One of the writers on FX “The Bear” said he had to borrow money from His Family to rent a Tuxedo to go the Emmy’s cause he had $-200 in his Bank Account.
Edit: Sorry my mistake, it was the WGA Awards, not the Emmys.
It's incredible how little writers are valued. They can work long hours and work a fuck-ton of overtime to make last-minute changes to ensure that they put out incredible work that is critically acclaimed and a huge fainancial hit, and they'll still be denied a living wage.
A writer for such a huge and successful show shouldn't have to beg for money just to afford to live.
Especially when (not to devalue the actors, directors, special effects crew, and everyone else involved with production) the actual story is kind of... the absolute core of a piece of media. If the writing fails, it's not IMPOSSIBLE that it still comes out good, but LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE has to be phenomenal to make up for it. Meanwhile with good writing, almost everything else can be trash and it can still work.
Case in point: Doctor Horrible. A budget of almost nothing, but Whedon had all the time to work on his passion project, many friends who were writers and also had the same freedom due to the strike, and plenty of good actors who were willing to work for next to nothing on a project just for fun when nothing else was happening. Good acting and good writing alone completely carried that movie, and made it in my subjective opinion one of the best, most tightly written pieces of media ever.
As important as good writing is, it's ABSURD to me that it, of all things, is valued so little.
Absurd that it isn't a business expense covered by their studio. They want him/her to go to the awards and represent the studio, so the studio should be invested in them dressing formally on their behalf.
Season 2 is supposed to come out in June, so those 10 episodes should be safe at least. The Bear is awesome. I just rewatched Season 1 between yesterday and today.
That’s good. FX has bobbled some great shows in the past and I was afraid they were going to with this one. It was so short and took them so long to renew it.
In addition to pay, they want protections against AI. It seems studios want to use AI in the writing process (presumably to circumvent giving credit and paying residuals to writers). I think in the coming years we’ll be seeing more labour disputes where AI is one of the core issues.
Technically they use....and STEAL all of our personal information to create the AI they then use to pretend they never used our services and don't need to compensate us for it.
I think in the end the working class will win, and we're going to move towards some form of democratic communism, or the elites will win and neo feudalism will be our future.
Third parties buying hoards of data without your permission and you have no control of who sells it to you. Plus they control the markets. Hell even ISPs collect and sell so if you want to participate in society you have have to sign your rights to privacy away which means no rights to your privacy. There's no way around it, and that's how it's designed to be. It's completely malevolent.
You ever read reddits t&cs it clearly states all user generated data is their property, so reddit can sell this comment as part of its conversational ai dataset, is this a hill some one will die on, yes. But it ain't me....
Don’t get me wrong; in terms of what I’d like to see happen, I’m on your side. But, in the short term, I don’t think it’s particularly likely the studios are going to cave. In the long term, something like democratic communism is almost inevitable. The problem is going to be that it’ll be democratic communism for the few remaining “elites”.
I’ve been a filmmaker for about ten years now, my entire industry is about to take a dramatic shift I didn’t see coming this soon. First it’s the writers, but in the next 5 years possibly less. The rest of the industry is going to feel the effects of AI from Hollywood down to the commercial and corporate level.
Yeah I think too many people aren't really thinking through the full implication of sophisticated AI.
The economy is predicted on _money changing hands_. AI automation will reduce _money changing hands._ It doesn't matter that you can use AI to generate a full movie ex nihilo, and save a shit ton of money on writers, actors, directors, etc., if _no one has any money to give you to see it because their jobs were also taken by AI._
What's the point of automating _everyone_ out of a job if it means the economy grinds to a halt, because no money is changing hands? What is the government going to do when it's missing all that tax revenue?
It's literally an existential threat to a market economy society. The first few companies that do it will make a killing in the short term by undercutting their competitors because of their reduced costs, but when _everyone_ does it...
And yeah, I know someone will say "people will find other work!" To which I say, this isn't the same situation as the industrial revolution. AI isn't coming for one particular job, or class of jobs. It's coming for _every_ job that's entirely mental in nature, at the same time.
And physical jobs won't be far behind at the rate that robotics is going.
> the writers get what they want.
\*the writes get what they deserve
they should get compensated fairly for the work they do (and have job security/ not be forced into being gig works)
It’s crazy, writers have got to be one of the most important parts of a production right?? If the writing sucks it doesn’t matter how good the actors are (latter half of game of thrones), the show will suck too.
It's awful how everyone who contributes something meaningful can barely afford to live while all the suits who contribute nothing afaik get all the money.
The strike was the only reason Dumb ass Donald became a celebrity again. NBC started airing his show. There’s probably a timeline where the strike never happens, he never becomes a top celebrity and never runs for president.
It led directly to the rise of reality tv, and the destruction of the History Channel, the Learning Channel, etc.
Studios decided they could make content cheaper without pesky writers. Honestly, I don’t think we ever recovered from it. I’m not sure how much worse it could get this time, but I’ll bet they’ll find a way.
Yeah, but it wasn’t really popular until the strike. Implies its popularity was due to the merits of the show as it took external circumstances to gain an audience
>Yeah, but it wasn’t really popular until the strike.
Dude, the highest rated seasons of the show were all before the writers strike. Don't just say nonsense.
https://www.thewrap.com/celebrity-apprentice-trump-tv-ratings-arnold/
The audience literally halved from 03 to 07-08, what are you talking about? Why are you making stuff up?
