Writers Strike: Day 3
By fred | November 7, 2007
Already the third day of the strike, and while I’m sure writers are pleased to see stars supporting them and bringing food, that’s not doing much else. And sadly, there are no new negotiations scheduled for now. Which seems quite hard to understandable, unless networks secretly wishes to use the strike to kill shows and try not to pay for undelivered order, because writers clearly aren’t asking anything extraordinary.
If you’ve watched this video featuring some of the creative minds from The Office, you’ll know that NBC asked them to write web-episodes, they did, those are available online will lots of ads every where, they won an Emmy for those things, yet they didn’t get compensated for their work. How could anyone think that asking to fix this is asking too much ?
As comedy writer Danny Zuker said, he half-jokingly : “We’re asking for next to nothing, and they’re giving us nothing, so we’re close.”
Anyways, many shows are shutting down production already. As mentioned The Office is one of them, since Steve Carell (Michael) and Rainn Wilson (Dwight), in addition to writer/actor B.J. Novak (Ryan), Mindy Kaling (Kelly), and Paul Lieberstein (Toby) will not cross the picket line. Executive producer Greg Daniels has also did not show up for work.
Production has also been halted on comedies The Big Bang Theory, The New Adventures Of Old Christine, Back To You, ‘Til Death, Rules Of Engagement, Two And A Half Men, and will soon shut down as dramas such as Desperate Housewives, as Eva Longoria confirmed.
Also, despite what she said on previous day, rumor has it that 30 Rock’s Tina Fey did not cross the picket line to shoot her scenes for episode 10.
About a hundred if showrunners met on Saturday and planned a picketing session of showrunners only that will take place today at Disney-ABC. The showrunners are hoping that their show of support will convince management to end the strike sooner.
It’s a difficult and heart-breaking decision for showrunners, because by stopping to work they are putting their series at risk, and for new series the risk of cancellation is even higher. Creator of ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money said to The Chicago Tribune that he was pessimistic about his show’s future. They just filmed episode 10, and according to him this could be the last episode of the show, ever, if the strike doesn’t end soon.
Meanwhile, Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice) and Shawn Ryan (The Shield, The Unit) have publicly stated that they would support the strike and not perform their duties of showrunners either. Needless to say that if showrunners stop working, production on all those series might end quite sooner than networks expected.
I really hope this can be worked out fast, or else it will get pretty ugly, and in the end that will not be good for anyone.
Posted in News
Shows: 30 Rock, Desperate Housewives, Dirty Sexy Money, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Rules Of Engagement, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, The Unit, Two And A Half Men
