Why Most Show Writers Are Underrated Throughout The Decades...

[Glen Bosiwang]

Imagine when you have worked so hard with the script that you are assigned for certain episodes, putting some of your craziest and most genuine ideas ever pulled out from the realm of your fantastical voyage while balancing the flow of the story with great characterizations, witty jokes, great dramatization and of course, the heart of the very theme the show (live-action or animated) represents. The show gets the big ka-ching, the studio executives get the big rewards and guess what you (the writer) get at the end: nothing. Nothing to support your family woes, not even to repay your debt for the mortgage and every neccessary stuff you carry along the way. I have recently watched about such explaination on Youtube (brief and informative at best), understanding the situation the writers are now facing while placing further hatred towards the greedy businessmen who merely use them as tools (ironically, they are also the same guys who employ you for obvious reasons. If you ask me if they have the execs have their sense of morality, well, I can only say that their pattern are often questionable, a POV even perceived by general standards).

What is even more humiliating is the fact that the residual payment for writers are far lower than any of the crew who have worked on the show, proving that they are constantly underrated for several years since the outrageous fact of the 'I Love Lucy' case where the true geniuses get zero profit at all, no matter how many episodes are adapted and broadcast back then. Today, with the advancement of the Internet and DVDs in the mid and late 2000s, things should have been much better. Sadly enough, writers are still treated as if they are just there to give everyone a boost and that's it. No respect from the execs who are controlling the whole show (but the crews still treat them as a crucial part of their 'journey', they even call them a part of the family. That's why I respect these kind of people who value everyone else as they value the very project they are working on), and again, little revenue given for their contribution as usual. It's like an artist drawing caricatures at a lone stall, receiving 15 bucks a day, and that is all he gets throughout his lifetime.

No matter there's a recent strike to demand additional raise from the Guild, which I have learned more from certain sources, indicating that there will be a major change within the film industry, even if that will change the entire Hollywood system forever, something that most execs won't find pleasing. If any creative genius feel the urge to rise against such forces, I would be happier to support them further (too bad, I'm not in the States though but I hope such discussion would be laballed as part of the campaign to help them, if not much). I may not have the intellect of an observer but at least I know much of their value as well as their unsurpassed determination to create a scene that even Mr. Scrooge would cry and fall for it. Let's face it: if it weren't for them, we won't be having some of the best television shows ever produced in the last 5 decades, and it still keeps going.



- Glen B.Wang

[Elliot Cowan]

Glen - there's actually another forum topic where several of the matters you mention have been discussed.
You should go look it up.

[Kevin Smith]

Power to the people, brother! After you finish your picket signs, meet us in the forum topics "Why do American Executives hate animation?" and "TV/Movie Writers Strike" both started by myself, Channel Frederator's own Marx ("Marx? He barely scratched it!"). Viva la revolution!