Geek Entertainment News and Commentary

Strike’s End?

Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am by Jami

Looks like the strike is close to ending. WGA members finish voting on Tuesday on whether or not to ratify the new contract. The negotiating committee fully endorses the new contract and is encouraging all members in good standing to vote in support of the new deal.

Though most WGA members seem fairly positive regarding ending the strike, there are a few points that are still bothersome. Under the new contract, the studios have a 17 to 24 day period of free usage of web streamed programming before residuals kick in (24 for shows in their first year). The WGA also dropped any provisions extending jurisdiction to animation or reality programming. Reality I can kind of understand, but giving up animation? Those shows have to be scripted out the ass, sometimes more so than regular programming. I’d like to know more about the thinking on that one.

Also, has anyone considered the crews during the strike? From my understanding, they don’t get a cut of hardly anything. But because the writers were striking, the crews couldn’t work. Will they get any compensation for work lost? Or will they be forced to consider it water under the bridge and go back to work like nothing happened? Hell, maybe they should strike. Worked for the Broadway crews.

So, have you all missed that scary good writing that has made your television a part of your daily routine? Or did you hardly notice they were gone?

[Via WGA and United Hollywood, details at Variety]

7 Responses to “Strike’s End?”

Stephen
Posted: Feb 11th, 2008 at 10:58 am

The strike is over? That means that I get to watch Big Bang Theory again! HUZZAH!!!

Taellosse
Posted: Feb 11th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Eh, I don’t watch new TV. I watch TV shows after they come out on DVD. No commercials, lowered risk of cliffhangers (except if I catch up with current airing), and can watch on my own schedule, as many times as I feel like it. It also saves me from finding myself watching brain-suckingly stupid TV before or after shows I care about. Like King of Queens, or something similarly idiotic and pointless.

Kindless
Posted: Feb 11th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

I really don’t watch tv, but I got rather attached to Scrubs…

Kevin Bahrt
Posted: Feb 11th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

Honestly never effected me. I really only watch Cartoon Network and Sci Fi. Half of the stuff is imported Anime and none of the sci fi stuff really seemed to be effected.

Kunoichi
Posted: Feb 11th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

The WGA also includes film writers…Additionally, one of the most important aspects of the strike was DVD residuals and internet residuals (because viewing in Taellosse’s manner is pretty much the future). And you didn’t notice much because quite a few networks still had lots of shows already in the can. The *end* of this month was when things were supposed to get bad, and March was going to be just awful. As for me, I was entirely unaffected: I don’t even receive television at my house…and I borrow shows and movies I want to watch from the library!

Anyway Jami: I think on animation and reality, they were members they were hoping to gain because those folks *are* writers for t.v. and film, but they needed to prioritize their current memberships needs first. It was a bargaining chip they could afford to sacrifice this time around, and they *needed* to be able to sacrifice some things because they were coming from a highly disadvantageous previous contract. They’ve never had animation writers as members because of, well, Disney, way back in the day. Reality is new, and would *still* be hard to enforce because the companies already pull shit like calling writers on those shows “managing supervisor” or a myriad of other titles.

As far as the set crew goes, some of them already have unions who were set up to help them in case of a different guild stopping work. The ones who don’t have unions, the WGA *did* set up quite a few charity runs and the like to help out (especially for writers’ assistants). And some of the wealthier writers paid their crews out of pocket during the strike.

Can you tell I’ve been reading about the strike since day 1?

Chirri
Posted: Feb 11th, 2008 at 7:49 pm

I wasn’t affected in any way, shape or form. I don’t watch TV, just because most of it doesn’t interest me. My boyfriend loves Stargate in all it’s incarnations…and he got the complete original series and a video game he adores for his birthday. Between SG-1 being on Sci-Fi almost non-stop prior to that, and the game, our household rolled along as usual with absolutely no ill effects.

I do watch anime, but it’s rare I find something I like enough to bump the man over on the couch and take over the remote - between the internet and inlicenced anime, my own large collection that I still need to catch up on, and my friends’ large collections that THEY need to catch up on, again, not actually an issue for us.

I find it a bit sad how unnoticable the strike was from the consumer stand point, aside from the news blurbs about it. Between the news, reality shows, and re-runs (which the public is pretty used to over certain timeframes, like summer) the current span of negotiations really didn’t/doesn’t feel “real.” Then again, I haven’t been following it like a hawk, and I’m not a TV junkie to begin with. Perhaps people who are actually glued to it regularly had a different experience.