Writers Strike, Viewers Bawl

After weeks of the Writers Strike, many viewers have been deprived of their weekly shots of TV enjoyment (or, in the case of Late Night shows, daily doses). On one hand, I personally support the writers (I tried to grow a solidarity beard like Conan and Letterman, but it looked really patchy and pathetic). At the same time, I am furious at them for depriving me of Jack Bauer, John Locke, Michael Scott, Dr. Cox, Liz Lemon, and Horn-Rimmed Glasses Dude and his hot daughter. I may need to get HBO so I can watch The Wire. What if they had done this when The Simpsons and Family Guy were still funny? What if they had done this when Seinfeld was on??? Madness…

Thinking about this, I now realize how many shows there are on TV that I like and that are somewhat intelligently written, despite all my bitching about the amount of garbage on TV (although I admit, if you’re really stressed out with school or work, watching some mindless show like Jerry Springer can be awesome). This surprising collection of quality shows (in some cases quality is a relative term, but still) indicates that the writers are giving us alternatives to the nonsense of “Reality” TV.

With sit-coms and dramas on hiatus or cutting their seasons short, the networks are scrambling to fill Prime Time slots. The new trend has been game shows, for those of you saw Howie Mendel talk to bankers on the phone for 20 minutes a week and wanted more! Now they are doing this crazy game show with a lie detector and other lowest-common-denominator programs. My concern now is that, in the midst this TV Renaissance, the strike will force these good shows off the air. Will people gradually accept the crap that’s replacing the old shows? How long until Reality TV has us watching a two-hour montage of celebrities taking a dump, live on national television? In the immortal words of Robin Williams, “it’s not the end of civilization, but you can see it from here.” He said that before the strike…