WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Writers make magic happen

“Writers are the most important people in the business, and we must never let them find that out.””” Attributed to Irving Thalberg in Neill D. Hicks, “Screenwriting 101” (from The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations)

?

As you may have heard, the screenwriters’ guild has gone on strike “” a pretty big deal for a lot of people in the Southland.

There’ve been some jokes about the strike on TV but there’s really nothing funny about a situation which could result in even more reality programming than we now have.

These film industry strikes don’t just affect the people in the one guild, either. I’m not in the guild, but I don’t feel I can offer a movie idea to anyone while the war is on. If I honored the grocery workers’ strike I should honor my own tribe as well.

As it is, a writers’ strike has already redirected my life once.

In 1988 I had just left my editorial career to take the plunge “” I had a year’s worth of savings, and I was going to find out if I could write for TV or movies. I was about to submit two sparkling sample scripts when the screenwriters went on strike. I had to find out if I could write a novel instead.

Now I’m a member of the Authors Guild. The Authors haven’t struck during my membership era, and a good thing, too. You don’t even want to think about what your life would be like if the novelists walked out.

The screenwriters, however, are even more influential, as a key part of an industry which covers the earth.

I’m not saying they’re all good. And when some of them crank up the brotherhood rhetoric as if they worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, they can be a little trying.

But when you recall the screen scenes that have made you laugh or cry or think “” well, chances are somebody wrote those.

I’ve met film executives who believed they could write a great movie themselves, if they just had the time. Now they have some time. We’ll see.

Better, of course, if both sides sit back down and negotiate in a grown-up, good-faith manner.

My own view is that the writer may not be the most important person in the business “” it’s too collaborative to stick one craft up on top all by itself. One thought keeps recurring, though:

Patti Jo and I love the medical series “House,” but we wouldn’t enjoy the show nearly as much if, when Hugh Laurie solved the weekly medical riddle, he turned to his colleagues and said, “___________.”

SHERWOOD KIRALY is a Laguna Beach resident. He has written four novels, three of which were critically acclaimed.