(yes, I know there is a thread on the blue, but as per usual it is being dominated by people who are just screaming the same thing over and over, so there isn't any actual discussion. I know here there's actually a chance to talk about it without being shouted down.)

Stewart and Colbert are taping new shows? I had no idea.

yep, set to return next month.

Well, I think that the strike is hurting people that aren't part of the problem and, for me, that makes it a bad thing. I think 'strike' is a good tool but not if it puts non-participants out on the street. I don't know how but I wish the writers had a better way ( a moral? way) of getting what they want; think they deserve.

It absolutely sucks for those forced out of work, but with SAG and the DGA both gearing up to strike themselves in the coming year, things are going to get worse before they get better.

TV as we know it, is dying. The studio heads know it, the striking unions know it. More and more people are getting their content on DVD, iTunes, or streaming. If writers/directors/actors can't make a living anymore because of that, they'll find work elsewhere, and that too would put the crews out of work.

I think we're going to see more and more groups striking out on their own to produce content for online delivery, cutting the studios out of the picture.

I can't imagine either of these guys doing this unless there was fucking good reason for it (ie: their crews were all about to get laid off).

I'd like to point out, for the record, that the "below-the-line" workers DO benefit from residuals - they're pension and retirement plans are funded by residual profits, and their contract specifies that this residual structure be the same as the structures that pay writers, directors, and actors.

But yeah, I think everyone recognizes that strikes suck, for writers AND for the related unions. I don't really know how FakeNews is going to work - don't they have to ad-lib everything, as Stewart and Colbert are union members themselves?

I don't understand why the studios can't just give the writers what they deserve. What I mean is, it sucks that the writers have to strike, it really does. And it sucks that their strike has negative effects on their colleagues. But TV writers really are not the comfy-cozy folk we like to imagine they are.

I dunno, as someone who has written for a living, most of the time, for the last 10 years, I think that people need to do whatever they can to protect that profession. Journalists are getting laid off everywhere. Book deals are going now for less than $10,000 -- so you can work on something for five years and get practically nothing for it. If you want to make a living by writing, you'd better have a trust fund or a sugar daddy, is all I'm saying.

Aren't there any provisions for the other workers in TV? There should be. Something along the lines of, "If the WGA or SAG or anyone else goes on strike, we still get paid, and you can pay our checks out of your own fat pockets, you big stinkin' suits!"

That sounds flip, but it's not meant that way. I dunno. What's a good solution? Certainly not for the writers to cave, or for anyone to end up homeless or eating canned soup for dinner every night. Bah.

The Late Night show stars are in a deeply complicated and unenviable situation, as I noted here. I do not blame the writers for the strike and its effects AT ALL. The "Producers" of the AMPTP are the same Corporations behind the MPAA and part of the RIAA. They want to control content and are the enemies of both the creatives and the audience, and will do anything and hurt anyone to maximize that control and the profits they create. They are NOT the Creators, they are just grossly-overpayed Middlemen. Anything that will take power away from the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone is good for everyone in the long term.

And if anything, more of the "below the line" workers on TV shows deserve some form of royalties for their re-use. It would be fair.

And the "Producers"/Corporations/Moguls are causing the suffering among other worker during this strike specifically to take sympathy away from the writers. DON'T BE CONNED.

One thing I don't understand about SAG striking is where do their agents fit in all this? I guess this is much like professional athletes striking; for what are they paying their agents if not for the best possible contract?

Yeah, you know, I'm sorry for the people who are getting paid nothing at the moment, but 1) I'm not getting paid at the moment either and 2) if we give up on the new media provisions, I won't get paid anything when I go back to work, either.

They aren't paying us when we write material for the web- and I'm not talking about residuals, here- they're asking us to write new content for the web without compensating us at all. What we already make is enough, as far as they're concerned. They aren't paying us when they're raking in ad dollars for full episodes online, when they shift all their reruns from television (where they have to pay us) to the Internet (where they don't.)

We're not asking for caviar and champagne in the writers' room with this strike, we're asking for something absolutely basic: to be paid when we work. And I want you to know that most of the writers here are also living paycheck to paycheck. This year, I will have made 23,000 dollars writing, and 15,000 of that was a book advance. I make more than most working writers, and this year, I still fall 7000 dollars short of being eligible for the guild health care plan. Even the big guns in the WGA are taking home about 97,000 dollars a year, and they live in LA.

I think it's also important for people to know that while we're striking, we are contributing to, and actively campaigning for donations to funds like The Motion Picture and Television Fund, The Actors' Fund (not just for actors,) and The Writers Guild Industry Support Foundation.

All of these, and several more, have been put in place to help those folks below the line, who *are* suffering because of our strike. I don't see the AMPTP trying to help below-the-line workers- in fact, they've taken advantage of the strike to fire everybody who doesn't have a current production deal, saving themselves untold millions of contract dollars.

We're wildly sympathetic to the folks getting caught in the crossfire, which is why we're doing our best to take care of them. That's why we'd appreciate your support.

Also, to mischief: agents come into play here:

The guilds create guild minimums for various creative activities, which we call scale. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that scale here is 50 cents to write a script, 1.00 to act for one day in a movie. When you belong to the guild, producers can NOT pay you less than 50 cents to write a script, or 1.00 to act for one day in a movie.

But, that's just the basic guideline. If you're Suzy Q from Idaho just starting out, it's reasonable for you to get minimum wage, 1.00 for one day of acting in a movie. But if you're Julia Roberts, with a proven track record of box office sales, then you deserve to make more than minimum wage. In steps the agent, who negotiates upward: Suzy Q gets 1.00 a day to act in a movie, but Ms. Roberts gets 8.00.

It's the same as any profession: people with more experience, and more intangible assets are paid more for their work, but more or less, no one can be paid less than minimum wage.* It's just that in the entertainment industry, there's an entire profession dedicated to making those negotiations (because they also serve as the first barrier of quality; if you're not even good enough to get an agent, you certainly won't be wasting the producers' time with your audition, because you can't have one.)

(*Excluding exceptions for tip-wage, and salary conditions, etc., etc., let's pretend my simple metaphor is simple!)

note: I meant SWG not SAG. How many writers are there?

'Bout 12,000 in the WGA, I believe. On the Internet? Billions.

I would have guessed about 1/3 of that many. I guess all those local morning shows of the non-news variety make up a large portion.

It just encompasses more than people writing feature films and episodics and/or sitcoms. The WGA includes people who write documentary narration, people who write internal films (like public safety films, etc.,) people who write commercials, people who write the news, people who write news magazines like 60 minutes; people who write the filler pieces on talk shows and awards shows, people who write scripts for music videos, people who write short films (that's me!!) Feature and television is the largest portion of the guild for sure, but if somebody says it in film media, somebody wrote it.

Also, only about half of the WGA members are working at a given time (which is why residual payments are so important!)