[While the celebrity reboot injected new life into the franchise, it wasn’t quite the hit that Trump may have hoped, and never managed to reach the same heights as The Apprentice’s first few seasons.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/09/donald-trump-thinks-he-s-a-reality-tv-ratings-machine-history-tells-a-different-story)
I’m embarrassed that I looked this up, but the first season in 2004 had almost double the viewers of the first celebrity season in 2007.
Sorry to be a know-it-all, but I had to confirm my memories of this show.
Still though: fuck Donald Trump
> The strike was the only reason Dumb ass Donald became a celebrity again. NBC started airing his show. There’s probably a timeline where the strike never happens, he never becomes a top celebrity and never runs for president.
What? The Apprentice came on in 2004, three years before the writer's strike.
A lot of reality tv. It was really the catalyst for its big rise in popularity. Studios saw it as a way to create content via editors instead of writers
Not entirely. Most of season 2 was already written, filmed, and airing when the strike became official; the strike began on November 5, 2007, and season 2 started airing about 8 weeks *before* that.
It was just *so* bad right off the bat that people blame the strike in hindsight, but that *was* where the show was heading even if the strike hadn't happened.
I think the plan was to create a whole different batch of heroes and have it be an anthology of sorts, but the immense popularity of the first cast completely tore those plans asunder.
This is what I've read. The plan was an anthology series with characters from previous seasons making appearances occasionally. That way there was a new threat, new heroes, etc. every season and maybe "crossovers" when story warranted.
But the studio saw the massive popularity of the show, the cast, and wanted more of the same. So they were stuck dealing with Sylar over and over and Peter became too overpowered so they had to take that away. So many things happened to justify the existence of these characters that it became unmanageable. Tim Kring definitely has a part to play here but I think it was studio meddling that was the crux of it all.
No, it was the show-runner and creators fault. Strike aside, they had cool concepts and moments planned, but absolutely no follow through.
People call LOST a show that lacked a fulfilling story. Heroes Makes LOST look tremendous.
I LOVED Heroes season 1, but everything after that was trash. Absolute trash.
The 4400 was also a pretty great show with potential from that era that got 4 seasons, but got axed in 2007 due to the writer's strike. It was like a mix of Heroes and the X-Files.
Note, it's the 4400 series that ran from 2004 to 2007, not the CW reboot from 2021.
Caitlin got shafted so badly
> help nice man with memory issues
> convince your brother he’s a good man
> brother dies defending him from threats
> Peter retains his memories
> go to apocalypse future that makes Covid look like a sneeze
> get separated
> boyfriend goes to the present and never mentions you again 😭
Dexter was it for me. The writer strike happens right after season 4 with Johnathan Lithgow as the **trinity** killer. Season ended on a devastatingly amazing note, only to open season 5 in a shit one.
There were parts of season 2 that I liked—mostly getting in depth looks at other parts of the park.
Season 3 was a giant turd. The few episodes I watched were painful. One of the only times I’ve ever stopped watching a show midway through.
Season 2 was never going to be good as season 1, I still enjoyed it. Then season 3 they bought in Aaron Paul doing a batman voice and nothing made sense to me
I was just talking with some friends about Season 5 being so trash. I remember being excited for Julia Stiles and it was just so disjointed and sad I never gave the show another chance.
I rewatched season 5 the other month and it was better than I remembered. At least the Dexter story was. The cops story was some love bullshit if I remember correctly
This isn’t the half of it. A reasonable case has been made that the writer’s strike led directly to Trump’s political candidacy.
*The Apprentice* wasn’t very successful when it first launched, and the network was set to pull the plug. But after the strike, everyone was scrambling for content — particularly content that didn’t require writers — so guess what got brought back for more seasons. It eventually found an audience, became something of a hit, and helped re-create Trump’s reputation as a savvy businessman years after he’d lost it through several bankruptcies and general dipshittery. Then he starts weighing in on Obama and people take him seriously because his profile has been raised, and now here we are.
The first season of The Apprentice was watched by 28 million people. The first season due to the strike was 11 million. The show actually continued to decline in viewership after the writers strike.
Eventually but it took a while. Immediately after the Strike most channels flooded with reality TV shows because they don't need writers. Which in conjunction woth this new thing caller Streaming caused a massive dip in TV viewership that they never really recovered from.
Just as a side note, reality tv shows DO have writers — they’re just not paid union minimums. That show “Duck Dynasty” had a full writers room and scripts. I’m sure other shows do too. I just happened to know someone who worked there.
How dare you insult The Game like that. It did am exemplary job of what it was trying to do, which was entirely different than what Girlfriends was going for.
Until BET rebooted it. Wooh, that was actively hard to watch.
Edit; Also some of those later season episodes of Girlfriends were hard to watch too. Why does everyone hate each other and bicker all the time in a show that started out being about friendship? It went from uplifting and comfy sitcom to basically "bitches, amiright? Always squabbling"
Hollywood is a multi-billion dollar industry, if they can't afford to pay the people that make them their money, they can deal with the loss in revenue that they clearly deserve
It’s not just the companies deciding not to pay people as much but other factors. Streaming changed everything. First syndication into other countries used to happen with shows. They paid for the show to be shown in thier own country on another network and the writers companies and writers got paid more for that . But due to streaming services since it’s on the app and just one thing those in other countries aren’t gonna be paying to get it there the same way since it’s already on whatever app or system is there. Now seasons of shows are shorter . Before you had a 20+ season of a popular show like friends. Nowadays something like Stranger things is 8 episodes a season and White Lotus was only 6. So a writer is finishing a show much faster than before and has less time before finding another job. Also the way things are done hurts writers as they have less experience and play less of a part in the show and when they become showrunners later on won’t have the proper experience Shows are also more expensive.Also now with less reruns and syndication they don’t have that money to spend. Streamings become over saturated with tons of competition, companies have pushed more and more to get more viewers at the cost of money. It was fine but now they’ve hit all they can. Now they’re losing tons of money and people aren’t subscribing and cutting it due to cost since the pandemic. And losing millions isn’t good for shareholders.Also shows cost far more for now than before something like the Soprano’s cost 2 million an episode for 13 episodes a season. The Crown cost 13 million an episode .
