The 2007-2008 Writers Strike was a watershed moment in the industry, raising numerous questions about the role of screenwriters in Hollywood, how they were paid, and how much authority they had. What’s more, it also had an enormous impact on the shows that were currently in production during that time period.
As events would prove, many shows that were in the middle of their run did not survive this event. As such, they stand as testaments to the impact such a strike can have on the types of entertainment that make it to the air.
Big Shots
The lives of the rich and powerful, particularly men, have been the subject of numerous television series, particularly on premium cable channels. Big Shots, however, was slated to appear on ABC.
Despite its rather intriguing premise, which followed several rich men, their lives, and their relationships, though they ultimately had little in common except for the amount of money they had. It ultimately failed to gain much of an audience or appreciation from critics, and so it was doomed to not survive the profound disruption posed by the strike.
Bionic Woman
The original Bionic Woman remains one of the best science fiction shows, and so it must have seemed that the mid-2000s would be a good time to reboot it for a new generation. However, while there was a great deal of camp and humor in the original version, the new one was darker and grittier, with a greater emphasis on special effects and martial arts.
This, combined with the challenges posed by the writers strike, was enough to ensure that it didn’t get much of a chance to succeed on the network’s lineup.
Cavemen
The 2000s was something of an odd decade for the sitcom, and there were quite a few very bizarre premises that were brought out by the networks. One of the oddest has to be Cavemen, which is obviously based on the Geico commercials featuring the ancestral humans.
Unfortunately, it was the type of show that couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be or what kind of humor it wanted to employ, which made it an easy decision to cancel it during the disruptions of the strike.
Girlfriends
Though many of the casualties of the Writers’ Strike were relatively new shows, some were also those that had been on the air for a while, such as Girlfriends. It has many similarities to Sex and the City, in that it focuses on the friendship of a group of women, though it is important to note that it also raised issues of particular concern to women of color.
Unfortunately, due to the challenges of the strike, it was canceled, and it was left without even having a proper series finale.
The Return Of Jezebel James
The talented Parker Posey has been in many great movies during her career, particularly during the 1990s, so it would have made sense that she would appear in a television series. The central idea of this series must have also seemed like a good one since it focused on a young woman who asks her sister to carry her baby.
Unfortunately, nothing about the series seemed to gel quite right and, due to the fact that it received very low ratings, particularly for the time, it ultimately faced cancellation without really finding its feet.
Journeyman
There have been many good television series about time travel, and it must have seemed that Journeyman would be one of those. In particular, its ability to combine thought-provoking questions about the nature of individual agency and destiny and its central human dramas seemed to set it up to succeed as so many others had before it.
However, though it looked like it was going to find its feet as it continued its run, the Strike ensured that it never got fully off of the ground before the network pulled the plug.
The 4400
Like Girlfriends, The 4400 was a series which had predated the Writers Strike but which was nevertheless impacted by it to its own detriment. It was also one of those series that played with the idea of time travel, with some interesting results, especially as it focused on a group of people who were suddenly transported through time, with none of their memories.
Unfortunately, it faced a number of problems–including delays because of the strike and issues of cost–and so it didn’t receive a fifth season, despite ending on a cliffhanger.
Welcome To The Captain
At first glance, Welcome to the Captain seems to have all of the makings of a traditional sitcom, with its story about a writer who moves into an old hotel and begins to befriend its residents.
Unfortunately, it never really seemed to know quite what to do with either the situation that it has presented or with the characters that it has created. As a result, it became a very paint-by-numbers sort of show, and it was canceled due to low ratings.
Men In Trees
There is something enduringly appealing about the “fish out of water” story, and it has become the center of many popular sitcoms. Unfortunately, Men in Trees is not one of those, though the presence of Anne Heche does add a refreshing bit of comedy and lightness to the series.
Despite its pleasant blend of quirkiness and romance, it failed to really find its footing and this, combined with the delays and shortened season necessitated by the strike, ensured that its second season would ultimately be its last.
K-Ville
The police procedural has, for quite a while, been one of the most reliably popular genres on television, as the presence of many popular and well-received franchises can attest. However, the strike influenced several of these series at the time, including K-Ville, which focused on the police force of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
It never really found a voice of its own, which meant that the production shutdown necessitated by the strike had an even more detrimental and ultimately fatal impact on its ability to succeed.