a reasonable template
In 1988, Carsey-Werner made a deal with the WGA during the strike and went back into production. I've been asking incessantly on the picket line why something like that doesn't happen today. A recent Wall Street Journal article poses the same question:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119482950368089597-qZSQTKZ51Qd7BNpglPdeNNbPDDo_20071211.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
It would be nice if some of the few remaining independents stepped up and made deals, even if they were mainly symbolic. Why couldn't a company like Act III, or even Werner himself, come to an agreement with the WGA right now, favored nations, landing where we all think this is going to go anyway.
But what's more baffling to me is that someone like Peter Chernin or Les Moonves doesn't do it. If one of those guys had the balls to break off from the alliance, the potential increase in market share would be huge. Any one of the networks could take over prime time by being the only one with new shows. And deep down, I think these guys want to destroy each other even more than they want to destroy us. So what's stopping them?
Labels: strike
posted by John Levenstein at
1:43 PM
6 Comments:
I definitely recall Unsolved Mysteries as a seminal event of the summer of 1988.
Levenstein, here's my imitation of you: strike strike strike strike strike strike strike strike strike. It's like you're fucking obsessed with this strike. Stop creeping me out.
OK, a serious question: the writers have been really good making their case online, and as of yet there's been nothing from the producers. Why haven't they made their case? Or maybe they have and I just haven't seen it?
Do they actually have a case? Like can you put yourself in their shoes and see why they're taking the stance they're taking? Or are they really just trying to fuck you guys over? I have a hard time believing they don't have decent reasons, but I sure haven't heard them.
(Yes, that's more than one question...)
The producers have not made their case online because they would need writers to write it for them - illiterate bastards!
Robert, I think their best case is that the business is changing. Earnings that writers see as new or "extra," producers see as necessary just to get them back to where they used to be. Part of the problem with this case is that it relies on Hollywood accounting.
Article today on a deal the Lost writers made separately for online content:
http://nytimes.com/2007/11/20/arts/television/20digi.html
Also, is that THE Ken L!?!?!? Where the heck are you these days?
Post a Comment
<< Home