The Mountain Wrecker Wins and a Studio Dies

Warner Bros Discovery, a once proud and powerful global media powerhouse that has revolutionized the entertainment industry for over a century, is dead.

The company has announced that it would be purchased by Paramount Skydance, a fascist-leaning media company financed by foreign governments who sponsor state terrorism and heavily favored by a despotic administration who feels he is the permanent leader of the United States and ruler of the world. 

This is not the end I wanted to see, but it was one I was prepared to admit was always a possibility, especially in an era in our history where truly vile nepotic businessmen have determined to rid the world of progressive, diverse, and established media in favor of authoritative, fascist-leaning media that erases any viewpoint they don't agree with and anyone who doesn't fit their ideal in order to appease a racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, fascist administration that is actively declaring war on its own citizens.

Not that Warner Bros Discovery was a perfect company, because it was not. Spending the last years of its existence largely pushing a franchise created by a virulent transphobe who has bankrolled policies that harm so many people. And while the company has apologized for and condemned their stereotypical, racist, and harmful media of the past, I feel the new owner of Warner Bros will rescind those apologies and condemnations because they're "woke apologists," whatever the hell that means to these people.  

So, now what? 

• HBO Max will become a memory because Skydance had already promised to shut it down in favor of its own Paramount+. One less choice for consumers. Are you happy about this, Liz Warren?
• Expect more of WBD's library to be behind walled gardens and out of third-party outlets. Not sure if that "cartoon era" of Tubi will be a long one. I think MeTV Toons will be fine since Paramount and Weigel have an amicable relationship and various alliances (including DABL and Start TV), but I do worry if the Warner Archivists will still be allowed to do more restorations in the future.
• Expect massive layoffs, shutdowns, and consolidations of overlapping units (and shows, so say goodbye to EXTRA) to "save costs." Yeah, a lot of money on top of a lot of debt. BILLIONS in debt. And this is on top of the other layoffs when Skydance bought Paramount. Oh, and expect fewer job opportunities, not more, because there's one less major studio in Hollywood now, so thanks for nothing, WGA/SAG/DGA/TAG. 
• Expect networks to shutter because despite what Skydance said, there will be networks shutting down as a result of this merger. Although it'll likely be the WBD channels that overlap with others, I wouldn't be surprised if some Skydance channels go away too. 
• HBO will probably be a thing of a past since Paramount already owns Showtime. While HBO has far more prestige and value, Showtime has more home team advantage at Skydance. And say goodbye to Cinemax as well since The Movie Channel also exists. Yet another consumer choice gone, Liz.
• Warner Bros will no longer be a stand-alone studio as it will become an in-name-only label for Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios, respectively. Oh, they're going to promise things are going to remain the same, but one studio producing and distributing more than 30 films a year is unsustainable and not going to happen. You're going to get fewer shows and films, not more.  But hey, theater chains, enjoy fewer theatrical films from one less studio. This is what you folks in the Guilds wanted as well, right?
• Oh, and say goodbye to the Warner Bros lot and the iconic water tower. It'll all be sold off for real estate purposes who'll probably build something gaudy on it. And say goodbye to that Century building facility as well.
• Expect CNN to become yet another right-wing propaganda wing ran by the same fascist blogger in charge of CBS News. I also expect the cancelation of Last Week Tonight any day now. 
• Expect franchises to change to largely appeal to fascist audiences. In other words, don't expect Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other heroes to be beacons of progressivism, empathy, and global justice anymore. 

But hey, this is what the greedy stockholders of WBD wanted in the end. They were more interested in the money than the company, and as a result, the company is dead, and I hope they all choke on their pieces of tin and never enjoy peace again.

With this eulogy, I am no longer obligated to care about the future of Warner Bros, because there is no future of Warner Bros. It's all Paramount now. The bad guys won and got what they wanted after whining so openly and publicly. This sale closes the chapter of one of the largest and most significant media companies on the planet. 

There are many hands behind its death, and David Zaslav, who will likely not have any power in this new company, is the ultimate hand whose greed was instrumental in its demise. 

As the head of the company, everything is on him, and history will always remember David Zaslav as the man who killed the company that gave the world Looney Tunes, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, 42nd Street, A Streetcar Named Desire, Bullitt, Cool Hand Luke, A Clockwork Orange, The Wild Bunch, The Exorcist, Deliverance, The Shining, Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon, Dukes of Hazzard, Lethal Weapon, The Matrix, Gremlins, Beetlejuice, It, The Conjuring, Final Destination, Supernatural, True Blood, Batman: The Animated Series, The Powerpuff Girls, Animaniacs, Welcome Back Kotter, Night Court, Full House, Head of the Class, Family Matters, Alice, The Color Purple, Purple Rain, Lean on Me, Roots, Malcolm X, Training Day, Judas and the Black Messiah, I'll Fly Away, Driving Miss Daisy, A Face in the Crowd, Love & Basketball, Martin, Living Single, Friends, Friday, Craig of the Creek, Steven Universe, Ted Lasso, The Middle, Growing Pains, Oh God, Freakazoid, Harley Quinn, Rizzoli & Isles, Watchmen, The Jennifer Hudson Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Judge Mathis, ER, The West Wing, The Departed, Goodfellas, L.A. Confidential, The Sopranos, The Wire, Superfly, New Jack City, Little Caesar, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Drew Carey Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Maverick, Babylon 5, Nip/Tuck, Free Willy, La Femme Nikita, The Goonies, The Neverending Story, The Polar Express, Harry Potter, Happy Feet, Argo, National Lampoon's Vacation, Austin Powers, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Elf, Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, Sex and the City, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Veronica Mars, Abbott Elementary, Toonami, Adult Swim, The Big Bang Theory, Mad Max, The People's Court, Perfect Strangers, Superfriends, Why Do Fools Fall in Love?, Love Connection, The Bachelor, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Samurai Jack, Dune, The Righteous Gemstones, Succession, The Pitt, Sinners, and so, so much more, and became the home of many pop cultural icons like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League, Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, Space Ghost, ThunderCats, the fighters of Mortal Kombat, and library movies and shows like The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Ben Hur, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Shaft, Network, Fame, C.Hi.P.s, Poltergeist, A Christmas Story, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Seinfeld, The Shawshank Redemption, House Party, and so many others, which makes the Paramount units look SO much weaker by comparison.

Let us never lose sight of the incompetency of the Ellisons who bought an inferior company that they knew was weak and needed to buy a much stronger media company with a larger, more adaptable and eclectic library of shows, movies, and franchises to make it better. Buying Warner Bros makes Paramount a lesser and weaker brand by comparison that even their new owners didn't like them, which makes the death of Warner Bros even that much sadder.

I mourn the loss of this great media company and, more importantly, this great Hollywood studio. There's a void in the industry with one fewer major media company, fewer creative outlets within it, and one less place to tell new stories. Warner Bros is no longer the house of ideas, the end of the yellow brick road, the stuff that dreams are made of. 

Warner Bros will just become an in-name-only division of a nepotic tech-driven fascist-leaning propagandic company pretending to be a major entertainment studio.

What happens next is no longer my story to tell. I've celebrated its past a long time ago, and I no longer care about its future.

You get no "That's all, folks!" from me. 

I'm tired, and I'm done.