March 7, 2023 • 10 mins
On this day in 1988, the Writers Guild of America began one of the longest union strikes in Hollywood history.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello,
and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a show
that surfs the channels of history every day of the week.
I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode, we're talking about
what's still the longest Writers Guild strike of all time,
(00:22):
including the ways it changed what people watched and how
they watched it. The day was March seventh, nineteen eighty eight,
the Writers Guild of America began one of the longest
union strikes in Hollywood history. It lasted all the way
(00:45):
until August seventh, spanning a total of one hundred and
fifty three days. Dozens of movies and TV shows were
affected during the strike, including high profile projects like Star Trek,
The Next Generation and Tim Burton's Batman. The production delays
reportedly cost the industry about five hundred million dollars, and
(01:07):
of course, many of the strikers suffered financially as well.
Union members eventually reached a compromise with the Alliance of
Motion Picture and Television Producers the AMPTP. But during the
twenty two weeks when the strike was on, America's cultural
landscape changed, and some unexpected and long lasting ways. Rumblings
(01:30):
of a writer's strike began in late nineteen eighty seven,
when TV producers tried to switch writers to a sliding
payment scale for certain kinds of shows. Up until that point,
writers were paid a fixed amount anytime their work was
rebroadcast after its original airing. The fees from those reruns,
known as residuals, were, and still are, a crucial part
(01:53):
of a writer's income. That's why it was such a
sticking point for union members when the producers tried to
change change the terms of those payments. The argument was
that syndication prices had declined, and as a result, the
studios weren't making as much money off their reruns as
they once had. Producers felt it was only fair that
writers share part of that burden and take the financial
(02:17):
hit as well. They insisted that from that point on,
any residuals from domestic syndicated reruns of one hour TV
shows would be paid on a sliding scale. The more
money the studio earned from syndication, the higher the payment.
Writers bristled at the new restriction, but it wasn't the
sole cause of the strike. Members of the WGA also
(02:41):
wanted more creative control of their scripts, as well as
higher residuals for reruns broadcast overseas. Negotiations stalled after several months,
and at twelve oh one Pacific time on March first,
nineteen eighty eight, the then current contract between the AMPTP
and the WGA expired. One week later, at nine am
(03:05):
on March seventh, roughly nine thousand movie and television writers
officially went on strike. While a union strike is never
ideal for Hollywood, the timing could have been a lot
worse from the TV studios perspective. That's because the strike
was called in early spring, just as TV production was
winding down for the summer. TV viewership always takes a
(03:29):
hit in the summer months, so networks use that time
of year to prepare their next batch of shows for
the fall. In the meantime, they typically air a lot
of reruns to save money. So while the nineteen eighty
eight strike did cause networks to lean more heavily on reruns,
for most viewers, it just seemed like business as usual,
at least for the first few months. Because while the
(03:52):
initial timing of the strike had softened its blow, the
longer it dragged on, the more studios and viewers began
to feel its effects. The start of the fall TV
season was a big deal. In those days, premiers were
heavily marketed and often drew in tens of millions of viewers,
But without writers to draft scripts over the summer, there
(04:14):
was nothing to premiere come September. The whole schedule wound
up being delayed by about six weeks, and some of
the more writing intensive shows like mcgiver and other hour
long dramas didn't have new episodes ready until close to
the end of the year. The fallout from those delays
was fairly significant. Primetime ratings for NBC, ABC and CBS
(04:38):
fell four point six percent that fall compared to the
previous year. Some of those viewers found something else to
do besides watching TV, but many of them just found
something else to watch. According to Nielsen, cable TV viewership
rose twenty five and a half percent in the fall
of eighty eight. At the time, there wasn't much original
(05:00):
scripted programming on cable. It was largely reruns of classic
shows and syndicated movies, so most channels weren't too effected
by the writer's strike. In any case, a good number
of viewers found enough worth watching that they switched to
cable and never fully went back to the broadcast networks.
By late July, the strike showed no signs of being resolved,
(05:23):
but in private, both sides were sweating. Many writers were
beginning to feel the financial sting of having gone without
work for five months, and on the producer's side, the
fall TV season was just around the corner and the
number of empty slots in their schedules was beginning to
worry them. With so much on the line, both parties
eventually agreed to hire a mediator, well known entertainment lawyer
(05:47):
Ken Ziffrin. Over the next couple weeks, Ziffrin took meetings
with everyone involved to try and settle the dispute. He
met with guild representatives, with studio execs, and with Nick Counter,
the producer's chief negotiator. Little by little, Ziffrin convinced both
sides to soften a few of their positions. Then in
(06:08):
early August he met with them at the headquarters of
the AMPTP in Sherman Oaks, California. It took about sixteen
hours of further negotiation, but in the end a compromise
was reached, and after one hundred and fifty three days
the strike was over. The new contract expanded the creative
rights of writers and gave them more of a say
(06:30):
in choosing directors and actors for certain projects. It also
secured them higher residuals from foreign broadcasts. In return, producers
got to keep using a sliding payment scale for domestic
residuals from one hour series. Neither side was fully satisfied,
but it was enough to get Hollywood back up and
running again. That said, it wasn't as easy as flipping
(06:54):
a switch. While new scripts were being written, network still
needed something besides reruns to plug the gaps in their schedules.
