Being a writer I kind of have to side with them. However I'm going to try and see this from the studio's point of view. Whether I succeed or not has yet to be determined. If you read the talkbacks on aintitcool.com you get the impression that the writers are ridiculously paid and live lavish lifestyles and have more money then they know what to do with. What they don't realize is that that is not true at all. With a steady job writing for TV whether it be sitcom or animation, you can live comfortably but comparatively speaking writers tend to get screwed over. There are a lot of writers out there and the quality of the product varies but at the same time it's just bad form. How is an actor more worthy of a residual check then the person who came up with the script? It's not a huge amount we're talking about here. For a writer, every little bit helps put food on the table. Not every writer is Stephen King or Jeph Loeb. We don't all have hundreds of thousands in the bank just waiting to be spent. Most of us are just like everybody else, trying to make a living in a field we enjoy.
Herein lies another problem, most people think writing is not work. Au contraire it's very hard work. Physically tiring? No, but it is psychologically exhausting. Coming up with a plot or idea and trying to find the right words to convey the emotions and ideas that you want and then revising the piece over and over and over again until it's just perfect. It can be a fun job, but it's still a job. We put the same effort into our labor as any doctor, lawyer, or corporate so and so. Whether it be in television, fiction, or poetry, writing is work whether you want to admit or not. Coming up with 25 different storylines for the same characters is not an easy task, and that's just one season. Ask Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, it's a maddening task. The same is true for a novel. I know airports and grocery stores are lined with books so one writes it off as something that can be done off the top of your head. Wrong! It's freakin hard. Admittedly I'm only 23 so I'm still a novice writer overall but I have tried and it is no easy task let me assure you. As for the issue of writing being it's own reward, well by that logic, teachers and police officers should be happy with their salaries and doctors' pay should be cut to about 10% of what it is now and they should be grateful for that. After all, the job is its own reward right?
The greed accusation, if looked at closely, becomes downright goofy. The writer is greedy when the station heads are the ones withholding the relatively small amount of money close to their chests saying "No! Mine!"? To say that the corporation deserves a bigger cut because they financed it is a valid point, but I'm not even saying the writer should get more. I just think that it's only fair that they get a cut on the peripheral profit as well. Getting a few cents or, dare I say it, dollars for each rerun or DVD sale is not a huge loss. I can almost guarantee the fat-cats that your wallets will still be packed with large bills. Also, it's a crazy notion, but maybe if you treat the writers well, they might be happy to work for you again. This would then give you another product to put out and make further profits from. A happy employee is a productive employee; this is true in film and television as it is in any company. There are many writers out there, but there are other places that he or she can go to put out his or her product.
I'm rather torn. I want my fellow writers to get their fair share and I'm glad that they're finally standing up and saying they won't take anymore crap. However, as a TV viewer, I like new episodes. Heroes is finally starting to pick up steam after 6 episodes of boring nothingness, Scrubs is coming to it's final episodes, and Venture Bros. Season 3 is in it's final stages of creation. We can only hope that the matter is resolved quickly in such a way that all parties come out happy.
So far, the only legitimate point that the anti-strike side has brought up, from what I've read so far, is the fact that the strike affects others who are now caught in the middle. This isn't a good situation but I'd rather that they fought for their rights as opposed to just caving. Writers have been crapped on a lot and it's about time they stood up for themselves. Besides, if the writers did cave it would set a bad precedent. The studio execs will come to believe that they can start screwing everybody over. The best option for them is to join the writers. For when their pay or benefits are threatened, the writers will be happy to return the favor and back them up as the actors have done.
I have no intention of going into TV or animation as my field of choice is fiction. The picket line has no effect on me, but I do stand behind the writers on this. Hmm, it seems I was mistaken earlier, I didn't side with the studios much, eh c'est la vie.
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