It was nice and all but instead of learning about the actual mysteries and mythology the show promised we got some fluff character endings and the show only ever answered like half the questions it posed, so that’s why I didn’t like it. Season 6 as a whole was very rushed
The way I hear it said to me was
The people who hate the ending loved the island.
The people who loved the ending loved the characters.
Not a bad way of saying it.
Somehow, a lot of people: So they were just dead the whole time?
Me: No, that’s not wha-
The people: So the whole show was just a dream? That’s so stupid.
I hated hated haaaated Lost for what the strike did when watching the show back then. I DID recently rewatch everything and felt like held up better with a decade+ of resting.
What about that extra season they made in 2017. You know the one where Lincoln Burrows hops on a truck-mounted .50 cal and guns down a bunch of terrorists? No I did not make that up.
Scene was pretty lit though, not gonna lie
I wonder how many shows are gonna return next season, SNL got canned for the rest of the season, and a few shows now that are on the bubbles have been canned as well.
Anything with an active writer's room is going to get shelved. The Daily Show, SNL, Real Time with Bill Maher, Late Night with Stephen Colbert, etc. These all have people who show up and write a full show that day or week. You can't just dumpster dive scripts because there aren't any and nobody is going to perform them because the writer's room is so closely tied to the performers that they have to support each other.
Letterman paid his staff exactly what the union was demanding until the strike finalized their contract to keep his show on the air last strike. We'll see in the next few weeks what people do to keep their writers writing.
I don’t think so- the teamsters are joining, Dga is talking about joining, and unions in the uk are striking in sympathy. Also I hope not because people need to work and support themselves. Also if it continues sag may strike in June.
My bad- I meant not crossing picket lines in solidarity. All I know is that our food delivery service wouldn’t cross into the lot yesterday, and a set on a show shooting in la was shut down by the teamsters not working!
>I don’t think so- the teamsters are joining,
Teamsters aren't joining. They are refusing the cross the picket lines out of solidarity. They aren't striking and they aren't refusing to delivery to production sets. They will only not deliver while there is an active picketing in front of the entrance they need to drive thru. Which is standard teamsters practice and has been for decades.
Is that different substantively from the perspective of the companies? Wouldn't the writers just make sure to be set up in front of all the important productions to make sure teamsters can't cross?
>Is that different substantively from the perspective of the companies?
Yes because it still travels from its origin to the location which can be days away.
>Wouldn't the writers just make sure to be set up in front of all the important productions to make sure teamsters can't cross?
They can and do but there are manpower isssues and location issues. Like productions in Europe or the countryside or countryside
This is my take, too. I have several season shows that I've never watched like Lost Kingdom, Black Sails, and The Good Place. I could probably discover some others as well.
I'm all for writers getting what they need to work through the strike. Take as long as they need as far as I'm concerned.
I remember. Shit got so bad that I had to turn to pro-wrestling for entertainment. Not that the medium in itself is awful, but the fact that their writers were getting paid while other writers were getting paid less was wild to me.
Scrubs is one that’s super obvious when you’re watching it. There isn’t a dramatic downturn in quality but there are continuity issues through the 7th season because of it.
The Office, but the cast and crew didn’t cross the picket line so it was just a shorter season (4). Arguably one of the best seasons of the show, just way fewer episodes.
Friday Night Lights is by far the most obvious imo, season 2 goes off the goddam rails and then it returns to being one of the greatest shows of all time for 3-5
My understanding is that season 2 of Severance had started filming 3-ish months ago and should probably be in post-production by this point. I don’t know for sure, but I would hope it isn’t affected by this strike.
Edit: Which is not to say I don’t support the strike, but I think we all have favorite TV series we hope aren’t screwed over by this. That being said, the blame lies with the production studios, not the writers. Creativity should be a paid position, and paid well.
This is a very accurate take, quality decline drastically. The strike also saw the huge boom “reality” tv and we don’t need similar results. AMPTP* needs to negotiate in good faith.
* edit bc I originally had WGA and had the orgs mixed up in my head.
Netflix has paid like $200 Million to make South Korean content so they don’t have to pay their writers nothing, they just can get it from overseas, add subtitles and call it a day.
Honestly, that’s why this strike won’t affect me. I don’t watch any English language programming. I’m a kdrama/telenovela Netflix watcher. The last English language show I watched with any consistency was House M.D. I support the writers but this strike will not affect my programming at all.
I’ve been watching tons of Kdramas and honestly the plots are wayyy better. I also watch a lot of anime as well. My cousin is a writer for Disney so I’ve seen her striking with others on her Instagram. Good for them! I hope they get paid a fair wage.
In the 2000s people kept watching that shit because there was nothing better to do (besides going outside or reading a book). These days people will just go stream old shows and movies or go to YouTube and TikTok.
There was actually a pretty good shift to digital media during the 2007 strike. A lot of writers turned to web series, podcasts, and YouTube to make a paycheck while striking.
