. Exercising. Working out a sane budget. Listening to music. Playing music. Sewing. Legos. Fooling with hardware. Home improvements. Giving the domicile a good once-over at the ultra-picky level, just for the fun of it. Putting the yard in tip-top order. Walking the canine or the cat [flickr.com]
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Yep. Hey, you know what's great? There are TV shows for all that you mentioned. I went over it twice, because the thought that everything that you mentioned was a TV show was mildly amusing, but figured, "nah, can't be everything". Yep.
I think you just created Rule 34 for TV.
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Talking to people. Sex. Building models. Organizing one's rock/stamp/severedhead collections. Writing code. Playing with the cat/dog/cockatrice. Martial arts. Photography. Reading. Taking courses. Exercising. Working out a sane budget. Listening to music. Playing music. Sewing. Legos. Fooling with hardware. Home improvements. Giving the domicile a good once-over at the ultra-picky level, just for the fun of it. Putting the yard in tip-top order. Walking the canine or the cat. Visiting Rome, Paris or Venice (while pretending to be Canadian, of course.)
Good news, there is still PBS.
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Yep. Hey, you know what's great? Talking to people. Sex.
This article is about what happens if the writers strike, not what happens if I get a complete personality transplant.
Spoken like a true Slashdotter!
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Friends, I have wasted a day.
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1960's era sitcoms is what i love
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And Harpo in the mirror!
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I Love Lucy was 1950s. You can tell because domestic violence was still "in." It was cut in 1957.
Then Leave It To Beaver went from `57-63, a wholesome interstitial period before the sexual revolution. Domestic violence was still popular, but there was at least enough shame to keep it out of television.
Eventually there was Star Trek, which was the 1960s in full miniskirted glory.
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Dream on. People will just keep staring at the idiot box, and possibly complain a little louder on Twitbook. The fact is, people really will lap up whatever's thrown at them, and watch the ads too, even if they're just watching so they know when to unmute the sound. People want to consume, and they don't want to put any effort into thinking about it.
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Books on the beach.
Wait, there's TV in the summer? Why?
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Get off my lawn!
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Heck, I have a whole bleepload of stuff on Netflix and Hulu that I haven't had time to see yet. It's going to be awhile before I even get to DS9.
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Go outside and play...
Sadly, that won't happen. I fear what *will* happen. The last writers strike is what brought all the reality show crap to the boob tube. No writers needed. Get plots from Jerry Springer. Mad-lib the script. Act like asshats. Biggest expense? The handy-cam.
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Late-night talk shows and soap operas are to entertainment writers what delis are to hungry New Yorkers -- a daily frenzy of high-volume production. If the sandwich makers don't show up, everybody gets hungry quickly.
The difference of course; if they serve pictures of sandwiches instead of real sandwiches, everybody still has the same caloric needs.
If they serve pictures of mindless entertainment instead of real mindless entertainment, everybody was still mindlessly entertained.
So while my first thought when you said "go outside" was, "*groan* oh no, the parks will get crowded," then I realized, "no, they won't."
Re: What happens? (Score:2)
Any good SF anime released recently?
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ID-0, space mining.
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To Love-Ru has an OVA coming out.
The most exiting thing in anime this year might be a new season of Food Wars! Runner up is the new season of "Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?" (Danmachi) which is airing now.
What am I doing at TMZ?! (Score:5, Insightful)
How did I get to the TMZ website?! I thought I was on Slashdot! This is so weird. The site looks like Slashdot, but the stories are mindless crap about TV shows and pop culture.
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You'll note that Slashdot dropped the, "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters," moniker a long time ago.
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And Apple dropped "computers" from their name. I just didn't think they'd actually stop caring about them altogether - and so soon.
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I don't see it there. Of course I'm running an anti-javascript plugin so as Slashdot's bloat of crosslinked Javascript grows I don't see the pieces that get shuffled-off to other sites.
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How did I get to the TMZ website?! I thought I was on Slashdot! This is so weird. The site looks like Slashdot, but the stories are mindless crap about TV shows and pop culture.
There are few things that nerds care more about than TV shows and pop culture.
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No, no, TMZ is "Writer Strike According to TV Actors."
This is the "Writer Strike According to No-TV-Guy."
Answer: (Score:4, Funny)
Trump! (Score:2, Funny)
Trump provides all the entertainment we need. Who needs Hollywood when reality is so much fun to watch!
Trump 2020! Make America great again and save us from those bad hombres, Mr President!
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I just hope he doesn't rage-quit before the mid-terms, this Congress is scary! They would get way too much done without him.
Summer reruns (Score:2)
That's what we used to do not that long ago.
Anyway who cares.
it says something about the state of society today (Score:2)
2007: Writer's strike caused the 2016 election. (Score:2)
Trump would not be president today if NBC had decided to pay their writers instead of airing cult-of-personality bullshit.
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No Hillary was as unlikable as Trump was stupid. She was the third term Bill Clinton and the electorate didn't want another fucking Bush dynasty or Clinton dynasty. Not to mention she is a horrible cunt and a worthless human being. Being more evil than Trump is a goddamned accomplishment to boot.
