This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter, The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, by editor Kevin Fallon. To get the full newsletter in your inbox every week, sign up for it here.
On 19 June 2009, daisies It was taken from me The last episode aired that night after two seasons.
The show was colourful, creative and funny and had a poignant fascination with death. (When it comes to this show, I literally mean “to touch”.) It featured Kristin Chenoweth singing “Desperately Dedicated to You.” Grease in a bakery. Before starring in blockbuster movies, he gave us Extraordinarily Tall Lee Pace in a major role.
For anyone to deprive the world of all this wonder is how extreme conditions must entail a writer’s strike that shuts down an author’s production. daisies‘ Fantastic was partly responsible for the drop in ratings when he returned for the first season and Season 2. (There is a more nuanced approach to how the 2007-8 Writers Guild of America strike affected. daisies and other programs this thread is here.)
daisies The WGA has been on the top of minds for the past few days, as it’s their first strike since 2008. Job layoffs, wages, staffing issues, leftovers, health insurance in re-contract negotiations with studios, and—let’s face it—just plain fairness and courtesy. (You can read a more detailed explainer here.)
There is already a lot of news about how the strike affected TV production: planned Saturday night live Episodes presented by Pete Davidson, Kieran Culkin, and Jennifer Coolidge were shelved, while Drew Barrymore resigned as presenter of the MTV Movie & TV Awards in solidarity with the writers. (More links! Find out how the strike will affect your favorite shows here.)
But you also know what news is? It wouldn’t have impressed the people how dramatically the striker writers were fighting for a seismic, yet necessary, change in their industry.
This strike comes at the same time as I see my colleagues, friends, and people whose work I admire are dismissed almost daily from their jobs at major media outlets. where you and I read every day. I see how many WGA members and industry allies are striking because although they work largely for profitable companies, in some cases they can’t afford to live.
It’s like every morning me and many other writers I know are playing secret Russian Roulette. The lever is pulled every day and we know it will open at some point. It feels as if there is a certainty, as if it will inevitably happen. What we don’t know is how far we will fall or whether we will land somewhere.
For me or anyone else to write for a living and in fact it is a livelihood? I thought about this a lot trying to figure out how to explain to people why they should care about this WGA strike. It’s just because next season Abbott Elementary School it can be shortened or my imaginary husband Seth Meyers won’t be on TV every night. (Though these are two scenarios that have been positively devastating, at least in my life!)
The question I keep asking myself is this: How do I explain to people that writing is important without looking like someone who wrote it? Of course Is it because he is a writer?
The work people do has value, it’s the simplest answer. Taking advantage is unsuccessful. We should be angry on behalf of those people when it is done at the expense of our leisure and enjoyment. (Whatever one may think of Hollywood’s reputation, the truth is that we rely on it for our free time and pleasure.)
We must defend the authors. In my incredibly short, admirably young life, I have observed that the inequality of wealth in the creative spheres is simply obscene. The barrier to entry is ridiculous. Talented people are being fired because their job is scaled down as “just writing”, and burnout combined with low pay makes any call they feel for this career no longer worth it.
There’s a story about a writer that went viral this week. Bear. It was a dream job for him. That is, except that he can’t often write screenplays for the show from home because he can’t afford the heat, and he has so little money in his bank account when his work wins a WGA Award. to buy the bow tie he wore at the event on loan.
I think this story has been shared so much because it exemplifies what we forget, and the suitors on the other side of the WGA bargaining table seem blind: These people are human. (Sorry for the AI community.) We pay rent. We need health care. We’re stressing out about finances. And we have dreams.
Writing is in many ways an act of dreaming. How absurd to stop daydreaming and say the deal, in every round of media layoffs and every failed negotiation that ended in a strike. This is the antithesis of the subject of the work.
The authors are certainly not cardiac surgeons. But they’re CPR. Or heart ticklers. (Depends on the show or the article in my case, I guess.) Frankly, we don’t build houses, we don’t lay pavements, or we work as doctors. (Though we’ve spread our Ozempic connections widely.) But we are people with a skill that we are working on. It is a skill that is nurtured and that people tell us it has value in this world.
One might say that the simple act of attracting another person’s attention has the value of writing; one might also say that some of the words we write and the stories we tell can and do open minds and in some cases save lives. I can say that both things are true.
Writing is an act of narcissism, but it is also an act of generosity. We can be compassionate egoists – we are complex people. It’s still outrageous for me, or for most writers, to think that anyone reading a story I’ve written cares about what I have to say. But the game is also, and I’m sure many writers feel that way, something I consider a responsibility. This is my profession and a duty. (Also, liability indemnity should not be eliminated.)
It hurts to break your heart and let it bleed on a page, but the hope is that this will heal you and maybe someone else who sees the words. It is important to shine a light on the experiences of those who are marginalized and despised. Making people laugh is imperative. What is needed is to always write the truth – no matter how satisfying, how uncomfortable, or how silly.
I could write about my struggle to get out, my battle with cancer, or the extreme grief I went through during the pandemic – or I could write a thousand words in praise of Kristin Chenoweth’s awesomeness. It’s even like a fart joke. I think they all work. Jobs that other people will enjoy. And therefore, jobs that should get a paycheck.
In the short term, there are things you’ll notice as a result of this strike, like your favorite shows airing longer and the future of many projects suddenly becoming uncertain – like what happened to my girlfriend. daisies. In principle, there are other things you need to take care of: Treating TV writers as replaceable freelancers or completely dispensable makes TV what you love. bad. As for the media, I assume you like to read the news. I’m not sure how the news – the real news – will exist if layoffs, shutdowns and reductions continue at this rate.
Why should you care about authors? Because people are important. And the thing about writing is that we don’t just write for ourselves or for ourselves. It’s all about you and for you too. And I just have a hunch but I expect you to believe it could be important.
Keep being obsessed! Sign up for Daily Beast’s Obsessed newsletter and follow us Facebook, twitter, instagram And TikTok.