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

COMMENTS (84)

• This is not a “throw in the towel” letter, it is not a “pilot writers are more important than other writers” letter (man, David G, your inferences are borderline psychotic), it is not a “we’re weakening” letter. Sheesh. It’s simply a tiny reminder to AMPTP that the 2008-2009 pilot season is on the line. It is not meant to imply pilot season is more or less important than any of the other writing that has ceased. Do we expect AMPTP to come back to the table because of this letter? Gee, what do you think? We’re not idiots. The vile and venom spewed from people on this site is astounding. Obliviously, some are AMPTP shills, AMPTP has admitted as much. The others are following the AMPTP script to a tee — “sick ‘em on each other.” Congratulations, puppets.

  We are together and more resolute and stronger than ever. Sorry to all the union breakers and toadies who think this letter indicates otherwise.

  Comment by Writer on the list — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 10:36am PST  Reply to this post

• When we get back to the picket lines, these folks will all be wearing black baseball caps that read, “Showrunner Wannabes United.”

  Comment by staff writer — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 10:41am PST  Reply to this post

• “moderate writer”

  you have an ongoing clear agenda here to persistently plant your idea of imminent guild disintegration

  you are a shill and an annoying one, at that

  if you’re not a shill, post your name – you have nothing to lose, you’re furthering the amptp agenda – therefore they won’t penalize you

  Comment by showrunners — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 10:43am PST  Reply to this post

• I turn red with shame reading this letter. It’s like hearing a really lame pitch in the room, and you feel kind of uncomfortable and sad for the guy and you want to turn away.

  Comment by Jay — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 10:47am PST  Reply to this post

• Yet another example of why writers should not represent themselves in any way shape or form during negotiations. Formally, or informally.

  This letter oozes sweat and weakness.

  Merry Christmas, Leslie. You got what you asked for.

  Comment by groan — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 10:49am PST  Reply to this post

• “below the line man” is a shill who also posts under the name below the line guy

  aside from your incoherent and fact-less rantings, here’s why you’re a shill

  no genuine btl person currently out of work would plead with the amptp not to give in and to perpetuate the strike, thus perpetuating your joblessness – no btl person would sacrifice money for food and shelter indefinitely out of random hatred for writers – and if you were a genuine btl, your peers should turn on you for essentially begging for their ongoing unemployment and inability to pay their bills

  you’re doing lousy shill work – you know who you are

  Comment by amptp insider — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 10:54am PST  Reply to this post

• George Glass: “You may not love the tone of the letter, but these people are doing what they can to get us all back to work.”

  The problem with that is that the letter was penned by professional writers. Tone is supposed to be what they do — that they show such a tin ear for the situation is distressing. Of all the tones to choose for a letter to the production execs, obsequiousness is the least helpful.

  Comment by Stuart Creque — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 11:26am PST  Reply to this post

• That letter is so silly. Nice way to support the rest.

  The AMPTP is licking their chops right now.

  BTW, Did Carlton Cuse edit it for ya?

  Comment by WTF — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 11:59am PST  Reply to this post

• Wow. I understand why they did…but what a bunch of self-serving pussies.

  Comment by sooo disappointed — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 12:12pm PST  Reply to this post

• Well, that didn’t go over like I’d hoped.

  As one of the signatories above, I have to say I’m a little surprised by the venom being spewed here. For me, at least, this was not, nor was it ever about MY projects.

  It was about frustration. Not frustration at our leadership, or our tactics, I’m an enormous supporter of Pat Verrone, John Bowman and the others. I’ve been vocal about that at meetings, rallies and on the picket lines, and will continue to do so. I’ve been frustrated at not personally having done more.

  So, when the original e-mail was sent to me (Yes, this is a watered down version, the price of writing anything by committee), I signed on because I believed — and still do, despite what we read in Nikki’s column yesterday — that the AMPTP does not wish to lose the ’08-’09 season. I felt that this letter would be a public acknowlegement of my solidarity with my Guild, and possibly add a tiny, tiny bit of psychological leverage. (What can I say? I’m an idealist at my core.)

  As to the quality of television pilots lately, especially in comedy where I work, I’ll grant, we’re hardly in a golden age (and if anyone wants to be bored for hours and hours upon end, I will gladly spew my theories as to why TV comedy is in the state it’s in). But let’s face it, pilot season generates an enormous amount of work for this town. Directors, actors, crews… frankly, the WGA is probably the only guild that doesn’t see an enormous boost in employment during pilot season. Comedy writers will often work for free to help friends punch up their pilots.

  Anyone who’s ever worked with me and my partner, I think, will tell you that we genuinely care about many members of the crews we employ on our pilots. (Yes, many. A rare few are dicks.) We’ve hired them again and again whenever we can, and will hopefully continue to do so. Say what you will about me for signing this, but the idea that I did if for my own greed, to undercut my guild, or as a sign of my waivering, is offensive and untrue.

  Finally, although I would have preferred the original, stronger worded text, I’m still on board with the basic message of this e-mail: If the AMPTP will get back to the table, and negotiate a fair deal with the WGA, then my partner and I will bust our collective asses off, to write pilots that will put people back to work. It’s not much, but it’s all I can do.

  Comment by Jeffrey Ventimilia — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 12:24pm PST  Reply to this post

• Oh well, I guess you have to try anything. But you’re just yelling down an empty well.

