Soap Operas in Peril During WGA Strike!

amp160How and if this happens depends upon the possible outcomes of several scenarios Unfortunately as this is written there is no official confirmation of how far scripts already written by the striking writers will go ABC says it has episodes of its soaps prepared until January other soaps are known to be shooting only three weeks ahead of their airdates One of three alternatives will have to be utilized as soon as the current material runs out1 Scripts will have to written by scabs In both the writers39 strike of 1988 which lasted 22 weeks and a short strike in 1980 anonymous scabs wrote the soaps The scabs were said to be anyone from the showsamp8217 producers themselves to novelists recruited by the networks Scabwritten material had longlasting implications I spoke with As the World Turns striking writer Douglas Marland at the time of the 1988 strike he died in 1993 who was furious because scabs had hanged his carefully planned and crafted storylines When the strike ended Marland had to waste a lot of time undoing the damage for example unmarrying characters the scabs had married off Primetime shows which are episodic and mostly have conclusive endings didn39t face this problem For soaps writers strikes create scheduling and continuity nightmaresOn the other hand the two previous strikes introduced new writing talents we still called them scabs to the medium In the 1980 strike a scifi novelist was recruited by General Hospital and he later created the wildly successful if absurd Ice Princess storyline for Luke and Laura Another scab from that strike went on to write for virtually every soap opera in the ensuing years2 Soaps will be replaced by soap reruns Although soap reruns are rarely aired except on SOAPnet soap viewers usually love to see repeats of their favorite shows Unfortunately most want to see shows from the 3980s and early 3990s such as Santa Barbara and General Hospital when soaps were better written and produced than they are now So as to not show up the weaknesses of current soaps the reruns that may be aired during this strike will probably not be older than a year or two3 Soaps will be replaced by other ie cheaper forms of programming If game shows talk shows or any other kinds of programming such as news and sports coverage are substituted for striking soaps the entire daytime medium could be doomed Soap ratings are so low now that any kind of shows that can do better numbers in their time slots may well be picked to replace the soaps themselves PermanentlyBlanket cancellation is of course the nightmare scenario for daytime soaps Since the beginning of television in the 3950s they have occupied extremely lucrative advertiserdesirable network afternoon timeslots These slots are coveted by producers of all sorts of daytime shows such as talk game and even femaleinterest home improvement shows now seen on cable If soaps are cancelled due to the effects of a long writers strike soap fans may indeed experience their final opportunity to tune in tomorrow

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Soap Operas in Peril During WGA Strike!

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Maryann Teller

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Soap Operas in Peril During WGA Strike!

Maryann Teller

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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