However horrible Hillary was, she was nearly President. Let's not pretend that Trump had some sort of amazing landslide blowout.
Strike hurt "Heroes" (Score:4, Informative)
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I think Heroes was doomed from the start... and if not the start, by the conclusion of the season one finale. It was all tease, and when they finally blew their wad at the end, it was a half load.
TV show writers on strike. So? (Score:2)
That's like government administrators on strike. Question for 100: How do you notice it?
Quite frankly, a monkey could write the garbage we get fed these days. "Scripted reality", yeah, right, what kind of drugs do you have to be on to consider this to be in any way even remotely close to "reality"? In between we got court TV and other garbage that needs zero writer or talent by the actors, sorry, "genuine people presenting real cases".
Hey, how about a new format? Akin to American Idol, how about American Wr
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That's like government administrators on strike. Question for 100: How do you notice it?
Show up at a national park and see if they barricaded the entrance.
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Even the most lame reality TV show is scripted. In fact, that's one of the things the Screenwriters Guild is fighting about. Currently, if you write a script f
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Yeah, all that scripting is what makes reality TV so unauthentic and boring. That's why I stick to entertainment where nobody knows what's going to happen. It all comes down to one wrestler's strength and skill vs another.
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I like the way you think.
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That would be easier if they were given proper blame in the credits.
Right now they're treated differently than other writers, but still treated like normal humans.
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Maybe you should watch some shows from other countries if you are looking for quality. And I'm not suggesting Canada. The UK has some great drama. Australia has some good shows too. The do satire very well and the show Utopia (be careful as there are three shows called that in the world in the past few years) was great. New Zealand has put out a couple of hits but with their small population there's not a lot of money to fund shows. Check out The Almighty Johnsons and This is Not My Life. The later show w
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The UK formula works pretty well; even if you paid the actors millions of pounds, they're only allowed 20 pence per day for production expenses. If it wasn't in the prop room when you wrote the script, you're going to be at work all weekend with the cardboard and crayons.
They end up having no choice but to provide content within the words spoken and physical actions of the actors.
If it is a really popular show like Mr Bean with only 1 regular actor, then they afford to film 5 minutes of each episode outdoor
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This exactly. How about while the writers are out, we get some new blood out of the art schools and colleges, and let them design and write some original stuff for once. For example, the typical American gritty movie plot just needs to be tossed out the door, and other stuff done. For example, Patient Zero in the typical zombie movie dies early, and the movie winds up being a fish out of water romance between an investigator and a biotech person. New stuff that isn't the same crap we have been seeing.
Like and unlike before (Score:2)
1) Like before, people who would never have gotten a shot at writing will now get it.
2) Unlike before, there is such a huge quantity of material available for viewing, most people could spend their entire lives watching things they've never seen before running out. The only hit will be current pop culture, and trust me: Most people would be happier without it.
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H1-Bs to the rescue! It's Bollywood Summer!
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2) Unlike before, there is such a huge quantity of material available for viewing, most people could spend their entire lives watching things they've never seen before running out. The only hit will be current pop culture, and trust me: Most people would be happier without it.
That's my situation. I have a bleepload of stuff on Netflix that I haven't gotten to yet, and another pile on Hulu. And that's just the stuff that's on my list.
Breaking news (Score:3)
This story just in from our First World Problems desk...
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First world problems are important. How can we give a crap about the third world if we have our own problems.
The Widow (Score:2)
Look, I don't care what the Screenwriters Guild and the studios do, as long as nobody fucks with my Into the Badlands. It's like somebody put all my shitty tastes and adolescent fantasies into a blender and made a TV series out of it. I love that fucking show.
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It's like somebody put all my shitty tastes and adolescent fantasies into a blender and made a TV series out of it.
Holy shit... I finally know how to describe this to others! Thanks. I'm still trying to figure out how I didn't know about it until just recently.
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Oh, I'll tell you why. Because season one only recently came to Netflix. It's the same as with Preacher, and Hap & Leonard and other cool shows. The target demographic (idiots like me) don't watch cable TV, but when it comes to Netflix, we're all over it.
Given more people stream now than ever... (Score:3)
I predict a decline in American television will result in an uptick in streaming and piracy of foreign content... and there are a few Canadian shows that do well in the American market that might get a boost in the traditional distribution arena.
There are plenty of English-language productions out there. The UK, Canada, and Australia could take the opportunity to grab a bigger piece of the market from the USA.
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Ok, I'm finally going to bring this up. And I suppose I'm about to make some friends or enemies, but I don't know which.
Is it just me, or does Canadian TV suck? (I'm not talking about Australia or Britian. Just singling out Canada.)
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>Is it just me, or does Canadian TV suck?
Yes and no. It actually gets a bit complicated.
First, a lot of our premium talent moves to California where the money is. The USA is, after all, right there, speaks the same language, has a compatible culture, and is 10x our size.
