"Sit Down, Shut Up" labor "peace" - Oakley's out! "There is nothing to celebrate"
UPDATE: Bill Oakley and Ken Keeler are the two writers who did not agree to the deal, say sources not named Nikki. This is an interesting development as up until now I've thought of Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who created "Mission Hill" together for the WB, as pardners. But Weinstein played ball with Sony and Oakley walked away. The Writers Guild is not pleased. I've included its response below.
Four weeks after I first tried to explain the labor impasse that had halted progress on a new and much anticipated hybrid live-animated sitcom for Fox called "Sit Down, Shut Up," the impasse has been broken.
A roomful of Writers Guild writers wanted the guild's labor agreement — the one its members struck 14 weeks to obtain earlier this year — to apply to this show. They thought that Sony had agreed to that. Sony hadn't. Sony said that the "Sit Down" shop would be an IATSE shop, under its animation guild that doesn't have nearly as good of an agreement with the studios as the Writers Guild does. The WGA, which represents every prime-time animation show on TV, gathered signatures from some its heavyweights earlier this month to support the out-of-work writers.
But John Aboud, the humorist who would be joining an all-star lineup of comedy writers led by "Simpsons" vets Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley and "Arrested Development" creator Mitch Hurwitz, said late Wednesday that they had a deal. It's not a Writers Guild deal, but it's a reasonable facsimile. Here's a bit of the press release:
Though the program will be produced under the jurisdiction of IATSE Local 839, The Animation Guild (TAG), we have achieved Writers Guild of America (WGA) parity in key areas such as auditable residuals, new media, script fees, merchandising rights as well as a guarantee that these gains apply not only to ourselves but also to all future writers on the show.
"It was a matter of getting Sony to match the terms of a Writers Guild standard," said Aboud. "None of us consider it a victory. This is nothing to celebrate. It's a compromise. And a compromise leaves no one happy."
Aboud said not every writer who had been hired to work on the show had accepted the compromise. But Aboud, Michael Colton, and Weinstein are among the names of those who have.
Aboud called the period of work stoppage and legal maneuvers, including breach-of-contract letters, "a very bruising five weeks." But, "we made a statement that Writers Guild standards should be our standards. We maintain and we believe that this (show) should be covered by the writers guild."
For now, though, it looks like the show is good to go.
The Writers Guild has responded:
"The fundamental issue here was WGA jurisdiction. Every primetime animated show currently on the air has been done under WGA jurisdiction with terms enforced by the WGA. Every single one. In the case of Sit Down, Shut Up, Sony insisted on hiring WGA writers, and Sony execs repeatedly assured them the show would be WGA. When the writers were told it would not be WGA, they walked out and demanded WGA coverage. For five weeks, they faced continuous ultimatums and illegal threats from Sony, while at the same time Sony offered enhanced economic terms. Finally, when Sony offered to pay ‘WGA equivalent residuals’ and to give each writer up to $200,000 in additional compensation through a blind script deal, most of the writers decided to accept. We understand why they did so but wish they hadn’t. Had they stuck together we believe that they would have won WGA coverage for Sit Down, Shut Up.
"Two WGA members refused the deal, and we and their fellow writers applaud them."
Here's a great piece from the animators' POV. Sounds like the Writers Guild leadership has let success go to their heads:
http://artfulwriter.com/?p=397
Posted by: Aaron | July 20, 2008 at 12:15 AM