Writer's Strike Thread

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't think Corday is the big bad people think he is, the interviews with Peter Brash and Casiello have backed me up on that. Sheffer on the other hand did the exact same things with vets on ATWT and admitted he didn't know how to write for the over 40 crowd. Was Corday producing that show? No. It was Hogan and Chris Goutman.

Not using the vets, focusing on a few characters, tons of teens and lots of newbies is what Hogan was doing his last few years at ATWT.

Hogan was nothing without Carolyn Culliton at his side at ATWT. When she left, the whole show started to lose its spark, despite MADD firing some of the male writers on the team. At DAYS, Hogan NEVER had anyone as strong as Carolyn to rely on, and no one on his writing team had extensive history writing for DAYS or understanding the show's complexed history.

[Ponz]

I've seen that he's capable of great scenes. I've seen that he's capable of great episodes. I've seen that's he's occasionally capable of great weeks. At no point have I seen that he's capable of a strong STORY with a beginning, middle and end. He's better suited as a breakdown or scriptwriter, IMO.

[Soapsuds]

I don't think Corday is the big bad people think he is, the interviews with Peter Brash and Casiello have backed me up on that. Sheffer on the other hand did the exact same things with vets on ATWT and admitted he didn't know how to write for the over 40 crowd. Was Corday producing that show? No. It was Hogan and Chris Goutman.

Not using the vets, focusing on a few characters, tons of teens and lots of newbies is what Hogan was doing his last few years at ATWT.

Ummm..yeah Brash and Casiello are going to say Corday was evil.

[Sylph]

February 12, 2008

News Analysis

Who Won the Writers Strike?

By DAVID CARR

When the Writers Guild of America held its annual awards ceremony Saturday night in Manhattan, it felt more like a victory celebration. So after a long and bitter strike, the writers won, right?

On points, yes, probably. On principle, certainly. From a practical perspective, maybe not so much.

True, the writers guild was able to wrest a major concession from management — winning a piece of digital revenues — the kind of victory that has largely eluded organized labor in the past few years.

Tony Gilroy, the writer and director of “Michael Clayton,” who was there as a nominee, argued that, while the strike had been punishing, it was clearly necessary.

“As writers and directors, we have our nose in the tent for real for the first time,” he said. “There are question marks about how it will be implemented, but there is no one who can argue that the strike was not necessary. We would never be in the position we are without it. Anybody who says the strike was a bad idea is dead wrong.”

It is equally true, however, that the strike was bad for writers in the short term. The delays caused by the strike prompted the studios to ask themselves a fundamental question about the need to finance all manner of pilots for a traditional upfront extravaganza followed by a traditional introduction in the fall. That system, fairly unchanged through the years, has historically been lucrative for writers.

Emboldened by the strike, the studios severed existing contracts with writers, successfully turned over more of their prime-time schedules to reality programming and vowed to hold the line on filming new shows for next season.

Some 70 development deals in which writers were essentially paid lucrative stipends to come up with shows that might not ever be broadcast are now gone, and they will not be coming back any time soon.

The events are likely to bring at least a few lean years to the workaday writers. With less spending on pilots, established writers will be in the hunt because they lost their cushy deals on the lot. With increased incursion from all forms of reality programs, finding work that pays the bills, never mind the residuals, is going to be a slog.

Will the studios stick to their new vows of restraint? Perhaps there’s an instructive comparison with another business run by big egos in search of talent, Major League Baseball.

Every few years, the baseball owners announce that there’s a new austerity in the air and that they won’t overspend on players. But just before spring training starts, they get nervous and suddenly a pitcher like Ted Lilly — the baseball equivalent of an assistant gag writer on “Two and a Half Men” — gets something like $10 million.

One studio executive interviewed Monday (who, like every studio executive, declined to be identified while saying anything negative about the people he will be dealing with everyday) said that the writer’s short-term pain wasn’t necessary, that they could have had a deal without the acrimonious strike.

That may not quite track. By taking a reflexively hard line in the negotiations from the start, the studios more or less invited the strike, calculating that the writers, a disparate group with varying interests, would quickly splinter. They guessed wrong: despite constant suggestions that cracks were appearing, the center held.

