In case you don't keep up with such things, the Writers Guild of America is now on strike against the film and tv producers. I learned early on when I moved to Los Angeles how abused and disrespected writers are. It was glaringly apparent in the world of songwriting where credits were routinely left off of product, where writers were constantly being asked to take a lower royalty, and where ruthless singers demanded a portion of the song copyright in order to put that song on their record.
In the world of TV, the writers finally just started demanding a producer credit on tv shows in order to find a way to make some kind of living wage. In other words, it wasn't good enough to be a writer. You have to step "up" on the ladder to producer to get any kind of respect.
Mark Evanier has penned an excellent blog entry about the history of how the writers have been, well, gutless cowards in the past, allowing their wages to continually be rolled back -- or allowing themselves to be excluded entirely from some forms of media. Naturally, as Mark puts it, the producers, always smelling blood in the water whether there's any there or not, have tried to totally screw over the writers again. And this time the writers said no.
So, soon everything on TV is going to be a rerun, especially late night TV. At least, until the producers start to feel the pain. Or until the writers give up (again).
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