If shows that are shown only once a week and have around 22 episodes a year are affected by the strike, then the soaps, which have new shows five days a week, 52 weeks a year must be even more affected, right? Right?
For some reason, not yet. The shows haven't divulged how many scripts they have stockpiled and how long they will last, but the soaps haven't gone into reruns, "classic episodes" or other programming yet. Most soaps have anywhere from six to a dozen a writers or more, and most of those writers are on the picket line. A few writers (though not all) on four of the soaps, CBS' The Young and the Restless and ABC's All My Children, One Life To Live, and General Hospital, have crossed the picket lines and returned to work on the show because of something called "financial core," which means financial need, another example of how I don't quite understand what's going on with this strike.
The writers on the picket line wonder how the shows are getting by with either no writers or only a few. They say it can't be done. But the 1988 strike might hold a clue to what's going on. During that strike, non-union staff members were actually asked to come on board as writers or be fired. This was cool for the secretaries, who had their pay bumped from $150 to $2500 a week (!), but if I was a writer on a show I'd be pretty pissed that a show would think that just anyone could do what I do.
This is nothing against secretaries - such as Marge, the secretary who practically runs things around the TV Squad offices - we love you Marge!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-22-2008 @ 1:11PM
dt3 said...
are writers of soap operas even members of the WGA?? i could swear i heard something on here saying that they were not.
I think the key part to the article is...
"Most soaps have anywhere from six to a dozen a writers or more, and MOST OF THOSE WRITERS are on the picket line."
You combine the 2-4 stragglers who stayed from the original crew, add in a couple of their buddies who always wanted a chance, yer girl marge, and they should have no problem putting together scripts.
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1-22-2008 @ 1:12PM
dt3 said...
"but if I was a writer on a show I'd be pretty pissed that a show would think that just anyone could do what I do."
If i was a soap writer I would be pretty pissed off that my spot was blown and the secret was out that just about anyone could write sappy love stories with poor, convoluted dialouge.
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1-22-2008 @ 1:47PM
kevjohn said...
I'm pretty sure they've been operating without scripts for the better part of a decade now. The actors have just been winging it since then. It's not that difficult really. All you have to do is change the name of the person you're sleeping with/stabbing in the back/marrying/plotting against/chasing/running from/chasing/breaking up with/slapping/sleeping with again/cheating on/and sleeping with yet again. The rest is is just close-ups and filler.
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1-22-2008 @ 1:47PM
Me said...
"Financial core" or "fi-core" does not mean financial need. It means you are a member of the union because you have to be in order to work instead of because you agree with their agenda. It also means you can work even during a strike and don't have to pay dues relating to extemporaneous union activities. Unfortunately, due to the nature of unions, and the power of strikes, financial core has a tendency of undermining union goals. It is generally viewed by union members as scab like behavior but it is closer to "conscientious objector". A fi-core member cannot vote on guild issues or hold office. In exchange they can work union and non union jobs. In an industry where you are required to be a member of the union in order to work at all it would be just as unfair to exclude those who wish to work in non-union roles as it is for the Studios to exclude writers from profit participation in Internet revenue. Also, remember that FiCore members of unions still pays dues to the union despite the fact they have no voice in it.
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1-23-2008 @ 10:56AM
Karen said...
How can this NOT drive people crazy?
So writers are FORCED to join a union, even if they oppose the idea. They are then FORCED to pay dues, but they have no say in what the union does with their money (or what political candidates get their cut), but they get the opportunity to keep working in the job they wanted in the first place.
Please do not tell me that the union keeps deducting dues from the working fi-core people while they strike!
How the hell is this legal? And why do people keep shrugging off the fact that these shows are doing better without the writers?
Oh I hope the strike continues long enough to break this union. Ugh...this is disgusting!
1-22-2008 @ 2:04PM
Christopher said...
Man, do writers actually make that much a week?
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1-22-2008 @ 3:04PM
khamel said...
they make alot more than that. if i'm reading it correctly that was 2500/week in 1988. a decent writer is making good six figures.
1-22-2008 @ 3:07PM
Eric H said...
All I know is that Young and the Restless have improved by leaps and bounds since the writes began the strike. It's at least one show that has been improved by the fresher talent.
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1-22-2008 @ 8:54PM
TomB said...
You're right Erick!! The plots were getting pretty ridiculous and again and again they wrote themselves into a corner and killed off characters and arcs that they had been building for a long time for no apparent reason.
The last few months the stories have been much more even, realisitic and true to the characters. The scabs are even cleaning up the year-long moan fest of "Who Killed Carmen" brain-tumor-made-me-do-it haven't been arrested or convicted but I'm in jail anyway with Phyllis for the heck of it story line.
They've cleaned up lots of messes that the "real" union writers got them into.
How can you go to college and then law school then become an assistant DA responsible for convicting Victor Newman for murder if you're in your early twenties and dating a guy who's 21 tops?
Amber needs to fly back to LA and the B&B.
1-22-2008 @ 4:01PM
Karen said...
Who knows, maybe this strike will be a blessing in disguise. Changes have needed making in the soap opera industry, for years now: commercials don't pay the rent since VCRs and TIVOs came along, and all of the soaps have been staggering under budget cuts since the late 90s. How can filming ONLY EVER in the two most expensive cities in America using ONLY EVER expensive union labor possibly help? Maybe in 10 years, kick-ass soaps will be filming in Anytown, USA and using terrific writers who would otherwise never have been discovered. Maybe they'll even be able to stop recycling the same four storylines over and over and over and over.......
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