One of the longer-term consequences of the strike that studios will now have to deal with is a group that is remarkably united — from the show runners in possession of lucrative deals to mostly unemployed writers fighting to get into the business.

“I think that you would have to say that the strike was a qualified success, if for no other reason that they kept solidarity among the show runners and the rank and file,” said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer at the TroyGould firm who formerly worked for the guild.

Still, the question remains for the writers: will the piece of future digital revenues they captured be worth the grief endured these past few months? It won’t be in the near future. Advertisers are so much less valuable on the Web, and the real money remains in so-called legacy media.

The negotiating committee for the writers is proud that they were able to establish a percentage payment on the distributor’s gross, but that win will be largely symbolic unless there is a fundamental change in the economics of digital distribution.

Clearly, the studios think there is some kind of future there. Buried in the small type Monday was an announcement by Viacom’s studio Paramount that it will create a division to develop programming for wireless devices (i.e., iPhone). It’s hard to picture a situation where little programs for tiny screens will kick up the kind of network salaries and residuals that have been the mother’s milk of writers for decades.

Still, the writers got their foot in the door, a much better outcome than many observers believed possible. And that means the writers are now joined at the hip with the producers in finding out just what the future holds. Perhaps at the next awards show, they should toast their new partners and pray it works out for both of them.

What about viewers — the real victims of the strike, deprived of new episodes of “Heroes”? There was some keening on the message boards, but mostly, the public shrugged and worked on their “Guitar Hero” chops.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/arts/television/12strike.html?ref=television&pagewanted=print

[Sylph]

Strike Fallout: A Complete Guide To How Your Favorite Shows Are Affected

By Brian Stelter

The writers’ strike may be almost over, and many television shows should resume production soon, but viewers will not see new episodes on network schedules immediately.

“Networks will not have a lot of time to make judgments on existing shows” between now and next fall’s scheduling announcements in May, Bill Carter reports. “Several network executives said the best these shows could offer is four to six new episodes for drama series and perhaps as many as eight for the comedies. And some shows may not be brought back at all.”

Here’s how your favorite shows are affected. The information is subject to change, so check back frequently for updates.

[Roman]

The writers have agreed to the contract.

The strike just may be over.

[Sylph]

Writers Guild board approves tentative contract

As guild members vote, show runners get OK to resume work.

By Richard Verrier, Claudia Eller and Maria Elena Fernandez

Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

February 11, 2008

Movie and television writers began casting their ballots Sunday on whether to end their 3-month-old strike, a vote that is likely to send the entertainment industry back to work Wednesday.

The action followed Sunday's unanimous decision by the board and negotiating committee of the Writers Guild of America to bless a tentative contract reached with studios over the weekend. The guild's 10,500 movie and TV writers are expected to ratify the new three-year agreement within 12 days.

Top show runners, however, were given the green light by the guild to return to work today in their capacity as producers, which means they can hire crews and prepare their series to go before the cameras.

Shawn Ryan, show runner of "The Shield" and "The Unit," literally couldn't wait to go back to work. He spent Sunday night viewing cuts from the pilot of "The Oaks," of which he is executive producer, and the last four episodes of "The Shield," which will begin its final season later this year.

"It's really unusual," Ryan said. "I've kind of gotten used to not working. Honestly, I'm very happy that we were able to strike a deal that was fair and was amenable to our side and their side, and that we all get to go back and do the work that we love."

The strike shut down more than 60 shows, idled thousands of production workers and squeezed scores of local businesses that rely heavily upon the entertainment industry for their livelihoods.

News of the approaching end to the work stoppage brought a collective sigh of relief across the region.

"It's thrilling news that the strike may be over," said Harvey Schwartz, founder of North Hollywood-based 20th Century Props, who estimated that his business lost $250,000 and laid off a dozen employees because of the strike. "I might be able to keep my present employees and even hire back some."

Added Michael Page, manager of Mo's restaurant on Riverside Drive in Burbank: "We're definitely grateful that the strike is over. We're right down the street from the studios, so it certainly impacted us."

