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TV's Golden Age Is Anything But, Say Writers Preparing To Strike (bloomberg.com)
The world's largest media companies returned to the negotiating table Monday with Hollywood screenwriters, seeking to avert a strike that could cost the entertainment industry billions of dollars and take popular TV shows off the air indefinitely. From a report on Bloomberg: Hollywood is bracing for the worst-case scenario after the Writers Guild of America warned advertisers and investors of the financial fallout and said members will most likely walk out May 2 if the new round of talks fail. Major TV programmers, such as NBC and CBS' flagship network, are scanning their slates of upcoming shows to determine which ones can air without guild writers. Negotiators on both sides are counting on cooler heads to prevail as they seek to avoid a repeat of the 100-day work stoppage in 2007-08 that cost the entertainment industry more than $2 billion, according to Milken Institute estimates. Yet the entertainment business, specifically TV, has undergone myriad changes that are creating new sticking points since the last strike almost a decade ago, and the writers say they haven't benefited.
Ok, but does any of this affect HBO, Netflix, or Syfy? If not, who the fuck cares. With or without the writers the shows on the major networks will suck
Why is it that people who don't watch TV are so damned proud of it that they need to announce it every time TV is mentioned? Please share, what else makes you special?
TWD is off till next Oct, etc....
Not much new content to watch in summer anyway, so, let them strike.
Just curious, do streaming services like Netflix/Amazon Prime have to bother with writers unions/guilds? If not, well, certainly a boon to them, they can keep churning out what is becoming more and more good independent content that is worth watching.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The Evil Content Pirates(tm)
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It seems current of most TV shows are reality, infomercials, three themes of fiction (lawyers, cops, medical), and news-opinion (this being a news story breaks out and they get a few pretty talking heads to discuss implications but there really is no additional info on that breaking news story). There are cable channels for sports (don't really need writers for those) and movies (which they repeat the same movie few times a month). There is reruns of classic TV shows (no writers needed). Then there is PBS which Trump wants to defund.
mfwright@batnet.com
Are these the same people who rallied against the Gutenberg printing press?
You hold on to your grudges way too long.
I'm wondering if Netflix and Amazon are itching to license their backlog to the networks if the latter can't fill their timeslots.
Can we really call Netflix/Amazon Prime 'independent' anymore?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The title made sense to me. It didn't seem obfuscated.
Dear Writers, please, Please, PLEASE, for the love of God, PLEASE strike. Permanently. Maybe find shows on Netflix, Prime HBO, or Fox News that need good creative writers.
I got rid of cable TV some time ago. Don't miss it actually. I never realized how much time something like CNN, for example, takes up to tell the same news I can read in about seven minutes on Google news, or other online sources. The endless talking heads, droning on and on and on.
I think it would be quite amusing to watch the whole broadcast model just implode. And a lot of their problems they brought on themselves. Broadcast (even Cable) is so 20th century.
I'm not sure what to make of your subject line.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
This is how the free market should work. If wages are really too low, the strike will cost more than just raising the pay for the writers and the networks will cave. If the writers are overpaid, there are still a lot of unemployed people looking for work, the networks can go find new talent who don't belong to the union (they call it guild, but it is acting as a labor union right now).
Notice that unlike the teachers union, the screen writers guild can't pour in cash to elect their bosses who then kick back raises and benefits, regardless of what is best for the larger organization. This is why all public sector unions need to be banned and why so many Democrats in the past were strongly against public sector unions.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
You mean, apart from saving $1000+ a year, and not willingly subjecting ourselves to IQ squandering nonsense (ie: the typical news), and lowest-common-denominator sitcoms, leaving time free to do more useful things?
When they strike now, what do you think will air in autumn? Stuff has to be written, then shot, edited and then broadcasted. If nothing is written today, then sometime in autumn there is nothing to broadcast anymore and your summer reruns become all year reruns into summer 2018.
