Writers' strike: It's on

I hope you enjoyed Brian Williams' unsurprisingly terrific turn as host of "Saturday Night Live." (Click above for a taste.) It's the last bit of live, topical entertainment you're going to see for a while.

The writers strike began at 12:01 today. Nikki Finke is arguing that it could've been avoided as late as Sunday night, but the rank and file I spoke with last week felt that nothing could — or should — be allowed to stop a confrontation over Internet download payments, which the producers refused even to talk with the writers about until it was too late.

I need to get busy writing for A-1 about this, but let me share some quotes with you now. These come from writers — all white males, I must confess — in various stages of employ in the writing biz. Two work on hit shows, and two are developing series that will surely be sidetracked by a strike, whereas other stories have suggested something like 80 percent of writers in the guild aren't working in TV or on a film at present.

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"Nobody in the WGA wants a strike, but the AMPTP has left us no alternative. If we accepted the studios' offer of seventy-three rollbacks, miniscule payments for DVD's, and no payments for internet downloads, we would be giving away everything that previous generations of writers fought and sacrificed so much for.

"Nick Counter, president of the AMPTP, has no respect for the creative talent that supplies the product that the studios and networks profit from. If they believe we're not worth what we're paid, then they should create, write and produce their own TV series and movies. Then they wouldn't have to deal with us at all.

"If they truly want to cut production costs, they could save millions by trimming all the unnecessary layers of executives that exist at every studio and network, as well as all the non-writing producer deals they've handed out over the past five years to friends of theirs in the hopes that someday, when they're out of work, that someone will return the favor and hand them one of these deals where they can make a lot of money and contribute nothing creatively."

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"As far as I'm concerned, it's all about the internet. The producers know DVD and broadcast are going away, and they don't want us to have a piece of the new pie. All the other issues are window dressing and (except
for rollbacks) could not mobilize the WGA to the unified resolve which exists today."

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"I know it's necessary because DVD and Internet will continue to gradually kill traditional syndication and the entire concept of reruns, and we deserve our share. It is a very longterm issue. That said, it sucks when you have so many things going and all you really wanna do is write."

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And the fourth was a response to my article on watching TV on my mobile phone. Currently writers get no money when their shows are repurposed to Mobile TV. "This, along with countless other futuristic, fantastic, and currently unpaid-for reuses of material, is the main reason we writers are about to strike."

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Chip Franklin tried mightily to argue with me that this whole strike business was a waste of time and income this morning on KOGO-AM. It's at the top of this page in the second column under "TV Barn Podcast," or click here to download.

Comments

Aaron,
Sadly,this strike may go on for awhile.
So maybe - to save everybody typing strokes, we can use a shorthand in referring to the 2 sides.
In the spirit of your coverage how about this suggestion?
The WGA will be the WOT - Warriors of TRUTH Justice and the American Way - shining of hope and pure of heart and mind.
and then there will be the PRODUCERS (the people who actually make the money possible) who will be the BD.
The bloodsucking demons - who are likely pedophile drug addicts in league with Al Qaeda.