Strike Busting

Word on the street is that the writer’s strike is coming to an end. Now, no deal has been finalized, but I will say that if the production company’s gave a lot of ground, I will be shocked. Remember what I said earlier, these rich old guys got to be rich old guys by not giving money away. Plus, production companies and networks are getting by on re-runs, busted pilots, and reality TV. Look at FOX, they are getting the sheep to tune in for a reality show where you strap degenerates into a lie detector test and ask them crap like “have you ever gambled away your child’s college fund?” Where do you find people where this would be a tough question to answer? I mean, besides New York. While I’m happy that the strike is possibly nearing an end there are some drawbacks, which I will detail here (in popular list format):

1) The Lowest Common Denominator Factor – Basically, we won’t get to figure out just how far the reality shows will get. The one listed above is pretty much the barometer for how low the networks can go (I don’t count the crap they put on MTV, VH1, E! Entertainment, and a possible lesbian dating show on Logo (I just made that up and I’m sure I could get 5 million viewers)). I mean, think about the amount of people you could get to watch a show about a widowed Amish father of 3 marrying a crack whore from LA. Imagine the intrigue. For sweeps, you could have “Destiny” get her AIDS results in or you could have her trying to inject churned butter into her veins. I just want to know how scummy the networks will get.

2) The Overseas Factor – The return of network TV (and crap like “ER”) means that we won’t get cool shows from BBC or CTV on our airways. I mean, imagine if the CW started showing reruns of “Edgemont” or if CBS put on “MI-5” or even if the networks started development deals with BBC. The quality of programming would vastly increase. Of course, the drawback is people might have to start to think, and we wouldn’t want that.

3) The Starving Writer’s Factor – This was the best running subplot during this whole strike. I was wondering when your poor struggling writer was going to figure he couldn’t survive on Romen anymore and started writing again. Plus, with production companies laying off non-writers because of the strike, the writers were become the most hated union strikers since……well, no one likes union strikers.

4) The What Will They Put on Next Factor – Sort of goes hand in hand with my number 1, except you also get some scripted crap in there too. FOX was all ready to pull a “Manchester Prep” and pretend like “New Amsterdam” never existed. All of a sudden, we get a writers strike, and the idea of an immortal NYC cop who needs to find true love to become mortal doesn’t sound so bad. I love it when networks burn off crap pilots, for two reasons. One, you get to see something that networks actually don’t want to put on the air (and think of the crap they do put on the air). Two, you can almost hear the exec’s rooting for it to fail, but not too miserably since they need the ad revenues.

5) The DVR Factor – Thanks to the writer’s strike and all the crap they put on TV, I get a chance to clear out my DVR. Right now, I’m in the middle of “Heroes”. Yeah, I know it finished months ago, but I’m finally getting around to it now, because I have an abundance of time. An off-shoot of this is the “DVD Factor”, in which I get to watch stuff from the past, like “Remington Steele” and “Silk Stalkings”. Good times.

6) The Duchess Factor – With less TV, I get to spend quality time talking with my girlfriend (I just threw this in here in case she actually reads my inane rants).

Now, with all that said, the good far outweighs the bad when it comes to the strike ending. I mean, I might get new episodes of “Lost” quicker than I normally would (man, that show just sucked me right in again). I just hope the strike accomplished the one thing I really wanted. I want them to blow up the current network format and move to a more year round format, sort of like how cable does it. Shorten the seasons, don’t let things get stale, and give us a rotational schedule. I mean, the British do that, and look at how good there stuff is. Of course, this is American TV. Stale and repetitive is what it’s all about.