Posted on 11/08/2007 2:20:26 AM PST by abb
Television's top writer-producers threw their collective weight behind the striking Writers Guild of America on Wednesday in a move that could accelerate the disappearance of some of the nation's most popular prime-time shows, including "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "The Office."
In staging a very public rally in front of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, the 100 or so writer-producers of some of TV's highest-rated programs ratcheted up the pressure on the studios and producers who only a day before had threatened to withdraw scores of lucrative contracts with writers.
The support from the top was crucial since these writer-producers -- or "show runners" as they are called in the industry -- have the dual roles of determining a show's creative direction and answering to the studios. Without the cooperation of the show runners, networks were forced to shut down or sharply curtail production of series they had hoped to keep going for weeks or even months.
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The networks had estimated that a backlog of finished scripts and completed episodes would keep most series on the air until early 2008. But with numerous show runners refusing to supervise nonwriting services on their programs -- duties that include overseeing casting, editing and directing -- production has stopped on several leading series, and the supply of new episodes of a number of shows will dry up around Thanksgiving.
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NBC's "The Office" will air only two new episodes, and new installments of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" will disappear in early December. The makers of "Grey's Anatomy" are filming their last episode (which will run in December or January), the final new episode of the CBS comedy "The Big Bang Theory" will be broadcast Monday, and the last new episode of Fox's animated series "Family Guy" may run as soon as Sunday.
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(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
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We live in an area where you must have a satellite to watch TV. We are thinking of canceling our subscription as there are so few shows to watch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/business/media/08strike.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
November 8, 2007
For TV Executives, It’s Time to Juggle
By BRIAN STELTER and EDWARD WYATT
Jack Bauer will return to save the world on “24” — again — but somewhat later than expected. And Michael Scott, the comically obtuse regional manager on “The Office,” will not be serving up any original cringe-inducing comments after next week.
As television and movie writers entered the third day of their strike against Hollywood producers yesterday, the walkout continued to complicate matters for the networks.
Fox, the first to announce revisions to its prime-time schedule because of the strike, said it would indefinitely postpone the start of the seventh season of “24,” which had been scheduled for January, to ensure an uninterrupted 24-episode season.
Original episodes of NBC’s half-hour comedy “The Office” will stop broadcasting after the Nov. 15 show. Other television programs, including “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” on NBC, were wrapping up production yesterday as producers ran out of fresh scripts. And the cast and crew of “Desperate Housewives” on ABC were expected to stop filming by tomorrow, a studio spokeswoman said.
Six other comedies — including “Two and a Half Men” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” both on CBS — have already ceased production this week. But unlike “The Office,” they (and most other prime-time scripted shows) have several weeks or months of episodes already filmed and waiting to be shown. Production on “The Office” was shut down after the writers, several of whom are also actors on the show, began picketing, and Steve Carell, the lead actor who plays Michael Scott, refused to cross the lines. A publicist for Mr. Carell said he had no comment about the strike.
Several of the writers and actors from “The Office” expressed their complaints in a video posted on YouTube. “You’re watching this on the Internet — a thing that pays us zero dollars,” said Mike Schur, a writer for the show, clutching a picket sign.
More than 12,000 members of the Writers Guild West and the Writers Guild East went on strike just after midnight Monday, after a late negotiating session convened by a federal mediator failed to bridge the divide between writers and producers.
The most contentious issue centers on how much writers should be paid when their programs and movies are shown on the Internet and other new-media devices like cellphones and iPods.
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The only good news from this is the “24” delay. They need new writers, and fast.
Three days in, the writers strike is hitting television hard as schedules are juggled, producer deals suspended, productions shut down and layoffs announced.
Fox on Wednesday became the first broadcast network to announce a strike-affected midseason schedule, revealing that "24" would not air at all this season.
Fueled by "American Idol," which will launch with a two-night, four-hour premiere January 15-16, and helped by the fact it only programs 15 hours a week, Fox had been considered the best equipped to handle a long writers strike.
Meanwhile, its corporate sibling 20th Century Fox TV became the latest TV studio to send out suspension letters to writers with overall deals, joining CBS Paramount Network TV, ABC Studios and Universal Media Studios.
20th TV also began notifying writers' assistants Wednesday that they would be laid off immediately, but that their health benefits would be paid through the end of the year, sources said.
Meanwhile, for now, ABC is still sticking to its plan to air heavily serialized "Lost" in midseason, running the eight produced episodes, 10 short of the 18-episode order.
NBC is expected to announce its revised midseason schedule shortly, while CBS and ABC are still working on theirs.
ABC on Wednesday made a minor tweak to its schedule, replacing the November 20 episodes of "Cavemen" and "Carpoolers" with back-to-back "Charlie Brown" holiday specials and slotting Barbara Walters' annual "Ten Most Fascinating People" special December 6, replacing a repeat of "Big Shots."
In other strike related developments:
= NBC's "The Office" officially shut down production Wednesday after its star Steve Carell and several other cast members refused to cross the picket line Monday and Tuesday, effectively bringing filming of the hit comedy to a halt. Several "Office" writers, including showrunner Greg Daniels, posted a video shot on the picket line on YouTube.
= With the exception of "Scrubs," which is slated to film for awhile, all comedy series still in production are slated to wrap shooting their available scripts by early next week, followed by dramas, which will go on hiatus by the end of the month, laying off thousands of crew members.
= Production on the second season of Lifetime's "Army Wives," originally scheduled to begin at the end of November, has been put on hold.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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