TV Eye
Casualties of War
By Belinda Acosta, Fri., Nov. 16, 2007
Photo courtesy of www.unitedhollywood.com
Anyone still lost as to what all the hubbub is about surrounding the newly minted Writers Guild of America strike may want to check out two online sources. Yes, I said "online" sources. Ironic, given that residuals from online content are one of the issues the writers are fighting for. Hear their side of things, on a semidaily basis, at the United Hollywood blog (www.unitedhollywood.com). Once there, you can click to another WGA featurette, titled "Why We Fight," at YouTube. This three-minute primer succinctly lays out what the writers are upset about and why. Once you've watched that, click on the chest-naked doofus who calls himself GhostCow pontificating on why writers are greedy. Infuriating and somewhat pathetic, that post is augmented by a slew of angry comments, which are nearly as entertaining as said doofus. Which isn't saying much.
Even as I type, I realize that all most viewers want to know is if they can still watch their favorite TV shows. Here are some recent developments in that regard:
Fox has decided to delay the season premiere of 24. Now in its seventh season, the popular series typically premieres as a companion to American Idol at the start of the new year. With only a handful of episodes in the can and not willing to gamble on how long the WGA strike will last, the network has decided to wait for a poststrike airing.
K-Ville (Fox) recently shut down production, which some media-watchers speculate is just an early indicator of where the show was heading to begin with. Like Friday Night Lights here in Texas, K-Ville did well in Louisiana but was not rating well elsewhere. Even so, regular work for the New Orleans-based crew is now belly up, creating opportunities for union bashing and linking the now-jobless K-Ville crew to WGA greed, insinuating that this "greed" slaps down crew members living in a city still suffering ill effects from Hurricane Katrina ... which misses the point entirely. The WGA was responsible for the levees breaking? Please! As United Hollywood and other media-watchers point out, crew members of all stripes and other unions (like the Screen Actors Guild) are coming out in support of the WGA. That is, unless you're Ellen DeGeneres. Unlike other talk-show hosts (Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert), she has decided to continue doing her show, which has brought her more criticism. I'm not sure why she is getting heat while other syndicated fare is not (The View). Perhaps it is because she made such a point of saying she supported the cause but wasn't going to stop working. America can't live without her, after all. This strikes me as peculiar. Not that America doesn't love her, but isn't she, like Stewart and Colbert, a performer and a writer?
Which brings us to another casualty of the strike: show runners. These are the people who, well, run a show and are often "writing producers." Many of them (as in the case of The Office cast) have decided to honor the strike by joining the picket lines. In retaliation, the studios have issued warnings steeped in various levels of threat, according to the Nov. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Last week, Warner Bros. and ABC sent out suspension letters to writers, while CBS Paramount and 20th Century Fox sent out breach-of-contract notices to show runners (for not showing up to be producers), suggesting that legal action to recoup lost production time is possible, says The Hollywood Reporter. In the meantime, production assistants and other behind-the-scenes support staff are being laid off in droves. Nope, nobody said strikes are for the faint of heart.
What to Watch
Considering my recent column on the Ellen DeGeneres breakdown over a bad pet adoption, I thought it was kismet that this notice came into my mailbox – HBO is airing Matthew Galkin's I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA. The documentary about the founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals debuts Monday, Nov. 19, at 7pm on HBO. Check local listings for additional airdates.
