I am not a member of the Writers’ Guild, but the strike has had a profound effect on my life — and just in time. In the most simplistic terms, the strike was about the impact of the internet on writers. They want and deserve a piece of the very tasty pie being downloaded and shared electronically.

During the strike, my tv watching habits changed drastically. I don’t watch a lot of shows religiously anyway but during the strike I stopped watching scheduled tv.

Netflix (my personal choice among several similar services) replaced my remote control. A remote control really has no control over programming. It just switches from one choice made for us to another choice made for us.

At the same time, the manager of my local PBS station, WTVP in Peoria, Illinois, announced that he forgot to mention to anyone that he was $6 million over budget. Yes, that is the correct number.

Without apology or explanation, he asked for the public to fork over the money to cover the losses he failed to warn anyone was in the offing. I have to wonder why the board, especially the treasurer, didn’t see this impending crisis.

I had been bored with WTVP ever since they stopped showing my favorite show, The Vicar of Dibley. I can get this from Netflix, so who needs WTVP? I don’t hold Netflix accountable for the money I give them. As a public broadcasting station, I do hold WTVP accountable for the hard-earned money people hand them, especially when they play innocent about a $6 million shortage.

Plus, I can get Absolutely Fabulous, Rosemary & Thyme, and numerous documentaries. And Lost, Profit, Eureka (they are real series I am interested in but I couldn’t resist stringing those three together!). And then there is Heroes.

So who needs PBS? Or network tv? Or cable tv? Or the remote control?

One of my favorite shows ever was Bump in the Night. Netflix has The Night of the Living Bread, a special from Bump in the Night.

So the result of the strike was that my husband and I upped our membership from one movie at a time, to two at a time.

And we discovered instant downloads. Netflix lets you watch some movies online for free. Things like Christopher Walken in “Who am I This Time” or Lilli Taylor in “The Weather Underground.”

And how about Conserving America: The Wetlands “…narrated by Burgess Meredith, this PBS documentary profiles Americans working to protect the nation’s wetlands.” Why give WTVP another $6 million to mismanage and HOPE they may show a documentary or two that I might find interesting aside from fund-raising time when I can watch the very same PBS documentary whenever I like?

If the WTVP fiasco had not occurred at the same time as the writers’ strike, I am not sure I would have jumped ship on PBS. But I also find myself skipping network tv to a large extent. I would rather rent an entire series on DVD and watch it when I feel like instead of scheduling my life around the network’s discretionary programming.

Plus, if something pre-empts what I want to watch, like an election debate, I don’t have to wait three months to catch up. As soon as the debate is over, I can go back to my series.

I suppose the WGA envisioned viewers, like me, would eventually convert to such viewing habits. I’m even questioning whether I want to upgrade my tv reception to include HDTV. We have 4 television sets for the two of us. And I just lost interest in spoon-fed programming. I can catch the news on the internet when I feel like watching it, even the local news.

So who needs tv reception?

Whether the WGA meant to push me toward on-demand programming via the internet or whether it was merely a coincidence, it has happened. I don’t mind paying the fees for all programming.

At the moment, I have 161 items in my Netflix queue.

Don’t expect me to go back to a tired old PBS station that mismanages money and then asks for more. Don’t ask me to watch a series 30 or 60 minutes a week. And you can keep your remote control because I can turn the tv on when I put the disc into the DVD player and adjust the sound control along with the room lighting.

Thank you, WGA! I’m glad you’re going to get compensation. It needs to happen sooner….