Hollywood writers strike

[apsham]

Ugh, I'm not all that excited with all this. I can see why they're striking.. but damn, after 1988 right up until this one... ratings never reached the level that they had before 1988... what is this going to do to the industry in the end?

[sahyder1]

Ugh, I'm not all that excited with all this. I can see why they're striking.. but damn, after 1988 right up until this one... ratings never reached the level that they had before 1988... what is this going to do to the industry in the end?

[Ananas]

Ugh, I'm not all that excited with all this. I can see why they're striking.. but damn, after 1988 right up until this one... ratings never reached the level that they had before 1988... what is this going to do to the industry in the end?

[Ace]

HAve I said how much I love Bill Lawerence lately?

The strikes bad, and I hate it, but much love to Bill for refusing to let it interfere with the final season.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

They don't, but even if they did, they themselves are Guild members. They can't write anything during the strike, so unless they want to wing it in front of a national audience they'll take the break.

[Benji]

HAve I said how much I love Bill Lawerence lately?

The strikes bad, and I hate it, but much love to Bill for refusing to let it interfere with the final season.

He's said he's not getting involved with any writing at all, he's not even writing an alternate season finale, meaning it'll all be a rushed version of what it's meant to be (which I suppose is better than "Will they? Won't they?" shit).

[Lord Nibbler]

Great video from the writers of The Daily Show:

Edited November 15, 2007 by Jimmy the Exploder

[zero]

According to E! and Variety, FOX is now planning on airing unfinished episodes of Family Guy without Seth McFarlane's involvement. Regardless of your feelings on the show in recent years, this would be the ultimate slap in the face from FOX to the writers... even if they are just manatees.

[Ananas]

In fairness, Seth McFarlane and all other showrunners are technically in breach of contract for not showing up to work as hyphenates. That's probably why nobody in the guild is kicking up a big stink over this.

[zero]

From E! Online:

Given that he's been in talks with the network for a new long-term contract for the past year, MacFarlane does have a little bit of leverage.

"I'm technically in breach of nothing," he added.

[Ananas]

URGENT NEWS! BOTH SIDES AGREE TO GO BACK INTO TALKS POST-THANKSGIVING

The date they return to the bargaining table is November 26th. I picked up rumors about this starting about two hours ago, and I've just confirmed it from a WGA source. Now the Writers Guild of America has just issued a statement: "Leaders from the WGA and the AMPTP have mutually agreed to resume formal negotiations on November 26. No other details or press statements will be issued." The exact same statement was just issued moments later by the Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers.

Is this the BEST news ever?!

[Slogger]

To Americans:

In due time you will all be forced to watch Australian, Kiwi, Canadian and British TV

ALL YOUR TV'S BELONG TO US!

[MalaCloudy Black]

As if! We'll just steal some reality shows, modify them, and pass it off as our own.

[Guest wwebone]

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/talk...lled-with-lies/

Well, the producers walked away. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say that the entire TV season is pretty much done.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Lucky for television, your opinions are about as insightful and relevant as my dog's.

And I don't even have a dog.

[Guest wwebone]

Hooray for flaming and potshots that aren't needed.

I was just stating that in my eyes, if things keep up like this, the TV season will be shot. And should it go to June, like several others are predicting, then the Screen Actor’s Guild will likely join the writers on strike when THEIR deal expires, and Hollywood will be pretty much shut down.

[Ananas]

wwebone is almost certainly right at this point. Unless the moguls dump Nick Counter and negotiate for themselves, this thing is going to play out with offers getting only slightly less offensive until the SAG and DGA strike in July. I say SAG and DGA strike, because I think that this latest tactic is so underhanded that even the DGA won't negotiate with them. The fair market value proposal is an incredibly important element of this deal, because the business has become so vertically integrated that the company NBC Television does business with the most is NBC Universal Television Studio. If NUTS is licensing a program to NBC, do you think they're really going to charge fair market value? Meanwhile it doesn't matter if NUTS makes money, because NBC Universal is actually better off because they get out of paying residuals since right now they're based off percentage of a license fee. The issue with "percentage of distributor gross" is important for the same reasons, although one would certainly hope it would not be the case should it be with an independent producer. The deal over animation guild membership is important, because IATSE (which is a crew union, not a creative one) covers them right now and as such they don't get cash residuals. And Tommy Short, the head of IATSE (and a real Wise Guy, if you know what I mean) completely sold out the Hollywood unions so they could keep this part of the deal off the table. And then there are a couple of issues they probably could have pulled off the table. The reality issue is a non-starter for me. I'm of the understanding that most writers working as "story editors" in reality use it as a stepping stone to writing scripted content at some point, and the moguls aren't going to let the writers take reality with them should they ever go on strike again. The "morality clause" that Teamsters have that they don't have to cross a picket line isn't going to happen, so they probably could have left it out. But the rest was truly important, and for the AMPTP to issue a "take it or leave it" ultimatum about something so important is nothing short of offensive. Let nobody tell you anything else, folks, the writers came to deal and the Moguls fucked them for the third time. Let's hope Les Moonves and company are getting as tired of Nick Counter as the rest of us are. If not, we're in for the long haul.

[Renegade]

I was just stating that in my eyes, if things keep up like this, the TV season will be shot. And should it go to June, like several others are predicting, then the Screen Actor’s Guild will likely join the writers on strike when THEIR deal expires, and Hollywood will be pretty much shut down.

[apsham]

[Ananas]

In fairness, that's pretty much what everyone's thinking and has been thinking since late October.