We’re Struck Dumb – washingtonpost.com
This is a great article by Robin Givhan the Washington Post talking about the writers strike affecting broadcast media and the stagehand strike affecting Broadway.
According to the article:
In a complicated, multilayered world, we need simplistic, linear storytelling, jokes that call out for a rimshot and one-liners that require no sense of irony or familiarity with world events. There is a place for silliness that splashes across the surface and provides easy, painless amusement. And there is something cozy and reassuring about entertainment that can be summed up in a tiny, simple word: fun.
We are losing our outlet to just sit and re-charge our brains. No sitting down and laughing to Jon Stewart or Leno, I need my new episodes of the Office, and it would be nice to go to Broadway and have a sing-a-long to Abba at Mama Mia. No wait a minute. See what the strikes are doing to my brain?
The good thing is that I now have alternatives compared to previous strikes. Video podcasts/netcasts are plenty and there is great content out there. If this strike goes on, I may not go back to watching all the shows before. I will just watch for free the shows the independent content producers are developing.
We need to get the producers together with the respective writers or stagehand union and settle this thing. Otherwise there won’t be an industry to come back to and the television networks will roll-out endless garbage like American Gladiator. Wait, they are already doing that.
Mile High Soapbox 