TVSquad

Well, thanks for that update. This could be a good thing for many of us viewers. Every hour of "reality" programming that gets added to the schedule is an hour I won't have to worry about watching/recording. Hope this happens; guess I can get caught up on some books I've been meaning to read. Does that mean I'd be on strike from TV as well?

In that case...


Strike! Strike!! Strike!!!

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"Movies won't be affected that much since they film so far in advance."

This is a false statement.

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On last night's "Two & A Half Men" vanity card Chuck Lorre wrote an open letter to fellow writers about using his name in so many TV shows and movies this year.

He closed the letter with the words, "See you on the picket line."

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My grandmother used to knit scarves for me when I was little and I always wanted to learn. Bob, will you teach me? It seems I'll have plenty of time on my hands.

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I hope that something miraculous happens and they can work something out. I can remember TV being affected by the last writers' strike. I must have been 9 years old at the time.

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"The View uses writers? So that means a writer actually puts those words into Elisabeth Hasselbeck's mouth?"

I just threw up a little in my mouth, and a little bit of me just died on the inside.

"But there's a bright side: more reality TV!"

.... You must live in a sad sad world where that's a bright side. =)

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LOST, even though it doesn't premiere until February and has a short season, has been shooting as if it were a normal season. They may have scripts finished for the season by now - hopefully! I'd rather see more good primetime game shows than a slew of crappy reality shows - remember what happened over the summer to so many new reality shows (PIRATE MASTER, for example)! Bring back What's My Line, To Tell the Truth, I've Got a Secret - all the classics and keep them classy like the originals! Password is coming back, so why not more of those?

I do remember the last strike that affected TV, and ABC refilmed old MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE scripts. Heck, even when it was still on the air, the producers of BEWITCHED recycled previous season scripts, so maybe we'll see that with some long running shows. Or just lots of repeats. If SNL can rerun the season premiere 3 weeks after the original air date, I guess we can see all of the new season in reruns by November. Most shows are pre-empted in November and December anyway, so we may not be losing anything unless the strike drags on past Christmas.

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Does ripping on conservatives make you feel that a big man? How sad. You don't agree with Elisabeth's opinions so you have to make a smart ass remark.

You gotta love liberals!

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Wow, Shadowgod, you've got to love shortsighted conservatives too then. I didn't see the crack about Hasselbeck as having anything to do with her political and social views. I saw it as a crack at the fact that she's just an idiot who can't provide coherent facts to provide support for her arguments.

Meanwhile, in advance of the upcoming knitting blog, may I please take this opportunity to reind everybody that the correct spelling of the term is "Knit one, PURL two." It's P-U-R-L. Not PEARL, as in the oyster gem or PERL, the programming language. Let's all get it right people!

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Why is there a strike anyways? If the Networks are smart enough they can just hire new people and fire their old writers. As for Conan and Leno and Letterman, they should have been coming up with their own stuff to begin with...after all it's not The Tonight Show with Joe Dirt.

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I agree, ShadowGod.

Honestly, is Elisabeth Hasselback really the only one you're choosing to single out for comments on The View? Rosie, Barbara, and now the the two new ones (whoever they are, Whoopi and whats-her-face-from-30 Rock) haven't provided enough evidence of how the American Education system is failing?

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Elisabeth Hasselback is a god damn dumbass bitch.

She spreads your "view" about bullshit based on the bullshit Bible, yet she's admited she has never read the bible.

And you can't just hire new writers, are you that dumb?

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Wow, JW...

First of all, all the writers working in Hollywood are part of the writers' guild, so unless you think the shows want to revolutionize Hollywood by hiring hundreds of thousands of scab writers (which would be a hard feat in and of itself, and likely less than 1% of them would be halfway decent) and then never allow unions into the system again, well that's never gonna happen.

And do you really think a single host could write an hour's worth of material every single day of the week? Do you know how much work goes into preparing material? Hours of watching and reading the news to scan for joke premises, research up the ying yang for all the guests, not to mention any sketches, which go through a longer process. Clearly you either have NO idea what kind of work goes into writing what you see on TV, or you don't care if what you see is quality or not.

Oreo: no need to start throwing around terms like "bullshit Bible". As far as I'm aware, bashing another's religion isn't tolerated under this site's TOS.

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But, but... why are they striking? Don't the television writers realize we need them? :(

What'll happen to the scriped shows? Will they have premature season ends? Will they just go on super-long hiatus'? (Hiati?)

I REALLY hope that this gets resolved. I can't stand reality shows. Unless Sci-Fi wants to put out some more Who Wants To Be A Superhero? Then I'm okay.

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Funny thing. Editors of reality television were accepted into the WGA (West). Since they are responsible for shaping the stories they are essentially "writing" the reality shows. The writers were willing to strike for them so I'd imagine the editors would return the favor. This strike may have a farther reach than anyone could imagine.

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To lucyfan62,

Unfortunately with Lost that is not the case. And even if they did have all the scripts done they likely couldn't film much. Many of the on-site production crew are also in the SWG. I suggest checking out this link:

http://blog.lostpedia.com/2007/10/losts-writing-on-wall.html

It is a specific blog about the strike and how it affects Lost.

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Awesome. No matter how many books and websites I check out, I have NOT been able to teach myself to knit! Can't wait. Seriously!

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@ 6 - Will you marry me?

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Mark Evanier has written some good stuff on the Writers' Guild strike but you'll have to search his site to find most of it. (www.newsfromme.com)

There's also an op-ed piece on the LA Times site by Howard A. Rodman (the url is too big for here) that sets out the three major reasons for the strike:
1. The writers want increased residuals on DVD sales. At present the producers pay more (50 cents/disk) on each individual DVD than they pay the wirters, and actors and directors combined (20 cents/disk). "The theatrical release of a motion picture has become, in many ways, mere marketing for the DVD, and DVDs have in effect supplanted the traditional syndication of TV programming."
2. The writers (and actors and directors) want increase payment for material downloaded online, for example sales through iTunes. The producers refuse saying that "there is no 'business model,' that this all needs to be 'studied.'" although each studio currently makes about $500 million in online revenue.
3. The writers want to include reality show writers (aka "story producers") - the ones who determine story lines and select the clips to fit those story lines - so they will be compensated at standard guild rates and will receive "the pension, healthcare and wages that are the industry standard."

And that my friends is why there's likely to be a long and bitter writers' strike.

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