Strike Ends!!

THE WAR IS OVER!!!

2nd

so close- congratulations writers

All right Neo!

Booyah!

As far as I know, the Strike's been over for several days.

Maybe now we'll get that sixth season of Quantum Leap!

Reality show writers.

i demand it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GET BACK TO WORK! Thanks!

No more animals on Leno please.

They ratified ya!

late nite and cable writers, who took it up the ass for everyone else...and while sag may not strike, i dont think they are gonna leave as much off the table as the wga did...and i wonder if sag is gonna make sure that their contract ends the same time as the wga...if so, the amptp better iron everything out by 2011 or there will be shit to pay...

That's all.

now get the fuck back to work

now that I'm allowed to write it.<p> </p>...So how about them giants?

im just curious....whats it like to be an asshat?

Directors seem ok. What about the actors?

finally

The only hissy fit I've seen is the talkbackers here who can't understand why a group of people would want to band together to improve their situation.

I don't care!

When are we gonna see it? Because I swear to god, if I have to watch another episode of American Gladiators I'm just going to politely accept it and buy the products advertised in the breaks

I'm happy to see them back to work. Let's hope all these months off have insprired them in some way.

Wait.. I don't really care about this :/

rip off pilots! Eli Stone saved!

Wha?

A-Team!! Bring it back! Yes!

I don't care if the writers of every other show on TV have to apply for welfare. Just give me more LOST...stat!

So I care. But only because of Lost.

What? It came back? Damn.

bacci40, I know you believe they did, but the rest of you; was the end result worth striking about?

http://tinyurl.com/3cq7nk

...close to tears. With laughter.

to weaken unions. Because there are successful people who have to go along to get along and go on strike in support of highly unsuccessful people who must hitch their wagon to that of the collective to get by in this world. Individualists of the world, disperse!

Now, get back to work on BSG you motherfrackers!

Bring on Season 2 of MAD MEN!<P>Get to typing, bitches.

depends who you talk to...go to the wga site to see the different opinions...look, i think the industry writers are some of the smartest people in their field...but they honestly know squat about the new media (and the studios know even less)what they do know is that to have allowed the strike to continue, even one more week, woulda meant any gains would be offset by the loss of this entire season and a huge cut in spec scripts for next season...so they went for the short money, with the hope of getting a toe-hold for more bargaining power in the future...they cut their bros and sisters in late nite, cable, reality and animation off at the knees and let the studios keep their cut of dvd/blu-ray...in the end, everyone lost...except for the new media moguls...cuz the age of the internets is truly upon us...and i am happy everyone is going back to work...cuz the economy in la sure as hell does suck

Or am I crazier than normal?

We so missed the Chthulu Dance; can we have a Strike Ends Dance?

I welcome more episodes of Lost with open arms.

Can I watch this one?

Or more BSG mobisodes?

ALL MOLES, ALL THE TIME!

Hmmm...a "Strike Ends Dance", eh? Well, I suppose I might be able to draw something up in the studio...

Obama 2008.

You could call it like 8 and 8.

I know they've already received the go-ahead for a second season of MAD MEN. I just don't know if they had any of it written.

With The Wire already wrapped and Lost locked back in, that's all I care about at this point...

She'd be an absolute, stone-cold mortal lock NATURAL (and a major-league upgrade) as a host. C'mon, NBC, if you're gonna have Ellen Page headline the 3/1 SNL, then make room for one of your own. It would be perfect, since Forgetting Sarah Marshall comes out 24 hours earlier. Make it happen!

I hope so, lets get back to fiction.

Who was on strike?

for season 2. But I don't watch the show regularly so maybe I'm wrong. I'll catch up on DVD.

Best news I've heard all week.

Though it appears unlikely we'll get 24 back this year. BTW, I was unable to access the Variety article, but came across a headline page. One headline declared that Joel Surnow, creator & producer of 24, is departing the series. Herc, do you know the details regarding this? Just curious about it.

nuff said

Didn't notice...

finally

Giant Doctor! Dr. Acula! Find the Saltine! Hooch is crazy! Look, BarbieEleanorBritneyBeyonceAreYouThereGodit'sMeMargaret, I'm re-huh-he-huh-he-huh-HEALLY glad we can finish off the season properly now! And the writers don't have to apologize to us--but they best get their stories straight when they meet Jesus!

