C’mon Hollywood #141

… stop the strike!
by Sturdy

I want to make it clear from the beginning that I’m not picking sides here. I think both sides have valid points and I completely respect their stances. I’m not going to attempt to explain the strike or work it out for them. I encourage everyone to go to the WGA
website and read their statement on the strike so they can form their own opinions. The purpose of this article is to plead with the production companies and for the leaders of the WGA to come to a resolution and end this strike.

I guess Norma Rae would be proud

Personally, I’ve never been involved with a strike. I lived in Flint, MI for a while, and I’m familiar with the Eastern Airlines strike, but I’ve never actually been a part of a union or gone through a strike. However, the potential for damages caused by union-led strikes are not debatable and there are devastating examples sprinkled throughout American history. The current writer’s strike has the potential to be one of the devastating examples. The longer the strike lasts, the more everyone has to lose.

Think about what TV would be like without writers. Reality TV shows would be all the craze and the number one show in America would be a ridiculous talent show of some sort. Wait…damn…never mind. I think the fact that the general television audience already prefers reality shows speaks volumes for the studios being pressured into a new deal with the WGA. Remember that the last time the WGA went on strike, it actually spawned shows like COPS, America’s Most Wanted and others. All of which became hits.

But that’s TV’s problem. For movie buffs, the problem is more complicated. In theory, there should be thousands of scripts out there that could be made into films, so Hollywood could ride this thing out for a while. But not so fast, just because a script has been written, it doesn’t mean it’s ready to be filmed. Hollywood still needs writers to polish scripts and change them during filming. I mean, not just anyone can write a spectacular script like SHREK 3. Wait…damn again. That leads us to my biggest fear for Hollywood; we’ll get more blockbusters with half-assed scripts. It’s unfortunate since it seemed like Hollywood was finally getting back to original, intelligent films with good scripts.

And Hoffa too…

So c’mon Hollywood and the WGA, end the strike now. Both sides need to lock themselves in a room and not come out until they have an agreement. It’s going to take a genuine, committed effort from both sides to end this thing. The strike is only gong to lead to more reality television and more mindless movies. Studios aren’t going to run dead air, they’ll find something to put on TV. And movie studios aren’t going to shut down either. They’ll continue to make movies, just with less emphasis on scripts. It’s just now the boy in the mailroom will be the one tweaking them and professional script writers will be writing novels instead. I honestly hope they can come to a conclusion that will please both sides. I just hope movie and TV fans don’t have to pay too steep a price.