Writer's Strike Thread

[Khan]

And who's to blame for that? Two words: Ellen. Wheeler.

As I've said before (in another thread, I think), it fascinates me how ATWT's outdoor remotes come out looking fantastic, while GL's end up looking...well, anything but. And I think that's b/c, regardless of whatever else we might think of Chris Goutman, the man knows how to produce a classy-looking show.

Sure, it's strange how just about everything on WT these days happens either in the Snyder kitchen or the Oakdale Memorial stairwell, but Goutman makes it so you almost don't notice - or perhaps, don't care.

Now, contrast that w/ GL, where it's all we can do not to bitch about how practically everyone in SF is living out of the same room at the Beacon, or passing by the same damn movie theater, no matter where they're supposed to be heading.

[AddictedToSoaps]

I totally agree with you. ATWT has decent stories to offset some of the production "flaws". But don't get me started on those goddamn Beacon hotel rooms or that "outdoor" Main street set. But it would be cool if GL used an outdoor set for a new main street set - that would look a million times better than now.

[Khan]

Maybe, but I think P&G is doing everything they can to avoid the real problems, EW and DK.

You know, I couldn't help but laugh when I read an interview w/ EW about the new production measures, and she said something to the effect, "When Cassie's planting flowers in her garden, I want to know what kind of flowers she's planting." (I might have it slightly inaccurate, but you get the gist of it.)

First of all, Ellen, when, in her pathetic little life, has that tootsie-rolling 'ho ever planted flowers? Second, this ain't "Curb Appeal" on HGTV. Unless there's a body buried underneath, I don't give a good gahoot what Cassie's doing in her garden.

[AddictedToSoaps]

LMAO! Yeah, I don't see Cassie outside planting flowers! Maybe they'll make an ITL episode just to showcase that hiddent talent of hers!

[MichaelGL]

What's up with Wheeler's obsession with the character of Cassie anyways? Does she desire to play the character herself?

[Khan]

^ Probably, when no one else is looking, she and DK do some role-playing in her office. She's always Cassie, and he's always Harley.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

LOL!

I bet Donna Swajeski is in a cage in that same office looking on, since it's obvious she's just DK's yes man...

[Sylph]

From the Los Angeles Times

CHANNEL ISLAND

The strike aside, hit shows are still missing

Although ratings haven't fallen much yet, the networks are grappling with weak programming.

By Scott Collins


WHEN NBC's Golden Globes telecast devolved into a fiasco earlier this month, with ratings skidding more than 70%, it seemed to hammer home the conventional wisdom about the writers strike.

The strike by the Writers Guild of America, you'll recall, was supposed to be a disaster for TV ratings. Once they realized their favorite shows were no longer airing original episodes, angry and bereft viewers would go berserk, smash their flat-screens and spend all their newfound free time on Facebook.com.

That may yet happen, of course, but as the strike enters its 12th week, and as the industry hopes for a speedy resumption of negotiations in light of Thursday's agreement between the Directors Guild of America and the alliance representing major networks and studios, the effect on ratings so far has, aside from one-off train wrecks like the Globes, been remarkably modest.

Many analysts are projecting broadcast declines this winter in the 5% to 9% range compared with last year (during the 1988 writers strike, viewing dropped roughly 9%). Already this month, NBC has seen a healthy start for "American Gladiators." Fox's "American Idol" last week returned for Season 7, off a bit from last year but still huge. And NBC's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (which doesn't have access to its writers) and CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" (which does) have rebounded impressively from their strike-imposed hiatuses last year.

"Ratings are down but not down catastrophically," Mitch Metcalf, executive vice president of program planning and scheduling for NBC Universal, said last week.

Yes, some guild militants may regard this as typical network pabulum. The suits just want everyone to think everything's rosy, such thinking goes, so they can foil writers' efforts to win contract concessions.

But it doesn't take a union-busting rat to see that a softer-than-expected landing is hardly bad news for TV writers. After all, who wants to return to work and have to claw their way out of a trench on Day 1?

Now, this doesn't mean the networks have nothing to worry about. It just so happens they were cooking up a pot of trouble long before the strike started. The strike may have even done the networks a favor by diverting attention from the crushing disappointment that was the fall TV season.

Through the first three months of the season, total viewing on the five broadcast networks collectively slipped 5% compared with the previous year, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research (only Fox was up, by a modest 4%). In other words, any ratings erosion due to the strike will not likely be much worse than what the networks were experiencing anyway.

More important, out of 27 new shows, not a single one can be classified as a breakout hit. Not "Pushing Daisies," not "Gossip Girl," not "Chuck," not "Private Practice," not "Back to You," not (please not!) "Kid Nation."

