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What Happens To Summer TV Binges If Hollywood Writers Strike (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: There also should be plenty of new video fare if Hollywood's writers and studios can't agree on a new contract by Monday. The beautiful thing about a contract is everyone knows when it ends. In this case, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents some 350 production companies, and the Writers Guild of America, which comprises 12,000 professionals in two chapters, have had three years to prepare for a standoff. In these situations, show makers typically rush to complete a pile of scripts before the deadline. Jerry Nickelsburg, an economist at the University of California at Los Angeles, calls this stockpiling "the inventory effect." This is precisely what happened the last time writers walked off the job, from November 2007 to February 2008. If the writers do, in fact, go through with the strike they approved on Monday, jokes and soaps will be the first things to take a hit. Late-night talk shows and soap operas are to entertainment writers what delis are to hungry New Yorkers -- a daily frenzy of high-volume production. If the sandwich makers don't show up, everybody gets hungry quickly.
Go outside and play...
How did I get to the TMZ website?! I thought I was on Slashdot! This is so weird. The site looks like Slashdot, but the stories are mindless crap about TV shows and pop culture.
The march to 'Total Idiocracy' will delayed a few months.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Trump provides all the entertainment we need. Who needs Hollywood when reality is so much fun to watch!
Trump 2020! Make America great again and save us from those bad hombres, Mr President!
This doesn't work for all shows, the disaster that was the shortened season 2 of Heroes that they never managed to write their way out of in the following seasons. The writers lost their momentum and the show suffered for it.
~corporate tool, but employed~
I stopped watching TV 20+ years ago. Don't miss it. If I'm interested in a TV series, I got iTunes, Netflix or Hulu.
Wait, you stopped watching TV 20 years ago, and replaced it with watching TV?
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
This story just in from our First World Problems desk...
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Wait, you stopped watching TV 20 years ago, and replaced it with watching TV?
Yes and yes. But instead of the TV dictating my schedule, I watch TV on my own schedule.
No one ever told you about VCRs 20 years ago?
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
I predict a decline in American television will result in an uptick in streaming and piracy of foreign content... and there are a few Canadian shows that do well in the American market that might get a boost in the traditional distribution arena.
There are plenty of English-language productions out there. The UK, Canada, and Australia could take the opportunity to grab a bigger piece of the market from the USA.
There are millions of hours of television available for you to watch. If you can't watch your favorite epic series, then taking a little break to watch some classics can be a lot of fun.
Classic series (not an exhaustive list and in no particular order):
Get Smart (1965-1970)
Hill Street Blues (1981-1987)
M*A*S*H (1972-1983)
Roots [miniseries] (1977)
Danger UXB (1979)
Dallas (1978-1991)
Cheers (1982-1993)
The Muppet Show (1976-1981)
Seinfeld (1989-1998)
Taxi (1978-1982)
Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
X-Files (1993-2002)
The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
All in the Family (1971-1979)
Or maybe some guilty pleasures:
Bonanza (1959-1973)
McHale's Navy (1962–1966)
Gunsmoke (1955-1975)
Rawhide (1959-1965)
F Troop (1965-1967)
Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971)
The Rockford Files (1974-1980)
Quantum Leap (1989-1993)
WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982)
The Addams Family (1964-1966)
Petticoat Junction (1963-1970)
The A-Team (1983-1987)
Dragnet [1951 series] (1951-1959)
Dragnet [1967 series] (1967-1970)
Millennium (1996-1999)
Mission: Impossible [1966 series] (1966-1973)
Mission: Impossible [1988 series] (1988-1990)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Other news claims that writers are mad because their incomes went down, because TV "seasons" are shorter now.
If seasons are shorter, AND that has lead to decreased annual pay, THEN we know that more writers are getting paid! Because there aren't less total episodes being filmed, there are just more different shows, each with less episodes.
You're not missing anything, they're talking out at least three sides of their mouths.
The UK, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian governments start to set up tax payer funded front companies in the USA to push their own entreatment related products and services deep in the USA.
US audiences are presented with foreign 1960-90's plots. Acted by Canadians with perfect US accents in low tax and production friendly Canada.
Every new US series is set in a "Seattle", "Maine" or "North Dakota" Canada with scripts that have some positive comments about Canada and its policies.
Random charming characters from Australia, Canada, New Zealand or Ireland might feature in later seasons.
Plots often feature visits to or from the nations funding the series.
Maple syrup and timber products get product placements.
A large kangaroo or a random trip to Australia is effortlessly worked into the plot.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"