The people put in the most difficult position because of the writers’ strike have undoubtedly been the show runners: the people who act as both writers and producers on their very own shows, who are almost solely in charge of their series’ creative direction. Once the writers’ strike began that fateful Monday, show runners were put in an impossible situation – do they break the picket line and help finish up production on their shows, or do they adhere to the Writers Guild’s wishes and stay away, while their series continues production without them? Lost, with eight scripts finished and production ongoing, has perhaps the most loyal and demanding fan base of any series on network TV. It is because of this that Lost writer, producer and co-show runner Carlton Cuse has decided to go back to work.
Cuse told The New York Times, “We feel we owe that to our fans. We would harm our franchise if we didn’t do it ourselves.” Whether this decision will be met with WGA resistance is as yet unclear, but Cuse himself is a member of the WGA negotiating committee, so I’m sure he ran this through the appropriate channels before making the decision. I haven’t read anything regarding whether or not Cuse’s co-show runner Damon Lindelof will also come back to work on Lost. Lindelof recently wrote a relatively scathing op-ed in The New York Times about the writers’ strike, admonishing the producers for their unnecessary greed.
Cuse will not be doing any writing, so he technically won’t be breaking the strike. He’s just there to work on post-production of Lost’s eight new episodes that will air in early 2008. It’s hard to disagree with Cuse’s decision here. It really is for the benefit of the fans. If you know that the episodes are going to be produced and aired regardless of what you do, I think you probably owe it to the fans to get involved and make sure the episodes are up to snuff.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: TV Guide
(Image Courtesy of TV Guide)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
