Writers' strike: Something's on the table

On KNX Newsradio this morning, I discussed the AMPTP's first substantive offer to the writers with Dave Williams.

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Rickles is back! (Hey, what hockey puck said he went away?)

The Rickles renaissance continues with a terrific new documentary, "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project," which has its television premiere at 7 CT tonight on HBO.

Sorry, NFL Network, but you're greedier

As we have learned from the current writers' strike, making moral choices in a less-than-life-and-death situation is really not as hard as it looks. Yes, it is true that a lot of millionaires are out on the picket lines fighting for eight-cent DVD residuals on a $20 sale, but all you have to do is look to the other side of the dispute and the multi-billion-dollar companies that don't want to share and your mind is made up. Press the button. That was easy.

And with the crucial National Football League matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers looming — a game that the NFL Network says should be airing everywhere in this great land but isn't, because of the greedy, greedy cable monopolies — well, again this is an easier call than it seems.

Carson back from the dead ... no, THIS Carson

This just in: The NBC late night program "LaterLast Call with Carson Daly" is going to defy the strike and go back into production next week without writers.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. Well, actually I've got it narrowed down to three choices. You're either thinking:

(a) "NBC has a late night program hosted by Carson Daly?"
(b) "'Last Call with Carson Daly' has writers?"
... or ...
(c) "Who cares?"

For those who haven't been watching it lately, NBC has added a band and written "comedy" to the half-hour talk show hosted by the onetime MTV personality. It's a pretty transparent attempt to groom Daly for the job currently held by Conan O'Brien, one hour earlier on NBC. And from what I have seen, it is an abject failure. Apparently the executives at NBC agree, since they seem to be willing to let Daly (who doesn't hold a writers' guild card -- big surprise, eh?) go back to work sans scribes, perhaps on the hunch that viewers won't notice.

While in general I'm opposed to any network move that would put current TV writers out of work, "Last Call" is to be the exception that proves the rule.

The NFL Network spat, Don Rickles

And your inevitable writers' strike update, all in 13 fast-paced minutes this morning with Chip Franklin on KOGO in San Diego.
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We're all Nimrods now

Have you heard about the new TV show based on characters in a TV commercial?

It's a trick question. There are actually two such shows this fall -- but you probably haven't heard of "Nimrod Nation" until now because it's airing on a cable channel and doesn't feature racially offensive Cro-Magnon-like characters. That's not to say some ethnic groups will be entirely happy with "Nimrod Nation" … but before we get to that, a little background.

Writers' strike: Weekend viewing

Wow — I have to say I'm glad a few talented people are using their time off to produce videos like this one for the Writers' Guild of America. This video, made at the November 20 rally in Hollywood, is wonderfully well made, and I would've said that even if longtime TV Barn reader (and photo contributor) Mike Royce weren't in it. (He's to Ray Romano's left.)

Writers' strike: Janitors for justice

The service employees' union — which has taken L.A. by storm in recent years and is considered one of the recent success stories in the labor movement — joined the WGA on the pickets today. Kinda like having Oprah endorse your campaign. Yeah, it could backfire, but probably not.

"Celebrity Apprentice" guests announced

Wow — this is the best NBC has to offer us at midseason (other than the return of "Law & Order")? Shari Elliker and I broke down the list of "celebrities" at WBAL this morning.

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Writers' strike: Why not this week?

KNX 1070 NewsRadio had me on this morning and asked: Why, if writers have agreed to sit down and talk next week, aren't they sitting down and talking THIS week?

Download KNX20071119.mp3

Writers' strike: End in sight?

That's what Chip Franklin and I discussed this morning on KOGO Radio in San Diego. Also, "I Am an Animal," a documentary about the founder of PETA, airing tonight on HBO.

Download kogo_20071119.mp3

"Ours to Give": Not long enough

“Ours to Give: The Long Legacy of an American Family,” a new 26-minute documentary about the overlooked Long family of Kansas City, is too short -- and that is unfortunately not a compliment.