We NEVER watch broadcast TV. I don't know why the programming is so bad, whether it's the writers, the producers who invent the paradigm or the sponsors. It might be nice to revisit some of the old programs like Mary Tyler Moore, Gunsmoke. and others. If you get MeTV over the air many of these programs are shown there. The problem the networks will have is that these programs took up much more of the half-hour or hour than programs do today and commercial time would be reduced if they were shown in their original format. I guess technology could fix that. And as far a movies are concerned, dialog is almost non existent, it's just gun fights, car chases and unrealistic CGI; maybe that's cheaper than writing dialog for a good story or writers and others involved in making movies have no imagination.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
It's like breaking an addiction. Or a bad habit. It's like when ex smokers say they never realized how many things they can smell now and how much better food tastes, etc.
It's not pride. It's the revelation of how much better it is to not watch TV any more. The extra time you have. The fact that TV gives you nothing in return. It wasn't even that entertaining actually. Just an effort to find the least objectionable content. And the ads, OMG, the ads, don't get me started.
If you watch some on-demand programming, you can get some better quality entertainment, in less time, and with no commercials. And get up and walk away from the TV because there are also other and better things to do.
Even if I sit in front of the TV and just browse YouTube, it is amazing the great stuff I can find. Videos of presentations from various conferences. Class lectures. There is a guy with a great set of videos Introduction to Higher Math. Various tutorials. It's way better than couch potato cable TV.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
...which would almost make sense if the shows they were going to write next week were scheduled to air this summer, but that is not the timeframe. The writers are smart: they are timing their strike to have the most impact on what the industry knows as the "up fronts," in which networks show off and promote their pending line-up of shows to advertisers. "Now, here's a show we think is going to be HUGE, about a vampire cowboy and his lesbian hacker sister, based on the indie graphic novel... we think it makes sense to charge top-dollar for the ad time..." They can't do that if the writers strike, as they will have nothing to show and/or there will be uncertainty amidst the ad-dollar-spending community over whether a TV ad buy makes as much sense as a placement in some other medium.
Coming in the next few months:
Summers on TV are great now, not like when we were kids.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
I would love to share it with you, thanks for asking. Because I do not watch TV I have time to write books (seven to my name so far), build robots, teach my daughters robotics, Learn 3D printing and 3D modeling. I do this while so many other people sit in front of the TV.
It is unclear what effect a writers guild strike would have on Fox News.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Why is it that people who don't watch TV are so damned proud of it that they need to announce it every time TV is mentioned? Please share, what else makes you special?
Because people who watch TV tend to have really annoying/detrimental habits - like comparing people they know in real life to characters in shows. Those kind of people are a plague on society, explicitly because they are easily-controlled soulless abominations directed by the liberal extremists.
They believe in money in their own pocket above all else. Next, they care about the little guy, as long as their profits are not affected.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
I always took it as hyper bold that tv rots the brain. Then I watched the difference between people who watch tv all the time and those who don't watch much at all. The differences are enough that even though I don't have cable I am not planning on getting it or letting kids watch much of it.
See both liberal and conservatives who watch a lot of tv and its political spins va those who don't.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
What will I do?
I need my sitcoms, with their over-contrived scenes and laugh tracks.
I need my "reality" tv shows that are heavily scripted.
I need my talkings heads shows, that gloss over issues and read jokes form the interwebs.
Why is it that people who don't watch TV are so damned proud of it that they need to announce it every time TV is mentioned? Please share, what else makes you special?
Because people who watch TV tend to have really annoying/detrimental habits - like comparing people they know in real life to characters in shows. Those kind of people are a plague on society, explicitly because they are easily-controlled soulless abominations directed by the liberal extremists.
Calm down, Dwight.
these people are about as annoying as vegans
yeah, but most of us wouldn't pay to watch their shows cause they write about as good as most Fan Fiction writers
Please share, what else makes you special?
Some of them are vegans.
Traditional TV is dead as a door nail. the programs are so sparse and aimed at dullards that anyone with a nickel in their pocket is on cable or satelite with premium channels added. Regular TV programing went into the ditch when too many ads were run making the shows a nightmare to watch. As viewers declined the programming got worse and they ran ever more ads. Greed killed TV and it isn't doing much for theaters either.
Who cares, most "real" shows are going into summer reruns here soon if not already.
TWD is off till next Oct, etc....
Not much new content to watch in summer anyway, so, let them strike.
