Watching Studio60

So it looks like the Writers Guild is going to go on strike, throwing TV into turmoil. Late-night talk shows and daytime soaps will be the first to suffer, but if this thing stretches into the New Year, it’s going to get hard for people who enjoy scripted entertainment to find much worth watching. Any chance NBC will put on some Studio 60 re-runs to fill all the empty time they’re going to have? No? Alright, then. We have our DVDs to keep us amused.

In reading about the upcoming labor unpleasantness, it’s hard not to think about what a really great plot this would have been for a Studio 60 arc. Basically, we’re talking about Matt striking against Danny, right? Granted, there aren’t a lot of show-within-a-show writers to walk out with him, but what would the show do in the meantime? Improv theater?

There’s lots of stories of the ripple effect these sorts of union actions have on everyone associated with the entertainment business, and Sorkin might be able to do a pretty powerful job of telling them. You’ve got Jack to articulate the network’s position; Matt to express the conflict of someone who lives to write but also requires respect, which in this particular venue equals money; lower-level writers like Lucy and Darius who don’t stand to get a windfall from a new contract but stand to lose their livelihood if a strike wears on; and lots of friends and loved ones and little guys caught in the middle, crossing picket lines or losing their own jobs and businesses as Hollywood shuts down.

I have my own very small story about the far-reaching effects of a strike. The last time the writers walked, in 1988, I was a writing a column for a magazine in the Los Angeles area. Before moving to the East Coast that August, I turned in my final freelance article, a rundown of the upcoming TV season … which never happened, at least not on schedule. Publication of that column never happened, and neither did my paycheck for that piece of writing. It’s hardly on a par with people losing their houses due to loss of entertainment revenue, but it gave me an excuse to buy the T-shirt above when all the nastiness was over. (Typed on the paper in the typewriter there is, “Let’s Do Lunch Again.”)

If you have some thoughts on the strike, some past experience with entertainment union actions, or maybe some great fan fiction about a strike on Studio 60, share it in the comments.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Studio 60, NBC, writer’s strike