Hollywood TV and movie writers may go on strike tomorrow. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Could be bad for some people.
I don’t care about Hollywood so it’s neither good or bad in my opinion. I’m going to continue my life in a mature and sensible way.

It will hurt late night TV, which just happens to be where the stupidity of the US political climate is brought to our attention.

Behind most of the bad scripts is a studio that wants it that way because of marketing and focus groups.
Plus scripts get changed during production anyway, without any say by the writer.
here is an interview with screenwriter Max Landis.

Of course it’s bad. No script writers means no production which means a loss of a lot of jobs.

Strike of 2007

This will effect the entire industry and the economy of Los Angeles big time.

My major issue is those motherfuckers make soo much money and refuse to let go of a little profit by supplying their writers with better health benefits. Greedy bastards.

No writers, no TV scripts and no movie scripts. The writers are THE bones of the filming industry and without them there is no industry. They deserve all the credit and compensation they can get.

Writers deserve to be as well-compensated for their work as producers and actors.

Late night shows could just show actual footage of Trump. No writing necessary to give people something stupid to laugh at….

I am cautioned by the strikes a few years ago. Many writers were fired and producers went with reality TV. Suddenly you had a plethora of shit shows occupying TV time that needed very little writer guidance. Bare bones scripts that could be written by high school kids.

I’m also reminded of the strikes of the late 40’s and early 50’s against the anti-communist paranoia as the Senate HUAC went after Hollywood writers like a wildfire. For political reasons mostly, top writers like Dalton Trumbo were black listed from working in Hollywood ever again. This guy was so good, he won two academy awards for best screenplay (Roman Holiday and The Brave One) while working under fictional names. Kirk Douglass and Otto Preminger finally went against the studios and allowed him credit for Sparticus and Exodus, respectively. But what a waste those years of blacklisting represented. Film quality certainly suffered.

Even though I don’t watch a lot of American entertainment TV, I do see amazing writers, even in shows I hate for other reasons. Like @Strauss and @Coloma say above, writers are the backbone of all the stories depicted in film, there is no story without them, and they deserve to be paid as much or more than those who are dependent on direction and technology to bring that story to life.

I would like to hear what guys like Seth Macfarlane have to say about this.

My take is that when people are willing to risk a strike these days it is never over anything frivolous. I don’t even know the issues, but can guarantee that if the strike is broken it will not be good for anyone punching a clock or drawing a paycheck.

If Joss writes another Dr. Horrible Singalong Blog, it will be worth it.

I watch so little American shows it won’t bother me in the least though it might be hard on film industry and the economy it supports.

@MrGrimm888 Every single one of your cable news channels are doing that already—at the cost of airtime to international news like never before. All except the extremely conservative and rapidly growing OAN, which actually gives good international news coverage for about 15 minutes every hour.

I just don’t care about Hollywood actors or Los Angeles.

I have been doing community theatre for 47 years. I have never done movies or TV, but I understand drama. I am a good director and a good actor and an inept stagehand.

With that in mind, I must state that everything starts with the script. A cast of A-list actors cannot make a success of a poor script. On the other hand, a cast of second rate actors can shine brilliantly in a good script.

@Espiritus_Corvus . International news, is fake news…~

There was an interesting movie, The Player, that featured Tim Robbins as a studio executive. What I found interesting, and which I assume has some basis in truth even though the file was a comedy, was the shabby treatment that screenwriters got. Film scripts were bought by the thousands, only a small portion of which were actually used. Sometimes a script would be bought to keep others from being able to use it.

How many screenwriters can you name? They really do seem to be low man on the totem pole. Shouldn’t the script count for something? Playwrights get a lot more respect. I don’t watch television and only occasionally see movies, but after seeing The Player I have sympathy for the screenwriters.

Not a prob, you can always catch the Hee Haw reruns on TV Land.