Carolyn Hinsey is an Editor for Soap Opera Weekly, a Featured Columnist for Soap Opera Digest and the writer of a weekly soap column for the New York Daily News.She has a history of saying and writing things that tick fans off, particulary in her "It's Only My Opinion" column in Digest.
In the December 4th issue of SOD (on newsstands now), Hinsey chimed in on the writer's strike.
"As I write this, daytime writers are on strike over issues that, as far as I can tell, do not have much to do with soap operas. Soaps are not released on DVD or streamed onto the Web. Some are available, but the networks only wish young people would download soaps on their iPods and watch them. (Hello, young demos!) But daytime scribes are in the Writers Guild, so they have to walk away.
Personally, I think soap writers should be exempt from this strike. Soap ratings have never been lower and no good can come of all these people walking away from their jobs. Either the shows will get worse, ratings will fall more and shows will get canceled - which means fewer writing jobs in daytime - or the producers filling in for the striking writers will do a better job and take over.
Talk about screwing the pooch."
COMMENTS: Way to stand up for the writers Ms. Hinsey. Everyone knows writing is the backbone of the whole genre. You're not going to make any new friends with this type of support. Maybe I missed it, but have other entertainment writers for other genres came out with comments like these? Can you imagine someone suggesting "Friday Night Lights" or "Ugly Betty" could be better written by producers?
In her defense, one of soaps best writers is Donna Swajeski, who took over Another World during the '88 strike. I think she was a producer or exec. She ended up becoming very popular as HW and recently won an Emmy for GUiding Light.
ReplyDeleteIn general what Hinsey said is right. Soap writers SHOULD be exempt because if they go off the air for a strike, they're dead. Period. They won't benefit from it, but they have the most to lose.
"Soaps are not released on DVD or streamed onto the Web. Some are available, but the networks only wish young people would download soaps on their iPods and watch them."
ReplyDeleteThe second sentence contradicts the first. If some soaps are available, then they are being released or streamed onto the Web. Will somebody get the editor an editor?
I do agree that soap writers have the least to gain and the most to lose from a protracted strike. But, if the soap writers want their cut from iTunes or CBS.com, I can't say they don't deserve it, even if it's only 23 cents.
I also sincerely doubt that TPTB could do better writing than what we have now. In fact, I think some shows *coughAMCcough* wouldn't change much at all, and might expose that the higher-ups have a bigger stamp on the writing than people think.