JMS Reports

[Jan]

The whole peer pressure attitude with the talk show hosts made me a bit sick, honestly. There seemed to be a whole lot of 'armchair quarterbacks' deciding what the Hosts should be doing with their own money.

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

I wasn't knocking your comments; just making a general observation about how Leno seemed to be getting some bad press out of the situation, a bit unfairly I think.

[WorkerCaste]

Didn't mean to sound like I was penalizing him -- he's shelling out the bucks, and in my book that's pretty damn good. I don't know how much a crew like that costs a week, but I bet he's contributing more than the cost of donuts for the strike lines!

[Joe Nazzaro]

I think Leno may be getting a bad rap for this, considering, A) his company doesn't actually own the Tonight Show, B) NBC has been quite obviously in elbowing him out for Conan soon, and C) only a few days had actually gone by between the time the lay-offs were announced and Jay said he was shelling out money for them. Considering Jay had shown his solidarity with the writers from early on by walking off the show, I'm not about to penalize him because he didn't make an announcment earlier.

[WorkerCaste]

Actually I think all the night-time shows' hosts have been paying crew. Daly paid for 1 week, but then he went back to work without writers so the crew wouldn't be let go. I guess he doesn't have the same cash reserves of Letterman, Leno, etc. I think I heard that Letterman was the first, and Leno was the last succumbing to a bit of peer pressure.

[cruiser]

The strike is absolutely affecting folks. Production is basically shut down at the moment, so lots of folks are not getting a paycheck.

David Letterman is one exception -- his production company, Worldwide Pants, is keeping the staff of the Letterman show and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in paychecks at least until the new year.

FP

Kudos to David Letterman...didn't Jay Leno do the same thing?

As for the amount of money the studios are loosing, they are reducing their tax load for this year. Evidently the Hollywood types haven't spent enough time watching B5, otherwise they would understand the cardinal rule of civilized life, 'We must be kind to one another.'

In fact while watching 'Objects in Motion' this morning after work, I got really peeved at JMS....

Peeved 'cause he has seen into the hearts of man(this includes women) and has captured these truths in writing.

cut short...duty calls...

[FuryPilot]

I an hearing reports that the strike is effecting the Christmas of actors, technicians and writers.

The strike is absolutely affecting folks. Production is basically shut down at the moment, so lots of folks are not getting a paycheck.

David Letterman is one exception -- his production company, Worldwide Pants, is keeping the staff of the Letterman show and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in paychecks at least until the new year.

FP

[Andrew_Swallow]

I an hearing reports that the strike is effecting the Christmas of actors, technicians and writers.

[colonyearth]

$20 million a day is $7300 million a year. That sounds like the total turnover. Since the theatre screens and the TV screens have not gone blank yet I suspect that someone is exaggerating. However the figure may be true by February.

Nope that sounds about right $20 million a day. Not to mention additional costs that are beginning to occur like loss of advertising, etc. The pressure, both financially and from viewers is growing almost exponentially on a daily basis. Like JMS said, this is a different war this time around. The internet is out there as well this time, which allows the writers to get their word out and gain the support they deserve from the viewers.

Even though the talks have broken off again, let's hope AMPTP wakes up soon.

CE

[Andrew_Swallow]

$20 million a day is $7300 million a year. That sounds like the total turnover. Since the theatre screens and the TV screens have not gone blank yet I suspect that someone is exaggerating. However the figure may be true by February.

[frulad]

Here's an interesting question: if the strike is costing Hollywood a reported $20 million a day as some estimates have said, haven't the producers already lost more than they would have spent by giving the writers what they wanted in the first place?

I think the answer might have something to do with the moguls spending/losing whatever it takes to keep their pride intact. An ego is an expensive thing.

[colonyearth]

Anthony, I think they had something like six demands that annoyed the producers, including the right to strike, authority over reality TV and animation writers and a few others. Personally, I think the writers should have come in with a dozen demands, so when the producers eventually have to come back to the table, they can drop some of them, just like a writer putting an extra dozen F-words into a script knowing he's eventually going to have to take some of them out.

Here's an interesting question: if the strike is costing Hollywood a reported $20 million a day as some estimates have said, haven't the producers already lost more than they would have spent by giving the writers what they wanted in the first place?

Hey Joe! The article I quoted from basically insinuates that the "first-time jurisdiction over reality TV and animation writing" was just one of the issues that caused the talks to break off this time. Some of the DVD and even internet download issues I believe have had some movement on them based on some of what I've been reading in HR, though they never really go into much detail, it's all suggestive.

The point I find interesting is: "the guild's refusal to remove certain demands from the bargaining table." This is what JMS was referring to. The absolute solidarity of the guild this time around. The studios picked a fight with the wrong kid this time.

CE

[Joe Nazzaro]

Oh yeah, there was also a proposal about having an outside party determine 'fair market value,' which means that say, Fox can't sell repeats for a Fox-owned show to another Fox outlet at a bargain basement price, thus cheating the writers out of profits. By working from a fair market value, Fox would still have to pay off what the property was worth, even if they sold it below its market value. Small wonder the moguls don't like that one!

[Joe Nazzaro]

Anthony, I think they had something like six demands that annoyed the producers, including the right to strike, authority over reality TV and animation writers and a few others. Personally, I think the writers should have come in with a dozen demands, so when the producers eventually have to come back to the table, they can drop some of them, just like a writer putting an extra dozen F-words into a script knowing he's eventually going to have to take some of them out.

Here's an interesting question: if the strike is costing Hollywood a reported $20 million a day as some estimates have said, haven't the producers already lost more than they would have spent by giving the writers what they wanted in the first place?

[colonyearth]

One side-effect of this...after the sales on B5:TLT came in, way
exceeding WB's projections, they initiated talks about what to do
next, including commissioning more DVDs. Looking at the calendar, I
suggested that they might want to hurry the bureaucratic process
because we were going to be in a strike situation soon, so if they
wanted to move, they'd better commision a script fast.

And they said in response, and I quote verbatim, "We don't want to be
pressured in the process because we know there's not going to be a
strike this year, we can handle the Guild."

Face, wood-chipper. Wood-chipper, face.

It never ceases to amaze me the simple audacity of suits. Not once (the tale mentioned above) but twice (read JMS's latest and there's another) the suits sat in front of him, a writer, and referred to writers as if JMS were on their side. Not only did they get their face in the wood-chipper, but before they did they put a lot of egg on it and stuck several feet in their mouths.

I don't know that the suits are doing all that well right now. They're realizing already that the writers are more resolved and unified than ever. Thus the "secret" talks they've jumped into recently. Unfortunately, the suits just walked on the strikes because the writer still refuse to give in on certain issues:

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers blamed the latest break-off on the guild's refusal to remove certain demands from the bargaining table. Those include a call for first-time jurisdiction over reality TV and animation writing, the management group said.

Not sure what that is exactly, but let's hope they get it worked out soon. Looks like we might be in line for more B5 as well as some other fine ideas from the mind of JMS!!! (The man not the pants).

CE