You do realise it takes quite a while to make a scripted TV show, right? A strike now will make itself felt a lot later in the year.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Who cares if any if it ever comes back? So much to see and do in this world the last thing worthy of consideration is whether these glorified advertising vectors air with 20 minutes of "new" content. Listen to podcasts, read a book, watch the thousands and thousands of hours of already released content, play the latest vidya, watch YouTube, go to the park, fly a kite, take a picture every day, play with your kids, tend to a garden, learn something new, volunteer somewhere, go talk to your neighbor, go fishing, go bird watching, lose ten pounds, write the next great app, call your mom, get high, change your own oil, ask your significant other how they feel, go watch the ballet, go protest something in front if city hall, better yet run for mayor, get a penpal, pick up litter, listen to the radio, go geocaching, write a short story, hell write a book, paint a picture, ride a bike, clean your ears, pet you pet, learn origami, shitpost on slashdot. But for the love of God don't worry about television.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
Only save that much if you scrap internet too.
I'd get typical network added onto my service for free (technically $5 less, but I told them I was canceling if they sent me the damned box and remote that I had to keep track of and would literally never unbox because it wasn't worth the HDMI port or hitting the input button on my TV).
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Maybe we hate to see others waste what little time they have on this little blue marble slackjawing at a screen.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
I'm not trolling but I couldn't care less about it. If they strike and shows don't get made it will have little or no impact on my time. Its all just empty filler where you're real life should go.
Who cares, most "real" shows are going into summer reruns here soon if not already.
Right, because they're getting started with pilots and writing season now. This is how there are shows in fall. They are filmed and edited in advance.
Yeah, but you write about as well as most fan fiction writers' cats.
One of the most insightful and wise /. posts ever.
Was there a writer's strike in 2009? I didn't notice. I won't notice this time.
Life is too full of great things to worry about television, as so brilliantly described above.
what's new about it? Even ancient Rome had circuses.
yeah, but most of us wouldn't pay to watch their shows cause they write about as good as most Fan Fiction writers
How does that differ from most TV writers again?
I would class 90% of the shows I have seen as having writing that I would categorize as "bad fan fiction".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
>Maybe we hate to see others waste what little time
"Maybe?" No, that's not it. You couldn't give a shit on how others spend their time being entertained by watching their favorite shows. Unless, of course, its too belittle their enjoyment and pathetically make yourself feel superior.
I would think most of the writing of those fall shows had already taken place by now and were in the can...mostly ready for shooting....?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Because we're kind of taught that if you find a method that kind of works for you, its your God given rightâ to stand on your soap box and enlighten all us unenlightened individuals as to exactly what we're doing wrong and your advice on how to correct it rather than just leading by example. Worse yet, there are people hungering to be told these things. That's why we still have churches and self help seminars and the ilk.
The golden age of TV was in the 70's and 80's. Some stuff was cheesy but some stuff from that time was actually pretty good while still being cheesy and some was really good.
Among the really good stuff was in my opinion Monty Python's Flying Circus, Kojak, MASH and Hill Street Blues. Good and Cheesy was Happy Days and then too many bad cheesy shows not worth to remember.
And we didn't have all those age ratings everywhere and seldom a "Don't try this at home" except when something was really dangerous.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Since Doctor Who is a British show, I don't think it would affected by this strike.
Ol' Rick Dawson had a farm EIEIO
I'll reply to you, since everyone else with the same reply is AC...I'm replying to the first half of OP's comment, not the second half.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Most need to be shown the door, not a higher paycheck. Especially those from network TV. Fire them all. Replace them with starving book writers.
Agreed. I threw out the telly about 15 years ago, on the simple grounds that a 4:3 21" just didn't cut it anymore, and there simply wasn't anything interesting enough on anyway for me to schedule my life around it.
Never had any regrets. Television is for angstfilled people who don't know what to do with their lives and just need something to fill it with.
Netflix and Amazon series writers are all the same union as the broadcast nets. So it's more likely the new kids would look to license (more) archive material from the older networks, as the oldsters have a much deeper inventory. If recent Netflix and Amazon original shows make their way to the broadcasters more rapidly, the value of Netflix and Amazon original content to the consumer diminishes greatly.
