Comments on: Writers’ Strike Over – Sort Of

By: Jim Treacher

Jim Treacher — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:21:28 +0000

Yeah, who needs The Shield, The Wire, Lost, Chuck, The Sopranos, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock, Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, and all the rest of that garbage? None of ‘em stack up to Fibber McGee & Molly!

By: Dryfuss

Dryfuss — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:00:46 +0000

Well analized, explained and to the point. Thank you for the synopsis, as usual direct and understandable to all your readers.

By: John the Dennis Miller Libertarian

John the Dennis Miller Libertarian — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:21:26 +0000

I just love to hear all you folks outside Hollywood bash the writers for putting out garbage. As if you haven’t watched a show you’ve liked in 10 years. Or seen a good movie that moved you.

And you call Hollywood a bunch of smug idiots?

There are tons of innovative shows all over the spectrum. Or would you like to return to the days of three network channels and Gilligan’s Island?

Bah.

By: Curly Smith

Curly Smith — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:21:17 +0000

It’s good news because the tens of thousands of non-guild members can now go back to work. There was never any possibility that the resolution of the strike would improve the quality of programming. The programming will only improve when viewers reject the offerings and I doubt that will happen anytime soon. The cost structure and the work structure make it difficult for any innovative shows to get the “green light” and lead to the “me-too” programming that fills the public airwaves.

And, maybe it’s just me, but I think that the Golden Age of Radio was only Golden because all of the tarnished brass went to the Pawn Shop. In others words, only the good stuff survived, both in memory and on tape, while the dreadful was forgotten and destroyed.

By: Roger L. Simon

Roger L. Simon — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:00:25 +0000

Why is this “good news?” One look at what passes these days for “clever Hollywood writing” makes one pine for The Golden Age of Radio.

I didn’t say it was, MarkJ. Actually, one might chart the beginning of bad writing in Hollywood with the rise of the film school – the world leader in the old age “those who can’t do, teach”… or, more expansively, in the words of Woody, “those who can’t do, teach… and those who can’t teach, teach gym”… or was it film school?

By: Crewguy

Crewguy — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:47:13 +0000

Thanks for the inside info and analysis, Roger. I am a crew member who works as a grip in the industry. This has been a big mess for the people who carry the sandbags, push the dollies, load the cameras and construct the sets. I’m glad it’s over, and I don’t feel they needed to walk out in the first place to get what they got. To me, they could have always targeted the Oscars as a start date to strike and picket, and had 3-4 months’ paychecks in all of our pockets to boot. I think by next year, most of us in the business will have decided this strike was a big mistake.

By: Fat Man

Fat Man — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:23:05 +0000

“The devil will be in the details on this”

I thought the devil was the guy who counted the money.

By: MarkJ

MarkJ — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:13:01 +0000

Why is this “good news?” One look at what passes these days for “clever Hollywood writing” makes one pine for The Golden Age of Radio.

By: RE

RE — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:29:46 +0000

Bummer. This signals a resumption of the full-bore dumbing down of America.

By: Geoffb

Geoffb — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:19:57 +0000

My take is that the winners at least in the short run are TruTV and the Discovery Channel etc.