127 Striking Writers With Pilots Pending Write Xmas Letter To Hollywood Bigshots

COMMENTS (84)

• thank goodness! This is what a split in the guild looks like without using the term “split’. This is reasonable. This takes into account that we are not auto workers – but independent contractors whose work is based on intimate relationships with the people on the other side. This is a business of relationships, not assembly lines. Not every negotiating tactic can be applied to every industry. Do you understand that, David Young? This is the first of many letters to come – and many back channel attempts to get things back on track. This is about getting back to work, not protecting the egos of our misguided leadership.

  Comment by moderatewriter — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 4:45pm PST  Reply to this post

• Well, this indeed shows the beads of sweat forming on a whole lot of WGA members. This is a silly, self serving letter that will have the AMPTP taking victory laps over the holidays. What fools. I work at an agency and have had the misfortune of reading some of the pilot scripts that are already in, including one from a “prominent” writer on this list about space aliens living in a gated community. It makes “Cavemen” seem like Chaucer. Network TV is a dinosaur struggling in tar and I wouldn’t blame the producers for throwing in the towel and tossing out this entire crop of next year’s failures, a mess of unsold pilots that will waste time, energy and money and not create new jobs, but just a slew of You Tube videos. Change is hard, but it’s often for the good. Welcome to the new world order where the best TV shows are all on cable and better ideas will appear on the web or other venues before graduating to TV, if their forward thinking creators so choose. Happy holidays, pilot writers. And also good riddance.

  Comment by Matteo Cashman — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 4:49pm PST  Reply to this post

• nikki, happy holiday to you and yours.

  After reading this “letter” to the studios from the 100+ writers who have potential pilot deals, I had to laugh. These are part of the same group of writers who have called the studios greedy and other negatives, and now these writers come whimpering for these greedy studios to put up hundreds of millions of their own dollars on the riskiest business model alive, the pilot. You gotta be kidding me? From the tone of this and recent other WGA press releases it is obvious they are feeling like Ricky Hatton in round 9 of his recent fight against Floyd Mayweather. Their bark, like Hatton’s, has no bite, NONE. These writers, who have selfishly put thousands of real human beings out of work, are finaly realizing this, in this new digital internet age we are entering, the studios do not need the writers as much as they thought. Content, much of it light years better than much of current scripted tv, is already being produced, by 11th graders!! MY plea to the studios, PLEASE do not give in. It is only a matter of months before the WGA, or what is left of it, will come begging to you, with no demands other than to start paying them their (mostly) obscene salaries. I look foward to returning to my job (where real evidence of work is seen daily) in the below the line crafts someday, but until then, I hope the studios have the spine to demolish and rebuild the current way shows are written and produced. Merry Christmas

  Comment by below the line man — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 4:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• Somehow, as I read and re-read this letter, I keep hearing the old sales adage: “The first one to speak, loses.”

  Comment by Stuart Creque — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 5:15pm PST  Reply to this post

• Well, it’s a better attempt at getting them to listen that “you suck, bastards!”, but I have as little sympathy for the AMPTP has they have for anyone else. Really doubtful anything will come of this, but at least it’s happier than before. Fuck them all, WGA. Do everything in your power to win, or we will all lose.

  Comment by Caitlin — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 5:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• Desperation, can you dig it?

  Comment by filmprod — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 5:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• I can’t tell if this looks desperate or not. This letter doesn’t have the “give em hell” feel that a lot of other strike actions have had.

  Stay strong, writers!

  Comment by Interested Observer — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 5:21pm PST  Reply to this post

• This is the most embarassing piece of pleading I’ve ever seen. Have some balls, boys.

  Comment by GAry — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 5:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• Nothing like seeing 127 nervous writers all bend over.

  Comment by Howard The Ducking Out — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 6:38pm PST  Reply to this post

• Knowing how contemptuous the AMPTP is of the WGA, this just sounds like: “Dear Sirs, even though you are determined to see us all starve to death in a gutter, won’t you please talk to us? We won’t eat much, and we’re very clean.”

  Comment by Aaron Counter — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 6:44pm PST  Reply to this post

• Go, Writers!!! If it meant anything, I would totally sign my name to it as a TV Viewer who just wants a fair deal for the people who create the shows that I love and enjoy that I want to see back on the air!!

  Please, please let a Christmas miracle happen!!

  Comment by A Loyal TV VIewer — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 6:46pm PST  Reply to this post

• They’ll get used by the AMPTP and then discarded. Just like Teri Hatcher in “Tomorrow Never Dies” they’ll end up face down on the bed after the Big Media parades this letter around saying “See? Not everyone agrees with the WGA leadership.” What a suckhole letter.

  You really can’t ask the AMPTP nicely to give us a deal. They really don’t understand that concept and they have only a little more use for the execs at the studios than they do for the WGA.

  I expected it to be the showrunners, not the showrunners-to-be who would be playing the Abe Vigoda part. But in this industry, you never can tell who will screw you first.

  You can only be certain someone will…..

  Comment by anotherWGAwriter — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 7:02pm PST  Reply to this post

• A valiant effort, guys, but it’s not going to work. When you left that table on November 4th, you sealed your fate. Poor leadership if you ask me.

  Comment by BTL DGA — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 7:32pm PST  Reply to this post

• So out of these 127 pilots how many will make it to a series order? Statistically based on past seaasons at most 27 pilots will get a series order which means 100 will die before they ever air. They will wind up on YouTube or shown at that theater that shows failed pilots many of which are very entertaining by the way.

  Out of the 27 which become series how many will be cancelled before their 13th episode? Possibly as many as 20. Out of the remaining 7 shows how many will last long enough to become long running hit shows to pay for all the other failed shows? Probably only one or two.

