Hollywood writers authorize union to call strike.

What are they going to do once on strike, the same thing they've been doing while "working"?

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What, does this mean we get a break from crap cinema for a bit?

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And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling [faces] lyin' to ye' everywhere ye' go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Wouldn't that be nice?

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Oh no! Now who will come up with fresh, original plots and characters?

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

It's time for Reality TV to go to the Movies.

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(Shudder)

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

they've got about 5 years of "blockbusters" already filmed and ready for release, so you don't have to worry about it. even if they strike for a couple of years, you'll still get to see the next 12 installments in the "Saw" series, and if that isn't your cup of tea, i'm sure they've got a few Ben Stiller movies made where he plays a guy who falls in love with a seemingly normal woman with a screwed up family history with Owen Wilson guest starring as his quirky friend..

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

Oh joy, Rob Schneider will make a cinematic comeback which is a tour de force as he portrays a man who wakes up one morning as an allen wrench!

I can see the writers' pov over residuals from DVD, digital downloads etc., especially since residuals make up most of their pay. There may be some agreement yet, that may allow them to continue working while negotiations continue. From the article: With creative accounting I'm sure a profitable show could become one showing a loss, giving the Studios an edge. At least they did look at removing that proposal.

That said, if there is a stoppage and it continues to the length or longer than the last one, it may be of benefit to foreign shows getting picked up by US stations.

As the article linked to by Mak states, actors and directors contracts come up next year and I'm guessing they may ask for some sort of similar demand. IIRC, the ACTRA stoppage or threatened stoppage in Canada, last year, dealt partly with issues over residuals from DVD sales, broadband streaming of content, etc.

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" The universe is running away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see..." - from Jimmy Buffett's What if the hokey pokey is all it really is about?

I think there are a lot of untapped writers out there--Niven, Pournell, and so on--dump the union and buy scripts from the real writers!
Todd

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

A lot of "real writers" are in the union. A lot of great scripts from union writers never get made, because the studios are too busy giving us The Replacements. And, in fact, a lot of good scripts are rewritten until they don't at all resemble the really good, original stories that were paid for.

Further, there are not "five years of blockbusters already filmed and ready for release." The studios can't afford that kind of backlog; the turnaround from beginning of filming to release is generally within one year, and that includes all work on the film. Another thing to remember about blockbusters is that they generally rely on big names as part of their drawing power, and you can't expect someone to stay a star for five years. (Which is not to say that there aren't people who do, of course, but you can't expect it.) The studios wouldn't risk paying a multimillion-dollar salary to someone who might be on a "where are they now?" show before the movie is released, now, would they?

Finally, let's remember that the TV writers' strike is part of what brought us the glut of reality TV, because those shows don't require much in the way of writing.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Just think of what we'll be missing out on without Hollywood writers!










...Nope, can't think of a thing.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

if a studio has a bunch of, say, tom Cruise movies made and just waiting to be released, they will NOT let the world forget about Tom Cruise until the last one has been released. once that last film has it's theater run and is safely out on dvd and pay-per-view, then Tom Cruise is on his own..
don't forget that the same large international conglomerates that own the movie studios also own all the major networks, as well as all the "independent" studios that make all the craptastic shows like Inside Edition, Extra, and Entertainment Tonight that try to make every move of all the "A list" actors seem like something that is so important that if you don't know about it, then your life will be somehow incomplete...

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

Sounds like it's time to schedule a scandal or two. How's Thursday?

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Okay, show your evidence for this backlog. To give you an idea, it was considered to be a big deal when certain movies from the Orion vaults weren't released for four years after their filming dates, and none of them were blockbusters. (Though one did win an Academy Award, marking the record for the longest period between performance and award.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

The news reports of a long strike would be more entertaining than anything those writers could write. I hope they can't reach an agreement.

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Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.

i have no real evidence since it really doesn't affect me- the only movie i actually sat in a theater to see this summer was Transformers, and last year's movie event for me was Clerks 2- but actors are always on talk shows talking about movies they are working on that don't come out for a year or even longer after that date. the big name actors always seem to be "working" (if you can call it that..), but they only put out 1 or 2 movies a year.
i'm not saying there is a huge backlog of big budget films just waiting for release, but the studios will ALWAY have something they can push as the next summer blockbuster. or holiday film. or zany Ben Stiller film that they claim is nothing like the last 20 identical Ben Stiller films (each of which they said was nothing like all the other identical Ben Stiller films..).

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

The media reports the first casualties will be talk shows like Leno, Letterman, et al., and will utilize re-runs instead. Isn't it about time these "professional stand-ups" earn their exorbitant salaries by going on anyway?
(Sorry, Mak---asleepatthewheelitis!)

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The strike is eye-opening--some shows (and I mean, things like talk shows that one would think are unscripted), not pre-written by third-party writers, keep going on. Some shows do not go on because there is nobody to script the unscripted shows and it appears their hosts are more actor than host. It's a way to see where the real hosting/commentary talent is.

Todd

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

There are millions of people who´d be glad to work for the studios for a tenth of the current earnings. Just fire them all and hire fresh folks.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

This holds for just about any specialized skill or talent. There are plenty of people who think they can do anyone else's job. And usually can't.

You have fifteen minutes. Give me five hundred original words that will make me laugh out loud at least three times. GO

I thought so.

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There is room for an existential shiver in the dark between the stars.

Now, don't hold your lack of a sense of humor against Argos.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2010 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

That's one. Only 488 words to go.

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And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling [faces] lyin' to ye' everywhere ye' go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Somehow I don't think the pressure is that high, considering the amount of material that makes it on the air that barely triggers a smile. That, and the amount of duplicate jokes with subtle twists that make it on the air as well.

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Need a creative signature. Space for rent.

The words are the easy part. If I get two more laughs, I can fill out the words with gibberish.

Like Spock said, though, I'm surprised that Mike gets three laughs per five hundred words of television as is.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2010 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Speaking of news, I'm thoroughly tired already of the national news daily reports of which TV shows have gone out of production in the last 24 hours. I'm not looking forward to 4 months of that.

Newscasters: OK, we get that the writers are on strike. Please don't bother us with minutiae. Stop poking at it. Just leave the story alone until the settlement is announced next year. Thanks!

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Since I only watch network TV on rare occasions, this strike will have no effect on me except (as noted above) for the incessant "news" stories.

Yep. Until the strike effects football and basketball games, old reruns of Law & Order on TNT, and the morning weather reports, it will have no impact on me.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

I'm going to miss my Heroes, and my 24 if the strike lasts that long.

I was going to say I was going to miss The Office, but that should be unaffected since it's a documentary, right?

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2010 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Mythbusters writes their own material. No hurry.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort