Remember When We had TV Writers?

When I first moved into my house, the neighbor across the street was on strike; he worked for 3M Vinyl Coatings Division that made walnut style coatings used in automotive manufacturing. While he was on strike, the company decided it was not going to cope with a strike and put money into renovating an outdated facility, closed its doors forever. Nobody really won in that stalemate.

On August 3, 1981 nearly 74% of the 17,500 Air Traffic Controllers walked off the job. President Reagan responded with an ultimatum to return back to work within 48 hours or face termination. 1,200 controllers crossed the lines and went back to work. The results were: non-striking workers, supervisors and military personnel helped out with reduce airline traffic. Within a few months, the flying public found 80% of the amenities were back to normal. By October of that year the Federal Labor Relations Board decertified the union. The union had lost its battle with the government, its entire dues paying membership and millions of dollars in fines.

The Writers' Guild of America strike began November 5, 2007. Dire forecasts predicting loss of good television never materialized. The longest WGA strike to date was for five months during 1988. Television produces not wishing to become overly dependant on writers began to develop some interesting "reality" styled programs. Among them have been "Cops," "Court TV" and my favorite "Chases on the Los Angles Freeway."

Then came "Style Court," "Judge Wapner" and "Judge Judy" staring Judith Sheindlin, former supervising family court judge in Manhattan, NY. Judge Judy's famous un-scripted remark was "no point talking about how best to approach the problem (of needle exchange) since the solution is simple. Give them dirty needles, and let them die. I don't understand why we think it's important to keep them alive."

Of course we still have "Oprah" and "Doctor Phil" and the game shows, which are all un-scripted, all popular. Among the Reality shows were "The Bachelor," "The Bachelorette" and the "Real World" series. And then there are the reruns, err Syndication and then syndication of reruns where we can watch the good old days.

Writers Guild of America members, stay home, or keep picketing, who cares; maybe you will become one of those lost bygone features of ancient television. I'm having too much fun watching YouTube.

K.