Ten Reasons to Fear a Longterm Writers' Strike

As Hollywood begins to truly face the reality of what could be an extended writers' strike, the television studios will have to decide what to play when they run out of material for their most popular shows. Possibilities include re-runs, movies, and shows that have either failed or been passed over, with scripts already prepared and purchased. A dark possibility, though, may be a new spike in reality programming that relies minimally, if at all, on union writers. The process that weeded out the worst such programming to leave a handful of powerhouse reality programs (American Idol, Survivor, and The Amazing Race undoubtedly leading the pack) could well be reversed if the strike endures for too long. With this in mind, to show just how grim it could get, this article revisits the ten (really eleven, but I link two of them) worst reality shows during the genre's boom period. Writers and studios, please do not let this happen again.

10. The Real Beverly Hillbillies

This show, thankfully, never happened, or it would rank much higher on the list. I include it here in part to remind everyone that it is ideas that have not yet made it to television that could emerge if the networks (a) run out of saved material and want to air something original, or (b) choose to stick it to striking writers as a negotiating ploy by trying to show they can succeed anyway.

The concept behind The Real Beverly Hillbillies was to take a backwoods family, transplant them to Beverly Hills, and watch mean-spirited hilarity ensue. While we never saw the show air, one can be assured that the family chosen would be chosen to do poorly in its new surroundings, probably with the added delight of tempers that flared up whenever possible; depicted in the most prejudicial way possible; and shown later in its run with awkward moments of crying and explaining why they missed their former life in an attempt to redeem the show emotionally. Regardless, it so offended political leaders that the backlash kept the show from airing.

9. Average Joe

TV set. (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license versions 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0.)

Credit: Pacian

Copyright: Pacian, via WikiMedia