LOVE THAT CHICKEN FROM POPEYES!

And then not hired on any new shows? 'Cause I'm sure the studios will get their revenge somehow.

"BITCHES LEAVE!"

Hooray!

before you go back to your "real" job - remember to give us the "20 Hours You Want Back"!!! I always love that - and you and Capone are the only ones who have given your best of 2007 lists to boot (wtf Harry/Quint/Massa??)...thanks!

Just a bit of friendly advice, watch your backs around those production staffers that were laid off because you wanted more money for doing the same amount of work instead of selling more scripts.

He just had Bill Kristol on the show and generally Stewart's liberal audience applauds everything he says but Kristol handed Stewart's ass to him and you could feel the audience turn on Stewart like they turned on M. Night Shyamalan halfway through THE VILLAGE. It was pretty cool.

any news on the office ? it was so abruptly robbed from my Thursday evenings.

Or Walt dies!

<pr>

Now, tell that Bastard Tim Kring to make eleven episodes that introduce new Villians and have some action and build up until Sylar is done being Spock and then let hum run rampant gaining the trust of other villians in order to take their powers. I mean the show doesn't need the cheerleader or even Sylar for it to be good. <p> It could run from April through June and be an awesome make up for the eleven piss poor episodes of season two.

<p>

The show started out vaguely promising, before becoming middling and then completely unwatchable. And no one is watching it. Can't we just let it die?

It wasn't about just getting more money. It was about actually getting paid when their work was broadcast using other media. <p> How would you like it if you got paid commission for your job but your boss decided to take your work and make more money off of it without giving you your cut of the profits. <p> That's basically what this was about. If some jackhole gets laid off and thinks it's because writers wanted more money then he or she should probably look at their own performance and maybe there they'll see where they got fired.

But glad Mori can get back to work. Good for ya.

as for now, nothing new until September. Because the cheerleader and the villian are on other projects.

Long time no see... Not that the strike had any effect on TF2: Baymageddon.

It's notable that this fight was mostly on the TV side, but when the JLA movie fell apart, the award show season became duller than dirt, the Oscars were in jeopardy, and the "MOVIE STARS" were all being embarrassed by TMZ and the rest of that gang, the MOVIE executives stepped in and told the rest of the media executives to settle this strike. Oh, then with all the free time, there were how many actors going to re-hab? 4-5 that we know of, no telling how many more will be there in s few weeks,not to mention those who now are beginning to have severe problems because of these 3 months off. Just proves that the big-screen executives still have the final say in Hollywood.-----later-----m

...I hope we get more great TV movie scripts comparing the great labour struggle of 07 to similar incidents like Matewan or the Bolshevik uprising of 1917. I'm glad that the billions of lost dollars and thousands of adversely affected lives have allowed a couple of overpaid douchebags to afford a new coffee table in the years to come.

fuck yeah!

Between work, school, kids and wife, I just really haven't missed it that much. I did watch the first couple of episodes of Lost, and DVRd Jericho tonight, but I really can't think of anything I missed seeing.

Wassah .. yeah now they can get back to work on TF2 and cement LeMadCow's ascension to Hollywood royalty. Did you know he won the Rising Star of the Year BAFTA? What the serious fuck is up with this guy?

Answer me motherfucker. Why?

but the kid in that new Jackie Chan / Jet Li movie looks just like him.

I've been living off of Doctor Who and Torchwood. Its been torture. No not really.

LeMadCow? I think I'm thinking of someone else.

Shat LeDouche...

Now I can get back to the Office. I was so desperate I had to go to office depot for my paper supplies.

No offense, but when aliens land on Earth why would they go to England?