That is the real disaster of this season, and it has nothing to do with the strike. Hey, don't blame the writers either: It's the networks' air, and their executives make very large salaries to pick hit shows.

This explains why the network bosses seem to be viewing the work stoppage as a pretext for big industrial shifts. Presidential candidates aren't the only ones spouting the change mantra these days: Networks can't keep doing business the way they have, because it ain't working. The realization that deep, abiding change is in the air may be this strike's most lasting legacy, more than new formulas for writers' residual payments.

NBC's Metcalf, for instance, echoed long-standing industry complaints that the fall season is a "demolition derby" where fragile new series have a tough time attracting an audience. And last week his boss, Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal president and chief executive, gave his strongest signal yet that the network would soon abandon its splashy annual program rollout to advertisers in New York.

"A forced period of reexamination" for the TV industry, said John Rash of the ad firm Campbell Mithun, could be "the silver lining in a very dark cloud."

But for the time being, the strike's on, and the networks have to figure out a way to ride it out. Fox remains in the strongest long-term position, because of "Idol," a large bench of reality series and the simple fact that it has to fill a schedule that's one-third smaller than its competitors'. Plus, a reduced commitment to the Major League Baseball playoffs last fall enabled Fox to get more momentum for its fall shows.

"We achieved parity with other networks" during the fall, noted Fox scheduling chief Preston Beckman.

NBC is probably in the next-best position, thanks to reality series "Gladiators" and "The Celebrity Apprentice," a bushel of fresh "Law & Order" episodes and premieres such as "Lipstick Jungle" and the Internet import "Quarterlife."

ABC and CBS declined to make executives available for on-the-record interviews for this column, which may indicate some anxiety over their immediate scheduling prospects. CBS likely has some advantage because it depends more heavily on procedural shows, such as "CSI," that tend to perform better in repeats than serialized efforts. But it's not taking chances: CBS also recently ordered game shows "America's Top Dog" and "Secret Talents of the Stars."

Networks still don't know exactly how they'll fare over the next couple of months, because they're just now burning off the final pre-strike episodes of TV's most popular series, including "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Already, we're seeing some weird displacements. Last Thursday brought the last new episodes of "ER" and "Without a Trace," but the ABC, CBS and NBC schedules were also larded with plenty of repeats. The result? Fox, which was all-new with the game shows "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics," won its first Thursday night in 15 years among young-adult viewers.

If the strike drags on much longer, there's always the chance that Americans really will destroy their TVs and find new interests. At least that's what a Galveston, Texas, parent suggested in a postcard sent last week to the Writers Guild of America offices in Los Angeles.

"Please stay on strike," the correspondent pleaded. "My daughter went from Cs to straight As!! Strike for the sake of the children!!!!!"

The Channel Island column runs every Monday in Calendar. Contact Scott Collins at scott.collins@ latimes.com

[Sylph]

January 23, 2008

Writers Drop Demand and a Picket Plan

By MICHAEL CIEPLY and JEFF LEEDS

LOS ANGELES — In a major step toward ending a 12-week walkout, Hollywood’s striking writers on Tuesday dropped their demand for extended jurisdiction over reality and animation work and agreed to extend informal talks with Hollywood production companies, even as they decided not to picket next month’s Grammy Awards telecast.

The decision to drop the jurisdiction demand removed a major impediment to reaching a deal similar to last week’s settlement between the production companies and the Directors Guild of America. In a letter to members, leaders of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East said they would continue efforts to organize reality and animation writers, but would do so apart from the contract negotiation.

In a vote disclosed Tuesday, the West Coast guild also elected not to picket the Grammy ceremony, scheduled for broadcast by CBS on Feb. 10, though it is unclear whether writers will be allowed to work for the show.

The decision set off a collective sigh of relief from the beleaguered music industry, which had feared that picket lines would deter artists from performing on or attending this year’s Grammies, a crucial promotional platform for record labels and artists, and for CBS.

The writers’ vote follows a fierce — and public — campaign by Neil Portnow, the chief executive of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which organizes the awards, to allow the show to proceed unimpeded.

“This really creates a comfortable environment for everybody to come,” Mr. Portnow said. Though the writers guild had not reached a separate interim agreement that would allow its writers to work on the Grammy telecast, Mr. Portnow said, “we’ve got time” until the Feb. 10 program and added that, “with all due respect to the writers, we’re really about the music.”

Formal negotiations between writers and producers broke off more than six weeks ago. Since last week, ferocious debate has swirled within the writers’ guilds as to whether they should pursue an immediate agreement patterned on the directors’ deal.