One of the most insightful and wise /. posts ever.
Was there a writer's strike in 2009? I didn't notice.
Certainly. That season was full of sitcoms, reality shows, and half-baked plots. Prior to that, TV was, er, sitcoms, reality shows, and half-baked plots. Hmm.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
what, pray tell is 'hyper bold'?
http://www.acetonestudio.com
I'm guessing they meant "hyperbole" and their computer/device tried to be "helpful".
The big difference is that Netflix and Amazon don't rely on advertisers that expect an established release schedule for new material. If writers go on strike for a month or two, then Netflix and Amazon can postpone production for a month or two and suffer no loss real losses. If ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, etc. don't release new programs for a month or two, they lose revenue from those adverts.
We've already been here - and the networks without writers gave birth to the abomination known as "reality TV".
But really, I don't watch much TV. Seasons are down to like 6 episodes, you can't even get drawn into characters or plots in that little time. Then it takes so long for the next "season", I just forget about it and watch something else on Netflix.
Now that you mention it, yes, I am quitting facebook. It's easier to not have an account than risk getting pulled over and throw into a US jail just cause the border guard doesn't like the cat videos I posted.
But to your main point... I don't advertise it unless it's actually relevant to the discussion. Such as when someone asks me "Have you seen this so and so new TV show?"
I don't, however, SJW Vegan about it. I can't speak for the original poster, but I see nothing wrong with them declaring that they don't watch TV. I'm more curious as to why it bothers you so much. I would have forgotten within seconds that I had even read the original comment because it provides nothing of value to me. It was actually your comment that caught my interest and induced me to reply.
Was there a writer's strike in 2009? I didn't notice.
You didn't notice? The last writers' strike gave us Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. That was a win in my book.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
The ads are absolute cancer. I never realized how bad TV ads were until I would visit the in-laws and sit down to watch whatever was on to pass the evening by. Holy shit. They hit all the right buttons to get my attention or to get me to stare at the screen and I felt stupid after a set of commercials. I don't know what it is but I know I don't want it in my life.
I always thought that crap's been generated by not too sophisticated Perl script.
Sure the ol'lady might be upset when the new season of "Spin Off III : Reno SND" doesn't premier till December but hey, that just means more time for Football, NASCAR, and Monster Trucks. None of that fancy script writing required.
Netflix and Amazon series writers are all the same union as the broadcast nets. So it's more likely the new kids would look to license (more) archive material from the older networks, as the oldsters have a much deeper inventory. If recent Netflix and Amazon original shows make their way to the broadcasters more rapidly, the value of Netflix and Amazon original content to the consumer diminishes greatly.
Probably won't affect Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu. Their contracts are not broadcast contracts like ABC, NBC, CBS, etc have. I would expect they have their own streaming contracts, and Netflix at least is known for offering better deals than Hollywood and the Broadcasters when it comes to making their original content. Joint-Developed content, however, might suffer though.
The irony is that it may prevent them from licensing material to the broadcasters though.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
think it would be quite amusing to watch the whole broadcast model just implode.
You would, would you? So, you're going to pay for my streaming accounts, and a better computer that'll actually run 1080p content, all because you want to make obsolete the antenna I put on my roof when I cancelled cable TV years and years ago? Thanks so much, corporate America appreciates you voting for them making even more money, charging for streaming ***AND*** making people watch commercials, too. Really appreciate that.
Whether I want it or not, I believe that both cable and broadcast over antenna are not going to survive forever. They are simply obsolete. They won't disappear overnight.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
the Golden Age of TV was in the 1960's & 1970's (before the internet) when most everybody spent their free time in the evening watching their favorite TV shows before bed time, TV is like the Radio now, people mostly ignore it unless they want local news & weather, the internet wont lill TV, like TV did not kill radio, it will just fall back to a secondary source of entertainment and news and information
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
OTA television and radio will always exist because of federal government mandate, and rightly so. They exist so people at any income level can have access to television and radio, because they're information sources. There's even a federal law that says you can't outlaw antennas on people's homes, for the same reason. Your 'belief' is misguided and also technically incorrect.
