TV script writers strike
The following editorial appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Tuesday, Nov. 6:
When "CSI: Miami's" Lt. Horatio Caine cocks his head, removes his sunglasses for the ninth time in the episode and utters some hyper-cheesy line like, "Evidence ... as always ... will speak for itself," it's hard not to scream at the television: "Who writes this stuff?"
Members of the Writers Guild of America do. But the television and film writers won't be crafting any new one-liners for Caine or any Hollywood or New York character - fictional or otherwise - in the short term.
They're on strike after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers failed to reach agreement on writers' demands to receive a piece of ad revenues that companies make when TV shows and films are streamed on the Internet.
(For the record: David Caruso, aka Caine, doesn't sound or look any less ridiculous on an iPod.)
The other area of discontent for writers is how to divvy up DVD revenues. Film and TV fans are expected to shell out $16.4 billion on DVDs this year. A writer receives about 3 cents on a typical DVD selling for $20.
The strike's effects will first become obvious in the offerings of Leno and Letterman, Kimmel and Conan, Stewart and Colbert. These masters of snappy one-liners pegged to the news certainly can't be expected to come up with punch lines on their own. Bring on the re-runs.
A strike this early in the new fall season could mean bad news for devotees of drama series that may have only half of a full season's episodes completed.
TV fare that won't be affected by a writers' strike: Unscripted, not-even-close-to-real-life "reality" shows. And sports. And the age-old reality show known as the news.
Although a dearth of new episodes of "Two and a Half Men" and the latest late-night wisecrack about Dick Cheney no doubt will deeply affect some viewers' quality of life, it's important to put this issue in context.
These aren't doctors or police officers or teachers striking. They aren't trash collectors or airline pilots or the computer tech crew at your company. They write scripts for TV and movies.
Heaven forbid that this might force people to turn off the idiot box and pick up a book.
