The Year That TV Died?

Well, it’s been since 1988; the Writers Guild of America hasn’t impacted the television production industry so seriously in almost two entire decades. Some reports indicate that the television never full recovered its audience after that strike 19 years ago, and who knows what will happen now that this strike that’s been going on for a little over a week is already causing damage that will be felt right through the Spring season; that is, if there even is a Spring 2008 season.

Several shows have already stopped production. “Heroes” has succumbed to the effects, airing previews that announce that there are only “3 episodes left” to the end of the season; seems awfully sudden, doesn’t it? That’s only because it is awfully sudden, and these sudden finales feel like preemptive strikes paving the way for the worst television ever conceived; reality TV. Not to mention a dozen more pointless game shows. Neither of these things carry the slightest bit of substance or genuinely creative entertainment, and yet they are being prepped to overrun the air with unwatchable nonsense born from unthinkable problem-solving. Studios have these shows lined up as back-up plans to implement at the first sign of trouble, and that sign has arrived. Picket lines are dominating sets and gates in Los Angeles and New York.

Even though Fox network has episodes of their refreshing new season of “24” in the can, they won’t begin airing it if they can’t be sure they will be able to run the season nonstop from beginning to end as planned, and so they’ve shelved it. Late night TV ceased production almost immediately, needing to function on a day-to-day basis and rendered completely unable to do so. And all the while, so many actors and fellow workers are showing support for the writers, just as actors on Broadway (David Hyde Pierce, for one) are showing support for the stagehands in their strike. In the world of television, production is being halted everywhere and shows are either being put on indefinite hiatus, as if this is an extended winter holiday black-out for TV, or show are being ended early, as if you rush an acorn to grow into a tree overnight by overwatering and feeding it hormones. How will audiences take all this? It’s not just one show or one network; it’s currently game over across the board.

So what is there to look forward to? To speculate how long this could go on for and what kind of long-term ripple through the television cable we’re talking about here, I turned to the only thing we know for sure; precedent. This is where I have to tell you the bad news. The 1988 strike lasted from March 7 to Aug. 7, 22 weeks or 5 months, and however you choose to look at it, that’s a long time. Though that timing stung the networks severely, costing them a fortune and a sizable segment of viewers, that strike came at the end of the television season as summer hiatus was looming anyway. Not to say it wasn’t bad, but when you realize how much damage in money and credibility the ’88 strike did at a time of the year when shows were nearing their end, imagine how much worse it could be when they’re only just getting started and are supposed to be building into the half-way point for fall finales. Granted, in May, shows would suffer for lack of closure or cliffhanger, but in November, they suffer from premature death. Some shows are excellent and growing yet fighting to stay on the air (“Supernatural”), some shows are ending and trying to go out in a bang but being forced out with a whimper (“Scrubs”), and some shows are being caught in the crossfire as they are riding high on success but could easily be shot down in the chaos (“House”).

I don’t know about you, but I fear for the future of television, because the fallout from this has the potential to destroy what’s left of outstanding television as we know it. The best thing to do is hope that this strike will be over and settled with a satisfactory resolution much faster and more efficiently than the one 19 years before.