Screenwriters of the World Unite...

The WGA has walked-off the job, here's your primer.

It’s normal for people to regret decisions they made in the 80s. From junk bonds to hyper-color, from power suits to parents beating the crap out of each other over Cabbage Patch Dolls, America’s decade of excess was excessively error prone.

Despite the foibles and flights of fancy, unless you knocked-up your secretary during a drunken office Christmas party tryst, the mistakes of the 80s probably aren’t still biting you in the ass to this day. After all, the stock market recovered from Black Monday, our collective fashion sense improved enough to exclude thermochromic shirts and the bruises inflicted by fellow shoppers in pursuit of a doll have long-since healed. However, there is one group--in addition to the parents of the bastard children--who still suffer from their miscalculation of two decades ago: the members of the Writers Guild of America.

In 1988 the writers who bring us the sitcoms, dramas, late-night talk shows and movies that we love and love to hate, signed a contract with the studios which produce their work, which they regret to this day. Back in the 80s a new technology was emerging which threatened to change the way people watched their favorite shows: VHS. However, because home video was in its infancy, the studios argued there was no way to gauge the possible revenue streams, thus they sought to limit the residual payments on VHS sales to writers.

A five-month long strike ensued to fight over the residual payments and a host of other union demands, which ended with WGA begrudgingly accepting the studios’ assertion regarding the inability to estimate the significance of VHS sales. So with a paltry 4¢ payment to the writers per video sold, the studios and WGA ended their long labor impasse. Unfortunately for the writers, this deal on home video sales didn’t foresee the advent of DVDs, the sales of which became covered by the 1988 agreement. The introduction of DVDs to the market sparked an explosion in home video sales, causing revenues to soar whilst under the 1988 contract the writers could merely watch studios disproportionately profit from their work.

Having lost mightily from their fateful contract 19 years ago, the WGA has adopted the mantra “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,” becoming resolute in ensuring that profits from future revenue streams will not pass them by. The WGA have a profound sense of déjà vu when they hear the studios argue, much like they did in the home video debate, they can’t predict how much revenue internet and new media will produce in the future. They contend the studios’ justifications for not paying writers residuals on things such as streaming video over the internet are at best shortsighted and at worst patently false.

Studios point to a lack of profitability of their current streaming efforts as one justification of their stance against residual payments and further contend such online efforts are merely promotional, thus not warranting further pay to writers. Writers counter that the studios are in fact profiting from streaming video and downloadable content via venues such as the iTunes Store and Xbox Marketplace. They also disagree that streaming videos online is purely promotional, by stating money is being made from advertising being sold in conjunction with the video, thus this isn’t just a promotional tool--it is in fact another for-profit distribution channel for which the writers should be compensated.

Through their efforts, writers have brought to the forefront a discussion over how we will receive media in the future. Will it be streaming through our computers? Will it be on our cell phones? Or will it come at a price through downloads from places like the iTunes Store? Writers envision a world where traditional means of content delivery will no longer take a majority-share of revenues; therefore they need to make sure they can get a more equitable piece of the pie when this eventuality occurs. Just because streaming isn’t profitable now, is not a good enough reason for them to accept a deal that will hamper their chance at its profits in the future.

The two sides’ respective stances concerning the profitability of new media have put them at loggerheads, causing the WGA to commence a strike which began on November 5^th. To this point the effect has been to immediately shut down late night shows of a topical nature such as the Late Show and The Colbert Report. Other shows have ceased production with networks left to air only the new episodes that were already completed when the writers took to the picket lines.

Currently, the effect being felt by people outside of Hollywood has been minimal, with only the shows that rely on daily productions being immediately forced into reruns. The Late Show, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien find themselves torn between supporting the writers who craft much of the show and the production crews that go unpaid as long as they honor the WGA’s picket line by not producing a show. Eventually, these shows may need to cross the line for the sake of all of the non-writing staff, much like Johnny Carson did back in 1988. Rumblings have been reported that say these shows will coordinate their return to the air, possibly before the end of the year.

So far one variety show has broken with the rest of the group and failed to honor the strike, with Ellen DeGeneres giving a less than sincere effort to justify her crossing of the picket line. Although Ellen was able to skip nearly a week of shows because she was upset about her lapdog Iggy, she only stood with the writers for one day before resuming her regular production schedule. With this the WGA East and West has had a field day, issuing press releases condemning Ellen and accusing her of violating the strike by performing written material for her monologue, to which Ellen denies.

For the rest of television, it won’t be too long until we feel the effects of their halt in production. While many showrunners have refused to cross the picket line the complete episodes already in production, a few have covertly gone back to produce everything they already had a script for. Regardless of whether a show has completely halted production yet, soon scripts will no longer be available and networks will only be able to air what they currently have in the can. So those waiting to find out what will happen with Lost can only hope for nine episodes in the foreseeable future. Anything after those nine air will be left up to when this strike will be resolved.

So what will the networks do if they run out of new shows and grow tired of reruns? Well, a prolonged stoppage will likely lead to further reality programming which will most likely be more ghastly and trite then the current crop of unscripted television we’re offered today. So if you thought Skating with the Stars was a crappy knock-off of an already terrible show, Dancing with the Stars, and you found Fox’s Temptation Island to be a poor use of the airwaves we allow the networks broadcast over for free, then you’ll likely root for a speedy resolution to the strike. But if you’re a reality TV nut who’s been praying for a day when American Gladiators will return, then this strike is the answer to those prayers; the gladiators will be back January 6^th.

Although this is expected to be a protracted strike, there are positive signs being shown that it may end sooner than expected with sides expected to come back to the table on November 26^th to resume talks that broke off back on November 4^th. Whether either side will acquiesce, it can’t be predicted, but for those fans of TV and movies, a speedy resolution is hoped for although not expected.