Published: November 18, 2007

Terre Haute Tribune-Star

Flashpoint: A Hautean’s perspective on writers strike

Special to the Tribune-Star

You may have heard. TV and movie writers are on strike. Late night talk shows like Leno and Letterman are already in reruns because there’s no one to write the jokes for Jay and Dave. Picket lines have formed outside the studios in Hollywood, disrupting production of new episodes of TV dramas and comedies. If the strike isn’t settled, these programs will soon go to reruns, too — or off the air altogether.

I’m one of those writers on strike. I began by writing plays when I was a student at Terre Haute South and have since gone on to write for movies and TV. Like most of my colleagues in the Writers Guild, I haven’t gotten rich or famous from this work, but it has given me the opportunity to make a living doing something I love. So I wouldn’t give it up on a whim. I wouldn’t be walking a picket line in New York, marching around a giant, inflatable rat in the freezing cold, unless there was a very good reason.

The reason I’m on strike is this: I want to be paid for my work.

For over 50 years, TV and movie writers have been entitled to “residuals,” small payments made to the writers when their work is rerun or used in another medium (such as when a movie is shown on TV or released as a DVD). Just as novelists get a percentage every time you buy one of their books, TV and movie writers get a small cut when you buy one of our DVDs or when the studio airs it on TV and sells advertising.

How small? Well, in the case of DVDs, it amounts to about 4 cents. That’s right. Out of the total price of a DVD, the writer gets about 4 cents. But even this is too much for the studios. They want to be able to sell our work on the Internet, or stream it on Web sites (with advertising), and pay the writers NOTHING. That’s why we’re on strike.

The video essay “Why We Fight,” currently available on YouTube, tells the story of an old TV show called “I Love Lucy.” You may have heard of it. The show was very popular and ran in reruns for decades. And every time the producers reran the show, they took in more money from advertisers — hundreds of millions over the years. But the people who wrote “I Love Lucy” didn’t get a penny of that money. Their work was sold over and over again and they got nothing. That’s what the studios want to go back to.

I know people will miss their favorite shows if the strike goes on. But writers simply cannot go back to the bad old days. If studios keep demanding to use my work for free, I’m going to have to keep walking around the rat.

— Christopher Kyle

Formerly of Terre Haute


Editor’s note: Christopher Kyle was born and raised in Terre Haute and graduated from Indiana State University. His work as a member of the Writers Guild includes the films “Alexander”, “K-19: The Widowmaker” and “The Weight of Water” and the television series “Homicide”.