Crew members were also elated. "We just want to get back to work," said Deborah Huss Humphries, a makeup artist. "I've missed working."

The resolution comes in the nick of time to save the Feb. 24 telecast of the Academy Awards, which now can happen without the threat of picketers outside the event, a paucity of stars on the red carpet and the absence of writers to pen jokes for the presenters. It also means the networks will finally be able to begin developing new shows for next season.

At a news conference Sunday at the Writers Guild of America, West headquarters in the Fairfax district, guild leaders touted their new contract as a landmark agreement that demonstrated the union's newfound clout and secured for writers a foothold in the emerging world of online entertainment.

"This is the best deal the guild has bargained for in 30 years," said Patric M. Verrone, president of the West Coast guild. "It's not all we hoped for, and it's not all we deserve, but . . . this deal assures for us and for future generations a share in the future."

The agreement doubles the rate that writers are paid for movie and TV shows sold online, establishes the union's jurisdiction over programming created for the Internet and for the first time provides payment for entertainment that is streamed on websites.

It was modeled after a similar agreement that studios struck with directors last month.

Verrone and other guild leaders praised the executives who took over the negotiations for the studios, News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Walt Disney Co. Chairman Robert A. Iger.

"We spent nearly three months with the [studio] labor executives getting nowhere," Verrone said. The executives' involvement "was instrumental in making this deal happen."

Verrone also tipped his hat to a show of solidarity from other unions, especially the Screen Actors Guild, whose members supported writers in boycotting the Golden Globes last month. Actors are poised to enter their own negotiations with studios to replace a contract that expires June 30.

Many had expected that the strike would end today. But at a membership meeting at the Shrine Auditorium on Saturday night, Verrone told 3,500 writers that the board would not lift the strike until members had the opportunity to weigh in.

The board had the authority to end the strike today. But many writers felt they should first have a say in the matter, given that they had voted to authorize the strike in the first place and rigorously supported it on the picket lines.

Under guild rules, members must be given 48 hours to vote on whether to end a strike. Notices went out midday Sunday informing writers that they could cast ballots in person Tuesday at polling locations on both coasts. Members unable to vote in person were allowed to send proxy ballots by fax beginning Sunday. Results will be announced Tuesday night.

A settlement would also be welcomed by TV viewers, who are eager to see some of their favorite shows return to the air with fresh episodes and are hoping midseason shows such as "Lost" will have complete runs.

But first the producers and writers have their work cut out for them.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the show runners of "Lost," will today begin the complicated task of figuring out what they should do with the second half of their season. When the strike began, eight episodes of the fourth season had been completed, and the producers don't know how many new episodes ABC will want to air before the TV season ends in the spring.

"We have to look at all the notes that were taken right before we left in terms of what we're going to do creatively for the remainder of the season and refresh our memory a little," Lindelof said. "I feel like we're sort of native French speakers who have been away from the country for three months and we're going back to France tomorrow and our diction is going to be a little sloppy."

[email protected]

[email protected]

maria.elena.fernandez@ latimes.com

Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Apparently, Michael Bruno predicted yesterday that two Head Writers were going to lose their jobs once the strike was resolved. It's pretty much a given that B&E will be one, since FiCore status probably affects their employment as Head Writer's after the strike, could Latham be the other one?

We already know Hogan and team are gone, so I don't think he's referring to them.

[daysfan]

Gosh I hope so, but did he say the Headwriters were on different soaps, or did he not specify? I am wondering because B&E would be two Headwriters, sort of(and as you said since they have gone FiCore).

[Adam]

Hopefully its B&E and Latham. LOL Probably Latham ends up though at AMC when the dust settles...

What did I do to deserve such karma?

[dragonflies]

Are B&E considered one person like many said Guza and Pratt were(they weren't called "Pruza" for nothing )

[Adam]

I would think or at least hope so....

*crosses fingers*

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Of course Bruno could've just been referring to two separate single Head Writer's, which would exclude B&E...

We shall see, everything is so unsettled at the moment it seems...

[skiman12082004]

So the writers are going back to work tomorrow. HOORAY!!!!

[DevotedToAMC]

Not for me. I do not want B&E back to work at AMC