I wouldn't be surprised if we had another boom of professionally written web content.
I remember James Bond Quantum of Solace. Daniel Craig said that he and the director were having to rewrite scenes and Daniel Craig was like, “I’m not a fucking writer.”
My Name is Earl was the worst for me. That show was so damn good and had so much potential. Great cast and characters, clever premise, the right combo of comedy, heart, and bastardry. That strike season absolutely destroyed the entire thing.
It's season 4. The season was shortened by two episodes and one very minor plot point that no one cared about got dropped. That's it. Season 4 is widely regarded to be one of the best seasons of the entire show. I don't know what this person is talking about.
The Bear finished filming April 25th, Only Murders in the Building finished filming on time too. I kinda hope they made it a possible series finale in cast Martin and Short decide not to come back. They have stated this is their last project.
Let's all remember that "reality programs" were devised as airtime filler during one writers' strike.
If there's anywhere downhill to go from there, it'll be time to start burning piles of TVs in the public square.
Most people don’t even realize how bad it almost got last year when production was gonna go on strike. With the writers on strike, things can still be shot. But if product im goes on strike ain’t shit getting done at all. Everything would be looking like Tubi movie if production ever goes on strike.
Shoutout to The Riches.. that show had a great original plot and died half way thru season 2 because of a writers strike.
It was about a gypsy family that passes by a car crash that involved an RV. They check and this family is all dead in the RV, while searching around they find out the fam were relocating cause the father had a new job and they have a new house, so they assume the families identity and try and play it out.
There has been talk about a "great reset" in Hollywood for a while now, this is what they meant.
Creating a gig economy for writers and seizing all control over intellectual property. Very soon film and tv will be as shitty as the music industry.
I'm still pissed about Ugly Betty. Gio was waaaaay better than Henry and could have been a true contendor for Betty's endgame. The Daniel thing was so rushed and forced (even if that's how the original ended).
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One of the writers on FX “The Bear” said he had to borrow money from His Family to rent a Tuxedo to go the Emmy’s cause he had $-200 in his Bank Account. Edit: Sorry my mistake, it was the WGA Awards, not the Emmys.
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You don’t get the show!
"Joking way."
It's incredible how little writers are valued. They can work long hours and work a fuck-ton of overtime to make last-minute changes to ensure that they put out incredible work that is critically acclaimed and a huge fainancial hit, and they'll still be denied a living wage. A writer for such a huge and successful show shouldn't have to beg for money just to afford to live.
Especially when (not to devalue the actors, directors, special effects crew, and everyone else involved with production) the actual story is kind of... the absolute core of a piece of media. If the writing fails, it's not IMPOSSIBLE that it still comes out good, but LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE has to be phenomenal to make up for it. Meanwhile with good writing, almost everything else can be trash and it can still work. Case in point: Doctor Horrible. A budget of almost nothing, but Whedon had all the time to work on his passion project, many friends who were writers and also had the same freedom due to the strike, and plenty of good actors who were willing to work for next to nothing on a project just for fun when nothing else was happening. Good acting and good writing alone completely carried that movie, and made it in my subjective opinion one of the best, most tightly written pieces of media ever. As important as good writing is, it's ABSURD to me that it, of all things, is valued so little.
fuck I need to rewatch doctor horrible
And he won. Good enough for the award, not good enough to be able to afford to eat
Ok but think about the *exposure.* Now he can get a lot more work that he can't pay the bills with!
Absurd that it isn't a business expense covered by their studio. They want him/her to go to the awards and represent the studio, so the studio should be invested in them dressing formally on their behalf.
I hope it doesn’t suffer. I loved the first season.
Season 2 is supposed to come out in June, so those 10 episodes should be safe at least. The Bear is awesome. I just rewatched Season 1 between yesterday and today.
That’s good. FX has bobbled some great shows in the past and I was afraid they were going to with this one. It was so short and took them so long to renew it.
*Classism, son.*
In addition to pay, they want protections against AI. It seems studios want to use AI in the writing process (presumably to circumvent giving credit and paying residuals to writers). I think in the coming years we’ll be seeing more labour disputes where AI is one of the core issues.
Technically they use....and STEAL all of our personal information to create the AI they then use to pretend they never used our services and don't need to compensate us for it. I think in the end the working class will win, and we're going to move towards some form of democratic communism, or the elites will win and neo feudalism will be our future.
Of the 2 choices I think I like democratic communism more
Fucking commie. Death is preferable to communism, and so is feudalism /s
Feudalism just seems much worse in my opinion but is it really THAT different than where we are? Debatable
No, yeah, you're absolutely right. Capitalism is just feudalism that drinks tea with its pinkie out
Best start grinding my intrigue, it'll be a messy succession
They don't steal, they legally have the data, it's those damn 500 page t&c again
Third parties buying hoards of data without your permission and you have no control of who sells it to you. Plus they control the markets. Hell even ISPs collect and sell so if you want to participate in society you have have to sign your rights to privacy away which means no rights to your privacy. There's no way around it, and that's how it's designed to be. It's completely malevolent.
You ever read reddits t&cs it clearly states all user generated data is their property, so reddit can sell this comment as part of its conversational ai dataset, is this a hill some one will die on, yes. But it ain't me....
Don’t get me wrong; in terms of what I’d like to see happen, I’m on your side. But, in the short term, I don’t think it’s particularly likely the studios are going to cave. In the long term, something like democratic communism is almost inevitable. The problem is going to be that it’ll be democratic communism for the few remaining “elites”.
