Yahoo News reports that several shows will be on halt for the duration of the writers' strike composed of members of the Writers Guild of America. This strike was not expected to have an immediate impact on production of movies or most prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and many TV shows have scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.
But apparently several sitcoms and scripted shows suffer from the strike because they are typically written the same week they are filmed, with jokes being sharpened by writers even on the day of production.
Reality shows on the other hand could flourish because they don't use union writers, despite an aggressive attempt by the writers guild to organize the staffers on the programs.
The strike began Monday after last-minute negotiations failed to produce a deal on how much writers are paid when shows are offered on the Internet. No new negotiations have been scheduled so far. Nick Counter, chief negotiator for the producers union, has said he expected a long standoff. Writers said the next move was up to the studios.
Really this has been a decade long battle about wages and shares. Everybody knows how important writers are and how pivotal their roles are to television shows around the world, but still they are under-paid - kind of like teachers.
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