Hollywood writers to end strike
US film and television writers have voted to end a three-month strike and return to work.
The back-to-work order was approved by 92.5% of the 3,775 Writers Guild of America (WGA) members, after a deal was struck by union leaders at the weekend.
Industrial action was sparked by a dispute over additional pay for work used on DVD or over the internet.
The strike has crippled TV and film production and led to the cancellation of the Golden Globe awards ceremony.
"The strike is over. Our members have voted. Writers can go back to work," said WGA spokesman Patric Verrone, following the ballots held in New York and Los Angeles.
Union leaders agreed a deal on Sunday that gives writers an increased share of the profits from TV shows and films offered over the internet and other new media.
"At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal... and it recognises the large contribution that writers have made to the industry," said the head of the CBS television network, Leslie Moonves.
The deal should guarantee the Academy Awards ceremony will take place as planned on 24 February.
Comebacks
The strike, which lasted 14 weeks, was the most damaging period of industrial action to hit Hollywood in 20 years.
Some 10,500 writers stopped work on 5 November, a few days after their old contract with studios ended.
If writers return to work on Wednesday, the thousands of production staff who were put of out of work as scripts dried up will take weeks to mobilise while new material is prepared.
The strike is said to have cost Los Angeles' film and TV industry at least $650m (£330m) in lost wages, with the wider economy losing over $1bn (£508m).
Studio executives say it will take about two months for new TV programmes to emerge.
Studios will have to decide which of the 65 affected series will come back, with hits House, CSI, Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives likely to get priority.
Films have been less severely affected because they have longer production times.
Here's to the return of Season 4 of Boston Legal and The Office, the two primary shows I give a shit about.
Luckily, the second half of nBSG would also seem to be out of the woods.
Here's hoping that some of those writers wrote some stuff while they were on strike so it won't take quite as long to get things back up and operating on the shows that I like.
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
Tsyroc wrote:Here's hoping that some of those writers wrote some stuff while they were on strike so it won't take quite as long to get things back up and operating on the shows that I like.
I doubt it, since that's exactly what they weren't supposed to be doing during the strike.
Personally there's a part of me that's disappointed because I was morbidly curious to see what it would look like if the strike had lasted long enough for the SAG to get in on the action (June, I think) but another part of me is hoping to actually see neoBSG finished out before 2010.
"There is no "taboo" on using nuclear weapons." -Julhelm
What is Project Zohar? "On a serious note (well not really) I did sometimes jump in and rate nBSG episodes a '5' before the episode even aired or I saw it."- RogueIce explaining that episode ratings on SDN tv show threads are bunk
Uraniun235 wrote:I doubt it, since that's exactly what they weren't supposed to be doing during the strike.
Personally there's a part of me that's disappointed because I was morbidly curious to see what it would look like if the strike had lasted long enough for the SAG to get in on the action (June, I think) but another part of me is hoping to actually see neoBSG finished out before 2010.
I figured they weren't supposed to be doing it but I was hoping anyway.
Maybe someone came up with some good ideas and just hasn't written them up yet?
Does anyone know whether the strike has really caused a shift in how the studios buy shows or not? There was a lot of talk that this might get rid of the traditional US tv season, the pilot season and stuff like the up fronts. I just haven't seen any details that have made it seem like any of those have actually happened.
I'd like to see the traditional US tv season go away. It's much nicer to have options for decent new programing year round instead of a big glut of it all at one time and then only a smattering of things the rest of the year. Maybe they won't be so quick to kill some of the shows I like if they aren't all competing at the same time.
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
Here's hoping that some of those writers wrote some stuff while they were on strike so it won't take quite as long to get things back up and operating on the shows that I like.
As I understand it, most of them concentrate on spec stuff during a strike for legal reasons. Still, nothing to prevent them from having ideas, no?
"I spit on metaphysics, sir."
"I pity the woman you marry." -Liberty
This is the guy they want to use to win over "young people?" Are they completely daft? I'd rather vote for a pile of shit than a Jesus freak social regressive.
Here's hoping that his political career goes down in flames and, hopefully, a hilarious gay sex scandal. -Tanasinn
You can't expect sodomy to ruin every conservative politician in this country. -Battlehymn Republic
It sucks that we're only going to get like 7 or 8 more episodes of our favorite shows. A complete season would be some where between 18 and 24. (shows vary) Cause of this we will probably have between 13 and 16.
