I think the Entertainment industry is going to be damaged from this.
I feel bad for everyone else, too. All the other people that are effected by this. There is going to be a huge chain reaction. This is going to effect more people than most realize, even the people who sell you popcorn in movie theaters.
For those who are unsure about the strike, here are a few articles on the subject...
Quote:
Writers strike could pull plug on TV favorites
Networks will run out of new episodes by January, turn to reality shows
The Writers Guild is currently in sharply divided contract talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers over residual
By Stuart Levine
MSNBC contributor
updated 4:07 p.m. PT, Thurs., Oct. 18, 2007
Goodbye “Grey’s Anatomy,” hello “The View: Primetime”; say so long to “Friday Night Lights” and welcome “The Biggest Loser: The Three Hour Edition.”
Your TV schedule may change drastically in early 2008 if the Writers Guild of America goes out on strike Nov. 1, as it has threatened to do over the past few months. Those threats no longer feel like empty rhetoric anymore. Now, a walkout by TV and film writers seems like a very real, and frightening, possibility for the viewing public.
Before we go screaming into the night with clickers in hand, a quick recap of the facts that have led to the Hollywood showdown between the WGA and the Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The current WGA contract expires Nov. 1, and up until a few weeks ago, there was a lot of talk about how the scribes would continue to work after that date. The theory was that the extended time working without a contract would be a gesture of goodwill and, if that didn’t help bring about a new deal, the writers would join forces on the picket line with the Screen Actors Guild, who, along with the Directors Guild of America, may stop working when their respective contracts expire June 30.
That theory, however, is losing steam. The writers don’t want to wait that long and aren’t willing to make the extra effort to play nice. They’re ready to turn off their computers and walk away on Nov. 1, wanting to get the point across that TV production — or at least scripted TV — can’t go on without them.
For the most part, they’re still reeling from the last negotiation when producers pretty much shut them out of all the DVD and iTunes money.
So what does this all mean for viewers? Well, nothing immediately. In the long term, however, it’s not good.
Typically, most primetime dramas and comedies are in production somewhere around four or six episodes ahead of air date. That means if you’re watching the fourth episode of “House” this week, the writers are putting the final touches on something like episode eight or nine now, with filming to begin soon.
Each show is different, though. Aaron Sorkin and David Milch, two extremely talented but deadline-challenged writers, didn’t give their actors scripts to work with until they were on the set, so production was always behind schedule. If episode four of “The West Wing” was on the air this week, you could be pretty sure episodes five and six weren’t even completed yet.
So let’s go back to the assumption that the strike begins on Nov. 1. There should be enough new episodes in the can to last through, at least, the middle of January. Up until then, viewers wouldn’t see the results — and possibly not even care — about the work stoppage.
But come February sweeps, when networks need to get their best ratings, there could come a huge shift in programming.
Reality shows — even though a great majority of them are written by professional writers — aren’t under the WGA contract, so networks would quickly add a ton of reality and even newsmagazines to the nighttime lineups. Fox would be in great shape, obviously, because it has the biggest reality show of the year in “American Idol” against a bunch of much lower-class competition.
Think NBC is afraid of “American Idol” now, when it has to run “Bionic Woman” against the “Idol” results show? Wait to see how petrified network boss Ben Silverman becomes when he’s forced to counter “Idol” with either a repeat of an existing scripted show (highly doubtful) or a reality show that is sure to be completely dominated in the ratings (MSNBC is a joint venture between NBC-Universal and Microsoft.).
But he might not have much of a choice. And both he and the folks at CBS, ABC, CW and even Fox (for non-“Idol” nights) are currently working on all kinds of reality shows that they can plug in if the strike happens.
And for viewers, that might not even be the worst of it. Shows that premiered just a few weeks ago that are doing marginally well in the ratings might not get the benefit of the doubt by the networks in terms of a full-season order or second-season renewal. It costs a lot of money to build and keep sets functioning, pay cast and crew, etc., and if the strike continues on, a network or studio accountant might convince the programming people that losing this much money on a show that’s not airing doesn’t make financial sense.
