The Writers Strike

It seems that, because of the screenwriters strike, everyone is asking what people will do without television. Given the state of television, I have been doing without it for a long time. Were the screenwriters never to return, I would not notice. If I had given any thought to most television screenwriters before the strike, my thoughts would not have been kind, to say the least. The vast wasteland is alive and well. Television sucks big time.

There was once a stretch of seventeen years in my life when I did not even own a television. I simply did not want one. Televisions has sucked big time for a long time. Perhaps the problem is that I am not a moron, or that I refuse to let my standards fall that low. If I wanted sensationalism, sophomoric jokes, an emphasis on seedy sex, or a distinct lack of reality even when reality is in the program description, I could always go down to the local bar and watch the Fox Opinions Channel.

Whenever I start down this path with people, they agree that television is a waste of time. Well, they say, except for those three insipid nighttime soap operas and those four reality shows that they absolutely have to see every week. Well, and all three of those “comedy” shows in which the only joke they know is something about one of the characters being gay. Oh, yes, and Oprah, the absolute queen of insipid.

What a load of crap.

I do watch television occasionally. It is not as though I avoid it entirely. My television season is approaching; college basketball season. I also watch a bit of football, especially Big Twelve football and a few pro games. Unless there is something that I don’t know (and we all know there are several things that I don’t know) there is no current need for screenwriters in those areas.

Every once in a while, I will spend some time trying to find history and science shows that are worthwhile, but those are also few and far between. Instead of real archeology and anthropology, all I can find is one Israeli idiot and one Indiana Jones wannabe. Instead of undersea exploration and science, all I can find is two guys with no budget and bad accents. Instead of history, all I can find is low-quality film shot during WWII and a lot of rubbish about Hitler.

I do have an idea for those of you that are feeling deprived, though. Maybe you could get into a program at your local library or high school and learn to read! Go and select some interesting books instead of just parking your asses in front of a television and staring blankly at whatever comes on. I know, it sounds like a lot of work, but you may actually learn something useful that way Give books a try. No, not comic books.

I am probably preaching to the choir with my regular readers. They have almost certainly already written television off, just like I have. Once it dawns upon people that “reality” shows are the most tightly scripted, unrealistic shows available, most of them do not go back. There is really only one conclusion that a thinking person can come to. Television is intended for people without an IQ of any kind.

Commercial television is, in short, rubbish. Having no writers will make no diffeence.


Comments

The Writers Strike — 2 Comments

  1. I haven’t seen TV for more than a year since my family got rid of it totally. It makes no difference, having no tv in the house at all.

  2. Graqce –

    Isn’t it amazing? I guess that it was easy for me to give it up for all those years. Television didn’t intrude upon my life until I was nine or ten, I guess, and I had already developed a taste for books by then. Television, most of which required very little thought on the part of the viewer even in the fifties, just didn’t cut it. I went back to books and am still there.

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