Strike Over? (and other writer news)

Word has it that a breakthrough in contract talks has been reached between the WGA and the Hollywood studios that a deal could be made as early as next week. Work still needs to be getting done, apparently, though things look really good that an end could come.

I have to say that if this is finally over, I’m ecstatic at the idea that my primetime favorites such as Ugly Betty, Supernatural, Reaper, How I Met Your Mother, and Brothers & Sisters will seem to be back in order and that the season may be saved, it’ll probably just run a bit late. I admit, I don’t have many current favorites today, but the favorites I do have, I love and would have hated to see ruined because of something like this.

I had the feeling this would probably end not too long after the Golden Globes situation. They lost at least 80 million dollars from the strike pre-empting it. The Oscars were coming soon after and I’ll bet the big folks in charge didn’t want a repeat event, and since the Oscars is a much bigger event, they could have lost a lot more money if there was a chance that show didn’t go on as planned.

However, the one negative bit about this for me is that Jean Passanante will most likely be back as head writer on As The World Turns; which means that the show could become unwatchable again and the character assassination will continue. We could see more distasteful storylines like Adam Munson the attempted rapist, more of making the Snyder men holier than thou and the women on the show tawdry, i.e. Alison the druggie/porn star, Carly lying about her illness and choosing a man over her kids, Rosanna a kidnapper, Gwen losing her street smarts, etc. It’s sad that with only 4 out of 5 shows seen so far, you can tell that the show is doing better already when Jean Passanante is nowhere to be found. I mean, you’d think that scab writers would handle the show worse and not better.

In other soap news, Days of our Lives has fired its entire writing team, including head writer Hogan Sheffer. I have not seen all of Hogan’s reign, so I can’t comment much, but I’ll bet he was much better than James E. Reilly’s last run on the show. All I can truly say is for the love of God, NBC and Days, PLEASE hire competent writers. Please don’t get a head writer who blatantly shows favorites, does no storylines for the other characters, and disrespects show history. Get someone who’ll keep the integrity of the characters and the show in line, and won’t insult viewer intelligence as their potential storylines unfold. Get someone who gives a damn about their viewers.