The writers’ strike: It’s finally starting to sting

News like this “seemed to beg for satire,’’ said Joanna Weiss in The Boston Globe. Rudy Giuliani, as mayor of New York, used taxpayer-funded security for trysts with his mistress. Mitt Romney had to defend Mormonism, while Barack Obama campaigned with Oprah Winfrey. “The late-night-TV monologue jokes could have practically written themselves. But they didn’t, of course.” With the Hollywood writers’ strike now in its sixth week, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Conan O’Brien remain “mired in reruns,” and Saturday Night Live is never live. It’s no laughing matter. The presidential race is unfolding “with no one on hand to reprocess the news for late-night comedy shtick.” Candidates are getting away with gaffes that, two months ago, would have been the subject of nationwide ridicule. And without shows like Stewart’s, many young people, including Syracuse University student Margaret McGill, 19, have lost track of political news. “I feel like the world has stopped,” McGill says.

It’s only going to get worse, said Rachel Abramo­witz in the Los Angeles Times. Negotiations between the writers and the studios are in a state of collapse. So, “like a rolling blackout, Hollywood is shutting down.” The talk and sketch shows were the first to go. But over the next few weeks, prime-time comedies such as Desperate Housewives and dramas such as ER will also resort to reruns, since the episodes made before the strike are running out. And just wait until January, when there’ll be little to watch besides reruns, sports, and cheesy reality shows. Some industry insiders even are bracing for the possibility that the strike will wipe out the entire remainder of this year’s television season.

That may not be such a bad thing, said Ben Haaz in the San Francisco Chronicle. People who would otherwise spend their time collapsed on the couch “for hours of horizontal digestion in front of the television” may be forced to venture outside. Some may decide to take up a new hobby, or, gasp, pick up a book. Let’s keep it real, said Gregory Kane in the Baltimore Sun. The writers’ strike is not going change the way we live, but it might change what we watch. I, for one, now channel-surf with a much more open mind, and I have discovered some obscure shows and networks I didn’t know existed. Recently, I’ve been watching old episodes of The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Rifleman, and other classic series. Frankly, “much of it is a lot better than what’s on now”—even before the strike.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up