  For every “Office” that becomes successful (and which only became a hit because Kevin Reilly believed in it, I guess that’s why idiot Zucker the Billion Dollar Profit Reducer fired him) there are 20 other half-hour comedies that die painful deaths.

  So it would be a lot easier if the 127 writers could caucus amongst themselves and decide which of their pilot scripts are worth making. Networks would save a lot of money if they didn’t have to film so many pilots that go nowhere. This is how they are thinking now. They want a wholesale overhaul of the pilot business. And they are right to be thinking this way.

  Comment by Anonymous — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 7:45pm PST  Reply to this post

• My God,

  For the love of dignity what in the world is this supposed to mean? A chance to somehow show off to the rest of the town that you’ve somehow wheedled a pilot this year? “Please sir..I want some more” My god, I would be humiliated to publicly grovel the way you people are doing. Why not simply crawl on your bellies and beg? “Honestly sirs, we would be eternally grateful..” Where in the hell can I heave? Is this supposed to demonstrate some kind of resolve? Fortitude? Strength? And do you think you’re the only ones with something to lose? The difference is not all of us have to climb on a soap-box and rend our clothes in grief. Beg for crumbs from the table. Supplicate ourselves at the feet of the masters. To hell with them! Have a bit of dignity. A bit of pride! Have you at long last, not the slightest bit of shame? I think the answer is as apparent as the names on this paper.

  Comment by BeeKay — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 9:03pm PST  Reply to this post

• Please tell me this is from a parody website. “Please, Sir, may I have another?” You people make me want to puke. Merry Christmas.

  Comment by Old Writer — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 9:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• So the message here is: “We want ours. Forget about the long term good of the union, just get us our deals now.” I found the letter contemptible and embarrassing. And remember, 97% of your pilots would’ve failed anyway.

  Comment by Jason Stallworth — Monday December 24, 2007 @ 11:52pm PST  Reply to this post

• Oh, my heart bleeds for these pilot writers…(That’s sarcasm in case you don’t know) What about the rest of us? Why aren’t you big shots asking for the alliance to come back to get us all working… Instead, these over paid puff writers are so self serving it’s disgusting… I’m glad my name’s not on that list… though I have a feature on hold because of the strike… So I’m not just some cast off hack who wants the two sides to get together. What a disgrace on these writers… Turning your back on the rest of us… “Solve the strike so MY pilot might get made?” F*%& you guys… I’ll remember those names. D.

  Comment by David G. — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 4:10am PST  Reply to this post

• Shame, shame on all of you… You put your personal, selfish, self interest in front of the rest of your membership… Call on the Alliance to come back to the table… but not so YOUR pilots can get done… Others have staff jobs, free lance assigments or features that are all stalled because of the strike. So stand with us, the membership, you spoiled pilot writers… And worry about the guild’s well being, not your personal insignificant lives. D.

  Comment by David G. — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 4:13am PST  Reply to this post

• Wow! As I read that letter I can picture all those show-runners on their knees begging. That’s kind of sad, actually. If I received that letter, I would do nothing because it implies the Guild is weakened. Way to stand firm boys and girls.

  Comment by Strike, Schmike — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 5:53am PST  Reply to this post

• Pilot Season-I remember Pilot Season. Seems like just last year….kids-did I ever tell you the story about Pilot Season? No? Well, it’s not a fairy tale, it was real. People actually working in the television industry. No really! Thousands of TV folk, toiling behind the scenes to bring that new TV show to life. The odds were against them, but still, every year Hope was in the air that maybe, just maybe, this show would be The Next Big Thing, the one that would be watched and talked about around every water cooler. And maybe make some money, too. Yeah, it does sound like a fairy tale…

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 7:47am PST  Reply to this post

• Don’t worry guys, this letter is only a presentation, not a full pilot, that why it seems like half-assed groveling.

  Starting to get annoyed…

  Comment by Way Below The Line — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 9:44am PST  Reply to this post

• All aboard the Ship of Fools.

  I had to cross check the list against WGA who’s who files to recognize more than half-a-dozen names. If the most famous name after Rob Thomas on that list is Bob Odenkirk, we’re not talking about Prines of the Realm.

  These aholes do not speak for me. Or anyone I know.

  “If there is any way you can facilitate this process, we would be eternally grateful.”

  I’ll bet you would, specially when you get your paychecks.

  (He projectile vomits.)

  Comment by anotherWGAmember — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 9:57am PST  Reply to this post

• Wow, there are some angry people who post here. The writers of the pilots that would provide new jobs for hundreds of WGA writers, and millions in profits for the studios at the upfronts, are saying that unlike the PR spun by the AMPTP, writers are not unreasonable and do want to get back to work as soon as possible. They are saying that they don’t feel the network execs are the enemy, but partners, and would hope their partners use whatever leverage they can to get the town working again.

  They did not ask Nikki to print their names, nor say to only help them and not the rest of the WGA membership. Pilot season is immensely important to a large part of the Guild membership and for them to fight to not see it go down the toilet, is admirable.

  Yes, they would benefit if their individual pilots got picked up but as everyone on that list is well aware, the chances of getting their own pilot picked up is slim to none. And yet, they wrote the letter anyway– thinking of not only themselves but the group, the Guild membership that relies on staffing season for jobs, and saying they hope pilot season survives.

  You may not love the tone of the letter, but these people are doing what they can to get us all back to work. And to that, I say thank you!

  Rather than bad mouth people for trying to help all of us get back to work, I would ask the angry posters to go do something constructive on Christmas.

  Comment by George Glass — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 9:59am PST  Reply to this post

• How embarrassing is that!!

  Comment by lowly producer — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 10:16am PST  Reply to this post