TV: Actors strike could pull plug on shows

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sltrib.com/columnists/ci_11080105

TV: Actors strike could pull plug on shows

By Vince Horiuchi

Tribune Television Critic
Updated: 11/26/2008 04:52:21 PM MST

Remember the writers strike earlier this year that put Hollywood in a vise?

Well, an upcoming actors strike could make the last work stoppage look like a whine session around the water cooler.

Last weekend, contract talks with a federal mediator between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) broke down.

Now, SAG is discussing having a strike authorization vote to determine if they should take the next step to a work stoppage. If at least 75 percent agree to a strike, it then goes to the union's national board, which decides if they should go ahead and stop working.

If that happens -- and it very well could at the start of next year -- the first industry that's going to get slaughtered by a strike will be television.

Just like the writers strike, if the actors walk out, your favorite sitcoms and dramas could shut down production. This season's storylines that we've all invested our time and energy in could leave us hanging until perhaps the next season.

If actors stop working, it could cost California's economy a lot of heartache. The writers strike dealt the Golden State a $2.1 billion blow. An actors strike would be devastating to an economy already crippled by a global financial meltdown.

FULL story at link.

[hlthe2b]

1. Geebus.. After the writer's strike TV viewers dropped preciptously

and from what I have read, those viewers have not returned in large numbers, especially among younger demographics. Now an actor's strike. That will just about kill it...

[floridablue]

2. Is it the soap box opera's actors that have the dispute ??

I heard that somewhere. Scheeze, I can't believe the daytime drama characters could take away my Monday evenings with Penny and Sheldon. That is tragic.

[GoesTo11]

3. If that happens, I recommend renting Wonderfalls

Great series no one knew about.

[msongs]

4. how r some people gonna live without 8 hrs of TV trash everyday?

maybe they could spend time with their own families instead of living vicariously through phoney scripted reality shows :-)

Msongs

[AnnieBW]

5. It would also be suicide for a lot of actors

In this bad economy. 90% of actors in SAG are not working as actors at any given time. This means that they are either living on residuals or working in other industries, i.e. waiting tables, producers, writers, etc. If you put the other 10% of them out of work at a time when jobs are becoming scarce, it will cripple the entire entertainment industry and fuck over the other 90%. Production companies will simply move elsewhere, like to Canada or Australia, to film shows. At this point, when a lot of companies are coming back to California because of the dollar, it would be suicide to strike.