Hollywood writers strike

[Maxx]

Ugh, you do realize this is going to drastically increase the amount of shitty reality shows, as they don't require scripts. Last strike in 1988 lasted from March till August. The Actors and Directors guilds contracts run out in July or June of 2008 and if the writers are still on strike, those guilds will likely join them and then the entire film industry will come to a stand still.

[Ananas]

If the producers had showed up to bargain in good faith on Sunday, they'd probably have a deal by now. The shitty reality TV series will be of no fault of the writers.

And this is basically the closest we'll be getting to new Office episodes once the scripts run out:

[Katsuya]

If it means we get to The Amazing Race 15 within two months, I will not complain. Never can have too much TAR.

[Ananas]

http://allyourtv.com/writersstrike/2007/11...d-the-ny-times/

Awesome.

[Lord Nibbler]

I saw some pics of Joss at the picket lines. Everyone had signs with their show name written on. His said "Dollhouse (not coming soon)".

Fucking studios.

[Fitzy]

No 24 in January as they will hold off until they can air them all uninterrupted.

[Ananas]

Family Guy will be in repeats as of this Sunday, and The Office will be out of new episodes as of next Thursday.

[Evansfan1]

Fox "Strike" Schedule Subtracts 24 But Adds Prison Break

Fox's "revised" 2008 schedule kicks off Jan. 13 and 14 with the series premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and starts cooking with gas on the 15th with the two-night return of that singing show known as American Idol, but now is experiencing a Bauer outage. "The seventh season premiere of 24 is being postponed," explains the network, "to ensure that Day 7 can air uninterrupted, in its entirety." Fair 'nuff.

Another jaw-dropper: instead of taking a four-month breather following a Dec. 17 "fall finale," Prison Break will take a break after this Monday's airing, then return with new episodes starting Jan. 14.

Other Fox programming:

• Starting Jan. 4, the Friday night line-up features Bones at 8, and House encores at 9. (House leads out of Idol starting Jan. 22.)

• The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, American Dad, 5th Grader, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, Cops and America's Most Wanted all will continue with original episodes, while a mix of original and encores is currently planned for House, Bones, 'Til Death and Back to You.

• The game show The Moment of Truth premieres Wednesday, Jan. 23 at 9 pm/ET.

• New Amsterdam premieres Friday, Feb. 22, at 9 pm.

• The Farrelly Brothers comedy Unhitched premieres Sunday, March 2, at 9:30 pm.

• The unscripted role-reversal series When Women Ruled the World debuts Monday, March 3, at 8.

• The Return of Jezebel James premieres Friday, March 7, at 8:30.

• Hell's Kitchen returns with a fourth season on April 1.

• Canterbury's Law premieres April 11.

[Guest Onkel Hans]

Yes, heaven forbid people should put their livelihoods ahead of your entertainment <_

[wCwCreator]

Meh. It was expected. FOX always screws things up at the first sign of trouble but I'd rather want 24 uninteruptted rather than be cut like midway through. It sucks for Bones though. Who stays home on Fridays?

[Ananas]

That is all from tvguide.com. 24 fans won't be happy. This really sucks, I mean why do they have to fucking strike. I really hope it ends like tomorrow, so everything can go back to normal. Also, by the way it looks, Prison Break may only have 13 episodes instead of their usual 22. The sudden break they give PB is a little unfair. All of this is unfair though. It's madness.

[TGC]

Four days after Hollywood's first major strike in nearly 20 years began, pressures are mounting to get writers and the major studios back to the bargaining table.

On Thursday, leaders from the industry's top five talent agencies met in secret with guild leaders at the Writers Guild of America's office to offer their help and share a litany of concerns about how the strike was affecting their clients, according to five people with knowledge of the meeting.

Talks between writers and major studios broke off Sunday, mainly over payments for shows that are rerun on the Internet and other new media. Negotiations have not resumed.

WGA Writers' Strike Roundup

Eager to jump-start that process and offer their expertise, top agents from William Morris, International Creative Management, Creative Artists Agency, United Talent Agency and Endeavor met Thursday with top guild leaders, including chief negotiator David Young and union President Patric M. Verrone.

