You Think You're the Only Writer Who Can Give Me a Barton Fink Feeling?

Courtesy of Drudge, Hollywood writers sound off about what's really holding back the economic recovery: NBC's decision to cancel all its weekly 10 p.m. scripted shows and replace them with Jay Leno. Comments were made at  the semi-annual TV critics press tour in Pasadena:

When a reporter reminded the panel of NBC's economic argument—that Leno will give the network a superior profit margin—[The Shield creator Shawn] Ryan disagreed.

"What's the value of ['Leno Show'] show after it airs?" Ryan asked. "They can't sell that on DVD. They can't sell it overseas. Nobody wants to watch it three weeks later. 'Heroes' is very expensive to make, but it has value all across the world. There's a reason they're in [the drama] business—when it works, they make a lot of money."

One critic pointed out Leno's defense, that the talk show host's writers are among the best paid in the business. Ryan countered that it's about the overall numbers—how many writers and crew members that will no longer get jobs on NBC programs now that Leno's show will take most of the network's 10 p.m. slots.

Added "Sons of Anarchy" showrunner Kurt Sutter about NBC: "They're sort of the bastards to hate right now."

In a way I sympathize. I prefer scripted shows to most of what's on TV, and I regret the steady takeover of television by boring, unattractive reality starlings. In particular, I have fond memories of watching The Shield shooting outside my workplace, trying to count the scores of layabouts munching on generous breakfasts (and I mean real breakfasts with sausage and pancakes and scramblers, not just danishes), and wondering how cable programming could throw off that much money.

As we now know, it couldn't. Ryan's argument about second-run market was plausible a few years ago, before it was clear how short the Long Tail really is: DVD sales have been decreasing for years and are currently leading the decline in studio revenues. Online income never showed any prospects of replacing the kind of money broadcast and physical media generated—and that was before online revenue also started to fall. Filling out the 10 p.m. spot with an inexpensive show headed by a personality with proven ratings potential may be all second-wave and non-interactive, but it's money up front rather than a gamble on the future value of The Philanthropist.

True, by hating NBC you're hating General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, surely the most loathsome organism on this planet. But maybe the problem is that there really aren't any "bastards" for the writers to blame. Content creation just isn't a good way to make money anymore. There's something ironic in hearing claims of injury from what may be the last generation of people to get rich in the game.

More ironic still is that the target of their ire is Jay Leno, a man universally considered a mensch and a considerate boss, who tried to maintain good relations all around and to make sure people kept getting paid in 2007. You may recall that in that year, Hollywood was dealt what I hope will turn out to be its death blow when one of the unions, convinced its members were not getting enough on back-end sales, launched a pointless and self-destructive strike. Which union was that anyway? Oh yeah: the writers.