It was recently announced that the Writer's Guild strike, which has plagued our television and movie screens for months, has finally ended. And while it seems as though each side is satisfied with the end result, as a concerned television consumer and an American citizen I can tell you I'm still reeling a bit.

I know there were concerns over writer's contracts, how much compensation over Internet use of content…blah, blah, blah…but the outrage that I feel has nothing to do with the negotiations, but with the fact that the current administration did nothing to intercede in this strike. In lieu of the mediocre programming we are usually subjected to, the last few months of televised idiocy have been a national embarrassment.

It is not unprecedented for the government to become involved in labor negotiations. President Reagan mandated the air traffic controllers return to work as they provided a necessary public service. I think we all can agree that 13 weeks of extended episodes of Deal or No Deal and American Gladiators, certainly qualifies as public need. At the very least, FEMA should have been called to the sets of the Dancing with the Stars spin-offs and My Dad is better than Your Dad. Those terrible programs were unmitigated disasters.

And what of those self-aggrandizing award shows that had to be cancelled? We missed the People's Golden Choice of Globes this year. I have to believe that some Freedom of Assembly or Second Amendment laws were violated when various celebrities were denied the opportunity of addressing their politics in their acceptance speeches.

One could make the argument that public health was endangered during the strike as well. It could not have been healthy to have all of those forlorn Grey's Anatomy fans walking around dazed while operating heavy machinery. And although FBI crime statistics aren't yet available, the home versions of CSI and Law and Order could not have been safe or healthy pastimes.

But curiously, the strike might just have served a great public service. A particularly difficult admission after being subjected to Fox's Moment of Truth, where contestants are hooked up to polygraph machines to humiliate themselves, family and friends for money. (Watch the lie detector needle remain static when I declare this is the most disgusting television show ever produced.)

Because I have to wonder with the awful fill-in programming that was spewed from the networks these last long weeks, how many televisions were turned off during dinner? When faced with a rerun of The Tonight Show, from 1990 or a neglected book on the nightstand, how many bindings were cracked and chapters read? And rather than another ridiculous game show, how many switched to an old classic black and white movie on cable to watch as a family?

I'd like to think more than a few.

So perhaps in the end, this was a moment of national pride, and the viewer wasn't the Biggest Loser after all.

©2008 Tracey Henry

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