Writers' strike: No end in sight

Bruce Elliott and I discuss what's on TV Barn right now, including my latest update on the writers' strike and 60 Years of Meet the Press.

Download WBAL_20071117.mp3

Writers' strike: It's still young

• PODCAST: David Rips on streaming TV shows
• EXTRA: Interview with Craft and Fain about "Women's Murder Club" and the strike's effect

As week two of the Writers Guild of America strike came to a close, spirits remained high among TV and film writers on picket lines in Hollywood and New York, even as they acknowledged that their fight for Internet payments would likely drag into 2008.

Sarah Fain, Liz Craft on "Women's Murder Club" and the strike

Interview conducted by conference call Nov. 15, 2007.

So before we patched you in, Sarah told me you’re working the early shift (6 a.m. to 10 a.m.). How many Teamsters trucks have you turned back?

Liz Craft: Well, I wouldn’t say we’ve turned any back, but we got a lot of Teamsters honking and wearing T shirts. I couldn’t believe how many were wearing them. Also, it’s a lot cooler at 6 a.m. because it’s been hot out here lately.

Sarah Fain: I did the late morning shift and it was so unbelievably hot.

Are you both putting in 20-hour weeks on the line?

SF: Usually we’re picketing at Twentieth for a four hour a day shift. Now that we have a show we do some special pickets, like “Picketing with the Stars” (solidarity march with SAG members).

Do you see the non-writing members of your show much?

LC: Very little. We check in with them to say, hey, we wish we were there. A couple of our actresses came out for “Picketing with the Stars.” The show itself, we’re not participating.

How many more scripts do they have to produce?

LC: They started shooting Tuesday with the last script. It’s an eight day shoot, then they’ll be done.

SF: Liz and I wrote the script for episode 10 and it’s a script we really, really like and we’ve completely stepped away from it.

How’s the mood this week on the picket lines compared to last week?

SF: I think it’s the same. I think everyone feels we have to be doing this. We’re optimistic we can get the AMPTP back to the table and hopefully get a fair deal.

LC: And this strike, TV writers and screenwriters are totally united over the issues. That’s totally I think kept the cohesion and the spirit and the unity intact. It’s the second week, but the resolve is so high.

Do you think you will be striking into the new year?

LC: Who knows. That does seem to be prevailing theory. At any day we could find out that they’re talking. But I think everyone’s mentally prepared for the idea it could extend to the new year. I think it’s just one of those unknowable things. The TV writers really want to get this thing done so we could have new episodes for the television season. After a certain date that will no longer be possible. I don’t know exactly when that date would be.

SF: Not too far into the new year.

LC: Shows typically shoot through April. And when people go back to work, there’s going to be a delay in production, so with each passing week it becomes more and more of a crunch.

A female journalist I know told me a couple of weeks ago that “if there were women running WGA and the studio side, there wouldn’t be a strike!” As women writers, do you buy that?

SF: That’s a loaded question!

LC: It depends on which women I suppose. Who knows.

SF: I certainly would like to think that.

LC: I don’t think we can know that. I mean, this strike has been talked about for a long, long time. And I think that it is a really divisive issue, that both sides feel incredibly strongly about. A strike isn’t good for anyone. Even the flower shop owners and all sorts of people get hurt from the strike. But this issue is so important and we’re at such a, a …

SF: Watershed moment.

LC: Yes, in terms of changing media, that we just couldn’t back down.

SF: For me it feels like this shouldn’t be a divisive issue. We’re not asking for anything crazy. I know ABC.com had 100 million internet downloads last year. There is enough information to know how that new media revolution is going to play out

LC: You know, and if they don’t make money, WE don’t make money. We’re not asking for something that puts them in the hole if it doesn’t pan out. We’re saying pay us a very small percentage of what you do make. Many writers are middle class and the residuals they get are very important, because months can pass between jobs and these residuals pay for their kids’ college tuition, mortgage, papments, medical bills. They keep them afloat in the tough times. And our worry is down the line TV won’t be TV as we know it. And we’re afraid we won’t make anything for it.