Writers as prominent as John Wells, a former president of the Writers Guild of America West, have argued in favor of the directors’ agreement, which addresses issues similar to those facing writers, especially regarding compensation for digital media. But leaders of the writers’ guilds and of the allied Screen Actors Guild have cautioned against knee-jerk acceptance of the directors’ terms, which, among other things, pegged the residual for electronic downloads of films and television shows at roughly double the rate paid when programming is distributed on DVD.

Patric M. Verrone, current president of the West Coast guild, had been a staunch advocate of the demand for reality and animation jurisdiction. But production companies argued that they were powerless to grant it, in part because many writers in that area are already covered by other unions.

At Paramount Pictures’ lot on Melrose Avenue, an all-day writers’ march on Tuesday sought to associate the guild’s fight with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s union struggles. As of 10 a.m., about 200 writers and supporters were walking a 35-minute circuit around the studio’s perimeter. Pickets had been asked by their leaders to bring drums, guitars, tambourines and American flags to the march, to give it what the guild’s Web site called a “festive” air. At midmorning, however, most marchers carried only their standard placards.

[NYC123]

Ugh,

This strike will never end.

[Sylph]

Zucker said it will be over in two weeks.

[Khan]

^ Right, and William Henry Harrison said he just had a little tickle in his throat.

[Sylph]

Aham.

[Noel]

Soap Dish: Behind the scenes amid daytime labor drama

BY CAROLYN HINSEY

Friday, January 25th 2008, 4:00 AM

As the writers strike approaches its third month and prime-time dramas grind to a halt, all eight network soaps continue to air new episodes every weekday.

"We had been planning for a possible strike for months," explains an executive producer, who asked not to be named. "We wrote ahead, we had a long-term story in place, and we made contingency plans in the event that our writers went out."

Those contingency plans included lining up execs or hiring former head writers to fill in if the current head writers walked.

For example, No. 1-rated "The Young and the Restless" is now helmed by Josh Griffith, who was Y&R's co-executive producer and prior to that co-head writer of "One Life to Live."

Another exec widely believed to be filling in as head writer now (although not officially credited) is "As the World Turns" executive producer Christopher Goutman.

"CBS is declining comment on any matters to do with the writers strike," says a CBS representative.

Longtime "General Hospital" writer Garin Wolf has gone "FiCore" (Financial Core, which allows WGA union members to return to work without censure) and is now the only name credited.

James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten have also gone FiCore and are co-head writers of "All My Children."

"One Life to Live" brought in its former executive producer, Gary Tomlin, as head writer; he previously wrote for "Another World." "Days" is using former "OLTL" head writer Dena Higley.

"The Bold and the Beautiful" is being written by former "Y&R" head writer Kay Alden. "Guiding Light" was the most ahead when the strike hit; the current staff is unconfirmed. Since a typical writing staff involves 15-20 people, obviously other, unnamed people are filling in. But some shows have discovered they can do the job - at least temporarily - with fewer people.

"GH" and "Y&R" are showcasing more musical montages than usual, while "Days" and "OLTL" are using more flashbacks. "AMC" chose to distract viewers from the spotty writing by bringing back fan favorites like Rebecca Budig as Greenlee. Most actors miss their writers and want them back writing ASAP, but a few have commented that their shows are more balanced now.

"Our head writer had a few pets that [he/she] always wrote for. The new one is writing for everybody."

"There is obviously some tap-dancing going on during the transition," says an insider. "But thank God for the people who stepped in to television's longest continuous genre and kept it on the air. Because we all know if soaps had stopped airing, we'd be done."

A world of exits: A virtual bloodbath is going on at "As the World Turns." In addition to Grayson McCouch (Dusty), Cady McClain (Rosanna), Scott Bryce (Craig), Wally Kurth (Sam) and Ryan Serhant (Evan), there comes word that Jennifer Landon (Gwen) and Jesse Soffer (Will) are also leaving this spring.

Comings and goings: Thaao Penghlis (Tony) and Leann Hunley (Anna) are back on "Days" Tuesday .... R&B star Mary J. Blige returns to "OLTL" to perform at Starr's surprise birthday party Feb. 15 and 18. ... Judi Evans (Adrienne) leaves "Days" next week.

Don't touch that dial: Donna turns the tables on Stephanie next week on "B&B" (CBS, 1:30 p.m.). What is it they say about a woman scorned?

(Hinsey is the editor of Soap Opera Weekly.)

http://www.nydailynews.com/

[winterguy125]

I am almost betting the show the one actor is talking about writing for pets only, is ATWT. Because the show does seem to be featuring more characters lately, instead of just the pets.