The Writers Guild of America voted to strike this week and the pickets went up on Tuesday. Many shows have been affected but it’s the late night talk shows that we see the immediate affects. All of them rely on timely writing and without that, they’ve all gone dark.
It’s been about sixteen years since the last strike of this nature. Back then, all the late night shows went off the air immediately as well. About two months into the strike, some of the shows went back making new shows, Letterman negotiated a deal with the WGA independently, so he got his writers back, while Conan just winged it without any writers.
It’s commonly accepted that some of Conan’s writer-less shows were among his best ones. It’s just him being himself or perhaps better described as being his wacky self. You wouldn’t think a segment showing him walking around the office with a guitar would be funny but it turned out to be hilarious.
I hope the strike ends soon and not because I’m worried about the lack of entertainment production. I hope the writers get everything they want. Increasingly, large corporations are even more laser-focused than usual on making profits and making executives rich, while those who toil to make the entertainment products aren’t getting the fair share of the pie.