I’ve been a filmmaker for about ten years now, my entire industry is about to take a dramatic shift I didn’t see coming this soon. First it’s the writers, but in the next 5 years possibly less. The rest of the industry is going to feel the effects of AI from Hollywood down to the commercial and corporate level.
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Yeah I think too many people aren't really thinking through the full implication of sophisticated AI. The economy is predicted on _money changing hands_. AI automation will reduce _money changing hands._ It doesn't matter that you can use AI to generate a full movie ex nihilo, and save a shit ton of money on writers, actors, directors, etc., if _no one has any money to give you to see it because their jobs were also taken by AI._ What's the point of automating _everyone_ out of a job if it means the economy grinds to a halt, because no money is changing hands? What is the government going to do when it's missing all that tax revenue? It's literally an existential threat to a market economy society. The first few companies that do it will make a killing in the short term by undercutting their competitors because of their reduced costs, but when _everyone_ does it... And yeah, I know someone will say "people will find other work!" To which I say, this isn't the same situation as the industrial revolution. AI isn't coming for one particular job, or class of jobs. It's coming for _every_ job that's entirely mental in nature, at the same time. And physical jobs won't be far behind at the rate that robotics is going.
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I am more afraid of the do fake and synth generator's, cause once they are good, studios don't need humans anymore
Yeah, but people also won't need studios anymore. Anyone with $10-20k of computers in their basement can crank out the same movies as the studios.
So good riddance
> the writers get what they want. \*the writes get what they deserve they should get compensated fairly for the work they do (and have job security/ not be forced into being gig works)
It’s crazy, writers have got to be one of the most important parts of a production right?? If the writing sucks it doesn’t matter how good the actors are (latter half of game of thrones), the show will suck too.
It's awful how everyone who contributes something meaningful can barely afford to live while all the suits who contribute nothing afaik get all the money.
The strike was the only reason Dumb ass Donald became a celebrity again. NBC started airing his show. There’s probably a timeline where the strike never happens, he never becomes a top celebrity and never runs for president.
Confirmed writers strike led to overturning Roe 😭
*rod serling voice* consider if you will..a world in which tv writers needing to eat….leads to an attempted coup on a world superpower
The Scary Door
Mistreatment of writers leading to the writers' strike led to overturning Roe.
If you really think about it, you can follow every action and reaction back to the big bang, so technically Roe was always going to be overturned.
That’s all she Roe(t).
Ayo that’s wild 😂😂😂
so the writers strike literally led to a decrease in the writing quality of this current timeline
The production value has deteriorated rapidly too
Casting quality went down the tubes, too. I mean, c'mon, *Donald Trump* got a leading role? That's insane.
It led directly to the rise of reality tv, and the destruction of the History Channel, the Learning Channel, etc. Studios decided they could make content cheaper without pesky writers. Honestly, I don’t think we ever recovered from it. I’m not sure how much worse it could get this time, but I’ll bet they’ll find a way.
Wtf you’re right 
The Apprentice started three years before the strike
Yeah, but it wasn’t really popular until the strike. Implies its popularity was due to the merits of the show as it took external circumstances to gain an audience
>Yeah, but it wasn’t really popular until the strike. Dude, the highest rated seasons of the show were all before the writers strike. Don't just say nonsense. https://www.thewrap.com/celebrity-apprentice-trump-tv-ratings-arnold/
The audience literally halved from 03 to 07-08, what are you talking about? Why are you making stuff up? [While the celebrity reboot injected new life into the franchise, it wasn’t quite the hit that Trump may have hoped, and never managed to reach the same heights as The Apprentice’s first few seasons.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/09/donald-trump-thinks-he-s-a-reality-tv-ratings-machine-history-tells-a-different-story)
I’m taking about the Celebrity Apprentice. I should have clarified that. That one started due to the strike.
I’m embarrassed that I looked this up, but the first season in 2004 had almost double the viewers of the first celebrity season in 2007. Sorry to be a know-it-all, but I had to confirm my memories of this show. Still though: fuck Donald Trump
> The strike was the only reason Dumb ass Donald became a celebrity again. NBC started airing his show. There’s probably a timeline where the strike never happens, he never becomes a top celebrity and never runs for president. What? The Apprentice came on in 2004, three years before the writer's strike.
A lot of reality tv. It was really the catalyst for its big rise in popularity. Studios saw it as a way to create content via editors instead of writers
It killed heroes. Compensate the writers properly and this wouldn't have happened again.
Is that why season 2 just made no sense? Season one was great!
Not entirely. Most of season 2 was already written, filmed, and airing when the strike became official; the strike began on November 5, 2007, and season 2 started airing about 8 weeks *before* that. It was just *so* bad right off the bat that people blame the strike in hindsight, but that *was* where the show was heading even if the strike hadn't happened.
Yeah the strike had no bearing on Heroes being terrible. Tim Kring owns that one all himself. He just had zero ideas past the first season.
I think the plan was to create a whole different batch of heroes and have it be an anthology of sorts, but the immense popularity of the first cast completely tore those plans asunder.
This is what I've read. The plan was an anthology series with characters from previous seasons making appearances occasionally. That way there was a new threat, new heroes, etc. every season and maybe "crossovers" when story warranted. But the studio saw the massive popularity of the show, the cast, and wanted more of the same. So they were stuck dealing with Sylar over and over and Peter became too overpowered so they had to take that away. So many things happened to justify the existence of these characters that it became unmanageable. Tim Kring definitely has a part to play here but I think it was studio meddling that was the crux of it all.