According to the Variety story, "Heroes" is done for the year. No "24" until January. "Bionic Woman" is cancelled. "Lost" will get there shows on for May sweeps. That gives them 13 for the year. "Pushing Daisies" and some of the other ABC shows may be able to do a May sweeps set as well. No word on schedules for NBC and CBS. House may get a few more eps in for May. All the other Fox shows are done filming for the year.-----later-----m

Tightens rubber hose with teeth and clinches fist.

They will film 5 more episodes, bringing the season total to 13 (instead of 16)<p> It's unclear whether the missing 3 seasons will cease to exist or if they will be tacked on to next season. Either way, some minor reworking will be done to end on the same cliffhanger in episode 13.

Then WHO! was writing that awesome dialog for American Gladiators? Whatever scab they got to write for that show probably got a shit ton of money due to its success. Now I am gonna go Wolfvenize the toilet!

Then WHO! was writing that awesome dialog for American Gladiators? Whatever scab they got to write for that show probably got a shit ton of money due to its success. Now I am gonna go Wolfvenize the toilet!

see that the British still have a Monarchy and think that a Queen or King might rule the world or have the power like their own unified supreme leader of some sort.

Chan and Li onscreen together is a momentous occasion.

And pound me out some House scripts!

me too...

FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Means more episodes of THE HILLS. You know they can't work without their writers...

yes, messi it does mean that. But it also means that Avengers is on track to.

yell well. those brits might have weird sci fi shows but they have damn good comedy shows which own anything from the US. All i have to do is name the office, but then I can name coupling and Little Britain.

Fuck yeah.

One of the speakers on the CNBC morning roundtable show, Michael Wolf, the media journalist, said that the screenwriters made a bad deal agreeing to accept a 2 percent cut of a producer's fee or profits, which is essentially nothing. Two percent of nothing is nothing. He also said that the real money to be made online is from advertising revenue (see the attempted Microsoft Yahoo merger and the Google and Youtube business model). The other guest was the head or a high ranking member of the writer's guild, who protested that the deal was the best that the writer's could get. The summary seemed to be that it was a good deal of sturm and drang for not much.

Avengers wasn't going to happen anyway. All I wanted was at least 3 more months which means TDK would of finished off JLA. AHHHHHHHH

Man, NBC really churns out those remakes.

I like the reality shows coming out of the UK. My fav, Dancing With The Stars, got its start there. And then there's Gordon Ramsay ... and I listen to BBC News on NPR. So I really do like British content ... just the aliens in England thing is far-fetched. Everyone knows aliens come to America.

I heard the WGA got a raw deal too, but you know, that's negotiations ... sometimes you just don't get what you are after in the first place and you just gotta try. There's no clear victory to be won - at least the effort was made, which is better than capitulating without a fight.

Unions really don't have the power that they one had. In America especially, if a strike goes on too long then a company could simply say fuck the union and hire scabs. At some point the people stopped giving a damn about the plight of the worker as it didn't directly effect them if they weren't directly involved. Since TV was involved the WGA should have fought harder, but as I've said before. The deal is a good one, but it's not a great one. I've always felt that a union should fight harder and plan much further in advance for a strike to last. If you advised your members that there would be a strike a year in advance and that the negotiations would be hostile from the start so they should prepare for a six month to year long strike, it might hold more power over the companies.

Now they'll make that dumbass JLA movie. sigh

Please make season 3 of Dexter better than season 2.

Word.

Avengers is still on as far as I've heard. If you look at the new Marvel/Movie Studio blueprint. Several characters starting with Iron Man will appear in other films... like Hulk, Thor, and Capt. America. The idea is to then unite them in Avengers.

To tell you the truth I've hardly noticed that there was a strike going on...

i'm sorry, he was. RIP James Doakes, master of tight polos and f-bombs.

why is it that you cannot comprehend the fact that the majority of wga writers are working stiff like you and me...it was the studios that walked away from the negotiating table..it was the studios that chose to state that all online content was for promotional purposes only...it was the studios that lied to the wga back in 88 when they negotiated video tape residuals...so the writers need to feel responsible for what occured during the strike? shoot, why arent you yelling at the studio heads to give up their weekly whore mongering and coke sniffing and share the wealth with the hourlys

...Since they weren't hard done by to begin with. They already had a fucking sweet deal, labour wise. Why drag it out longer when your getting paid well to sit around and make shit up?

