Strike Out
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that striking is a bad thing. I mean, just think about the word “strike.” It sounds violent. Doesn’t it? Really?
Think about meanings of the word “strike.” To hit, to strike a match (which causes fire, which can cause pain), to strike a tent (which is to take apart, also something that can be painful), to strike out, to be struck with an illness (or smote by God!!), to strike fear into the heart of someone, to have a stroke. There’s a lot of them, go check it out at Dictionary.com. (Some were good things, like to strike it rich or to strike gold, but that goes contrary to what I’m saying here, so I’ll ignore them.)
I do understand what the writers are doing. They really should get residuals for what they’ve done. I keep trying to think it through. They did the original work and it was their ideas that caused the success, so they should benefit at least as much as the studios. However, the studios put up all the original money and take the hit if something doesn’t go well. Whereas the writers get paid for their initial work even if something isn’t a success. Or am I wrong?
Anyway, one thing unions on strike never seem to take into consideration is all the little people who are effected by their actions. If shows stop production for weeks or even months, what about all the people who work on them that are neither actors, nor writers, producers or studio people. You know, the people who bring the food or dress the sets or clean the bathrooms? Those people are now also out of work, possibly for good, and what about the money they used to spend on stuff that they no longer have to spend, like at restaurants and the movies, etc. See how many people and businesses it can hurt?
On the other hand, I’m not sure I see what else they can do to make their point and be heard.
So many shows just don’t have enough in the pipeline to keep going for too long. Here’a great blog with a link to how specific shows might be effected. I just hope they pull it together soon, cause striking isn’t too interesting to blog about.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:52 am
[...] I wanted to like it. So when James played Braniac in the fifth season, I watched, and was teased that James might be on into the sixth season. That didn’t happen, so I saw maybe two eps of the sixth season and then I gave up. I did, briefly, contemplate going back to the begining and watching all the eps, just cause. (My nephew owns them, I wasn’t gonna spend any money.) But I never did and then I lost the urge. Maybe I still will. Over this winter when there are no new shows to watch cause of the writer’s strike. [...]
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:55 pm
[...] been sitting around bemoaning what a nuisance the strike is cause I’m missing my shows and cause I need stuff to write about in my blogs. I don’t [...]