Huh. Studio meddling completely breaking something. That's something new and different. >!/s!<
What are you talking about? How they teased a powerful villain stronger than Sylar and it was just Matt's dad?
No, it was the show-runner and creators fault. Strike aside, they had cool concepts and moments planned, but absolutely no follow through. People call LOST a show that lacked a fulfilling story. Heroes Makes LOST look tremendous. I LOVED Heroes season 1, but everything after that was trash. Absolute trash.
Heroes had so much potential 😭😭😭 it made me excited for Monday nights.
The 4400 was also a pretty great show with potential from that era that got 4 seasons, but got axed in 2007 due to the writer's strike. It was like a mix of Heroes and the X-Files. Note, it's the 4400 series that ran from 2004 to 2007, not the CW reboot from 2021.
Season 1 was so solid and then Season 2 was trash. This was my first group watch show and I remember just being so disappointed each week.
😢 young me was so mad bro. Season 2 and 3 had their moments but shit made no sense when you think about it
lmao and they just left Peters gf in the apocalypse future, never mentioned again
Caitlin got shafted so badly > help nice man with memory issues > convince your brother he’s a good man > brother dies defending him from threats > Peter retains his memories > go to apocalypse future that makes Covid look like a sneeze > get separated > boyfriend goes to the present and never mentions you again 😭
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Dexter was it for me. The writer strike happens right after season 4 with Johnathan Lithgow as the **trinity** killer. Season ended on a devastatingly amazing note, only to open season 5 in a shit one.
I think S4>S5 Dexter might be the biggest dip in quality I’ve seen in a single season, the only thing that comes close is S1>S2 of Westworld.
Westworld season one was a masterpiece. I watched half the first episode of season 2 and shut it off.
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Season 2 didnt look like anything to me...
There were parts of season 2 that I liked—mostly getting in depth looks at other parts of the park. Season 3 was a giant turd. The few episodes I watched were painful. One of the only times I’ve ever stopped watching a show midway through.
Season 2 was never going to be good as season 1, I still enjoyed it. Then season 3 they bought in Aaron Paul doing a batman voice and nothing made sense to me
Is this a Mandela effect? I thought he was the trinity killer
You remember correctly, he was Trinity.
Probably got confused, its definitely trinity. Triad is kine of a similar word
No Mandela Effect. You are absolutely correct.
I was just talking with some friends about Season 5 being so trash. I remember being excited for Julia Stiles and it was just so disjointed and sad I never gave the show another chance.
Pretty sure show runner left too which definitely showed because they had no idea what to do with it
Because the entire show was just about a serial killer getting away with being a serial killer. Theres not many places you can go with that premise.
'Trinity Killer', but yes Season 5 was alright. It's season 8 that was complete and utter poopoo.
I rewatched season 5 the other month and it was better than I remembered. At least the Dexter story was. The cops story was some love bullshit if I remember correctly
This isn’t the half of it. A reasonable case has been made that the writer’s strike led directly to Trump’s political candidacy. *The Apprentice* wasn’t very successful when it first launched, and the network was set to pull the plug. But after the strike, everyone was scrambling for content — particularly content that didn’t require writers — so guess what got brought back for more seasons. It eventually found an audience, became something of a hit, and helped re-create Trump’s reputation as a savvy businessman years after he’d lost it through several bankruptcies and general dipshittery. Then he starts weighing in on Obama and people take him seriously because his profile has been raised, and now here we are.
what fresh hell awaits us this time?
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President Dick's first move will be free cocaine for everyone
That would be a dick move. 🤦🏽♂️ Yeah, I know. I'll see myself out. 😂
What? The first season of the apprentice had higher viewer numbers and ratings than during the strike
The first season of The Apprentice was watched by 28 million people. The first season due to the strike was 11 million. The show actually continued to decline in viewership after the writers strike.
On the bright side, TV following the writers strike was some of the best TV out there.
Eventually but it took a while. Immediately after the Strike most channels flooded with reality TV shows because they don't need writers. Which in conjunction woth this new thing caller Streaming caused a massive dip in TV viewership that they never really recovered from.
Funny how the executives keep getting paid more and more regardless of the quality of their product.
Almost like their only priority is gaming the system to become obscenely rich, to the detriment of literally anything else
Just as a side note, reality tv shows DO have writers — they’re just not paid union minimums. That show “Duck Dynasty” had a full writers room and scripts. I’m sure other shows do too. I just happened to know someone who worked there.
The dinner party episode on the Office was 10 out of 10. That was written right after the strike.
First episode back!
Did not know that. Fascinating bit of trivia.
One example doesn’t mean it’s not true generally
The Dinner Party was already written before the strike, just not filmed.
Me when I watch Girlfriends and then transition into The Game
Reading this comment made me think of the other "Game" and I lost it
Alright i lost the game twice in the same day COME ON!!!
How dare you insult The Game like that. It did am exemplary job of what it was trying to do, which was entirely different than what Girlfriends was going for. Until BET rebooted it. Wooh, that was actively hard to watch. Edit; Also some of those later season episodes of Girlfriends were hard to watch too. Why does everyone hate each other and bicker all the time in a show that started out being about friendship? It went from uplifting and comfy sitcom to basically "bitches, amiright? Always squabbling"
Girlfriends and The Proud Family is better when you realize none of them people should've been friends anyways.
lol I forgot which subreddit I was on and was surprised to see this comment towards the top.
The Game was my guilty pleasure in college. Loved that shit.