And here’s something else. Although the new fall season has just begun, in a few months TV executives will start to see scripts for the new shows that will air next September. Sometimes a network will buy a show based solely on the pedigree of the writer (if you’ve ever worked on “Friends,” “Frasier” or “Seinfeld,” you can get by on your reputation), but those scripts haven’t been written yet.
For WGA members without that impressive resume, you can’t pitch your brilliant new show if you can’t write it. It’s a brutal cycle.
Not all popular dramas will be affected come January or February, however. Season four of “Lost,” for example, wasn’t supposed to air until February anyway, and several episodes have already been filmed, meaning they’ll have a bunch to broadcast while everything else will be reality in one form or another.
“24,” which normally starts up in January, is in the same situation. With Kiefer Sutherland now serving 30 days in the pokey, though, who knows how that will affect production.
With the studios and TV studios having circled Nov. 1 on their calendars as a potential doomsday, they’ve been asking their writers to try and get as many episodes done as possible before that date. Because of an already intense work schedule, made even more daunting by this deadline, writers are burning themselves out. All of which means the quality of shows might suffer. Quantity, as TV is concerned, has rarely equaled quality.
So that’s where it stands now. Networks are hording scripts like squirrels saving nuts for winter, putting as many in storage as they can, hoping they don’t run out before a possible strike is settled.
Hopefully, like in all negotiations, eventually clear-minded folks can find a middle ground and order will be stored.
Here’s a word to the wise: For those episodes that you Tivo in January, don’t watch them too quickly. You might just want them on hand when the viewing options turn bare.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21251689/
Quote:
Picketing Under Way in TV Writers Strike
By KAREN MATTHEWS – Nov 5, 2007
NEW YORK (AP) — The first walkout by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way Monday with noisy pickets outside the "Today" show — a strike that threatens to disrupt everything from late-night talk shows to soap operas.
A giant, inflated rat was put on display Monday as about 40 people in Rockefeller Center shouted, "No contract, no shows!"
"The seven-word mantra is, `When you get paid, we get paid,'" said Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America East.
The strike is the first walkout by writers since 1988. That work stoppage lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million.
The "Today" show is not directly affected by the strike because news writers are part of a different union. The picket was set up behind police barricades in an area adjacent to the NBC studios, where shows like "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" might be forced to play re-runs.
Writers' demands for a bigger slice of DVD profits and revenue from the distribution of films and TV shows over the Internet has been a key issue.
"They claim that the new media is still too new to structure a model for compensation," said Jose Arroyo, a writer for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."
"We say give us a percentage so if they make money, we make money," said Arroyo.
Diana Son, a writer for "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," said she has three children and getting residuals was the only way she could take time off after giving birth.
"It's an extremely volatile industry," said Son. "There's no job security. Residuals are an important part of our income. There's no cushion. I rely on residuals from my previous work to get me through periods when I am not working."
"It sounds justifiable to me," said onlooker Dan Kelly of Bethlehem, Pa., a retired New York Police Department detective. "Look at all the fine actors from early on who never got residuals."
But Millie Kapzen of Memphis, Tenn., who watched the pickets from across the street, said she was "disgusted. ... I really think they should try harder to negotiate."
Kapzen, wearing her medal from Sunday's New York City Marathon, said she sells advertising for radio stations. "We've already had cancellations of sweeps weeks ads" by the networks.
In Los Angeles, writers also were planning to picket 14 studio locations in four-hour shifts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day until a new deal is reached.
The contract between the 12,000-member Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producer expired Oct. 31. Talks that began this summer failed to produce much progress.
Writers and producers had gathered for negotiations Sunday at the request of a federal mediator.
The two sides met for nearly 11 hours before East Coast members of the writers union announced on their Web site that the strike had begun for their 4,000 members.
The first casualty of the strike would be late-night talk shows, which are dependent on current events to fuel monologues and other entertainment.
Daytime TV, including live talk shows such as "The View" and soap operas, which typically tape about a week's worth of shows in advance, would be next to feel the impact.
