Strike Zone: 24 86ed, Office Downsized; Will It Be Short or Long?; Send in Ari Gold!
Better reset that clock. Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Fox
Let's take care of the morning's strike news in a hail of bullets:
* The strike is already claiming its first schedule victims. Fox has postponed season 7 of 24 (disaster or silver lining?) so that it can be aired in its entirety whenever the strike ends. The network also announced a new winter-spring schedule, which, surprisingly, is not simply "American Idol, Monday-Friday, 8 to 10 p.m. E.T." Maureen Ryan has the insanely baroque programming plan. Also, The Office, which suffered several defections from its writer-actors, as well as star Steve Carell, who refused to cross the picket line, has shut down production and airs its last new episode a week from tonight.
* So that'll get the strike ended quick, right? Right? Eh... not so fast. News analyses of the situation are coming in, and the consensus seems to be: either the strike ends fast--in a couple weeks fast--or it'll end sloooow: like, next summer slow. (In June, the directors' and actors' contracts expire.) The main reason: beyond a certain point, not only do both sides get more bitter and locked in to their positions (e.g., the longer you wait, the better you expect your deal to be), but the networks start assuming the whole 2007-08 season is a loss, anyway. And with most new shows lukewarm successes at best and overall viewership flagging, they won't necessarily mind the "do over." Networks have even begun to suggest that they could break even, or better, on a strike, because lower production expenses will offset advertising losses.
I'm not saying they're right, mind you. This kind of thinking is probably shortsighted. Possibly crazy. (Let's stop making TV shows altogether! We'll be rich!) In my column in the print TIME tomorrow, I write about how a long strike could cram years of audience attrition into a matter of months. But I'm not calling the shots. Variety offers its soon-or-June analysis here. If you're one of those--like much of the Writer's Guild--who consider the trade magazines to be tools of the studios, then read Nikki Finke, whose Deadline Hollywood Daily has become a sort of agora for striking writers, but who makes essentially the same prediction, and urges both sides to step back from the "horrific situation."
* But that's not the most interesting part of Finke's post; she offers a solution to the strike so ingenious and intuitive that there must be some major problem with it that I'm too dumb to think of. Have the agents work it out! "For crissakes," she writes, "these people negotiate for a living on behalf of clients like the writers. And they're licensed by the state. And they make multi-million dollar deals based on their word." With passions running so high, what this strike needs may just be a bunch of avaricious smooth-talkers who realize nothing on God's earth is worth keeping you from making a dollar. Is there really any problem here that Ari Gold couldn't B.S. his way out of?
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Biggest loser in all of this (besides viewers, of course) - Bones.
Fox, in its most brain-dead scheme yet, has decided to move Bones to Friday nights at 8 pm. This for a show that has been a consistent (and growing) ratings lead-in success for House, and that does a fairly good job mixing the procedural with some serial storylines.
@James - seriously, what is Fox thinking? I read a description of their schedule for the Winter/Spring, and it looked like I'd need to hire Magellan to navigate my way to finding the shows I wanted to watch on the correct nights...further proof that Fox is run by idiots (who may be even more stupid than the people running CW).
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@chaddogg: Fox is famous for the byzantine schedule announcement. Remember a few years ago, when they announced a summer, fall and winter schedule all at once at the Upfronts? The brilliant year-round programming strategy that brought us the smash hit Method and Red?
Seriously, though, I'm not sure that Fox's schedules are that much more complicated than the other networks' will be come next winter/spring, or if it just looks that way since they went through the trouble of writing it all down.
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@James - I suppose you're right - I'm sure other networks will have similarly complicated schedules once the well of "in-the-can" new episodes dries up. But honestly - Bones on Friday? Really? That's a good idea?
I'm just not sure what's going to end this strike....thankfully, though, I'm going to use my Blockbuster queue to catch up on old shows I never saw: Freeks & Geeks, Undeclared, Firefly, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Deadwood, Battlestar Gallactica, Slings & Arrows, Weeds, Sports Night, The Shield, Prime Suspect, The Prisoner...I think I'm going to be okay.
Speaking of strike plans for Tuned-In: Any chance you'll do a series of "TV on DVD" recommendations of shows people missed, reviewing the show, why we should watch, and what current (or now dying, thanks to the strikes) show that older show is similar to? Seems like a great idea to make the strike bearable....
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@chaddogg: very likely. I literally have an entire closet of DVD sets of cult/cool shows of which I've always thought, "I'll write about that... someday... when there's time..."
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@James - Is it a safe bet that as the strike trudges along, you will be forced to fire up Robo-James and take an extended vacation?
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Fox's scheduling is bad, but I don't know if it is appreciably worse than ABC's, which shuttles around its half hours to work with whatever length this week's reality shows end up being.
And it took this long for the trade pubs to figure out what I've been saying for weeks, that we're looking at a "Strike Through Summer"? Yeesh. And I wasn't even aware that not only are the freshmen not doing well in the ratings, the vast majority of them are over budget and/or behind schedule. I doubt the Studios planned it ahead of time, but I fully agree that they responded to the realization of the certainty of the WGA strike by turning this into a de-facto lockout on scripted shows.
Personally, I just wish the Studios would declare this Season dead so I can go ahead and pull the trigger on purchasing sets of shows I:
Find it a personal failing I missed the first time around (not kidding, either):
Wonderfalls
Early seasons of HomicideOr never gave them the attention they deserved (whether due to their scheduling or my availability):
Freaks & Geeks
Undeclared
Dead Like Me
Deadwood
CarnivaleAnd if things really drag on, I'll have to go back to my abandoned geek roots and look into the great sci-fi debate of the 90's:
Babylon 5
vs.
Deep Space Nine -
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How will this effect the Emmys? Will it help Mad Men. I hope so. Maybe Rescue Me and The Shield?
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Ummm... I pray to god that no one watches the reality TV they replace written shows for. DON'T DO IT!
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@Karma - Must.....watch.....TV. Attraction.....too..strong....to....resist. I....try.....but.....it.....is.....too....hard. Forgive.......me.
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@anon: Verrrry interesting question. Imagine an Emmys in which most of the usual suspects have not run a full season. Who do they nominate? Mad Men, The Shield, The Wire [!] and...? Dexter? John from Cincinnati? This may just make the strike all worth it.
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Is Dexter in danger of going off the air. God I hope not. I don't get Showtime but I download the show every week!
- poniewozik Loved the season. Mrs Tuned In wd have put u on the main list RT @boredtodeath Thank u for incl us in Time's Top 10. We'll take hon mention. - 6 hours ago
- poniewozik @carr2n Virgin is the best, LAX-JFK - 7 hours ago
- poniewozik Did NPR interview abt multiscreen multitasking. After, automatically reached for iPhone in pocket. Like don draper wd have for cigarettes. - 8 hours ago
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