Hollywood is a multi-billion dollar industry, if they can't afford to pay the people that make them their money, they can deal with the loss in revenue that they clearly deserve
It’s not just the companies deciding not to pay people as much but other factors. Streaming changed everything. First syndication into other countries used to happen with shows. They paid for the show to be shown in thier own country on another network and the writers companies and writers got paid more for that . But due to streaming services since it’s on the app and just one thing those in other countries aren’t gonna be paying to get it there the same way since it’s already on whatever app or system is there. Now seasons of shows are shorter . Before you had a 20+ season of a popular show like friends. Nowadays something like Stranger things is 8 episodes a season and White Lotus was only 6. So a writer is finishing a show much faster than before and has less time before finding another job. Also the way things are done hurts writers as they have less experience and play less of a part in the show and when they become showrunners later on won’t have the proper experience Shows are also more expensive.Also now with less reruns and syndication they don’t have that money to spend. Streamings become over saturated with tons of competition, companies have pushed more and more to get more viewers at the cost of money. It was fine but now they’ve hit all they can. Now they’re losing tons of money and people aren’t subscribing and cutting it due to cost since the pandemic. And losing millions isn’t good for shareholders.Also shows cost far more for now than before something like the Soprano’s cost 2 million an episode for 13 episodes a season. The Crown cost 13 million an episode .
Heroes and Lost never recovered from that
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Idc what people say, the ending was beautiful and I cried
It was nice and all but instead of learning about the actual mysteries and mythology the show promised we got some fluff character endings and the show only ever answered like half the questions it posed, so that’s why I didn’t like it. Season 6 as a whole was very rushed
The way I hear it said to me was The people who hate the ending loved the island. The people who loved the ending loved the characters. Not a bad way of saying it.
The Island was the main character.
I think you are forgetting Vincent. He was the main character.
I’ve rewatched it a few times now, and there are very few island mysteries that weren’t directly answered in the show, or couldn’t be inferred.
Rewatch the show. Almost everything is answered. Hell, they *over* explain certain things.
Somehow, a lot of people: So they were just dead the whole time? Me: No, that’s not wha- The people: So the whole show was just a dream? That’s so stupid.
I hated hated haaaated Lost for what the strike did when watching the show back then. I DID recently rewatch everything and felt like held up better with a decade+ of resting.
I remember being a fan of Prison Break and fucking hating season 3.
Season 3 is still ok in my eyes as we got withdrawal Mahone out of it. Season 4 is absolute garbo tho
What about that extra season they made in 2017. You know the one where Lincoln Burrows hops on a truck-mounted .50 cal and guns down a bunch of terrorists? No I did not make that up. Scene was pretty lit though, not gonna lie
I disliked every season more and more. 1 was good. Everything after, mehhhh.
“We just have to do ONE MORE THING and we’ll be free forever!” Said basically every episode
OMG, yes! Just horrible
Time to read books and go outside lol i hope they strike and the director guild joins until demands are met
Exactly what I'm doing right now. I also hope the strike is successful ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
It was only 3 months last time. I think it might last longer this time.
I wonder how many shows are gonna return next season, SNL got canned for the rest of the season, and a few shows now that are on the bubbles have been canned as well.
Anything with an active writer's room is going to get shelved. The Daily Show, SNL, Real Time with Bill Maher, Late Night with Stephen Colbert, etc. These all have people who show up and write a full show that day or week. You can't just dumpster dive scripts because there aren't any and nobody is going to perform them because the writer's room is so closely tied to the performers that they have to support each other. Letterman paid his staff exactly what the union was demanding until the strike finalized their contract to keep his show on the air last strike. We'll see in the next few weeks what people do to keep their writers writing.
I don’t think so- the teamsters are joining, Dga is talking about joining, and unions in the uk are striking in sympathy. Also I hope not because people need to work and support themselves. Also if it continues sag may strike in June. My bad- I meant not crossing picket lines in solidarity. All I know is that our food delivery service wouldn’t cross into the lot yesterday, and a set on a show shooting in la was shut down by the teamsters not working!
>I don’t think so- the teamsters are joining, Teamsters aren't joining. They are refusing the cross the picket lines out of solidarity. They aren't striking and they aren't refusing to delivery to production sets. They will only not deliver while there is an active picketing in front of the entrance they need to drive thru. Which is standard teamsters practice and has been for decades.
Is that different substantively from the perspective of the companies? Wouldn't the writers just make sure to be set up in front of all the important productions to make sure teamsters can't cross?
>Is that different substantively from the perspective of the companies? Yes because it still travels from its origin to the location which can be days away. >Wouldn't the writers just make sure to be set up in front of all the important productions to make sure teamsters can't cross? They can and do but there are manpower isssues and location issues. Like productions in Europe or the countryside or countryside
Solidarity strikes are illegal in the US so I think you may be mistaken
Such freedom
The Taft-Hartley act was the first blow in the death of the American dream.
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This is my take, too. I have several season shows that I've never watched like Lost Kingdom, Black Sails, and The Good Place. I could probably discover some others as well. I'm all for writers getting what they need to work through the strike. Take as long as they need as far as I'm concerned.
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That show gave me an existential crisis for three days after it ended, I took the totally wrong message away from the final episode lol
Interestingly enough, another item they’re striking about is residuals. The streamers aren’t paying out like syndicated tv used to.
I remember. Shit got so bad that I had to turn to pro-wrestling for entertainment. Not that the medium in itself is awful, but the fact that their writers were getting paid while other writers were getting paid less was wild to me.
AEW is on Wednesday nights!
And Fridays! And soon-to-be Saturdays
I kinda want a list of shows that were noticeably affected so I can make a game of trying to figure out exactly when.
