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If you’re like me you watch a little bit of television, and have your own favorite programs. Mine include How I Met Your Mother, 30 Rock, The Office, Pushing Daisies and Lost. You have probably noticed, then, that these shows are now in repeats or soon will be, due to the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America. In the case of Lost, a serial that relies on continuity, its fourth season was initially scheduled for the winter/spring, when it could run its full course without repeating an episode. The WGA strike appears to have made that plan impossible once the show returns next month. And I do not know how the seasons of other shows will be impacted when the strike ends. Will their production companies produce their generally 22 episode runs and go on new into the summer, or will they just end their seasons in April and May as usual, having produced only eight to ten episodes?

Many of my favorite television programs are non-fiction series, like This Old House, Frontline, Nova and How It’s Made, all of which may not be affected by the writer’s strike. But The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are sorely missed. Going too far into the 2008 campaign without them will be a great loss for fans of satire.

Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin, star of 30 Rock, has written about the strike and how the business of entertainment has changed so drastically, that a solution to the impasse may not be readily forthcoming.

The writers deserve a piece of the digital pie, but how much? How much do any of the elements who work in the industry deserve, management included? There will always be bidding for services of stars, great directors and gifted writers. But does the suit who follows the fashion and signs the $20 million star also deserve $20 million?

The AMPTA does not give a damn about what is on the screen or what happens off of it. The men who run Hollywood now do not call the shots. The Jeff Zuckers and Brad Greys of the world ultimately answer to men who do not even live in Los Angeles. They live on yachts or in the clouds. They don’t know how painters and costumers are suffering, because they’ve never met one.

So, what is true for all of American industry is also true in Hollywood: the robber-barons have such vast resources and are so insulated, that the ever diminishing power of organized labor is no match for their vast fortunes.