...Its the studios money. They are going out of their way to finance shows that, ultimately, they don't need to. They can bring the sheep and advertisers in with reality broadcasting or foreign produced shows if they needed to. I don't really hate on the writers, because I don't really care if there is TV shows or not. We aren't talking about a group of labourers who are being used to mine or harvest or transport or produce resources that shouldn't really belong to one individual or group of individuals anyway, like oil, coal or even food. We are talking about writers. Plus I don't like bitches. Which is what the writers are. They could take their ability elsewhere, but they WANT to work for the TV stations. If you don't like their contracts, go sell yourself elsewhere. Thats something people involved in serious labour disputes cant do, because the resources they work on or with are not to be found elsewhere.

accomplish one thing except show the AMPTP that the writers can be worn down and will capitulate to anything. <p> First the writers agree to a waiting period to get money on Streaming and then they agree to 2 percent of the NET of producers' money. Haven't they learned anything from all the net point debacles that have existed since, um, ever.

"Winky....Dinky...Dawwwwwwg!"

Congrats to the writers. Job well done.<P>Now that the niceties are out of the way, allow me to echo Mr. Nice Gaius RE: BSG -- Go get us some scripts!

when someone uses a time machine to travel back into the past to prevent there ever having been a strike. Fucking short seasons of Prison Break and Lost have me apathetic to their disadvantaged-yet-still-cushy financial plights, not that I wasn't apathetic already.

I once worked eleven hours and dehydrated myself. I've done eight and nine hour shifts with my flat feet scraping over concrete with only a thirty minute break. I take fistfuls of painkillers just to make it through an average day of work. My dad has herniated discs in his back from a factory job. One of his coworkers had an accident where her hand was smashed in one of the machines. They had to cut the glove off with her flattened hand still inside, do you understand? THESE ARE WORKING STIFFS, NOT PAID STORYTELLERS!!!

Fucking writers.

I'm just sayin'.

Have you seen Idiocracy? Because with your views on writers and their supposed "Contributions" to society, that's where you're headed, my friend. Your summation of the writers strike ("I don't like bitches, which is what the writers are.") was searing and insightful. You say that the writers want to work for the big Stations, and those who don't like their contracts should go elsewhere. Where exactly should they go? By your own logic ("because the resources they work on or with are not to be found elsewhere"), the writers were fully within their rights to strike.

It seems there was a sense of urgency before the Oscars

Vince Vaughan contest winners.

I want 'Death and Me' fucking Yesterday!Stephanie Leonidas as Death. DO IT! DO IT NOW!

"Members have to formally approve the AMPTP’s deal, with votes on that tallied Feb. 26." <P> Really? How is that pointless rubber stamp factoid important to the overall article? Is it going to change the scale somehow? Will the votes be tallied incorrectly? Is Karl Rove counting the votes? Seriously, what the hell? <P> The Screen Actors Guild’s contract expires in June. <P> so the article is about the writer's strike ending, which the majority of readers are happy about, but you throw out this useless factoid at the end to.. what? Show that there's going to be another strike? Bum everybody out? To stick it to the man? I don't get it. <P> In the end, stop being a commie. Thank you.

the writers deserve every cent......... and if u havent noticed there was a strike u must be spending too much time on ur nintendo wii or xbox360 or watchin too much porn, other than that u must be fucking blind...

Cause somehow in our friend tallboy's twisted mongoloid brain, taking a stand against getting ripped off by major corporations somehow makes one a communist. now if he had any concept of what a communist actually is, he would know that working mindlessly for meager pay under oppressive conditions is, in fact, a communist principle.

Since you know AICN is going to have live Oscar coverage..which writer is what? List, now.