Among other things, agents have offered to be a "collective resource to the union," lending their expertise to help frame the issues that are at the center of the dispute with studios.

"We're the closest professional partners they have because we represent the interest of writers every day," one top agent said.

Several agents said they had been inundated this week with calls from clients worried about their livelihoods. Many TV writers and producers received letters from studios and networks this week suspending their services.

The agents and the guild wanted to keep the meeting under wraps because of the highly charged nature of the dispute with the studios, said people familiar with their thinking.

The guild has so far resisted offers by agents and politicians to help broker a peace, according to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others.

Talent agencies have plenty of incentive to help end a strike. They depend on commissions and "packaging fees" they earn from TV shows they help put together. The strike that began Monday already has cut into the agencies' potential revenue. Some are slashing travel and entertainment expenses.

At the same time, the studios were bringing their own pressure to bear on the guild and its members. Early in the week, the companies began sending suspension notices to those who work for TV production companies they finance that are typically run by writer-producers, sending chills through industry ranks. Then they warned writer-producers, known in the industry as show runners, that they faced termination if they failed to carry out their production duties.

Many top show runners have refused to cross picket lines. In an apparent attempt to pressure them to return to work, CBS Corp., 20th Century Fox Television and NBC Universal sent "breach-of-contract" letters to several dozen writer-producers of their shows.

The CBS Paramount letters threatened to stop payment for producer services and to pursue legal action if the writer-producers continued to stay off the job. The Fox studio letters also notified writers that they were in default of their contracts. "You did not report to work . . . to render your non-writing services," stated the letters, which went out Wednesday night. "Twentieth Century Fox Television is hereby notifying you that the terms of your agreement are immediately suspended."

Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC Studios sent out letters to writer-producers this week warning them they needed to show up.

On Wednesday, more than 100 show runners of some of TV's biggest shows -- including "Desperate Housewives," "The Office" and "Lost" -- staged a rally outside Disney's studio lot in Burbank. After the rally, they met for lunch at the nearby Smokehouse restaurant before convening a meeting at WGA headquarters.

Some who attended the 3 1/2 -hour meeting described it as very intense and emotional at times, with show runners talking about the difficulty of being caught between their union and their studio bosses. Ultimately, though, there was a consensus that show runners should support the cause by stopping work. Already, production has halted on such top series as "The Office," "Desperate Housewives" and "Two and a Half Men."

"If we want this strike to be short, we need to stop work across the board," said Pam Veasey, executive producer of "CSI: NY."

[Ananas]

Where is that bullshit coming from, Variety? It was the MOGULS who nixed Villaraigosa, and Schwarzenegger hasn't actually offered to do anything yet. But they're right about one thing: agents could solve this thing in days. For Chrissakes, these are people who get paid to close deals. Still doesn't help if the producers want force majeure on this season though. Which, judging by their conduct over the past week, seems to be increasingly likely.

[Gabriel]

Wait wait... does this mean that Saturday Night Live won't be on tonight? For fucks sake... I was so looking forward to The Rock hosting again.

[Ananas]

The only show with any actual scripting that will still be in production is Ellen Degeneres, who "loves her writers", if not as much as that dog she cried over for 3 days.

[Guest Kou]

All they want is a dental plan.

[Momo]

[Ananas]

Tom Morello performing at Friday's WGA Rally outside FOX. Awesome.

[zero]

From IMDB:

Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence refused to write an emergency finale to the hit TV show amid writers' strikes in Hollywood - because he insists the show will go on. Lawrence declined a pre-strike request to create a back-up ending for the show which would allow Abc Studios to finish filming the series early if the strikes continue into next year. Instead, Lawrence will carry on writing the show as usual and is refusing to let the dispute disrupt the making of the show. He tells Moviehole.net, "I will use all my leverage to end this show properly, even if it means I have to do all the voices myself and call people up to read it over the phone." Members of the Writers Guild Of America have been striking since last week after talks between the union and studio representatives failed to resolve a dispute over royalties. The hospital sitcom is one of several shows - including Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives - that may be forced to halt production if the writers' walkout continues

[Lord Nibbler]

Good to see people like Bill Lawrence and Steve Carell refusing to cross the picket line and refusing to kowtow to studio demands.