'Christmas is canceled.' -Michael Scott

If the Academy Awards are canceled this year, or if the ceremony is not aired on television, it is very likely that I will cry. I look forward to the Oscars the same way some people anticipate the Super Bowl. I know I'm not alone in this, but I also don't know many people who talk about, read about, make predictions about, and think about the Academy Awards for the entire month leading up to the broadcast. It's like....a holiday! You just can't cancel the Oscars! That would be like canceling Christmas!

And what is the reason the aforementioned tragedy might occur? Why that would be this lovely writer's strike we now find ourselves in the midst of. A writer's strike that has taken away all the fun out of television and replaced it with 'American Gladiators' and Tom Cruise movies.

Now, don't get me wrong. I totally understand the "new media" debate and agree that the writer's are in the right (write?) on this one. And I feel for all the worker's on the low end of the Hollywood totem pole- the hairdressers, costumers, lighting guys- that are currently without pay. So I'm not faulting the writers here. AMPTP needs to just get down off their high Hollywood thrones and throw those writers a bone-- or, in this case, their eight cents!*

Even if the best case scenario were to happen and the strike were to end tomorrow, the tv schedule would take a while to repair. Some of my favorite shows, such as 'The Office,' have already aired all the episodes they had on tap. But half hour shows are easier to produce, and 'The Office' might possibly return to the air in a month. For hour long shows like 'Heroes,' it could be closer to a month and a half before we got a new episode.

Worst case scenario: If the strike was resolved much later than mid-March, we can likely kiss the rest of the '07-'08 season good-bye. Meaning no more 'Grey's Anatomy' or 'CSI' until September. Yeah.

Needless to say, I think we're all hoping for an end to the strike soon, however that end might come about. We need late night shows to return to normal, we need SNL to hurry up and come back, we need Michael Scott to return, and most imporantly, we need our Oscars!

*Currently writers get 4 cents for every dvd sold. They are now asking for that number to go to 8 cents.