If you think the writers have actually taken a stand against getting ripped off by the studios, take another look. They struck for three months, and in the end, by their standards, they still got hosed. Seventeen-day window until they can profit from online showings of their media? As if most of the money won't be made in the first seventeen days--the studios managed to secure the biggest profit window, and the writers will get chump change! Two years of fixed payments before the writers get a percentage of the gross? Again, that's a pat on the head and a kick to the corner, as is most of the rest of the deal. And I notice one thing the WGA didn't get was an increase in share of profit from DVD sales. This is the sort of stand Custer took at Little Big Horn. Then again, I don't care. I hate the studios for screwing over the moviegoing public, but they're corporations and so I expect it of them. The writers, by contrast, have positioned themselves as the champions of the working man, when really they're nothing of the kind. Insofar as they control almost all the writing talent in Hollywood, they are PART OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. Now they've returned to a privileged position over their craft, where they can basically set the terms you have to live by if you want to be a Hollywood writer. They don't have a problem with making deals with the studios, who buy up the movie theatre and video rental chains, and then make sure only the stuff THEY own gets sold...it doesn't matter if the studios are screwing over everyone who works outside the system, plus everyone who buys products made by the system. Just as long as the WGA is inside the system, they're not getting screwed (at the moment) and they can make sure that writers who want the big projects work for them or not at all, they're happy. I hope the writers enjoy their thirty pieces of silver...especially when they find out that because of the way their contract is now written, they really get two pieces of silver buried inside a steaming pile of dogshit. Fuck the studios for using their corporate power to shut down the competition...and fuck the guilds for enabling the studios.

Let the mediocrity BEGIN! yawn... {O

And NBC still has it's No One See's Thursday.

And dont tell me rubbish that it was cancelled due to low ratings. Of course it would have low ratings if shown at 10pm. Give us back Journeyman. at 9pm. Scrap Heroes if you must

You don't really think SAG members will settle for anything less or rqwual to writers do you?

Why was Tom Hanks at the Grammy Awards? I'm assuming that celebs had to be there to get Grammy gift bags to make up for the stuff they lost by the Golden Globes being cancelled. Truly a tragedy....

I heard BOSTON LEGAL got cancelled. BOSTON fucking LEGAL. The ONLY lawyer drama I can even bring myself to think about. The wittiest thing on the box. The show that gave William Shatner a BETTER character than James T Kirk.<P> Yeah, I said it. Denny Crane IS BETTER than Captain James T Kirk!!!<P> So long, BOSTON LEGAL. We hardly knew ye.<P> Now can someone get GLOBAL FREQUENCY back up off the fucking ground and give it 13 eps already?!?!?

Well said, all of it. As much as I respect the fact that writers are the creative spark that kicks off anything we watch or read, the fact that the WGA is conspicuously silent on how studios buy up media chains (including rental stores etc) and then freeze out truly independent talent shows a load of moral courage on some issues, and less than expected on others. The WGA should at least be consistent on these issues.<P> On the other hand... LOST IS BACK! BSG WILL BE BACK! FUCKING BOSTON LEGAL WON'T BE BACK!<P> BACK TO WORK, BITCHEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS!!!

remake, or story based on a comic book (or, uh, "graphic novel" if you think thicker comic books are less childish), or movie based on a TV show. Don't overdo it by coming up with something original. {Disclaimer: my username is based on one of my favorite movies, which happens to be a remake of a movie, which was adapted from a book. I appreciate the irony of the situation.}

that favorite movie has some of the most annoying editing ever.

I wish they would put it back on too. C'mon you NBC whores, you've got nothing in the can now so just throw Journeyman back on.

...I wouldn't have even noticed. There was crap on TV before the strike, and there was crap on TV during the strike.<p>Guess I should watch something else besides Fraiser and M.A.S.H. re-runs?

Now get back to work like the rest of us.<br> <br> (which I will do as soon as I'm done surfing the tubes)<br>

...without the annoying Brit, the annoying sister, the annoying Berkut group, and just have it be Katee Sackhoff kicking ass, Terminator style!

...Giant Corporate Network TV is not the only place writers can work. Its possibly the only place useless untalented writers can work.

