Writers Guild of America votes to strike.

[edbermac]

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Show-business writers will go on strike early Monday after their negotiating team recommended a walkout over royalties that could immediately pinch late-night TV shows. Timely programs like "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" could be among the first affected.

The Writers Guild of America board voted unanimously to strike as of 12:01 a.m. Monday (3:01 a.m. ET), officials said. The walkout will be the first in 20 years. Steve Skrovan, a screenwriter for the Fox show "'Til Death," said a strike is all but inevitable. "We've never been more united and we are willing to deal -- and our decision-makers are at the table," said Skrovan.

"Their decision-makers are not at the table and that tells you pretty much all you need to know about how the companies are pushing this."

The news of a possible strike is not unexpected, said Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers President Nick Counter. "By the WGA leadership's actions at the bargaining table, we are not surprised by tonight's recommendation," Counter said in a statement on the AMPTP Web site. "We are ready to meet and are prepared to close this contract this weekend."

The labor impasse is over royalties from DVD sales -- last negotiated in 1988

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/02/hollywood.talks/index.html

This means that people who write literate dialogue such as...

"I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"

...are voting to go out on strike.

Can someone explain to me if this is a good or bad thing? :shrug:

[katty]

1. it's hard on scripted shows...but you will see more "reality shows"

-like there is not enough already!! The WGA already gave up fighting to get Reality Programs to be under the WGA - so now the strike will put MORE reality and less scripted shows on TV, ah, the irony.

[ccpup]

2. it's a good thing

as the writer's are just asking for more of the pie the studios are cramming down their greedy throats as well as protecting themselves financially by insisting that deals agreed to early in the process be respected.

The studios feel deals are full of wiggle room ... especially when it comes to paying the writers what they were promised they'd be paid.

Little known fact: the writer is the LAST one to get paid -- after director, after crew, after catering, after the producer's nephew who stood around and did basically nothing but ogle the actresses and try to get laid -- and, oftentimes, because the "profit" isn't going to be as big as they hope (or so they claim), the studios are forever trying to renege and renegotiate to pay them less.

So, they should go on strike and see how well the appetite for Reality Programming -- an already overly-saturated market the American people are beginning to tire of -- holds up. It's all about the advertisers and how much they'll pay per spot in the end.

[Mike Nelson]

3. You're kidding...

nobody WRITES the junk I see, do they?

[Cleita]

4. No Stewart or Colbert?!

Sheeeeeeeeeet!

[blondeatlast]

5. Do you enjoy The Daily Show? Colbert Report?

Precious little, but there is quality writing out there and they want a renegotiation on DVD sales. sounds fair to me.

Union--YES.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. The written word is the lowest for of communication.

Society has done nothing but go down hill since the first stylus met a clay tablet.

[Mike03]

7. X-Posted from another thread

I lived through the last WGA strike.

My timing in life has always been awful. I'd just graduated from film school and gotten my first real agent when the strike happened. Because I was still wet behind the ears, some producers felt I might be a potential scab, but of course I didn't want to begin my career as a traitor. But those were tough times. They would call and ask for material, and I had to say no, even though I was not yet in the Guild, because I knew that even to violate Guild rules as an aspiring writer would destroy my career forever. And then on the other hand, you piss off a lot of producers and developers, who are your meal ticket.

My heart goes out to the writers, especially the ones that are not very successful or just barely making ends meet. It's really dog eat dog in the screenwriting business.

My main reason for posting this is that some people seem to think screenwriters are very wealthy people who makes millions for doing virtually nothing, and it's not like that at all.

[blondeatlast]

8. Thanks. Your perspective is helpful.

I saw some of the ignorant comments on the other thread--I had to check and make sure I was still at DU and not you-know-where.

Bad craziness--I don't get it.

Maybe you should spiff this post up and post it as a stand-alone. People need to know. Just like the last actor's strike, where people though the lot of Bruce Willis had no beef. The reality for the vast majority in the entertainment industry is not what they see on the E Channel.

[Lisa]

10. the vast majority of artists (and scientists, for that matter) earn very little ...

As you say, Mike03 -- I know people who have worked and trained for years, who work long hours for low (and irregular) wages, and are passionately devoted to what they do -- and one hardly hears their names.

If people are upset because they think screenwriters are overpaid for pumping out lines like "Die yuppie scum!" -- how about the times they sit down and give us this ...

Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid.

"Casablanca" -- 1942
Murray Burnett and Joan Alison (play "Everybody Comes to Rick's")
Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch (screenplay)
Casey Robinson uncredited

[MorningGlow]

9. For the record...

Pre-fans on the Web "wrote" the "motherfuckin' snakes" line for the movie in question. The hype for that waste of celluloid still boggles my mind.

Anyway, I read that most scripted shows have enough episodes "in the can" to last till January, when some midseason replacements (which also have many eps in the can already) kick in (like "Lost"). Maybe by then the strike will be resolved. Hope...hope...hope...as I DETEST reality shows...