January 24, 2008

(Inside My TV in South Carolina) - Most of the Media reporters are predicting that the writer's strike (WGA is the union) is already changing the face of Television as we know it. They say that as the strike progresses, people, who already are watching more reality shows than scripted shows, will forget the story lines of those scripted shows, and eventually forget the shows themselves. It's not like most of the shows are beautifully written in any case [Jay Leno is much funnier now that he is writing his own stuff] - most of the writing is below average - but that IS what unions do - preserve the tyranny mediocrity.

On this side of the word processor, it seems as if there are powerful arguments in favor of this view. Aging boomers may be the hardest people to wrench away from the boob tube habit. Many of us like the garbage that is served up every evening - from the nightly network news to the awful, sex-filled, bathroom joking sit-coms. Worse yet, are their still-living parents, but the vast majority of them are watching the Turner Classic Movie Channel (for which they pay a buck a month to their cable company.) They will be effected the least.

In between, in the tale of watching woe, are the people who are younger than 40. Many do not watch regular television.

The following, therefore, is therapy for your humble editor - consider it a hint to cable and internet providers. Here's what will be missed or migrated to the net or cable:

1. NUMBER3 - The (Ridley) Scott brothers' intelligent, sassy, funny, sweet, breathtaking, violent, gut-churning series which has done more for mathematics and the FBI than anyone else. Period.
2. House - If you haven't seen this brilliant dance on the grave of the humble medical-hero show, you should. Oh, House IS a miraculous healer, but he's so close to Asperger's (a strange type of Autism which is found in brittle anti-social geniuses), possibly aggravated by the fact that he pops hydrocodone like candy (there is some evidence that the drug is as helpful over the long haul as it is addictive), that he angers more people than he amazingly cures. Hugh Laurie is a better actor than anybody on the cast of Numbers with a 3, but the writing is not quite as good - we're talking hundredths of percentage points difference, though
3. NCIS/Pushing Daisies - tie - These two are nothing alike - NCIS is patriotic, better written than choices 1 or 2, and much better edited, but the acting has sagged since their have given the geekette less to say. Pushing Daisies is the best written show this year. Period. It is almost the best show, except that the acting is "Wagnerian" - i.e. it blends too much into the entire theme and there is little independent action outside the theme. This is not to say that it isn't also the funniest show on TV, it is. But it needs that slight increase in independent acting.
4. Moonlight, Medium, Ghost Whisperer - We like weird. You can substitute your guilty pleasure in this spot. We know you watch American Idol and Survivor and so there are plenty of bad shows to pick from.
5. Nothing else - this one is easy. We watch cable, play games, watch videos, read news on the net or watch cable news, the rest of the time.

Maybe regular TV stations could be saved. If you fired all the union writers, move the shows to Canada or the Carolinas where the unions have no hold, and produced for the internet or cable, people WOULD pay SOMETHING to watch their very favorite shows.

We polled our providers and stringers at SwampfoxNews.com and were interested to discover that almost everybody would be willing to pay an extra buck or two per month and even sit through brief commercials to watch their favorite show on the internet - bypassing cable altogether. It's totally subjective, of course, but our gals and guys are pretty representative of the South Carolina population.

But this time - this time - if nothing is done - the union wind may inherit the whirlwind.

- Dick Anderson