| Maryln Schwartz: Viewers deserve to strike 04/03/2001 By / The Dallas Morning News There is talk that there will be a screenwriters' and actors' strike very shortly. This means we will have nothing to watch on TV but reruns until it is settled.
So what's the difference?
It seems like I haven't been watching anything but reruns the whole season. The only time it seems there are new shows is during "sweeps" weeks, when networks try to get higher ratings so they can charge more money for advertisements. The minute the sweeps are over, we go into weeks of reruns.
Whatever happened to a television "season"? It would start in September, and we would have new shows to watch until the end of the season, which was about April or May.
Now I see the same poor man getting treated for the same dreadful disease again and again on ER. The popular medical show advertised all last week that the next episode was a "new" episode. This is supposed to be a big deal. If we counted up how many new shows there are each season, I think we'd be shocked at just how few there are. I'd bet it's not more than 10 or 12 a season.
A lot of attention is given to the advertisers. So here's a novel idea: Why don't they start thinking about the viewers?
During the same time they were advertising a "new" episode of ER, they were also advertising that the following week there would be a classic George Clooney episode. This means old. George Clooney hasn't been on that show for at least two seasons.
The West Wing has had so many reruns this year that I can't remember the last new episode. The show is set in the White House. I'm not even sure who the president is anymore. They reran the Thanksgiving episode last week.
And all of these reruns are shown out of sequence so we never are quite sure of the story line. On The West Wing, we will probably be seeing Christmas when the rest of the world is having Easter.
It's gotten so bad that the only thing I saw new on TV last week was a terrorist raid in the Middle East.
Others viewers agree.
"I am a divorced mother of three kids under the age of 13," says Mary Olney, 40. "I work all day, and don't get much entertainment except TV. It seems like, years ago, there were always new shows to watch. Now it's awful. It's all reruns, reruns, reruns. I've read that on shows like Friends, the main players get paid $750,000 an episode. Are they running so many repeats so they won't have to pay all this money each week? Or is the cost of those actors so much they don't have any left over to actually do a show?"
There are some shows that don't do this. NYPD Blue didn't begin this year until the producers could do a straight run of new episodes. We knew when it would begin and when it would end. The Sopranos and Sex and the City do the same thing.
The writers and actors are talking about going on strike. Why don't we viewers strike, too? Videotape the show if you want to, but don't watch at regular hours. Then, when the ratings wars start, don't give them any ratings.
"I have about 100 channels," says Ronnie White, 42. "I thought this would ensure I'd always have something to watch. Not true. It seems all I get are old movies, reruns or infomercials. The TV networks are complaining that more and more people are watching cable. Why not? The regular networks are awful."
Alice Nolan, 32, says she likes shows such as Survivor, and they do come in sequence.
Yes, they are in sequence now. But as soon as the new winner is revealed, this Australian outback version no doubt will be rerun also.
Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe we'll all get so disgusted with the way viewers are treated that we will turn our televisions off and start to read. There are bookstores and libraries full of good things to read for every taste, and there are no commercials.
Of course, most viewers who are complaining suspect that money is somehow connected to this problem. Some people are even suggesting that for a network to get licensed, it should have so many weeks each year of new programming.
If there is an actors' and writers' strike, it will affect how many new movies and TV shows come out. But I have seen members of the Actors Guild say it's not for greed, they just want the little men and women in the business to get their due.
Some big-time actors will work for much less than usual in order to put out a good film.
Julia Roberts did this to make The Mexican with Brad Pitt.
Julia usually gets $20 million a film. But for this movie, she only asked for $10 million. Is that a person dedicated to her art or what?
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