Writing season is about now. Shooting typically starts in summer, while writing continues on later episodes. Even when shows begin airing in the fall, they likely don't have all the episodes in post-production yet or even finished filming.
Like commenting on SlashDot? That aside, it's none of your friggin' business how someone spends their leisure time.
What makes you think that the people who write for Netflix and the other non-networks won't also go on strike?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
The longer a strike goes, the more people will stream old stuff, watch YouTube, look on Facebook, or maybe even, and I know this strikes fear: go outside or read an actual paper book.
I'm not anti-union, but I'm firmly anti-Hollywood and it's time to poke a few holes in their balloons, this being one of them.
Yeah, go ahead and strike.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Vincent: Pilot? What's a pilot?
Jules: Well, you know the shows on TV?
Vincent: I don't watch TV.
Jules: Yeah, but, you are aware that there's an invention called television, and on this invention they show shows, right?
Vincent: Yeah.
Jules: Well, the way they pick TV shows is, they make one show. That show's called a pilot. Then they show that one show to the people who pick shows, and on the strength of that one show they decide if they want to make more shows. Some get chosen and become television programs. Some don't, become nothing. She starred in one of the ones that became nothing.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Maybe people will just start singing "Wooly Booly"...
It's not like the Writer's Guild has actually done anything worth a shit since their last strike (which got Heroes well-fucked.) Even most Anime has more substance than 99% of the shit Hollywood has had its writers putting out in this day and age.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Enough with your anti-television talk. Why do you hate America?
News programs, dummy, all the networks have news departments, and most local stations (except the tiniest of them) have local news departments and broadcasts; broadcast TV and radio has a responsibility to serve the public. Also things like State of the Union addresses, emergency broadcasts, etc. Go research the subject before you stick your foot in your mouth like that.
Other english speaking nations could see an influx of US support and interest.
Sharks, history, food shows? Lifestyle shows on building homes, restoring cars?
A US presenter who lives in that nation and has no need to return to the USA. Good US voice, local connections.
How real can any part of Canada feel for a US crime, medical show or other drama?
How many US actors in Canada can hold a well written show together?
Will US advertisers accept any content between their ads? Will people in the US pay to watch people in Canada trying to be 1800 or 1980's or 2018 USA?
How many US actors would be needed for a new Canadian created drama, that looks 100% made in the USA for the US market?
Is digital work that expensive for a few skylines? Would other nations match funding just to get a production going and support new jobs for their workers and authors?
US writers should have ensured their content was out of reach in any other nation by ensuring more difficult to clone US only content.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Go ahead and strike, we don't really give a shit.
Doctors, firefighters, police, people that build and fix things...if they go on strike, we care. They actually do things that matter.
But a bunch of Hollywood script writers threatening to go on strike? Who gives a fuck?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
You do realise it takes quite a while to make a scripted TV show, right? A strike now will make itself felt a lot later in the year.
I don't care if they go on strike and stay that way for the next decade. Really.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
what, pray tell is 'hyper bold'?
It is when your brain rots from watching too much tv...
> Even if I sit in front of the TV and just browse YouTube, it is amazing the great stuff I can find. Videos of presentations from various conferences. Class lectures. There is a guy with a great set of videos Introduction to Higher Math. Various tutorials. It's way better than couch potato cable TV.
[sarcasm]
Oh yeah, after doing programming all day long and fucking around with docker, asterisk, postfix, nginx, etc. in the meantime, the first thing I want to do when i get home after 8-9 hours of that is do some HIGHER MATH !!!1
[/sarcasm]
I know this is popular on slashdot type sites, but seriously though. Give me Married with .. Children, Seinfeld, ... and a beer so I can turn my brain off from constant calculations it's doing half my waking time ... or do you not work ?
Since the public sector teachers union apparently gave you a sub standard education, here is a link for you to educate yourself on the topic:
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfo...