SF: If they continue to make money off our work, we should continue to make money.

Do you think about what this could mean for the future of your show? I mean, it’s in such a tenuous position, having just signed on the air a few weeks ago.

LC: Of course. I think anyone now — with a new show in particular — is on pins and needles during the strike. What gives us hope is the show has been doing well, ABC and Twentieth have been happy with the episodes, we all feel it’s getting better and better. It makes us feel that when the strike is over they will come back to us and say ‘let’s keep it going.’ However well it’s doing, though, it’s not a staple. So of course we’re nervous.

SF: At the same time there is the argument to be made that maybe they’ll rerun the show, maybe even on a different night, and we’ll actually GAIN audience over the next several months. (Note: After our interview, “Women’s Murder Club” aired following “Grey’s Anatomy” and got a worse number than it did airing on Friday nights.--AB)

I wanted to ask you about Cindy’s character and the decision, after you made the pilot, to remake her character into the one who is the outsider on the show. (In the pilot it’s Yuki, Jill’s assistant in the DA’s office, who plays the outsider.)

LC: We did that for several reasons. The great thing about seeing a pilot is we see all the things we wished we’d done differently — and then do it. Because the Cindy character was at a different point in her career, we thought it would be more fun to have her have to earn her way into the circle. And once we did that the character of Yuki, who was in the books, became redundant. We were happy with how the Cindy relationship plays out in the first few episodes.

So you’ll have 10 episodes before the show goes on hiatus. How many total episodes is ABC committed to?

LC: We would’ve done 13.

SF: And then we have a three more script order.

LC: So 16 episodes, 13 of which they are committed to making.

Liz, you’re married to a writer on “The Shield.” Do you picket with him or with Sarah?

LC: I’ve been with Sarah at the 20th lot. Today I went to the Prospect Lot, where the Shield is taped, to get some husband and wife time.

Are you more nervous because you’re both on strike?

LC: You mean, going from a two income household to a zero income household? Well, we’ve been saving because we knew this might be coming.

SF: It definitely makes me feel I should marry a lawyer. One not in the entertainment field.

LC: But it is also a moving thing to go through together. I think this is a historic time. It’s a courageous thing the guild is doing. I don’t like to have to go through it, but if I have to, I’m glad to be going through it with him. We felt very close to one another in dealing with him. Although there are moments when I think, well gee, if he were something else, I wouldn’t have to worry about it — but when you’re a television writer, there are lots of reasons you won’t work for months at a time.

Below: Sarah and Liz (front row, left side) with their fellow writers on "Angel," 2003.

"Meet the Press" at 60: Still the same, only completely different

“Meet the Press,” TV's longest-running public affairs program, is 60 years old this month.

But ask its current moderator, Tim Russert, how much has changed since 1947, and he'll tell you of sitting down with one of the show's creators, journalist Lawrence Spivak, after Russert got the moderator job in 1991.

“Lawrence Spivak told me the mission in 1947 was the same as it was in 1991,” Russert recalled in a recent interview. “Learn as much as you can about your guests, and the positions they take, and take the opposite stance. And though I do it in a persistent way, I try to do it in a civil way. I don't think I've changed very much.”

Other than his jowls, which do seem to hang a little heavier these days, he may be right about that.

This just in

Fresh video from the east.

Writers' strike: Even I'm in reruns

Because You People keep sending me links to this YouTube video, I will post it -- AGAIN. This thing was on the Ticker days ago, folks. I posted it when there were 500 views. Now there are 90,000 on this version of it alone. It is pretty funny, though.

Still no word from the suits. Who asked for this strike, now?

'Kansas City Live' is dead

Among the many changes announced in this press release issued Tuesday by Kansas City's NBC affiliate, one is not — and it's the saddest. "Kansas City Live," one of those little-shows-that-could, couldn't survive a change in management and has been cancelled.

Chris Matthews, Ellen DeGeneres, and the WGA

Shari Elliker of WBAL and I had a lively conversation about "Hardball" and the writers' strike. Susan Allenback was Shari's guest and chimed in. A great talk.

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