With Hollywood writers on what may be a long strike, how long will it be before !
Question: Hey, don't worry. I'm well aware that at this point in time, many Canadians still shudder at the thought of watching Canadian movies and TV and hate the Canadian-content laws up here.
Personally, I think Canadian shows are getting pretty good considering most of our biggest stars still live in Hollywood.
Answers: Hey, don't worry. I'm well aware that at this point in time, many Canadians still shudder at the thought of watching Canadian movies and TV and hate the Canadian-content laws up here.
Personally, I think Canadian shows are getting pretty good considering most of our biggest stars still live in Hollywood.
I hope we start getting them [canadian shows]
next week. Make that tomorrow.
Yeah I heard about that strike, but why did they go on it?
Maybe never, reruns will be aired in place of reg. shows.
Oh that would be great if the states started getting some more international shows. But Canadian? I suppose I do have an answer. When pigs fly.
It would have to be a long, long strike. Re-runs of US shows can go for a long time compared to any shows coming from Canada. It would have to go at least a year before that topic is even brought up.
I think if a Canadian show was already good enough to be on US air, it would be. The problem is who decides what is good enough!
The Office and other shows like that are originally UK shows, recast and reshot with US actors. Canadian humor is more similiar to British humor, so to answer your oroginal question, probably not too long before we see a Canadian show...even if its not the original version.
Well, I'd be more concerned with a Hollywood writers strike if they had been producing anything worth watching over the past several years. Hopefully it will give a couple of creative young writers the opportunity to shake things up a bit.
Contractually they cannot air Canadian shows on American networks at this time. Perhaps if the strike continues into the summer, and they completely run out of things to air, they'll rehash that, though, and start bringing in programming from other countries to give American viewers something (anything) new. However, there are a lot of issues in doing that which will only further anger the various unions, and I doubt they want to run the risk of that.
To those who answered before me with questions about the strike: WGA writers are striking right now because they don't have a contract for New Media (ie straight to DVD and online content), and they want to be ensured they get paid accordingly for doing work on those projects. They also want a higher percentage of residuals from the profits of DVD sales since that has become such a major player in the money-making part of the film and television industry.
What I think people are failing to understand, perhaps because the media is failing to report it, is that this Writer's Strike is not as detrimental to the networks in the initial stages as it may appear. Sure, late night talk shows, and the rare daytime one (cough, "Ellen," cough), have gone dark, but those who are up and about at one a.m. are usually only passively watching those shows as it is anyway. And networks have enough episodes of procedurals, other serialized dramas, and non-traditional sitcoms to last them for quite awhile without having to resort to rerun hell. Even when the shows we are currently enjoying, such as "Samantha Who?" or "CSI" run out of new material, there is a whole slew of mid-season replacements that have already shot a handful of episodes, such as the new "Miss/Guided" or last season's surprise Emmy winner "The New Adventures Of Old Christine" or fan favorite "Lost." While networks may have originally intended for them to debut in January, it will be an easy fix to just push them up in order to fill gaps accordingly. Some viewers may not notice anything's wrong at all because as it is, so many new shows air for six or so weeks straight and then go on "hiatus" while the network tests out new programming. Of course, there are also tons of reality shows that have full seasons in the can that will be thrown in wherever there are still holes. Primetime doesn't run into a real problem unless the strike lasts well into the summer, but by then they may not have any actors or directors anyway.
Where the strike stands to hit hard in the immediate future, though, is daytime television. Soap operas tape three weeks in advance, and that should carry us through the Sweeps period (ironic how that worked out, isn't it?), but come December, if the strike has not yet been resolved there will have to be a major shuffle to find suitable shows to fill huge blocks of time every single day.
And right now it doesn't look like the strike will be resolved anytime soon. Two days ago WGA picketers stormed the "Desperate Housewives" set, trying to get production shut down. Why? I'm not entirely sure; the scribes of "DH" have already been paid for the episode they are currently filming. The Producers of "DH" are not doing anything wrong by carrying on their business as usual, and these rowdy picketers are giving all of the others a bad image by disrespecting their fellow brothers and sisters, both in their union, and in the various unions that are employed by the Producers of "DH." If that kind of angry attitude spreads, there is no doubt others will follow suit and strike when the time comes, not just for SAG and the DGA, but for the Below-The-Line unions in a trickle-down effect.