They came up with all kinds of alternative programming to
meet that need. ABC, for example, reworked a bunch of
scripts from the original Mission Impossible series from the nineteen
sixties and then filmed the new version on the cheap
(07:16):
in Australia. The network also aired several glitzy, star studded specials,
including Supermodel Search and the special Olympics Christmas Party hosted
by Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Meanwhile, NBC and CBS
leaned heavily on mystery documentaries and news magazine shows, including
(07:37):
the likes of Unsolved Mysteries and forty eight Hours. CBS
was so desperate for new offerings that it even revived
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, a popular variety show that
had been canceled twenty years earlier. The Smothers Brothers revival
proved short lived, as did many other stop gap shows
(07:58):
and specials commissioned by the major networks. However, one lasting
effect of the strike was the proliferation of so called
reality TV. The most famous example is the unscripted show Cops,
a documentary style program that chronicles the lives of police
officers as they respond to various calls around the country.
(08:20):
The Fox Network picked up the low cost show from
a local station and added it to its Saturday night
lineup in early nineteen eighty nine. It became a major
hit for the fledgling network and inspired a number of
copycat shows throughout the nineteen nineties. As of twenty twenty three,
Cops has aired well over a thousand episodes and is
(08:41):
still in production today, making it the longest running reality
series in TV history at the time of recording. There's
once again talk of an impending writers strike and once again.
How to handle residuals is at the heart of the conflict.
There's no way to know for certain if a new
strike is coming, or if it does, how long it
(09:02):
might last, or how it might alter the course of
popular entertainment. The strike of nineteen eighty eight accelerated the
switch to cable TV and led to a rise in
unscripted programming. Today, the film and television landscape is already
pretty splintered, with more options than ever for what to
watch and where to watch it. But if there was
(09:23):
an industry wide strike, and if it were to go
on long enough, we might see another round of unexpected shakeups.
So for all you Smothers Brothers fans out there, keep
your fingers crossed. I'm gay, Bluesier, and hopefully you now
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
(09:45):
If you enjoyed today's episode, consider keeping up with us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show. You
can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts,
or you can send your feedback directly by writing to
This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays
for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening
(10:06):
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day
in history class.
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello,
and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a show
that surfs the channels of history every day of the week.
I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode, we're talking about
what's still the longest Writers Guild strike of all time,
(00:22):
including the ways it changed what people watched and how
they watched it. The day was March seventh, nineteen eighty eight,
the Writers Guild of America began one of the longest
union strikes in Hollywood history. It lasted all the way
(00:45):
until August seventh, spanning a total of one hundred and
fifty three days. Dozens of movies and TV shows were
affected during the strike, including high profile projects like Star Trek,
The Next Generation and Tim Burton's Batman. The production delays
reportedly cost the industry about five hundred million dollars, and
(01:07):
of course, many of the strikers suffered financially as well.
Union members eventually reached a compromise with the Alliance of
Motion Picture and Television Producers the AMPTP. But during the
twenty two weeks when the strike was on, America's cultural
landscape changed, and some unexpected and long lasting ways. Rumblings
(01:30):
of a writer's strike began in late nineteen eighty seven,
when TV producers tried to switch writers to a sliding
payment scale for certain kinds of shows. Up until that point,
writers were paid a fixed amount anytime their work was
rebroadcast after its original airing. The fees from those reruns,
known as residuals, were, and still are, a crucial part
(01:53):
of a writer's income. That's why it was such a
sticking point for union members when the producers tried to
change change the terms of those payments. The argument was
that syndication prices had declined, and as a result, the
studios weren't making as much money off their reruns as
they once had. Producers felt it was only fair that
writers share part of that burden and take the financial
(02:17):
hit as well. They insisted that from that point on,
any residuals from domestic syndicated reruns of one hour TV
shows would be paid on a sliding scale. The more
money the studio earned from syndication, the higher the payment.
