Royal Purple

Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: Web Extras

Luther [Click to enlarge]

The Hollywood writer's strike that has dramatically altered what we watch on TV is officially over. An overwhelming majority of writers voted last Tuesday to end the three-month-long strike.

The strike has changed the way we watch TV and if we even watch at all. I found myself sick of watching reruns and turned to other forms of entertainment. I'm sure all of us will turn the TV sets back on to see our favorite shows finish out the season, but what happens after that?

What may seem like a victory for viewers is really just temporary relief from the slew of reality television shows, game shows and others that wouldn't have a chance were it not for the strike.

The strike may have ended, but we'll be feeling the effects for quite some time. While the big network hits are getting back on track, we'll still be subjected to more reality shows.

Now that's OK for some people who like that. I for one find scripted shows often contain more reality than so-called reality shows, despite most of them following a script. Shows like "The Baby Borrowers" have me fearing for the future of TV.

"The Baby Borrowers" is possibly the worst show to hit the airwaves during the strike. The show, which airs on NBC, takes young college-age couples and puts them in charge of a household. It's like a game of house gone horribly wrong.

These couples are supposed to go through a life simulation. The first couple of days they take care of a baby, move on to toddlers, and so on for three weeks. Is a couple really going to be more responsible after caring for a baby for three days?

Thankfully, many of our favorite shows like "The Office," "Lost," and "House" are returning sometime mid-April with four or five new episodes. Any shows that were on the bubble before the strike are almost certainly gone. Shows like "Heroes" and "24" have long production periods and will not return until fall or, in the case of "24," next January.

The writer's strike has not only pushed back production of television shows but also hampered the development of new movies as well. High profile films like Johnny Depp's "Shantaram," "Justice League of America" and Tom Hanks' "Angels and Demons" have all been pushed back due to unfinished scripts.

Another potential snag in our favorite programming is the Screen Actors Guild contract that expires in June. Actors will undoubtedly want the same royalties on downloads and DVD sales that writers have received. If they don't get what they want, it could be a long time before we begin to see TV and movies as we used to.

I call the writer's strike the strike that keeps on taking. Don't get me wrong; I think the writers deserved all the things they demanded from the networks. That doesn't change the fact that this has been a crippling series of events. The strike has cost more than $3 billion to networks and has resulted in some of the worst programming I've ever seen.

General production will need some time to get back up and running, so we'll just have to sit through junk television a little bit longer before the effects of the end of the writer's strike is finally felt by viewers.

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