John Eggerton

It's Time To Write A Happy Ending
January 23, 2008

This isn't exactly about Washington, but since striking writers will be in Washington to enlist legislators help this week, I figured that was enough to justify this observation.

It is time for the strike to be over. The Writers Guild of America put out a release this week saying they and the studios have agreed to scheduled informal meetings to talk about whether or not they are going to schedule formal meetings. In that same release, the guild talked about the fact that they are not going to talk with the media about what they talk about in those meetings.

My head hurts just thinking about that, as it does when I think about no longer getting fresh episodes of House and Boston Legal and a few others.

The writers for Jon Stewart's Daily Show and The Colbert Report have written a mock debate about the strike they will stage on Capitol Hill today. I will try to attend so I can get my fix. As I have said before, watching the first writer-less episode of Stewart's show convinced me of the importance of writers.

While the guild was warning its members not to stampede toward a deal in the wake of the Directors Guild of America tentative agreement with producers, which took only a handful of days to hammer out, apparently, compared to the going-on three months the writers and producers have been at an impasse.

Now, with talks back on, or at least talks about talking back on, hope has sprung eternal. For all the studios' talk of the strike not affecting them that much, a scaled-back, star-less Oscars would not do  much to help goose box office for that herd of dark horses nominated for best picture.

It is in everybody's interest, including my selfish, TV-addicted interest, for the industry to get back to what it does best--helping make Jon Stewart funny.

Posted by John Eggerton on January 23, 2008 | Comments (0)