Tuesday, November 6, 2007

STEEEEEEEEE-RIKE!!!

As I’m sure you know by now, the WGA writers’ strike is underway, and I honestly do not know how to feel on this completely. Especially since I am an aspiring writer. This affects pretty much almost everything. This has so many negative results to it, it’s not even funny. Even if you’re a soap or late night talk show fan. I never realized how much things will change until I realized that so many series are affected by this. In a nutshell, the writers want residuals from the shows they participate in; their DVD and Internet download sales.

Late night shows (i.e. The Late Show, The Tonight Show) as of last night are already in reruns.

Later on down the line, soaps could be replaced with sports coverage. Something the genre truly does not need to help redeem itself and get some of its fans back. They say that they have enough scripts to go through January.

Scrubs may not get a proper finale. I admit I don’t watch that show every week and I am not a huge fan, but at the same time it is just wrong for a show to have no real closure after being on the air for seven seasons. That is just completely wrong. Nothing more in the television industry ticks me off more than the idea of a show lasting years and years, and it just vanishes off the airwaves with no true end. The fans don’t deserve that.

It’s been a known fact that networks could decide after awhile that instead of just airing reruns, we could be seeing more reality shows since our favorites are now in hiatus. I hate this idea. And heaven knows I am sick of reality shows. To be frank, I’ll be damned before I start watching reality-filled blocks where my favorite prime time shows should be. That genre has just gotten old. I will watch old VHS tapes and DVDs any day of the week instead.

Though the conflicted feelings lie here: as a consumer, I am appalled at some of the current regular prices of DVD sets, and that is pretty much why my TV on DVD collection is rather low. It is all because of price. I would buy more in a much regular and faster pace in a heartbeat if I could afford to do it often. And whenever I buy something, it is when it’s an extreme bargain. For example, this past weekend I saw season 1 of The Golden Girls at Target for only $19.99, so I took advantage of that deal. A huge part of me fears that if the writers get paid more, this could cause the price of DVD's to become even higher. Then there’s another part of me thinking, “Meh, if they do get it, it won’t be so bad. Big companies like Viacom and Sony should be able to afford to give the writers the raises they want without having the consumer be screwed over in the end. After all, actors have gotten raises over the years and the DVD costs didn‘t skyrocket.” And fans deserve to have their favorite series on DVD without having to shovel out too much money. I also think, if I do become successful in the industry and work for a show that’s been on for years... in the end that it becomes canceled and I am able to find other work, I could need the residuals to help me out. I can definitely see the concern with that.

This has really made me think in the past couple of days.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My television disc collection is kind of low too, not just because of money, but because of the low number of releases of good series (I may be wrong about that, though). "Seinfeld" is getting a plum release (first season 9, then the whole series), and that is one series that I will not be buying-- I did not enjoy it at all. The same goes for "Friends" and "Raymond." I stick to the '60's, '70's, and '80's; they had at least one good series in all three of those decades (unfortunately, "Little House on the Prairie", in my opinion, was not a very good series, and as such, I have not purchased it). The only '90's series that I actually liked was "Star Trek: Voyager," but I cannot get it on disc because it is so overpriced (who pays $100 or more for a season of that?!).

Brandon said...

You know, there's so much I want to say about certain DVD releases, I might save that for a whole new entry. lol