Writers Strike: More Cartoons, Less Heroes?

Since the whole idea of the WGA strike happening started to seem like a serious reality, people began speculating as to how the strike, which officially started this week, would affect television. The obvious solution, should the strike run on long enough for the networks to run out of produced episodes of their current scripted series, is for them to fill the airwaves with reality TV shows. But there is another genre that could come to the rescue: cartoons!

According to a story that Reuters ran today, the writers of a number of animated films and TV shows are covered under a different union. The writers who are members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which includes The Animation Guild – Local 839, can continue working in animated films and television. In terms of movies, this will certainly benefit companies like Dreamworks. As for how it will affect television, perhaps the networks will consider filling some of their primetime timeslots with an animated series or two instead of just reruns and reality TV. Then again, Reuters’ article did state that a studio exec seemed to think it was unlikely that many of the “big-name” writers would be willing to cross the picket line by writing for an animated series or film, even if technically, they were allowed to do it.

In other strike-related news, in case you hadn’t heard, TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello reported that NBC’s hit series, Heroes could be shutting down season 2 early. Ausiello’s sources confirmed that an alternate ending for the December 3rd pre-holiday-hiatus episode is being produced. Initially, the episode was meant to close out the “Generations” arc but due to strike stopping production on new episodes, the alternate ending could be used to tie up the season completely.

I still watch Heroes every Monday but I don’t feel the same excitement and anticipation that I did last season so to be totally honest, an early ending to the season wouldn’t really bother me. I’m more concerned with how the strike will affect new shows like Chuck, Journeyman and Pushing Daisies, all of which have been getting better and better with each new episode. The strike could certainly reduce the momentum that these series have been building.

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