I honestly can't tell what you are saying beyond that. I get the concept of collective bargaining, but it only goes so far in a free market. If you and all your co workers work collectively is worth $50/hr per person to your employer and they pay you $35/hr (this is typical and how all economic transactions work, your work is always more valuable to them than what your employer pays you, that is how they make money, expand the business and pay back investors etc.) but you demand $60/hr in wages and benefits, one of two things happens, the company either goes bankrupt paying you more than you are worth collectively (and you have no job), or they fire you and hire other workers who are willing to work for a lower wage (and you have no job). The best way to increase wages is to vote for politicians that will un-FUBAR our business environment, making it easier to start and grow a business and hire employees. The more demand for labor there is, the higher prices will go. You should also vote for politicians who will restrict H1B and immigration in general (legal and illegal) because those are both sources of cheap labor that will keep the price of labor down, which keeps down your paycheck.
This is all being said in the context of jobs that require minimal specialization/training and are generally easy to do (like teaching grade-school children, which used to be performed to a higher standard than today by high school graduates). If you have specialized skills or knowledge either through experience, invention or advanced knowledge/degree, you can more easily bargain with your employer on a per person basis.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
Correct. Public sector unions should be ILLEGAL. There is really no rational argument for them at all.
They already have a direct say in their employer, its called VOTING.
The worst part is just before elections, where the public sector unions pour tons of their own members
money into political parties, while at the same time trying their best to make their pay an election 'issue'.
If you want a union, work in the private sector. Believe me, its a very different world out here.
TWD is off till next Oct, etc....
The Walking Dead has writers? I thought someone just shit on a bit of paper and they worked from that. And then passed it on to the Game of Thrones people.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
When they strike now, what do you think will air in autumn? Stuff has to be written, then shot, edited and then broadcasted. If nothing is written today, then sometime in autumn there is nothing to broadcast anymore and your summer reruns become all year reruns into summer 2018.
I guess they'll have to go to remakes, reboots and generic crap....oh wait.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
But sure, I'll just stare at the wall while I'm eating dinner, and have nothing to say to anyone because there's no input whatsoever other than work of one kind or another.
I'm going to give you one word that will blow your mind...
Music
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Most/All new Netflix, Amazon and Hulu programs are produced under WGA;
I cannot for the life of me figure out what the World Canadian Bureau have to do with all this.
Do the writers want more munneh? Maybe some of that internet munneh?
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Riiiiiiight, and those shows are written, filmed and edited right before they go on the air. No up-front work has to be done with writing scipts, since those pretty much write themselves, huh?
Considering how I finally had to stop watching TWD this season, it sometimes sure seems like it.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Yeah. It's not quite up there with announcing you're vegan but it sure does seem to be a point of pride for people. Well done them.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Sorry but Dr Who? It's a BBC (UK) show largely written by British Writers working in the UK how is an American Writers Strike going to affect it?
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Yes! Please!
Let it fail! TV is a time-suck disaster anyway, and it's exactly what the industry needs in order to shake up some more and slough off viewers.
The more down-time from the boob tube the better.
-
No more reality TV?
As if that's not scripted.
Let 'em strike. When they do sign, no more using old crap. Top of the list - Police/private dick murder show. Don't we already have way too many of these?
I have hundreds of channels and with a handful of exceptions - still NOTHING worth watching.
But production of those upcoming fall shows happens during the summer. If there is a strike for a significant amount of time, the fall premieres will be delayed.
This article doesn't talk much about the basic issues that are pushing the writers toward a strike. A big driving force is that they are making less money because of the shorter seasons on cable and streaming; people are only getting paid for 10 or 12 episodes instead of 22, and that means a big pay cut. Often they are still tied down by exclusivity agreements, which means that they can't make up for the shorter season by doing some work for another show. So there is more work for writers because more shows are being made, but at the same time it's becoming more difficult to make a good living at it.
That's one thing that a new Writers Guild contract could improve, by mandating a relationship between season length and the length of exclusive commitment that can be associated with it. So, for example, a writer who does a 10 or 12 episode season for one show might be allowed to do a second 10 episode show or pick up some individual episodes on other shows, while a writer who does a 22 episode show could be required to be exclusive for the entire year.
Can the government really mandate that radio and TV stations stay in business even as their business model implodes? I thought that TV stations were a business to make profit. They applied for an FCC license. In order to get it, they were mandated to have a certain amount of news and information. Doesn't their license expire periodically and need to be renewed? What if a TV station decided not to renew and shut down? I don't claim to deeply understand that industry. I would love to be corrected and add to my understanding.
