Hey WGA, Strike THIS! (Nov 8, 2007)

In this day and age of satellite radio, the Internet, cable and satellite TV, YouTube, and wall-to-wall sports, I don't care how long the WGA writers strike.

In fact, it's a blessing in disguise.

The strike forced my favorite late-night TV shows to go into rerun mode, letting me free up the time spent on them for other entertainment options such as listening to dance party music in the morning on ipartyradio.com instead of watching Leno and Letterman while I get up in the morning.

I hate to see The Daily Show go into reruns, but then again, why does that kind of show need WGA writers? It's basically a news program. Get some news writers instead of comedy writers to give the host the news.

Several prime-time TV shows, none of which matters enough in my life for me to care such as Desparate Housewives, ceased production already as a result of the strike. More prime-time TV shows will cease production soon as the strike continues. The networks have enough shows in the can to last them anywhere from four weeks to three months depending on the series.

But not many of the prime-time shows matter in my life. I tape-delay Heroes because it's opposite my podcasting recording time period. It was getting interesting, but I guess I'll have to redirect that time to listening more of grooveradio.com or whatever electronica music is streaming.

The Fox Sunday Night cartoonfest and the Adult Swim late-night adventures have enough scripts to last the production company all year I guess, but after that, who knows?

First, late-night went into rerun mode on Monday night. Next, prime-time shows. Coming sooner than we think: daytime soap operas.

With lower viewership levels in the desired 18-49 women demographics than there were in the past because that demo is more likely to be working, the daytime soaps might just disappear altogether instead of going into reruns. For NBC, it's not much of a loss. They can replace Days of Our Lives with a fifth hour of Today. ABC and CBS aren't so lucky. CBS has all but one hour devoted to soaps, and with three and a half hours in doubt, CBS might give that time to reruns of sitcoms and dramas, maybe some temporary talk shows, and even game show revivals. Whatever CBS does might make them more money than running the tired old Guiding Light and As The World Turns shows which are basically your great-grandmother's shows nowadays.

ABC isn't so lucky. All three of their daytime soaps, All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital are still bringing in the ad revenue somehow, thanks in part to Disney reairing the soaps four times apiece on their SoapNet network. With the soaps ceasing production rather than using scab writers like they did the last time the WGA went on strike in July 1988, Disney has some tough times ahead. What would they put on SoapNet? How will they fill three hours of time on ABC? And...what about Naomi? For the answers to these and other questions, tune in next month for ... Love of Chair. Oops, that's the Electric Company. Hey, why not? Run some schoolage educational shows in daytime instead of the soaps! Put on PBS Kids shows on ABC! Rerun Captain Kangaroo on CBS! Bring back Password, Eye Guess, Concentration, and all those game shows from decades past!

The worst suggestion? Four hours of The View. Ouch!

It's the same for prime-time. Load up the prime-time slots with game shows and sports! Run Charlie Brown and Garfield specials again! Put on some variety shows like Ed Sullivan used to do. Put some NBA and NHL games on network TV! Put on Cross Wits and Beat the Clock weeknights! For boxing, how about Friday Night FIGHTS instead of LIGHTS! Put on a book review show. Air a Thursday Night opera. A Saturday Night Broadway musical. Put on some theatrical movies. Heck, with the likes of henpecked-sitcoms and chick serials off the air, the quality of prime-time TV would finally start looking up.

The biggest worry...what would the chicks do without their stories. Uh, it's just too horrible to think about it.

Hey WGA wrtiers? Keep on striking. We could use some real programming back on network TV. We don't need you anymore. You're obsolete and irrelevant.