November 5, 2007
Film & TV Writers Go On Strike in Midtown
Members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike today after talks between the WGA and Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers collapsed last night. WGA East members are striking outside of NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Plaza on 49th Street today - 30 Rock's Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers, and the Daily Show's John Oliver were on the line, as were many other writers for other productions - and other media companies will be targeted this week. Around 75-100 writers strikers were counted, and the NY Times says that their chants were briefly drowned out by the Today Show crowds.
One of the big sticking points in contract negotiations have been royalties from new media and DVD distribution of content. While networks say they haven't made decisions about digital distribution, Fey said, "NBC is breaking away from iTunes. They know what they're doing with new media." That would be a great 30 Rock episode: Liz Lemon on strike with Jack Donaghy in his office, contemplating throwing eggs.
While many shows like 30 Rock and Gossip Girl have enough episodes until January, the talk shows are the hardest hit. Head writer for the Daily Show Steve Bodow lamented, "As we head into the thick of a presidential race, there's great material for us to be writing about," but instead the Daily Show will be in reruns. The Daily Show's Oliver said that Jon Stewart might join the picket line.
The WGA strike rules include "Do not deliver or submit any literary material or any documents to a struck company" and "Inform the Guild of the name of any writer you have reason to believe is engaged in any strike breaking activity or scab writing." And actor Jonah Hill is a victim of the strike - his Saturday Night Live hosting gig for this coming weekend was canceled.
Photograph of Tina Fey and Seth Myers on the WGA picket line by Gary He/AP
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Oh no. Well, at least they still have a few episodes of Gossip Girl in the can to get us through this strike.
I work on a TV show here in NY (not Gossip Girl btw); like all the other shows myself and 150+ crew members may soon be unemployed for an indefinite amount of time right before the holidays. Fuck the writers.
Don't you belong to a union, Paper Boy? I'm sorry your immediate work is at risk, but would you have anything to work on if it weren't for the writers?
10 New Things to Watch During the TV Writers Strike: http://tombomb.typepad.com/tombomb/2007/11/10-things-to-wa.html
tina fey is hot.
that is all.
lucky me, finally got SNL tickets and they're for this coming weekend! Maybe we can all show up to the studio and they'll re-do an old show that's already written.
Kristen Wiig >>>>>> Tina Fey
Kristen is hot AND funny. Zing!
I don't know what side of the strike Fey is on, but I'll go Pinkerton or Hoffa--whichever she wants.
ladycrumpet:
your inference is correct, a lot of crew members (myself included) are biased, because if my union was striking or if I was in the WGA my feelings would be different. HOWEVER...the writers that are crying the loudest (the ones writing the shows that are making it to the DVD racks and streamed/downloaded over the internet) are making at least $5K/week (while they're actively working, this is probably a conservative estimate); add another $100K/year or so of their existing residuals, they're not starving. The producers, of course, are cheap and will try to pay them as little as possible but they don't have to throw such a hissy fit.
Paper Boy, I understand your point that the ones speaking the loudest are the ones with the least to worry about financially - but they're also the ones that have to speak out because they have a better chance of being heard. Nobody cares about random writer number 8 in the picture above, they get interested when people they know about are involved.