We might be heading into a similar time, not unlike during the pandemic, thanks to the dual strikes from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA.)
The WGA strike began on May 2. SAG-AFTRA began its strike on July 14. Both unions have many of the same reasons for striking, among them being a more liveable wage via receiving a fair cut of streaming royalties. (An explanation on the growth of streaming compared to royalties is available below.) Additionally, both unions want regulations related to AI to prevent studios from exploiting the technology that would negatively impact writers and actors.
Sadly, there’s no real end of either strike in sight. Deadline caused a lot of stir with an exclusive where the outlet quoted an anonymous studio executive. This executive said regarding the WGA strike, “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”
Understandably, this has rejuvenated the WGA’s energy around the strike. The Hollywood Reporter has been running a featured title “Anonymous Strike Diary,” written by an anonymous WGA member. This writer wrote, in part, ” … Thank you, whoever you are. Because those quotes turbocharged us. They reminded every writer why we’re doing this.”
So, where does that leave us as consumers? It means it might be a long time until television and film production resumes. This means we all might be leaning on finding shows to binge to pass the time before we get to watch new content again.
Lucky for you, we’ve created a list to help get you started on figuring out your next show to binge. Without further ado, here are eight ’80s sitcoms that you should be streaming right now. (Plus, by binging these shows, you’ll prove the WGA and SAG-AFTRA’s point about how they should be getting a bigger cut of streaming revenue.)