I think DancingWTS started in OZ. Not that I care really.

It's funny that when you mentioned why would Aliens land in England, the classic Brit SCFI series UFO immediatley came to mind. Great series and i much prefer this over Space 1999 and even Star Trek, mostly due to story/character development and that SHIELD meets The Invaders concept. As for the strike ending, who cares as long as the final eps of The Shield is set to air this April.

Yes, it went exactly as you describe. Kristol didn't look at all cowed or humbled by the end of the interview - there was "almost no evidence of that at all" (pop sociology quiz: who once said that about Shia-Sunni animosity in Iraq?). I liked the part where he said he was ambivalent about torture. What a burn! That was the exact moment that Stewart lost the audience.

I see you are about to paint your masterpiece.

...on AMC from July 19 to October 18. It'd be amazing if a second season was already aired, seeing as how they pretty much wouldn't have had to take a break between the seasons. But you don't watch regular TV, which is fine, but you do come to this site, so it's a little strange you would think that.

...placed lower than #30 in the ratings. Yep, sounds like a bomb to me and nobody's watching. In fact, season one averaged out at #21 and season two averaged out at #22 in the ratings. Big f-ing drop.

Thank god they've put an end to the block on original writing!

and ditto for global frequency

sucks. TEAM JACK!

But it's too late for 24... Perhaps if they finish the season right now and start shooting, they'll have time and money for fall this year to work on the movie. Broadcast the show early 2009, followed by the movie in the summer! Yay, everybody wins.

No one likes a quitter. <Br> Boo! Hiss!

Pulling season 4 back to 13 episodes is NOT good. I would rather have the 8 now then wait til they have 8 more ready to show later this year. Instead we're gonna get a disjointed cutdown season. What about the characters that were gonna get their flashbacks in those episodes? Those actors must be really pissed off.

I saw these writers and all they could come up with was "On Strike" or "Striking" on their cardboards? I would have expected something more creative. Show us you are worth the extra money.

Years ago, if they had banged out a global deal for a percentage of all media. They probably could have gotten a smaller percentage on future media but the writers would not have been nearly as motivated to strike over a small percentage of new media sales as they were over no percentage of media sales (and the crappy deal they got on DVDs helped paved the way for the strike, too).<br><br>Free market wise, it would be best for writers to negotiate their deals individually, but given the nature of the business: the union is there. That's the only way the writers are going to get their due. And if they write for a sit-com that takes off and is enduring in part because of their writing, they ought to get a cut (as should the producers, who front the money, directors who assemble it, and the actors, who can showcase good writing, or destroy it). The caterers and prop guys are just hired help, sorry.

. . . for all those who question whether unions help or hinder their members. Is the business more like a factory (in which the end-product is sold and controlled by a fairly unified entity or set of entities, with the marketplace receiving little information about which workers did what in the production of the product), or is it more like novel-publication (in which the worker's identity and reputation are an integral part of the product known to consumers, and the marketing/producing entities are diffuse and fairly competitive)? <P> If the business is like the former, collective bargaining power offsets the comparative weakness of the individual workers, and corrects the institutional imbalance between the controlling entities and the employees. If it's like the latter, collective bargaining and action will retard the development of the "name brand" of the individual worker, thus weakening the workers' bargaining power, and impeding competition. <P> I don't actually watch TV (because it's generally too terrible and ad-ridden to be worth it), but I'd say that television (and probably movie) writing is much more like a factory situation. I'm betting that generally, writers (for TV at least) are more filling in an essential "part" of the episode production, and are doing so within confines set by the producers et al., and certainly, almost nobody in the tv/movie-going public picks what media they will consume based on the writers' names. <P> Thus, without a union, writers are likely not going to get a very big piece of the revenue from media production. Of course, even with a union, they don't seem to, either.

Teachers don't work for 3 months either. Plus this was just ridiculous to not wait till SAG went on strike in June. Anything they write will need "actors" to act in. Once the actors strike in June WGA and SAG combined coulda been more leverage.

it!