While the Writers Guild of America strike may have been lifted last Wednesday, many questions still remain up in the air for both TV and film fans, as well as those within the entertainment industry.
The first question on most people’s minds is when their favorite shows would be returning to television once writers returned to work, and some fans are left with less to look forward to than others.
While new shows that debuted this past fall, such as “Chuck” and “Private Practice,” have been given the chance for a new start next fall, these shows also won’t be shooting any new episodes for the remainder of the current season.
Other shows that won’t be returning again until next year include “24” and sci-fi hit “Heroes,” coming back in early 2009.
However, many fan favorites and critical darlings such as “The Office,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “CSI” and more will be returning for approximately somewhere between four and 11 episodes before the current TV season ends in late May.
Though most of these shows have been gone for weeks, and in some cases months, School of Theater, Film and Television professor Richard Walter said he doesn’t believe the strike will affect ratings when shows return with new episodes.
“I would say whatever changes occur in viewing habits and ratings will have to do with new media and not anything that was caused by the strike,” he said. “Here is a true paradigm shift of the most fundamental aspects of media because of new media.”
Though writers have already returned to work, the final part of the Writers Guild strike has yet to come into question.
Feb. 25 will mark the deadline for members to vote for or against the ratification, or formal approval, of the tentative agreement reached between the writers and the producers.
Walter, a lifetime guild member, said he is confident about the approval of the agreement, which would last until July 2011.
“This vote to lift the strike came when the contract had not yet been ratified. But the membership was willing to go back in huge numbers even without a contract.
“How could that happen without a huge belief that the contract wouldn’t be ratified?” he said. “It’s inconceivable to me that it wouldn’t be ratified.”
“I don’t think there were any more benefits to gain from keeping the guild on strike any longer,” UCLA alumna and WGA member Marina Alburger said. “Most people were just happy about the idea that we were getting back to work.”
General support had seemed to remain on the writers’ side for most of the strike, though with the TV season quickly approaching an end and the four-month mark coming up, the public seemed to be getting antsy, Alburger said.
“If we had continued to stay out, I think there might have been a backlash, especially since the terms of this most recent offer were much better than what we had been offered before,” she said.
While TV fans may sleep easy knowing their favorite programs will be on their way soon, one of the biggest questions resulting from the lift of the strike comes from a look at the economics of the strike’s impact.
The economic impact of the strike ““ a more than $1 billion impact to the economy and, more specifically, $270 million lost in wages for writers over the course of the 14 weeks of picketing ““ has left many in Hollywood and New York City wondering if the strike was really worth it.
“The strike was a huge, huge success in my view and in the view of everyone I respect,” Walter said.
Compared to Walter though, Alburger had to leave her job on “The Young and the Restless” to go on strike and therefore had more to lose.
Once the strike was lifted, Alburger was asked not to come back as a member of the writing staff for the daytime soap opera.
“It was a surprise,” Alburger said. “I’m still unclear to how they were allowed to have done that.”
Under the strike agreement, those guild members such as Alburger who had active contracts before the strike began, were supposed to be able to return to work without problems once the strike ended.
However, many daytime soap operas hired scabs and financial core WGA members to write during the strike.
Scabs are non-guild or nonunion workers, while financial core writers are people who have left the WGA to a certain extent to be able to work during the strike.
This temporary fix became a permanent solution once the picketing ended and certain financial core members of “The Young and the Restless” writing staff remained.
“The financial core members were allowed to stay. It’s very a complicated issue that has to do with a legal rights issue to say you don’t have to be part of the WGA to write for a television show,” Alburger said.
Walter spoke on the future of scabs and financial core writers who worked during the strike, saying their future in Hollywood would be limited no matter what.
“The people who went financial core (as well as) scabs, that can’t be very useful to their futures as writers,” Walter said.
“They’ll always be held in very low regard not only by writers but by management.”
However, Alburger said she remains optimistic and has been able to find new silver linings from the picketing experience.
“I definitely made a lot of friends and a lot of contacts. I did a lot of networking during the strike. It was really nice to talk to people I would never in a million years be able to get a meeting with,” she said. “When we are all out on the (picket) line, we’re all part of the guild. Nobody’s better than anyone else, and I will miss that.”
There is, however, one thing Alburger won’t miss about the strike.
“I won’t miss walking around in circles and carrying sticks,” she said.