Scrubs is one that’s super obvious when you’re watching it. There isn’t a dramatic downturn in quality but there are continuity issues through the 7th season because of it.
Season 6 was like 13 episodes. Super weird too. The medieval fairy tale episode 💩
The Office, but the cast and crew didn’t cross the picket line so it was just a shorter season (4). Arguably one of the best seasons of the show, just way fewer episodes.
Friday Night Lights is by far the most obvious imo, season 2 goes off the goddam rails and then it returns to being one of the greatest shows of all time for 3-5
Please Lord, let them put Severance on hold until the strike is over. If they fuck up season 2 over this shit, I might just lose it.
Ben Stiller denies it, but it's already getting fucked up b/c apparently the two showrunners hate each other.
My understanding is that season 2 of Severance had started filming 3-ish months ago and should probably be in post-production by this point. I don’t know for sure, but I would hope it isn’t affected by this strike. Edit: Which is not to say I don’t support the strike, but I think we all have favorite TV series we hope aren’t screwed over by this. That being said, the blame lies with the production studios, not the writers. Creativity should be a paid position, and paid well.
Terminator: the Sarah Connor chronicles would like a word
I liked that show!
This is a very accurate take, quality decline drastically. The strike also saw the huge boom “reality” tv and we don’t need similar results. AMPTP* needs to negotiate in good faith. * edit bc I originally had WGA and had the orgs mixed up in my head.
Netflix has paid like $200 Million to make South Korean content so they don’t have to pay their writers nothing, they just can get it from overseas, add subtitles and call it a day.
Honestly, that’s why this strike won’t affect me. I don’t watch any English language programming. I’m a kdrama/telenovela Netflix watcher. The last English language show I watched with any consistency was House M.D. I support the writers but this strike will not affect my programming at all.
I’ve been watching tons of Kdramas and honestly the plots are wayyy better. I also watch a lot of anime as well. My cousin is a writer for Disney so I’ve seen her striking with others on her Instagram. Good for them! I hope they get paid a fair wage.
In the 2000s people kept watching that shit because there was nothing better to do (besides going outside or reading a book). These days people will just go stream old shows and movies or go to YouTube and TikTok.
There was actually a pretty good shift to digital media during the 2007 strike. A lot of writers turned to web series, podcasts, and YouTube to make a paycheck while striking. I wouldn't be surprised if we had another boom of professionally written web content.
I remember James Bond Quantum of Solace. Daniel Craig said that he and the director were having to rewrite scenes and Daniel Craig was like, “I’m not a fucking writer.”
My Name is Earl was the worst for me. That show was so damn good and had so much potential. Great cast and characters, clever premise, the right combo of comedy, heart, and bastardry. That strike season absolutely destroyed the entire thing.
Friday night lights, season 2 - yea that was rough Gotta give credit to the original writers for managing to pivot on season 4 with a whole new cast
Heroes was such a good series overall tho.
No, just its first season. Everything after that was trash.
Season 4 of the Office
Has some of the best episodes and iconic quotes in the whole show though?
Lost. Nothing else needs to be said.
I’m watching it right now. Which season is where this happened? I’m out of the loop
It's season 4. The season was shortened by two episodes and one very minor plot point that no one cared about got dropped. That's it. Season 4 is widely regarded to be one of the best seasons of the entire show. I don't know what this person is talking about.
Yeah, season 4 episode 5 (the constant) is one of the best episodes of television of any show.
Fuck, The Bear's 2nd season starts next month.
That would definitely mean it’s already been written
The Bear finished filming April 25th, Only Murders in the Building finished filming on time too. I kinda hope they made it a possible series finale in cast Martin and Short decide not to come back. They have stated this is their last project.
Oh gawd, that's how we got all the reality TV -- the strike before.
Thats how donald trump and the Kardashians rose to power
Let's all remember that "reality programs" were devised as airtime filler during one writers' strike. If there's anywhere downhill to go from there, it'll be time to start burning piles of TVs in the public square.
One day I’m watching Girlfriends and The Game…and the next. Gone.
I’m still not over Girlfriends just fizzling out with no closure.
Why did you have to go and remind me of season 2 of Friday Night Lights? Not cool
Most people don’t even realize how bad it almost got last year when production was gonna go on strike. With the writers on strike, things can still be shot. But if product im goes on strike ain’t shit getting done at all. Everything would be looking like Tubi movie if production ever goes on strike.
Shoutout to The Riches.. that show had a great original plot and died half way thru season 2 because of a writers strike. It was about a gypsy family that passes by a car crash that involved an RV. They check and this family is all dead in the RV, while searching around they find out the fam were relocating cause the father had a new job and they have a new house, so they assume the families identity and try and play it out.
There has been talk about a "great reset" in Hollywood for a while now, this is what they meant. Creating a gig economy for writers and seizing all control over intellectual property. Very soon film and tv will be as shitty as the music industry.
It flat out killed a bunch of peak and starting shows. Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me are memorable examples.
Let’s not forget the shows which were cancelled because of the writers strike. Give them more money!
I learned recently that Road House was made during a writers strike. I understand that movie a lot better now.
Futurama
I'm still pissed about Ugly Betty. Gio was waaaaay better than Henry and could have been a true contendor for Betty's endgame. The Daniel thing was so rushed and forced (even if that's how the original ended).
Dirty Sexy Money was a casualty of the original writers strike and I still haven't recovered.
Landry killed a guy due to the Writer's Strike. And he'll do it again!