But we still manage to keep a lot of talent here - where the budgets are a bit smaller. And despite THAT, we still are known for our kids' programming and occasionally a comedy or drama that rises to the top and goes international.
And
When I was a kid... (Score:2)
We had this thing called a frisbee. It is kind of limited for today's crowd however - no WiFi, no Bluetooth, you can't use it to take selfies. But we had lots of fun with it, and if you have a dog it is even better.
Watch the best series of past decades? (Score:3)
There are millions of hours of television available for you to watch. If you can't watch your favorite epic series, then taking a little break to watch some classics can be a lot of fun.
Classic series (not an exhaustive list and in no particular order):
Get Smart (1965-1970)
Hill Street Blues (1981-1987)
M*A*S*H (1972-1983)
Roots [miniseries] (1977)
Danger UXB (1979)
Dallas (1978-1991)
Cheers (1982-1993)
The Muppet Show (1976-1981)
Seinfeld (1989-1998)
Taxi (1978-1982)
Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
X-Files (1993-2002)
The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
All in the Family (1971-1979)
Or maybe some guilty pleasures:
Bonanza (1959-1973)
McHale's Navy (1962–1966)
Gunsmoke (1955-1975)
Rawhide (1959-1965)
F Troop (1965-1967)
Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971)
The Rockford Files (1974-1980)
Quantum Leap (1989-1993)
WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982)
The Addams Family (1964-1966)
Petticoat Junction (1963-1970)
The A-Team (1983-1987)
Dragnet [1951 series] (1951-1959)
Dragnet [1967 series] (1967-1970)
Millennium (1996-1999)
Mission: Impossible [1966 series] (1966-1973)
Mission: Impossible [1988 series] (1988-1990)
good year to do it (Score:2)
Other nations sneak in their writers (Score:3)
US audiences are presented with foreign 1960-90's plots. Acted by Canadians with perfect US accents in low tax and production friendly Canada.
Every new US series is set in a "Seattle", "Maine" or "North Dakota" Canada with scripts that have some positive comments about Canada and its policies.
Random charming characters from Australia, Canada, New Zealand or Ireland might feature in later seasons.
Plots often feature visits to or from the nations funding the series.
Maple syrup and timber products get product placements.
A large kangaroo or a random trip to Australia is effortlessly worked into the plot.
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Re:Nothing, nothing happens (Score:5, Insightful)
I stopped watching TV 20+ years ago. Don't miss it. If I'm interested in a TV series, I got iTunes, Netflix or Hulu.
Wait, you stopped watching TV 20 years ago, and replaced it with watching TV?
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Wait, you stopped watching TV 20 years ago, and replaced it with watching TV?
Yes and yes. But instead of the TV dictating my schedule, I watch TV on my own schedule.
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Wait, you stopped watching TV 20 years ago, and replaced it with watching TV?
Yes and yes. But instead of the TV dictating my schedule, I watch TV on my own schedule.
No one ever told you about VCRs 20 years ago?
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No one ever told you about VCRs 20 years ago?
I stayed away from VCRs. Otherwise, everyone would want me to fix their blinking 12:00 problem.
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It isn't that hard, it should take less than a minute.
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Wait until they find out that the same show on Netflix has the same writers and the same strike as it does on cable!
There are huge advantages to not watching TV, but most of them require also not watching TV.
If they're only trimming the advertising, they're at least slightly reducing the garbage inputs.
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Most TVs let you edit the channel selection. Most people have access to at least 3 channels of broadcast PBS these days!
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Agreed, Netflix should consider picking up that show.
Opposite Thought (Score:2)
People who can write interesting stuff are kicked out the door because they want actual creative control over what they write.
No amount of hiring people can fix that.
How is the answer not to hire the creative interesting people that were kicked out? Since they already hate the existing system it seems like they would no go with a strike - and all of the production that matters now (Netflix, Amazon) is giving creators creative control anyway.
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Hah. You think they will be replaced with people who can actually write?
I don't, but I do think they will be replaced by corporate middlemen (corporations can't join unions) and the credit will go to the writers brand instead of to the writer, and since the writers all suck pretty bad none of them will be able to make any demands. And these companies (that are the new writers) will hire the humans as contractors under NDA, and they not only won't be able to strike, they won't even be allowed to complain in public.
If we're lucky, a minority of writers will create a new guild or
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"I wanted the money." -- some Hollywood writer, through the mouth of Sean Connery
They probably get paid for the work. Doing the work might be against the guild's interests, but be for that writer's interests. I don't think it makes sense to assume that guilds and members necessarily have the same strategic goals. Isn't part of the whole point of these contracts, to put writers out of work unless they join the guild?
I know people who are members of unions. It's just another expense, required as a condition
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Other news claims that writers are mad because their incomes went down, because TV "seasons" are shorter now.
If seasons are shorter, AND that has lead to decreased annual pay, THEN we know that more writers are getting paid! Because there aren't less total episodes being filmed, there are just more different shows, each with less episodes.
You're not missing anything, they're talking out at least three sides of their mouths.