The government doesn't mandate restaurants into existence.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Oh, get off your high horse. I have no great fondness for television. I rarely watch it, except in social situations - and only then if the other people in the room are actually paying attention to it. But no moral points are awarded for dismissing it.
I've seen television programs that are excellent works of art, just as I've read books that were inane wastes of paper. I've gone to parks and flown kites and taken pictures and played with children. I've knapped flint and painted houses and carved antler and plumbed bathrooms and written poetry. All of these can be worthwhile activities, and with some effort any of them can be rendered trite, dull, and meaningless, too.
Some people care about television programming and the writers' strike, just as some people care about professional sports, or the declining number of speakers of Gaelic, or space exploration. That is not a personal failing on their part, and exhorting them not to care only demonstrates a narrowness in your conception of human existence. And the same goes for your cheerleaders below.
I'm going to give you one word that will blow your mind...
... it is the thing that I like, and everyone else will like it too, because everyone is the same as me.
Why is it that people who don't watch TV are so damned proud of it that they need to announce it every time TV is mentioned?
It's the veganism of mass-media entertainment.
I'm a curmudgeon myself, but, really, folks - find something more interesting to haughtily reject. Proclaiming your independence from broadcast television is like proudly announcing your stand against eating kale.
Now, if you want to tell us all how you never use emacs...
Then I watched the difference...
This is nearly a perfect argument. "Based on a hazy claim of anecodotal observation, I posited a correlation and therefore deduced causation."
Really, the only way you could improve that is by imputing it to supernatural forces.
So many brave refusniks telling everyone else how much better their television-less lives are! Truly, Slashdot is the locus of enlightenment.
Sometimes I have to remind people that we don't get broadcast or cable, since they assume the latest shows are a semi-mandatory part of the common culture. I'm not superior about it. We have our own time-wasting habits.
Last time we had television service, it was expensive, the shows were almost unwatchable due to commercials, we had to watch on somebody else's schedule, and we couldn't get Minnesota Twins games. Getting the shows from Amazon Prime is much superior.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Better slackjawing at a screen than finding reasons to feel superior.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
My wife was once told that too many people write stories with built-in commercial breaks.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Fortunately, 10% of the shows available should be plenty. There's lots of crap TV. There's some good TV. I try to watch that.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Continuum
The 100 (yes really, esp after first season).
Breaking Bad (of course)
Stranger Things
Longmire
Firefly (of course)
Torchwood
The Crown
Daredevil (netflix)
Silicon Valley (HBO)
I would almost say Game of Thrones, but I'm on the fence about it.
Similarly possibly Halt & Catch fire may be good, but a few shows in I'm not sure I care.
Those are some of the more recent ones (to me) I can think of.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No, but it an the alternative to TV and silence. If this guy can't think to do anything but stare at the wall in silence and misery if he doesn't have new shows to watch then he needs all the help he can get.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Given the profundity of gay and tranny scenes, the ridiculous interracial couples, etc, I don't really give a shidt what they do. Maybe keep your social engineering plans to yourselves A-HOLES!
The line "opiate of the masses" was critical to reading that post properly. Circuses didn't tell people how to think in highly suggestive manners with any degree of success, they were pure entertainment. Religion is no longer the "opiate of the masses" because it doesn't have the same reach it once did in western cultures, instead there are movies, TV shows, etc - which get people to relate fictitious characters to their real-world associations and in turn react often with prepackaged one-offs typically interpreted by the recipient in a radically different manner than their intentions to further that influence. TL;DR: a circus amuses, modern entertainment influences as religion once did.
Ahhh. I had heard the "religion is the opiate of the masses" before, but I had not grokked that the mental influence was as important (or more so) than the "keeps them distracted from their problems" part. Thanks!
It would be impossible for me to care any less. I very rarely watch TV shows or movies, and when I do, it's usually because someone else wants to watch it.
The last time this happened, the average TV season went from 22 episodes per year to 11. A few more iterations and we'll have to measure it in years-per-episode.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere