As the Hollywood writers’ strike heads into its third month, more and more scripted shows are running out of stockpiled episodes to air. While the networks are scrambling to fill airtime with new reality and game shows, now is the perfect time to look back and catch up with some great older shows on DVD, series that demonstrate just how valuable great TV writing can be.
For impeccably written dialogue, it’s hard to beat Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino’s ode to friendship between mothers and daughters, which aired on The WB and then The CW from 2000 until earlier this year. All seven seasons are available on DVD, and the early years best illustrate the rapid-fire repartee not only between mother Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel), but also among virtually all the characters on the show, every one of them hyper-articulate and well-versed in pop-culture arcana. 
One of Gilmore’s greatest strengths is its dense web of references to TV shows, movies, music, literary and historical figures and all manner of obscurities both highbrow and low, with nary a pause to explain what the characters are talking about. Even if you only catch half the references, they build up over time to give a clear picture of who these people are and what they care about.
Just as Gilmore Girls builds its characters through ubiquitous dialogue, My So-Called Life builds its characters as much through what they don’t say, or how they unsuccessfully articulate their wants and needs. Its character work is so detailed and true to life that it might even be easy to forget that it’s scripted, but such thoughtful, careful creation of three-dimensional people isn’t done without an exceptional writing staff. The show’s single 19-episode season, originally aired in 1994 on ABC, is recently available in a deluxe new DVD package, a testament to how influential it’s become since being cancelled due to low ratings.
Teenage Angela and her friends and family are some of the most appealing and identifiable people you will ever meet on TV, and no matter what era you grew up in, you’re likely to see something of yourself in the struggles they encounter.
To see the way that TV writers build up intricate, layered plots over the course of a season and an entire series, check out The Wire, David Simon’s extraordinarily complex and detailed show about cops and criminals in Baltimore. The first four seasons are available on DVD, and the fifth (and final) season premieres on HBO on January 6 (thankfully, all episodes were produced before the strike began). Unlike virtually every other cop show, The Wire doesn’t wrap up each case at the end of every episode; it barely wraps up each case at the end of every season. While the cop characters are mostly well-intentioned, hard-working people, they’re constantly thwarted
by bureaucratic regulations, budget shortages and company infighting. As much a show about the futility of police work as it is about fighting or committing crime, The Wire is slow and methodical, but the moments when all its plot elements lock into place (and they always do) are transcendent.
After all that intense law-enforcement drama, remind yourself of the pleasures of well-written jokes with the classic, often underappreciated sitcom NewsRadio. All five seasons of the show, which aired on NBC from 1995-1999, are available on DVD, although the fifth season, with Jon Lovitz replacing the late Phil Hartman, is a little uneven. Never highly rated or buzzed about like many of its NBC-sitcom contemporaries, NewsRadio was far funnier than Friends and at least as audacious as Seinfeld. In many ways its take on the workplace sitcom is a precursor to 30 Rock, with an office full of lovable lunatics putting out a product that no one seems to pay any attention to. A cast of comedy greats (Hartman, Dave Foley, Stephen Root) mixed with serious actors showing their range (ER veteran Maura Tierney is wonderful), and even professional annoyances Andy Dick and Joe Rogan managed to be funny, winning and appealing. Writing that can make you appreciate Andy Dick—that’s certainly something to be treasured.