Writers bristled at the new restriction, but it wasn't the
sole cause of the strike. Members of the WGA also
(02:41):
wanted more creative control of their scripts, as well as
higher residuals for reruns broadcast overseas. Negotiations stalled after several months,
and at twelve oh one Pacific time on March first,
nineteen eighty eight, the then current contract between the AMPTP
and the WGA expired. One week later, at nine am
(03:05):
on March seventh, roughly nine thousand movie and television writers
officially went on strike. While a union strike is never
ideal for Hollywood, the timing could have been a lot
worse from the TV studios perspective. That's because the strike
was called in early spring, just as TV production was
winding down for the summer. TV viewership always takes a
(03:29):
hit in the summer months, so networks use that time
of year to prepare their next batch of shows for
the fall. In the meantime, they typically air a lot
of reruns to save money. So while the nineteen eighty
eight strike did cause networks to lean more heavily on reruns,
for most viewers, it just seemed like business as usual,
at least for the first few months. Because while the
(03:52):
initial timing of the strike had softened its blow, the
longer it dragged on, the more studios and viewers began
to feel its effects. The start of the fall TV
season was a big deal. In those days, premiers were
heavily marketed and often drew in tens of millions of viewers,
But without writers to draft scripts over the summer, there
(04:14):
was nothing to premiere come September. The whole schedule wound
up being delayed by about six weeks, and some of
the more writing intensive shows like mcgiver and other hour
long dramas didn't have new episodes ready until close to
the end of the year. The fallout from those delays
was fairly significant. Primetime ratings for NBC, ABC and CBS
(04:38):
fell four point six percent that fall compared to the
previous year. Some of those viewers found something else to
do besides watching TV, but many of them just found
something else to watch. According to Nielsen, cable TV viewership
rose twenty five and a half percent in the fall
of eighty eight. At the time, there wasn't much original
(05:00):
scripted programming on cable. It was largely reruns of classic
shows and syndicated movies, so most channels weren't too effected
by the writer's strike. In any case, a good number
of viewers found enough worth watching that they switched to
cable and never fully went back to the broadcast networks.
By late July, the strike showed no signs of being resolved,
(05:23):
but in private, both sides were sweating. Many writers were
beginning to feel the financial sting of having gone without
work for five months, and on the producer's side, the
fall TV season was just around the corner and the
number of empty slots in their schedules was beginning to
worry them. With so much on the line, both parties
eventually agreed to hire a mediator, well known entertainment lawyer
(05:47):
Ken Ziffrin. Over the next couple weeks, Ziffrin took meetings
with everyone involved to try and settle the dispute. He
met with guild representatives, with studio execs, and with Nick Counter,
the producer's chief negotiator. Little by little, Ziffrin convinced both
sides to soften a few of their positions. Then in
(06:08):
early August he met with them at the headquarters of
the AMPTP in Sherman Oaks, California. It took about sixteen
hours of further negotiation, but in the end a compromise
was reached, and after one hundred and fifty three days
the strike was over. The new contract expanded the creative
rights of writers and gave them more of a say
(06:30):
in choosing directors and actors for certain projects. It also
secured them higher residuals from foreign broadcasts. In return, producers
got to keep using a sliding payment scale for domestic
residuals from one hour series. Neither side was fully satisfied,
but it was enough to get Hollywood back up and
running again. That said, it wasn't as easy as flipping
(06:54):
a switch. While new scripts were being written, network still
needed something besides reruns to plug the gaps in their schedules.
They came up with all kinds of alternative programming to
meet that need. ABC, for example, reworked a bunch of
scripts from the original Mission Impossible series from the nineteen
sixties and then filmed the new version on the cheap
(07:16):
in Australia. The network also aired several glitzy, star studded specials,
including Supermodel Search and the special Olympics Christmas Party hosted
by Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Meanwhile, NBC and CBS
leaned heavily on mystery documentaries and news magazine shows, including
(07:37):
the likes of Unsolved Mysteries and forty eight Hours. CBS
was so desperate for new offerings that it even revived
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, a popular variety show that
had been canceled twenty years earlier. The Smothers Brothers revival
proved short lived, as did many other stop gap shows
(07:58):
and specials commissioned by the major networks. However, one lasting
effect of the strike was the proliferation of so called
reality TV. The most famous example is the unscripted show Cops,
a documentary style program that chronicles the lives of police
officers as they respond to various calls around the country.
(08:20):
The Fox Network picked up the low cost show from
a local station and added it to its Saturday night
lineup in early nineteen eighty nine. It became a major
hit for the fledgling network and inspired a number of
copycat shows throughout the nineteen nineties. As of twenty twenty three,
Cops has aired well over a thousand episodes and is
(08:41):
still in production today, making it the longest running reality
series in TV history at the time of recording. There's
once again talk of an impending writers strike and once again.
How to handle residuals is at the heart of the conflict.
There's no way to know for certain if a new
strike is coming, or if it does, how long it
(09:02):
might last, or how it might alter the course of
popular entertainment. The strike of nineteen eighty eight accelerated the
switch to cable TV and led to a rise in
unscripted programming. Today, the film and television landscape is already
pretty splintered, with more options than ever for what to
watch and where to watch it. But if there was
(09:23):
an industry wide strike, and if it were to go
on long enough, we might see another round of unexpected shakeups.
So for all you Smothers Brothers fans out there, keep
your fingers crossed. I'm gay, Bluesier, and hopefully you now
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
(09:45):
If you enjoyed today's episode, consider keeping up with us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show. You
can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts,
or you can send your feedback directly by writing to
This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays
for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening
(10:06):
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day
in history class.
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