Showing Restraint?

Today I was planning to post about some positive things that could come from the strike. The NY Times has scooped me, which is ok, because they are better than me. So I will begin with an excerpt from a column today, and then go from there...

"Will the studios stick to their new vows of restraint? Perhaps there’s an instructive comparison with another business run by big egos in search of talent, Major League Baseball.

Every few years, the baseball owners announce that there’s a new austerity in the air and that they won’t overspend on players. But just before spring training starts, they get nervous and suddenly a pitcher like Ted Lilly — the baseball equivalent of an assistant gag writer on “Two and a Half Men” — gets something like $10 million."
Article: Who Won the Writers Strike?


With the writers taking more of the back-end cut, and getting better deals up-front for the first two years (or however this thing works), the studios are going to feel the pinch - whether or not its actually true. This should become a time when they stop green-lighting pilots like 'Cavemen' and 'Carpoolers' and 'Viva Laughlin' just to see if they stick and find an audience. This should hopefully start a creative boon in Hollywood where a pilot and an idea might actually have to have some long-term creative merit behind it. In the end, it should mean more strong, well-written, and solid Fall premieres, and a push for writers to do a better job turning out quality. Let us hope so. Or, Carlos Silva will get a long term deal from Seattle for like $11 million per season. Puke.


So what does Bill Simmons think? I pulled this from his column today on ESPN.com -- and even though I ripped him for incessant columns about Boston sports, I like when he hits other topics...

That reminds me, it looks like the writers' strike is finally over: A three-year deal that looks a lot like the DGA deal that was banged out without a strike. My only question/hesitation is this: What happens when the deal ends? Do we just go through this whole debacle again? There's no way the writers can make up in residuals over the next three years what they just lost in three-plus months of striking, so I'm guessing the "success" here is that the writers are on the books with a certain level of entitlement to DVD and Internet residuals for the next time negotiations unfold. But what if Hollywood says after three years, "Crap, we gave too much away the last time" and puts the screws down again. Then what? Where are the assurances this can't happen again? I still don't see how it was worth it to give away three-plus months of paychecks so Hollywood could save itself billions from bad deals and reconfigure the way it approaches upfronts and pilot season. But what do I know?