An Interesting 2008 for Entertainment

I wanted to take a break from talking about the whole school thing. I was just taking a look at the official blog for the Writer's strike, and it looks like things are getting heated. For anyone who hasn't quite been following the strike and what it's about, this is a great short video that explains everything that the writers are looking for. It was just announced recently that World Wide Pants made an agreement with SAG writers. If you're like me, that sentence didn't really do much for you just now, so let me explain.

I remember the name World Wide Pants being really familiar, but I couldn't quite figure out where I'd heard it from. Well it turns out that it has nothing to do with pants, and is actually an entertainment company owned by David Letterman himself, and they've decided to take the first step in bargaining with the writers. They've gone ahead and have agreed to all of the SAG's (Screen Actor Guild's) demands for the writers, and they're willing to give them due compensation to have them return to write for the Craig Ferguson and David Letterman Late night shows.

This is huge... And it makes for a really interesting topic/discussion, because the deal was made with WWP and not CBS, whose apparently furious with Letterman at the moment. So in really cool and interesting way, this puts the Letterman show back on track for ratings and potentially snatching ratings from the other Late Shows while they're writerless. Kind of a win-win situation seeing as some writers are able to go back to work and get what they asked for, while at the same time, this agreement becomes a huge threat to other big networks that refuse to bargain with the writers (ie: ABC, NBC, etc). I think it's a really cool idea and a very impressive move by Letterman. I've never really had that high of an opinion of Letterman witht he way he runs his show, interviews his guests, etc. But this deal really shows his support for the strikers and shows to what length he's willing to stick his neck out for them, despite CBS' objection.

So the big day is January 2nd when the first Letterman show will be aired with writers onboard and all. There's a lot of speculation that in true Letterman fashion, Letterman's going to spill the beans on how he feels about the strike, networks, writers, etc. I think it'll really be cool to see someone who has an very influential voice speak on national television about his true, uncensored feelings about the strike. And this time around, the network will have their hands bound and be at Letterman's mercy because of his popularity and control of his own company which produces the show.

However, this does bring up several questions. Questions like: "What about the other networks/hosts? What's going on with them?" And stuff like "Well how do the other writers feel about having to strike while others are allowed to go back to work?" Apparently as reported by unitedhollywood.com, the other hosts are being forced back to work by their network contracts. As far as my understanding of the situation goes, the other hosts were intentionally not working or making new shows during the strike in support of the cause. This makes sense seeing as people like Conan started off as a SAG writer, so of course he'd support the cause. But it goes even further as each host has been paying their staff out of their own pocket during the strike to support the cause. This quote from United Hollywood explains it best:

Everybody and their brother asked about the strike. The big question was this: Did the late night hosts going back on the air mean the writers were getting their butts kicked? (This was framed in different language by each generation.)

I explained how it was unfortunate, but the hosts had contracts they could get sued over, and in some cases were being hit pretty hard because they’d been paying staff out of their own pockets. I said there was hope Letterman would sign a deal with the WGA, but this argument was somewhat hampered by the fact that no agreement had been announced.

And of course there's the whole issue about how some writer's are off the picket lines and back to work while others are left in the cold. From what the blog was saying, there was some kind of discussion when the independent contract strategy was being planned out outlining the fact that some writers will be back at work before others are. It's a really tough position for the SAG to be in, but I think they made the right move with the independent contracts. Really, only good things can come out of this. First off, some writers will be able to work again which is always a good thing even if it's not everyone. And secondly, this will pose as a huge threat to other networks who decided to walk away from negotiations. With the strike being as long as it has been, the SAG really needs to light the fire under some of these networks in order to get some kind of movement.

It is really quite impressive how collectively supportive everyone in the entertainment industry is in the fight for this cause. It'll definitely be interesting to see some of these shows try and continue on without writers in tow, while other shows come back completely. I think an awesome part of it all is that in the scheme of all the seriousness and movement, writers are still making use of their free time by making funny little internet videos.

There's another one with Christina Applegate in it, but I'm too lazy to find the link. I would definitely check out the unitedhollywood site if you get a chance.