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The writers strike that began this week and has already sent the evening talk shows into reruns has now claimed its first prime-time victim (that I care about): The Office. Since many of the actors on the show are also writers, production was halted Tuesday, and Steve Carell did not report to the set. So, after November 15, there will be repeats. Unless, of course, the strike continues, in which case they may turn to hastily assembled “reality” programs.

Here’s my pitch to NBC: An office-themed reality show where good looking guys and girls hook up and each week somebody gets “laid-off”. I call it, Office Slut. What? That sounds like crap, you say? You’re right. That is why writers are important. If the big networks had their way there would only be low-budget reality programs, lame game shows, and ridiculous washed-up celebrity interviews by Barbara Walters or Diane Sawyer. I certainly do not like most of the scripted police procedurals, hospital dramas and courtroom sagas, but the best TV we have now is better than almost anything that has been on television before. Do you remember how unfunny comedies used to be? Cheers was good and All in the Family was groundbreaking, but before Seinfeld most everything else was pretty weak. Have you tried watching old Who’s the Boss episodes? They’re pretty bad.

So, as tempting as it may be to think of all these writers as just a bunch of nerdy Harvard grads sitting around a table covered in free donuts and bottled water making each other laugh for a living, and shout out your car window at their picket lines, “get a real job”, try not to forget that the networks are making ridiculous profits off of these people’s work, and they don’t see much of it. I have several DVD sets of The Simpsons and Arrested Development, and I anticipate getting 30 Rock and some others as well. That’s hugely profitable for the networks, as are syndication rights, but the writers get left out of all that. I’m not saying I want to see another class of millionaires spring up from this, but the system as it stands now unjustly compensates actors over the writers that give them the funny lines.