I'm enjoying the Hollywood writers strike.

I think every NBC program I watch has now aired an announcement that the show will return in 2008. The other networks are in the same boat, with most scripted shows having already stopped production due to the strike.

Now my TiVos are caught up--no programs that need viewing, more or less--and I can spend more time reading, writing, and listening to music.

Maybe the strike will lead the networks to change their ways and develop new programming in a different way. I saw an article online recently that mentioned that the cable networks have canceled less than half of the shows they debuted this year. Meanwhile the traditional broadcast networks have canceled more than two-thirds of their new programs from this fall.

The difference? I'm not sure, but here's the theory: the broadcast networks treat development of programming as a "volume business." They put nearly any idea that can get their hands on into a development cycle, wasting their money in great flurries of shows that'll never see the light of day. They even produce dozens of awful pilots that never get aired, but cost a big ol' bag of money to assemble. And yet, despite this lengthy winnowing process, they end up putting Cavemen on prime time.

What's the problem? The big four networks have executives who love good-quality dramas and comedies in the same way that a McDonald's executive loves fine dining--it has nothing to do with their business. In terms of mass culture, it's not just TV and fast food where big business poisons things, it's the music industry, too. In each of these industries, the big companies' executives refer to what they sell as "product" rather than art or craft. They don't care if what they sell is any good, just that it's cheaper to produce than it is to sell--and that they sell it in huge volumes.

And what does the TV industry sell?

You! Or at least, your eyeballs...

CDs listened to today:

• Garbage: (eponymous)
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Requiem
• Alberto Ginastera: Quartet for Strings No. 2
• Jungle Brothers: Done By The Forces Of Nature
• Lightning Bolt: Hypermagic Mountain
• Peter Lieberson: Drala
• Bob Mould: Workbook