The strike will not immediately impact production of movies or prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and TV shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iE0uIqtrdPXiNMr1qniAIsCAa0fwD8SNK2N00
Quote:
What a Writers' Strike Means for Us
Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007 By REBECCA WINTERS KEEGAN/LOS ANGELES
TV networks and movie studios are engaged in the programming equivalent of stocking up on canned goods in case the big one hits. The big one would be a strike, which looks a lot more likely now that the Writer's Guild of America (WGA), the union that represents 12,000 film and TV writers, voted this week by a margin of more than 90% to authorize their leaders to launch a walk-out when their contract expires at the end of this month. The last WGA strike in 1988 cost the industry an estimated $500 million. This time, "every producer, network and studio has a contingency plan based on an Oct. 31 deadline," says Barbara Brogliatti, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). "The screens will not go black."
Screens may not dim, but first TV and then the movies will look different if the two parties can't come closer together. The deal-breaker in the negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP is new media content. Those pithy webisodes of The Office and Battlestar Galactica? Someone wrote them, and wants to get paid when you play them on your iPod. In order to avoid a strike, said WGA West President Patric M. Verrone in a statement, "What we must have is a contract that gives us the ability to keep up with the financial success of this ever-expanding global industry." AMPTP says new media is still too new, and revenue is too unpredictable to set up a compensation package that resembles the one used for TV shows, in which writers get paid every time their rerun of Golden Girls airs.
No network or studio executive wanted to be quoted about specific strike plans, citing a desire to keep strategy a secret from the competition. But industry folks did share a broad idea of what to expect.
On TV, almost immediately, topical shows would look different. By December, viewers would have to find alternatives to some of their favorite scripted shows. Such as:
1) A heavy dose of reality and game shows: Imagine, if you will, a scenario in which Ryan Seacrest and Drew Carey spend even more hours a week on television. Unscripted shows like FOX's American Idol and CBS's The Price is Right will fill up schedule holes much the way TV newsmagazines did during the last writers' strike. That's how Hard Copy came about.
2) Late-night ad libs: Jay Leno and David Letterman have been through this before. They ended up curtailing their monologues and, in Letterman's case, resorting to a Top Two List. But Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert haven't had to do without their crack writing teams. Expect minimal monologues from all funnymen, and maximal celebrity interviews.
3) The British Invasion: The major U.S. networks may look more like BBC America as content from abroad fills the void. The U.K. version of The Office, with Ricky Gervais, is an obvious substitute for Steve Carell's NBC version. And Footballers' Wives would do for ABC's Desperate Housewives in a pinch.
4) Developing newbies: Normally this time of year, struggling new shows are fighting to stay on the air. But newcomers like CBS' Cane, FOX's K-Ville and ABC's Big Shots will have longer to build an audience because networks won't be able to ramp up production on a mid-season replacement in a strike. This may not be a bad thing. Patience launched Seinfeld.
5) Reruns: Remember those things networks used to put on air in the summer in the olden days, before Dancing With the Stars was invented? They may resort to them again, giving us all a chance to finally figure out what's happening on Lost.
Because the production cycle for films is longer than TV, it would take a much longer time to see the impact of a strike at movie theaters. In fact, the multiplex wouldn't even begin to show signs of wear until 2009:
1) Mass immigration: International writers aren't covered by the WGA, so studios would say si to more foreign films. And A-list foreign-language directors like Pedro Almodovar, Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee would become the industry's go-to guys.
2) More bad movies get a shot: Weak, stockpiled movies that might have gone straight to DVD would get a theatrical release. Finally, good news for fans of the American Pie sequels.
3) Doc stocks: More documentaries, the movie equivalent of reality programming, would make it to the big screen. Maybe even someone besides Michael Moore could make some money off them.
4) Theaters go live: One trend already underway, live cultural and sports events showing at movie theaters, could get a boost. After all, nothing says date night like catching The Magic Flute at the mall.
Just a quick note, there is a Broadway strike going on, too.
i feel bad for the writers... theyre not asking for much.
maybe we can get some temp reruns...
like you cant do that on television, addams family, etc.
but no we prolly will get crap shows like reruns of survivor.
I feel just about the same
it looks like they can keep cranking out reality shows because theres no writers needed and I think they do have some shows stashed up that they're still showing like Hero's, Reaper, CSI, and such.
I really do feel bad for the writers, I already knew they didn't get paid much and so much TV is online now they really deserve they're full pay. _________________ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9ipa4cd410
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