The most apt sign spotted on the picket lines at the Hollywood writers strike: “Enjoy the reruns. Enjoy the reruns. Enjoy the reruns.”
That sums it up, although some wise guy in the Writers Guild observed that striking writers actually should carry blank picket signs.
The strike continues over the issue of payment for writers’ work streamed, downloaded and otherwise beamed digitally beyond the TV screen. Writers want fair compensation; the producing studios and networks are holding out.
While they’re not writing, the creative folks are blogging. Ken Levine, a former “Simpsons” writer, posted a smart parody script, featuring Montgomery Burns threatening to bomb the writers making an “infernal racket” below his office window. As the strike drags on, those of us on the couch may resort to reading our TV entertainment.
With both sides entrenched, it’s anyone’s guess whether the standoff will continue into January. That would wreak havoc on the development process, the 2008 upfronts and the 2009 fall season. Ideally, such chaos could force the industry to update its way of doing business; practically, it could drive quality scripted fare underground while quick and cheap “reality” TV takes over.
How are writers coping?
Jack Kenny (“Wanda at Large,” “The Book of Daniel”) said he’s catching up on the Canadian series “Slings & Arrows,” about a theater troupe led by a mad artistic director (“Due South’s” Paul Gross) in a production of “Hamlet.” All three seasons are available in DVD box sets.
Vivienne Radkoff, who writes TV movies, has a long list of Netflix and TiVo options. “Nothing like power- watching entire seasons of shows over a couple of days to get your mind off your troubles, not to mention your aching, picket-line-walking feet,” she says. “There is so much good work out there, also bad, which is instructive in its own way.”
A writer for a Disney production forwarded the image of a young girl on the picket line in a T-shirt proclaiming, “I stream Hannah Montana.”
“This is why we fight,” she observes.
Radkoff says she’s watching the first season of “Dexter” and Seasons 1 and 2 of “Nip/Tuck” – “both excellent for relieving any sublimated feelings of aggression one might have toward, say, union- busting corporations.” Also in her queue: “House,” “Freaks & Geeks,” “which I watch once a year,” and the complete “West Wing” set, “a master class in writing and production.”
Personally, I would add these recently released box sets: “My So-Called Life” for Winnie Holzman’s pathos and young Claire Danes; “Twin Peaks” for David Lynch’s weirdness; and the late “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” for Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue. Also, “Murder One,” ahead of its time in 1995, and the superb “Once & Again.” The public library has more good TV on DVD than you might expect.
The complete “Seinfeld” box set, all 180 episodes plus coffee table book, is out this month for $284. At that price, it should come with a table.
For those on a tighter budget, Kenny recommends “Dexter,” “Damages,” “Big Love,” “Mad Men,” “30 Rock,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Bill Maher and Keith Olbermann.
Note, Season 1 of “Mad Men” won’t be available on DVD until early 2008. Hope you’ve still got lots of individual episodes on your DVR.
Levine (who has written for “M*A*S*H,” “Cheers” and his own series, “Almost Perfect”) suggests audiences take this time to go through AFI’s top 100 movies. “Rent the ones you haven’t seen or, better yet, have never heard of.”
For anyone wanting to be a TV comedy writer, Levine recommends the second and third seasons of “Taxi,” the first season of “Cheers,” the third and fourth of “M*A*S*H”, second, third, and fourth of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” the original 39 “Honeymooners,” and the best of “The Phil Silvers Show.”
Levine also suggests reading “A Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole. Analogous to network chiefs, perhaps? “And of course,” Levine adds, “I would advise anyone to read my blog.”
It could be a long strike. Time to lay in provisions.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
