The writers are walking

I was working late here on the East Coast when a new blog entry from Bloggers & Sisters popped up in my RSS reader. It’s a short entry, but not exactly sweet: “Happy belated Halloween, people. Things are about to get real weird.” Clicked over to the LA Times site, and sure enough, it looks like it means what I think it means.
The writers are going on strike.
According to the Times, the Writers Guild of America called for the strike at a meeting Thursday night. Formal plans will be announced Friday morning, with the walkout likely to start Monday.
There was some worried blogging about the prospect of a strike on Bloggers & Sisters a few days ago, and Jon Robin Baitz wrote a long, conflicted post about it in his Huffington Post column. It seems to have everyone a little rattled.
Viewers, too. Does this mean we’re going to tune in on Sunday night and find somebody eating bugs or guessing song lyrics? Not right away, anyway. News reports are indicating that most prime time programs have scripts written or produced through the beginning of the year. Late-night shows and daytime soaps will be the most immediate victims. But if the two sides don’t come together soon — issues at stake include increasing writers’ profits on DVD sales and giving them some on online programming — the Walkers may wind up going back to that spa in Ojai for a very long stay in the Quiet Room.
Time to dig out the old “I Survived the Writer’s Strike — Let’s Do Lunch Again” T-shirt I bought the last time this happened. And hope I’ll be able to wear it again real soon.
Brothers and Sisters, ABC, writer’s strike


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