From the rewrite department: The Strike

[Heradel]

Once/if everything gets back, will the mods please append this to that thread?

Anyway, if you need a call to action to support the writers this is what happens when they're gone.

..."Baby Borrowers" is a new alternative series that asks five young couples -- ages 16 to 19 -- to set up a home and begin fast-tracking on parenthood by becoming caring parents first to a baby, then a toddler, pre-teen and grandparents -- all over the course of one month...

..."When Women Rule the World" -- This unscripted series will reveal how women and men react in a world where women are in charge and men are subservient. The participants will be brought to a remote, primitive location where the women will have the opportunity to "rule" as they build a newly formed society -- one with no glass ceiling and no need to dress to impress...

...."My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" is a competition series that will finally prove the familiar schoolyard boast -- "My dad is better than your dad!" Dads will be at the forefront of the action competing with their families in a series of unique stunt-driven challenges....

..."Wanna Bet?" -- Celebrities bet on stunt-performing contestants....

I can't decide whether they're punishing the writers by running stuff they'll hate, or if they just hate everybody at this point.

[DDog]

They don't really have a choice. This is the stuff that doesn't need professional writers to produce. The host's assistant can jot a few notes down or feed the teleprompter or whatever, and everyone else just has to roll with it. And it also goes to show that if you thought reality shows were bad now, look what can happen when studios are really desperate and have nothing else to do.

[jrderego]

They don't really have a choice. This is the stuff that doesn't need professional writers to produce. The host's assistant can jot a few notes down or feed the teleprompter or whatever, and everyone else just has to roll with it. And it also goes to show that if you thought reality shows were bad now, look what can happen when studios are really desperate and have nothing else to do.

This is the perfect time to pitch my new reality show - The Bachelor's American Idol High School Reuinion on Dancing Fifth Grader Cannibal Island! A cast of well-to-do 25-45-somethings from all walks of life are air dropped via parachute onto Bikini atoll with no food to eat and no tools to catch fish, joining them are a plane load of past-their-prime mid F-list stars like Carrot Top, and Barbara Mandrell, and Jean Claude Van Damme, and Yngvie Malmstein. From dawn to dusk this motley crew must put on an elaborate off-broadway production of Rent using only sand and palm fronds. Complicating matters, each day of the production an new cargo of dangerous and hungry animals are unleashed on the island, Monday - Bengal Tigers. Tuesday - Desert Scorpions. Wednesday - Baboons. Thursday - Army Ants. Friday is "grab bag day" where one of the cast is abducted and buried up to their neck in wet sand and can only be released if they receive a marriage proposal from an audience member selected at random from a cell phone text message.

Anyone want to sponsor??

[Heradel]

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/ is the best reportage I've found on the strike, though it seems like the writer needs an intern.

Personally, I have this idea for a series called "So you want to be... The Aristocrats!" but for some reason they'll never give me a meeting.

Also, Steve Carell's reason for not showing up to work (crossing the picket lines) is that he is suffering from a case of "enlarged balls".

[DDog]

Also, Steve Carell's reason for not showing up to work (crossing the picket lines) is that he is suffering from a case of "enlarged balls".

I like him more and more every week.

[DKT]

I've found this blog very interesting (you might have to scroll down a bit).  It's run by Moriarity, one of the writers at AICN, who is also a screenwriter.

[gelee]

Looks scary.  Lucky for me, I don't watch a whole hell of a lot of TV.  I sent GRRM an email to see if he has anything to say about the situation, seeing as how he used to be a screen writer and all.  Might still be a member.  We'll see if he responds.

[Heradel]

An observation on Puppies and Babies.

I watch a fair bit of TV, probably because I got used to watching TV right after school to decompress (ST:TOS). That and there are a fair number of decent shows (last night's 30 Rock nearly killed me) these days. Granted, the only show I watch on the TV proper is the Daily Show. Well, and Galactica when it's in season (and in the theaters on Monday, which I have a pass to, [insert exultation]). I also listen to Ronald D. Moore's podcast, and that's been teaching me a bit of the back end of a show, enough that I can do some rudimentary "I see what you did there" stuff to the TV I watch. There's some small-chance theoretical self interest on my part in seeing them strike, and I am going to miss my shows, but as someone that clacks on a keyboard from time to time (and hasn't done anything worthy of publishing) I'm interested in seeing the ones that do that clacking far better being compensated fairly.

There are a lot of people posting 'round the nets about how the writers are foolish, and they (the poster) doesn't own a TV anyway because TV is a wasteland and a waste of time. It does seem like a lot of them are there to toot their own horns/be internet trolls. I think parts of it are a wasteland, but most things have wastelands and TV has been getting better in fits and bursts, though there have been unfortunately cancelations of good shows (Firefly, Studio 60). And I think most of that is owed to the writers who are coming up with better stories, better dialog, and better shows overall. Sure, the acting and everything technical has been getting better (The battle over New Caprica for one), but good acting rarely makes up for bad writing.

[gelee]

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, really.  I don't mean to imply that TV is a wasteland.  Yeah, most of it is drek, but there is actualy quality programming out there.  The upshot of having 5000 cable channels is that they need a lot of programming, and that feeds a lot of screenwriters who might otherwise be duking it out in the short fiction/novel market
I usually don't care a lot for organized labor.  I've dealt with unions since I was a kid, and I've never really been comfortable with them, and I find the practice of striking to be deeply distasteful. 
On the other hand, I am sympathetic to writers as a class, and they seem to have a valid gripe.
I'm staying out of this one.

[Heradel]

...
I usually don't care a lot for organized labor.  I've dealt with unions since I was a kid, and I've never really been comfortable with them, and I find the practice of striking to be deeply distasteful. 
...

Can I ask why?

[gelee]

Well, my family owned a small business.  The union people we had to deal with did a lot of things that would be hard for me to justify.  They think they're sticking it to "The Man", but "The Man" was my dad, and we weren't "well off" by any stretch of the imagination.  I've gotten out that line of work (the business eventually failed), but I still have to deal with labor unions, and they still do a lot of dishonest things. 
I don't like strikes because they seem coercive.  "Give me more money/vacation/whatever, or I'll shut your business down."  It's tough when it happens to GM or Safeway, but when it happens to Joe's Small Business, people miss mortgage payments, and maybe their kids don't get new clothes in the fall for school, or any Christmas presents.
There were a lot of things, that was just one. 
I didn't want to get up on a soap box.  Not every union is run the same way, nor is every union member a lazy slob.  Anyway, this probably isn't the venue for me to get all William Shatner about it and tear my shirt off with anguish:)

[Heradel]

To add another blog to the strike blog list, Ronald D. Moore (Galactica) has recently set up one here: http://www.rondmoore.com/Site/Blog/Blog.html . It's iWeb, and new and buggy, but interesting. And there's a photo of the CIC that shows how bare it is/how well lit it is when they're shooting.

[Heradel]

And reviving the dead (though not reanimating), there's news that Letterman's Worldwide Pants will be seeking an independent deal with the WGA, which is good news for the writers since that deal will make it harder for the AMPTP to argue that the writers are being unreasonable.

Also, something satirical this way comes.