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Scribe Strike May Shake Up TV Biz

Bigwigs have long wanted to cut costs, stagger show debuts

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 16, 2007 5:36 AM CST
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(Newser) – TV bigwigs are looking on the bright side of the scribe strike, they say, vowing to finally make overdue changes to boost the bottom line. Slashing costs, staggering show debuts, and making network TV look and act more like cable are notions that have been kicked around for years. Now may be time to do them: "This is a great opportunity to come up with a model that makes television healthier," one exec told Variety.

Other ideas include nixing pilot season—"If we go to year-round development, it lowers the cost of production," says one exec—and cutting press tours and upfronts to save money. Worse for writers, more studios plan international co-productions—or so they say. "A gigantic and powerful tractor beam will attempt to pull this industry back to the same-old same-old," says a studio head.

Writer Sherwood Schwartz, 91, who created, wrote and produced The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island, was joined by his children and a grandson, all writers, as they walked with striking film and television writers outside Paramount Studios Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007, in Los Angeles. A month after Hollywood writers went...
Writer Sherwood Schwartz, 91, who created, wrote and produced The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island, was joined by his children and a grandson, all writers, as they walked with striking film and television...   (Associated Press)
Writer Elizabeth Johnson walks the picket line along members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) outside the gates of Paramount Pictures studios in Los Angeles, Monday, Dec. 10, 2007. The Hollywood strike is rewriting the holidays for idled workers entering a sixth week. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Writer Elizabeth Johnson walks the picket line along members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) outside the gates of Paramount Pictures studios in Los Angeles, Monday, Dec. 10, 2007. The Hollywood...   (Associated Press)
Picket signs fill the street as thousands of people from unions including the Teamsters, Service Employees International, the California Nurses Association and other supporters join Writers Guild of America (WGA) on a march down Hollywood Boulevard in the third week of the WGA strike against television and motion picture companies...
Picket signs fill the street as thousands of people from unions including the Teamsters, Service Employees International, the California Nurses Association and other supporters join Writers Guild of America...   (Associated Press)
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