If you can’t tell by what I’m reading (see previous post), I’m sort of obssessed with the WGA strike. I think secretly (not so secretly now) my dream job is to be a television show writer. I should say, a good tv show writer. I don’t want to write cruddy lines. I want to write good ones. Ones that Glenn Close or Meryl Streep would want to say. I’m really interested to see how this plays out. As a TV watcher I’m less concerned with, “oh my no more new episodes of ‘Desperate Housewives'”. And if there is anyone out there who is concerned that their favorite TV show isn’t going to continue if there is a strike, well he needs to set his priorities in order. The studio executives are fretting, I suspect, because I should hope that most people are like me, and will tune out.

At this point I’ll say, if you are unfamiliar with why the Writer’s Guild is striking, read any one of the WGA story links in the previous posts, or read this article from Forbes.com.

Their job is TV. My job is the Internet. So I’m interested in how the outcome will playout on the Web. The networks see the dollar signs coming from online advertising. They see the appeal (previous posts show that even I, who never thought I’d ever watch an epi of anything on TV, could get hooked.) There is no turning back there. If the writers get more in the name of programming, how do you measure it? And does this somehow trickle down to me in Seattle/Redmond? What will the outcome do to groups in my organization that work to bring video content (be it original programming or television programming) to the Web? How does this affect our advertisers who, ultimately contribute to me being able to succeed in my job?  

There is no doubt that the advances in technology has made this strike more visible than the strike of 1988. Cell phones, instant messaging, blogging, YouTube and the ease to get the word out has turned an LA/NY-centric situation into a worldwide discussion.

BTW, check out the video created by United Hollywood. One of the writers interviewed here is someone I went to middle school with in Connecticut. What are the odds.