TVSquad

Wow, The New Adventures of Old Christine is still on the air??

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Yes, and it's fantastic!

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With the exception of The Office, I won't miss any of these shows one bit. Boy, the writers have an uphill battle on this one.

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@kevjohn:

Why is it uphill? They're shutting down the studio's production right now, which is hurting the major networks. The networks stand to lose alot of money if this keeps up. Maybe I'm being naive, but why is it going to be a tough battle? They're just asking for a cut of revenues from DVD/online sales, right?

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Who's on strike again? I thought it was just the writers. Anyone else who refuses to work should have their contracts canceled, fined, and suspended.

wah wah wah, we want more money because we have zero ability to control our spending when we get paid like the rest of the world's workers. If these people were not in a union/guild they would have to negotiate their own pay scales and they wouldn't have these problems. Hence the reason unions are not necessary anymore. If you are good at your job you will get paid appropriately. If you aren't any good then don't expect to get paid like everyone else does. If everyone was on their own and you didn't like what you were getting paid there are other people to work for that would pay you more.

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One more for the list is 30 Rock - Tina Fey has been picketing.
http://www.mercurynews.com/tv/ci_7393857?nclick_check=1

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Ouch, this is bad.

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Let me write. I guarantee better shows than anything you've seen, and I'll punch Louis-Dreyfus right in the teeth as I cross the picket line with a tear in my eye, because I loved Seinfeld.

Hell, I'll take 3/4 of their current pay!

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Anybody know if there's new South Park tonight? I know those aren't written more than a week in advance, but Parker and Stone strike me as anti-union, the kind who would cross picket lines on general principles.

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Michael, you obviously don't understand the issue here. The writers get paid for their work. They're not requesting raises, they're asking for a percentage of the residual profits the producers and studio make from selling their work on home video and digital downloads. Right now they get a small percentage from DVD sales, but they get nothing from downloads such as iTunes. The producers and studios collect all the revenue from those sales, but without writers they would have nothing to sell. Actors negotiate a percentage from various ancillary sales so why shouldn't the writers? Again, without the written word, the actors would have nothing to say! Take a look at the real issue before you go off belittling what the writers are doing by going on strike. They asked the studios to give them compensation from the new media sales, and the studios refused. Suppose it was you working at the top of your field and your company consistently refused to give you a raise. Would you stay with that company year after year? Of course not! A lot of writers work freelance and don't have the daily job security of 9-to-5-ers so they need the union to make sure they are being treated fairly and they also get benefits (which is something you don't get when you work for yourself unless you pay through the nose to insurance companies). So take a look at the deeper issues here before you spout off your nonsense.

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Michael, it's got nothing to do with controlling spending...

Say I write a screenplay. They'll pay me $200,000 for it and then go and make millions. PLus they're not going tpay me for online revenue?

It's not right that the one's who create these shows don't get a decent cut. Sure $200,000 is a lot, but it's not the millions the actors, and producers, and the studios make.

Without writers, there is no hollywood. They need to respect that.

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There's a new South Park tonight and the season finale's next week I think. If that hasn't been written yet, maybe they could write some story making fun of this whole strike situation, if they don't mind crossing the picket line.

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An excellent explanation of what the WGA is striking for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk

Support the strike in your own way. Refuse to watch any of the reality crap that the network are going to shove down our throats by January.

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I'm getting sick of all these anti-union posters who claim that workers can negotiate their own pay in our wonderful corporate "free market". What world are you guys living in? Definitely not in mine.

My mother has to make her living right now as a substitute teacher. She can't get hired as a full-timer because she's too old. Substitutes have no union in the state where I live-which has left her in a vulnerable position. Adminstrators and other teachers treat her like dirt becasue they know they can get away with it without repercussions. There have been times when she has gone to a school to sub only to be ordered to do clerical work during the prep period and lunch.

A few years ago she took a long-term substitute gig, covering for a pregnant teacher-without knowing that the teacher was the niece of the principal. The niece had been a lackluster teacher, and I will tell you quite objectively, I have not had a teacher who compares to my mom. She's brillant. The parents of the students in the class she took over came to her thanking her for the improvement in the classroom. Well, needless to say, this did not sit well with the principal; she had to save her niece's reputation. An opportunity presented itself when a unstable student, whom everyone knew was a troublemaker, leveled an accuasion against my mom that she was abusive (what a lie, she's the gentlest person on the face of the earth). The principal used this to slander my mom and force her out quite easily. My mom had no support-no union to back her side of the story.

Oh, and to those who say "if she doesn't like substituting, she should get out." She did try. But that's another story of how people in power abuse the compromised.

