More on the Writers' Strike

I'm absolutely exhausted. I've been pushing too hard for too long, and right now I feel like I've got nothing to pass on. I could maybe do some research at various sites about whatever happened today in regard to the pressing issues of our time, but I don't have the energy or stamina. How lame is that, to claim that I don't have the stamina to surf the Web? So instead of a fabulous linkfest, I'll simply pass on some secondhand wisdom I heard this evening. We had dinner with a longtime TV writer, and although the subject of the writers' strike didn't overwhelm our conversation, we certainly touched on it. Our friend has been through the process of writers' strikes before, but this time around he notices one main difference: All the old studio guys are gone. In the past, he argues, the studios always had at least one person on their side who had enough stature (he identified it as Lew Wasserman) that at one point he could cut through the red tape and get to the heart of the issue. He'd identify some sort of compromise in which everybody got something they wanted, and both sides would agree and get back to work. This wise old man (for lack of a better name) realized that writers were a valuable part of the process of making films and TV. Now, however, all those guys are gone on the producers' side, and the writers have never had anyone with the stature to pull this off. The producers are focused even more on the bottom line than they once were. Although that was certainly always part of the equation, many on the producers' side also had a pride in the final product. They knew that art, either intentionally or unintentionally, was part of the process. Now, however, the bottom line is far more important. Fewer on the producers' side have a stake in the community of Hollywood. They can just look at the economic issues, and on those the producers are in a much stronger position than are the writers. Although he hoped that agreement on some of the issues could have been reached, at this point, our writer friend is not expecting a short strike.