Strike Struck

In what may turn out to be the best result of a vote this year, the members of WGA East & West voted to end the fourteen week long strike that basically halted production on almost all TV and Film projects and cost the industry (both studios and those who were not able to work) over $1 Billion.

Although writers can return to work as of this morning, the WGA is not completely out of the woods just yet. The proposed deal that is in place still needs to be ratified before it is official. There is also talk of impending legal action against the WGA by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC for it's role in the recent Golden Globes debacle. I would imagine a lawsuit like this could open the legal floodgates a bit and that would keep the WGA legal team busy for the foreseeable future.

Now that the writers are back to work we should be seeing some new episodes of our favorite shows like 30 Rock and The Office in a little over a month from now. Other serial, shows like Chuck, Heroes, and 24 will not start up again until the fall when they can be re-launched with a full seasons worth of episodes (instead of just one or two episodes in the near future, which would just be a tease).

TV Guide has a pretty comprehensive list of shows and their current status here.

A big question that remains is; what happens to the shows that were on the fence before their strike shortened seasons ended? The big one for me in this category is Friday Night Lights. As I have said here before, apart from The Wire, FNL is the best show on television. NBC in its infinite wisdom buried the show on Friday nights and then complain that it is not getting good enough ratings. Of course it isn't! Who in FNL's target demo is home watching TV every week on a Friday night? They are all out on Friday nights. I am willing to be though that they are watching on Tivo later. Also, a lot of people were late to the game on this show and are catching up on DVD before watching the new episodes they recorded. It really would be a travesty to cancel a show this good. FNL is a rare breed, like The Wire, it has an ensemble cast with no weak links. But unlike The Wire, the cast is made up primarily of young actors who can really hold their own. If given the chance, like say put in a reasonable time slot during the week, FNL could really find its audience.

Unfortunately it appears that is not going to happen and that FNL is going to join the ranks of critically acclaimed shows like Firefly, Freaks & Geeks, and Arrested Development that were canceled way too soon.

If last week's episode is indeed the last to air I would like to make a suggestion (or at the very least a request). Finish out production of the season and throw them onto a DVD. It's possible that these un-aired DVD only episodes could spur DVD sales to the point that NBC Universal takes notice. Hey, it worked for Family Guy.

If you haven't already, please head over the Best Week Ever and sign their petition to save FNL.


Hopefully I will get a chance to go through all the details of the proposed WGA deal this week and give you a breakdown, if not it will have to wait till I get back from vacation (Bring on the sun!).