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@10 and 11

I understand completely what is going on. They want more money, it is as simple as that. They didn't bother to negotiate BEFORE they did a project and don't like that they aren't getting residuals on different ways of selling a product. The "guild/union" is screwing these people over, it does not help them it hurts them. Unions were good back in the day when a worker was being screwed over by horrible hours, below living wages, and brutal treatment. There are now laws in place to prevent those things. The only reasons unions exist now is to pad their pocketbooks and to screw over the people that are forced to be members of them.

The way I look at it is that they wrote it, they didn't act, direct, produce or do anything but write it. They got paid for the words they wrote. Go write something else and next time negotiate a better contract instead of going to cry to your union reps about your unfair treatment.

A lot more goes into the studios making millions off a movie or show than the writing. They get paid for what they write and now they are greedy and want more.

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@dpratt:

What about authors? If publishing companies had to pay them a set salary for producing books and gave them no royalties, they would be free to make as much money from the books sales as they could and keep all the profits to themselves. But they don't. Instead, authors are paid some money (sometimes a fee, sometimes an advance on royalties, depending on the type of book) and then paid royalties. That way, the publishing company and the author share in the risk and share in the reward.

I think if I suggested putting Stephen King on a $50,000-a-year salary and letting his publisher keep all the profits, people would think I was crazy. Not only that, but Stephen King might figure it isn't worth using his creativity only to make his publisher more money, so he might quit and move on to a field where he could make better money.

And if I suggested that a publisher pay a beginning writer $200,000 a year with no idea whether or not his or her books would sell, I think people would think I was even crazier. And why should a publisher hand over money before he knows whether or not the book will sell?

The system for movie and television writers is different, but in my opinion the principles share some commonalities.

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praesil, I should have clarified by saying I think it might be an uphill battle getting average tv viewers on their side, considering that most of the shows on television now are absolute crap.
And for the record, I do not consider TV Squad bloggers or readers to be average tv viewers.

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@dpratt-- I think that you, like most people, don't know enough about how the TV industry works to fully understand what's going on here. In many ways, the deal that the writers currently have is similar to your own: they get paid to write an episode that is broadcast. This is the part that I think most people are unclear on: if the episode is never re-broadcast or shown in any other format, the writers never see another dime. In fact, the networks are actually buying a window in which they are allowed to air the episode some number of times. If they don't ever break the confines of that window, no more money exchanges hands. Residuals only kick in if those episodes are reaired, sold into syndication, etc.

The major sticking point with the union right now is that they have a bum rate for recorded media (DVDs, VHS, etc. because 20 years ago, no one anticipated that studios would be making about 50% of their income off of these media) and refuse to be swindled again on new media -- basically online, streaming, downloads. The Guild's position is that so long as the studios are making money on these media (which can be thought of as rebroadcasts of a sort) that residuals should be paid as they always have been in the older media.

Now, I understand that, when compared to someone in your line of work, the writers seem to be asking for more than that to which they are entitled. However, when you signed on at your company, I would imagine that you knew upfront that your salary was the extent of your compensation, regardless of the income generated by your work. This is not the case for writers. The working model in the entertainment industry (music, TV, film, theater) is that creative forces are continually compensated so long as the fruits of their labor continue to create income. Right now, the writers' are just working to guarantee that they will be fairly compensated regardless of how the studios decide to distribute the content which the writers created.

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I work for an enterprise software company. I am an architect and head engineer on a product that my company regularly sells for millions of dollars. I am paid very well for my efforts. I do not receive, nor ask for, royalties on the sales of the product. Myself, nor any of my peers, feel we have any sort of moral obligation to that money. In fact, if we stood up en masse and asked for it, we'd most likely be fired on the spot and replaced.

Why, again, is this any different from what the hollywood writers are doing? They produce a product that their employers turn around and make lots of money with. If I was a studio executive, I'd immediately fire every single writer that works for me, and offer slightly more money to any non-union writer that wished to work for me.

Unions are counterproductive and damaging to any industry that they touch.

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@dpratt:

Are you expected to create software programs for months or even years on end with no compensation, working toward the day when your company might decide to produce your program and then, and only then, pay you?

Did you company ask you to take a pay cut 20 years ago in order to see if they could make the software industry more profitable, promise that as soon as that happened they would pay you more, and then go back on their word?

If your company labeled your software as a "promotional product," would that allow them to not have to pay you?

Do you think that musicians should be paid a set fee to record an album, and never see any royalties from the sales of their CDs?

Do you think that songwriters and authors deserve no royalties on their songs and books? And if an author's book is made into a movie, do you think the author should have no right to make money from that transaction?

Creative fields cannot always be directly compared to other jobs.

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