A rundown…

SNL’s High-Larious Take:

When did Fred Armisen get so funny? Also “get ass cancer and die” is my favorite tossed-off insult. Cut off on the freeway? I hope you get ass cancer and die. The girl you like rejects you? I hope you get ass cancer and die. Someone tells you they think Keanu Reeves sucks? Wait for it… I hope you get ass cancer and DIE! See, it’s way all-purpose.

A detailed look at just what the WGA is striking for:

What The Office has to say on the matter:

How David Letterman is preparing for The Strike:

Jon Stewart drops some wisdom on the matter:

And in all fairness, here’s Jay Leno’s thoughts on The Strike:

Daily Variety’s Strike Blog: HERE

TV Week’s Comprehensive Strike Coverage: HERE

Ain’t It Cool New’s Showrunner Strike Breakdown: HERE

Defamer’s Excellent Coverage of The Strike: HERE and HERE

Televisionary’s Outstanding Coverage of The Strike: HERE

Uber-TV God Joss Whedon’s Take: HERE

Resident Comedy Overlord Judd Apatow’s Take: HERE

Diary of a TV Writer on Strike: HERE

And finally, my take:

I hope to be a member of the WGA in my lifetime, so of course I whole-heartedly support the guild’s efforts to attain better financial incentives from the major studios. DVD residuals for writers are a joke (.4 cents!), and it’s imperative that Hollywood find a way to monetize the internet now before things inevitably get worse (and by worse, I mean more lucrative). It’s unfortunate that so many people in the industry beyond writers are suffering (assistants, crew members, local businesses), but getting this fixed as soon as possible is in the best interest of everyone involved, so that when the time comes for the DGA and SAG to negotiate their deal, we don’t have every above the line talent in the world sitting on their thumbs. The writers deserve the compensation they are asking for. They’ve been making too much money for too many studios for far too long not to get paid what they are worth.

That being said, as an objective entertainment consumer, everyone needs to wake up and get their shit together. In a few weeks (and in some cases right now), we’re gonna have nothing to watch! You though the Reality TV boom of the early 2000’s was rough? Wait till that’s ALL we have on all five networks. And it’s gonna happen sooner than you’d think. Picketing and other methods of civil disobedience are great, but let’s not let this get out of hand. At some point the writers and the studios need to sack up and work it out. What we need to do is get Vic Mackey to lock the head negotiators from both sides into a cargo bin and come back a day later, like he did in Season One with the rival gang leaders. Only one side will walk out alive, but the beef will be squashed (da da DA DA!).

I can see where both sides are coming from. I really can. Studio heads work for corporations, not for the studios; they are beholden to shareholders not creatives. Nobody knows what the television landscape is going to look like in ten years and the internet for all its advances is still the Wild West. But this all travels up to places that don’t have viewers best interests at heart.

Let’s remember what in the end is really important here. I want my brethren to be paid, but I also don’t want to lose eight episodes of Lost, you know? Or the last half of the final season of Scrubs. I wanna see where Journeyman, Gossip Girl and Dirty Sexy Money are going. Heroes just started getting good! I already miss Jon Stewart, Conan and Craig Ferguson. How will I laugh without Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin telling me what’s funny (Tracy Morgan might be the biggest victim of all of this)? And I don’t even want to think about the abysmal movie scripts that were rightly sitting in garbage cans a week ago that are now being considered for greenlight.

I am on the side of the content. And right now the content is being killed, very slowly, but to such a degree. Please, just please, let’s do what we can to salvage the entertainment. There will always be more money, there won’t always be new episodes of The Office. Fight the power, but come back soon…

Bangarang!