By Jim McCarthy Jan 23, 2009 0 comments

Murder! Suicide! Oh, the Drama!

The Television industry is in decline.  I’m not (really) commenting on the quality of the product it turns out (which of course ranges from wretched to awesome).  I’m talking about the business itself.

Like newspapers, the business depends on the ability to collect good rates on advertising from sponsors.  That, in turn, depends on the number of viewers and the ability of advertising to influence those viewers.

Which, for the TV business, isn’t good, since both of those things are not as healthy as they used to be.  I learned the other day (and this will be in my TED presentation, btw) that more people watched the 1985 NBA Finals matchup between the Celtics and the Lakers than watched the same matchup in 2008.

Not a higher percentage!  More people!  And that’s despite a 30% increase in the population since then.

Anyway, this is on my mind while I’m reading about the Screen Actors Guild and their internal struggle over whether or not to strike.  Here’s a tidbit:

“While support for an actors’ strike was already running thin thanks to the industry-wide burnout still being felt from the 100-day writers’ strike in 2007-08, the current state of the nation’s economy—not to mention the just-underway awards season—has Hollywood up in arms over what could be another potentially disastrous work stoppage.”

For the actors to strike would be an outstanding way to further degrade an industry in significant decline.  If the studios and the actors can’t see that they need to be exerting their energies on the marketplace, not each other, this business is destined to be an E! True Hollywood Story:  Murder-Suicide In Hollywood.

Remember the writers’ strike?  I went on record in the Los Angeles Business Journal saying that a strike was a terrible idea, but I also talked about how it opened up opportunities in the Live business, which it certainly did.

It also spawned things like Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, one of the funniest things I saw all last year.  Creator Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly fame) said this about why he made it:

“Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.

Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.”

Well done, Mr. Whedon.  Now the only thing left to do if you REALLY want to make the thing a success is to create a stage version.

I know people who could help you with that if you’re interested. :)

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