While I miss The Office (Chuck too, but it is moving too fast and will burnout), I am a big fan of the Writer's Strike. From my limited understanding, I believe most of it has to do with the fact the writers get little or no money from DVD sales of their shows. Seems fair to me that they should get a cut. But the bigger picture is that we (consumers) are getting by pretty well without NBC etc, and when the shows return they may come back to even fewer viewers than they had in Sept. NBC already had to refund some money to advertisers because they fell below their minimums for ratings, other networks are giving away free ads in the Spring (w/ myspace.com already jumping the shark, this could be a good "put" on News Corp later).
Here are some of the best lessons from the strike:
1. There is more TV out there than the "Big 3" and most of it is better.
I already love the History Channel, Nova specials and all that good stuff that satisfies my "Learner" Strength (which is really more of a need). But the strike forces me to look for more good stuff during primetime rather then setting the DVR and waking up to shows. It does amaze me when someone at work mentions a random special that I saw.
Here are some good recommendations:
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (on FX) - I'd like to thank Matt and Shannon for introducing this show to us. It is easily the funniest show I have started watching this year. It is kind of like The Office but the writers feel no need to protect the characters from anything. It should be on network TV (maybe it can't w/ some of the content). If I owned FOX, I would put the first couple of seasons of this show on FOX starting in January and then launch the new season on FOX next fall.
"Paranormal State" (A&E Mon at 10pm) - Wonderfully placed just after Intervention (one of Rachel's favorites). It is about Ghost Hunters, similar to the show Ghost Hunters (the TAPS guys) but so far much better.
2. There is much more to do than watch TV.
This year in general, I have been reading a lot more during primetime. Not as much recently with so much football on TV. I also do more research online to learn more things.
A couple of my new favorite sites that I started using only this year:
Wikipedia.org
Digg.com
Cracked.com
3. This is the future for these Networks.
With DVRs, Wii's, and the high speed internet it is silly for big networks to think that we will show up at 8pm every night and be fed 24 mins of commercials every hour for their shows. It is kind of like newspapers, you know the end is near but it will take a long time to get there.
4. It makes it even more crazy to pay so much for cable.
I hate Time Warner, I hope they are the last kid picked for kickball.
3 comments:
i must agree that i haven't really missed primetime at all. it's nice, actually.
*nodding* - i too agree with the strike! as a person who doesn't really watch TV anyway i don't miss it. further, as a TV DVD watcher i appreicate that they want credit for thier work!
I think they're a bunch of whiney saps. People who strike (in general) drive me nuts. (Admittedly I don't know much about unions and whoever encourages strikes, and I'm sure they do help SOME people, however, I think they end up hurting more than they help - those people knew what terms they were getting into when they agreed to do a job, then, even if they don't agree with the strike, they are forced to walk off their jobs and stop getting paid - which snowballs into it's consquences on both sides).
Anyway. There is only one show I watch "religiously" (Greys Anatomy), and even then, I forget to watch it some weeks and don't really notice that it's not new. I don't think I turned my TV on last Thurs or Friday, not even for background noise (usual reason why it gets turned on, to have something on while I'm in the kitchen or sometimes when I'm trying to take a nap).
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