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WRITERS’ STRIKE IS NO RERUN
By Alison Jalbert
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., Nov. 19—From Rockefeller Center in New York City to the Paramount Picture lot in Hollywood, members of the Writers’ Guild of America picked up their picket signs and put down their pencils on Nov. 5 in response to failed contract negotiations.
One minute after midnight, the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) declared a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Nearly 3,000 members of the western chapter of the WGA picketed at fourteen studios across Los Angeles, joined by members of the Screen Actors Guild and the local Teamsters union, according to the Los Angeles Times. Picketing in New York began later that day.
The strike, which is the first writers’ strike since a five-month walkout in 1988, came after the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement contract expired on Oct. 31. Following three months of negotiation prior to the expiration of the contract, writers walked off the job on Nov. 5 after failing to receive better compensation for the use of their work on new types of media, according to a statement on the WGA’s website. These new media outlets include cell phones, the Internet, and digital music players. The writers also seek an increase in their residuals payments for the distribution of their work on DVDs.
Producers from AMPTP turned down the writers’ demands, saying it is too early to determine a pay formula for online shows because of constantly changing technology, and writers do not deserve to be paid for television shows streaming on the Internet because that is a form of promotion.
AMPTP president Nick Counter did not look favorably upon the decision of the WGA to strike.
“The WGA’s call for a strike is precipitous and irresponsible,” he said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “Instead of working toward solutions that would give the industry the flexibility it needs to meet today’s business challenges, the WGA leadership continues to pursue numerous unreasonable proposals that would result in astronomical and unjustified increases in our costs, further restrict our ability to produce, promote and market TV series and films, and prohibit us from experimenting with programming and business models in New Media.”
WGA president Patric Varrone stated that the strike came at the appropriate time in the negotiations.
“We’ve been in this situation before,” he said in a statement on the WGA’s website. “The producers told us in the early 1980s that video was a new medium, that they needed to study it. But we don’t want a study. We want a percentage. [If online profits] are what we think they’re going to be, we want a share.”
Late on Friday Nov. 16, the WGA and AMPTP mutually agreed to resume their negotiations on Nov. 26 after having stopped on Nov. 4, according to the New York Times. Despite the possibility of reaching an agreement, television has already been severely crippled by the strike.
With over 12,000 writers on strike and negotiations at a standstill, the state of the current television season is unknown. The first shows to feel the effects of the strike are late-night comedy shows staffed with WGA writers, such as “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Since these shows depend on current events, reruns were shown immediately upon the inception of the strike.
Leno delivered doughnuts to the striking writers and acknowledged the importance of their role in creating a successful show.
“I’ll cross the picket lines to deliver doughnuts, but I won’t be crossing it [to work,]” he told Entertainment Weekly. “See how unfunny I am right now? That’s because [the writers] aren’t giving me anything. I’m a dead man.”
Most scripted daytime television shows will not be affected by the strike, according to their respective networks. Soap operas on the three major networks will air new episodes through Feb. 2008, and “The View” will continue uninterrupted, according to a spokesperson.
“Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” which relies heavily on its writers, has continued production at the request of DeGeneres herself. Writers for her show have expressed their distaste for her decision, but DeGeneres stands by her choice.
“I’m a different kind of show than the kind of shows that are able to shut down,” she said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I [shut down] for one day. It's been explained to me that I'm a syndicated show, and it's a different situation. And I'm a daytime show, and no other daytime shows have shut down. I'm here.”
The biggest impact felt by the strike is in scripted primetime shows. Current shows will likely run out of fresh episodes by January or February, since the strike fell in the middle of the production phase of the television season. Most shows have an average of 8 to 12 episodes complete out of the typical season length of 22 episodes, according to the New York Times.
Production has been shut down on many of television’s top shows, including “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Office,” and “Desperate Housewives.” Many actors have joined writers on the picket line to show their support, including “CSI” star Marg Helgenberger, who joined 60 writers on the picket line outside of Universal Studios.
“I’m glad to be standing alongside these people,” she said to the Associated Press. “This is where you draw the line in the sand.”
To deal with the upcoming absence of scripted primetime shows, television networks are turning to midseason replacements, such as CBS’ revived drama “Jericho.” But most of the networks hope that reality programs will help fill in the void of scripted shows. The seventh season of “American Idol” is set to premiere on Fox in Jan. 2008, and CBS is preparing a winter version of “Big Brother.” NBC is looking at a remake of the early-‘90s game show “American Gladiator” for help.
Regardless of how soon the WGA and AMPTP reach an agreement, the writers and their supporters are not going to give up easily. Seth MacFarlane, creator and writer for “Family Guy,” offered words of encouragement to a crowd of nearly 4,000 people gathered outside the Fox lot last week, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
"We are going to win this thing. They know they are in the wrong here,” he said. “The logic would be obvious to a child. A novelist receives royalties for his books. A musician receives royalties for their songs. Screenwriters deserve fair royalties for their work.”