  Comment by hm — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 12:40pm PST  Reply to this post

• You’re darn skippy there’s some angry people who post here–

  I have been dragged into the breach by a showrunner who makes, quite literally, about 10,000 times what I make on any given episode, forced to change my plans, put whole chunks of my life on hold, because of the dramatic tactics taken by the WGA leadership. Now to hear these potential showrunners practically groveling on their knees to please bring our shows back is laughable, and confidence-shattering. What I’m reacting to is the seeming change in tone of this letter and other official missives from the WGA. Are they playing hardball or not? Why would the WGA give its blessing to something like this? It’s downright scary, because as much as I have and want to continue to sympathize with the writers, moves like this one, while I’m dipping into savings and waiting on unemployment checks to pay bills–to replace money THAT WILL NEVER COME BACK, shake my resolve to the core.

  Comment by Way Below The Line — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 1:00pm PST  Reply to this post

• What’s the over/under on when the pink slips start being handed to the network and studio development execs?

  And the junior lit agents?

  And the old lit agents?

  Comment by Plain and Simple math — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 1:20pm PST  Reply to this post

• To Jeffrey Ventimilia:

  You’re surprised at the response to your self serving and brazenly desperate letter? Seriously? Where’s the comprable letter from major screenwriters whose projects have been tossed asunder at the moment?

  I noticed that most of these pilot writers have mere script deals. Where are the names of the big guns like Whedon or Abrams? Could it be they don’t have the same sense of fear and frustartion due to put pilots with hefty penalties?

  The bottom line is pretty simple, your letter isn’t about putting the town back to work. It’s about these writers still trying to hold onto the pilot season before their material is summarily scrapped. Based on the poor quality of the letter, then it won’t be the viewers’ loss.

  Comment by Matteo Cashman — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 1:23pm PST  Reply to this post

• Sounds like a lot of you got up on the wrong side of the bed. Do you really think this letter was anything more than a PR move on the part of these writers?

  Anything the WGA members can do to fortify the perception that the writers are ready to negotiate when and if the moguls decide to come down off their towers and treat the Hollywood Creative Community with the respect it deserves.

  Without writers, actors and directors the moguls would have nothing to mogul. They’d all be out managing mortgage firms or the like.

  Comment by DK — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 1:46pm PST  Reply to this post

• You say, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’

  Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone.

  I want you to get mad.

  (A real writer wrote that. And it wasn’t The Pilot Season he was trying to save.)

  Comment by Old Writer — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 1:49pm PST  Reply to this post

• Jeffrey V wrote:
  “Say what you will about me for signing this, but the idea that I did if for my own greed, to undercut my guild, or as a sign of my waivering, is offensive and untrue.”

  I’m a fellow member who has picketed with you. I don’t think you did it for any of the reasons above. But if you signed onto something that was hard line in tone, then you were played, because the letter with your name on it is embarrassing and groveling and probably the most naive thing I’ve ever read in my life.

  If the writers on that letter signed something very different, please send the original to Nikki to print so that we can see how the moron who edited it came out with that no-spine mess above.

  Thanks.

  Comment by WGA TV writer — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 1:56pm PST  Reply to this post

• Jeffrey Ventimilia: “Finally, although I would have preferred the original, stronger worded text, I’m still on board with the basic message of this e-mail: If the AMPTP will get back to the table, and negotiate a fair deal with the WGA, then my partner and I will bust our collective asses off, to write pilots that will put people back to work. It’s not much, but it’s all I can do.”

  I think that everyone, the AMPTP and the production execs you work with included, already knew that.

  Your message would have been more effective if you had formulated it as a deadline — “if there’s no new contract in place by such-and-such a date, then no matter how hard we work, we’ll never be able to finish writing in time to get pilot season back on track.” That creates pressure on the AMPTP without the tone of submissiveness or incipient desperation. (Since I’m not the only one who detected those qualities in the tone of the letter, I’m pretty sure they’re actually there.)

  An alternative would have been to tell the AMPTP and the production executives that while the WGA does not give in to ultimatums, you’re confident that there can be healthy and productive horse-trading at the bargaining table (including the famous six issues) if the AMPTP agrees to sit down at the table now. That would convey a willingness to deal and specifically a willingness to find a way for both the AMPTP and WGA to save face (the AMPTP gets some of what it demands and the WGA avoids caving in to an ultimatum). However, that would be stepping squarely on the toes of the Negotiating Committee and would therefore either be a bold challenge to them or a way for them to float a trial balloon through your good offices.

  Comment by Stuart Creque — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 1:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• From the writing style and the use of tortured analogies (Teri Hatcher? Floyd Meriwether?) it’s obvious that “below the line man” and “another writer” are the same guy.

  Chances are many of the posts on this board are all written by the same handful of people. Who knows what motivates them to write long, angry screeds on Christmas. I do hope they’re getting double overtime for working on a holiday — if not, perhaps they need to join the WGA.

  As for everyone else — enjoy your holiday, and don’t believe everything you read.

  Comment by troll watcher — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 2:26pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. The letter sounds perfectly fine to me and makes no attempt to go around anybody. It doesn’t sound defeatist at all and it simply says “come back to the table” in a very reasoned and reasonable way. Sure, you can always nitpick on every word, but overall this seems like one more example of how the writers are completely reasonable people, unlike how the moguls would like them presented to the public. Especially if this had a WGA blessing, I don’t see an issue here at all. But I guess everyone’s entitled to their opinion, so that’s mine. Sorry you’re getting grief, and best of luck on your pilots!

  Comment by CharlesH — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 2:44pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’d like to know who put this august group together.

  Let’s face it, we’re not talking about the big guns of the Writer’s Guild here, mainly just a list of names that most of us would react to with “huh”?

  If there is a big mistake here (aside from the colossally stupid and naive one this letter represents) it’s that the WGA didn’t send out a message to all members telling them that in times like these, there may be the urge to give in to groups that just want to beg for their jobs back.

  This happens in any strike. We put these scenes in every film we write about labor/management conflict, for God’s sake and the groups is usually led by an actor like Murray Hamilton.

  We have to put up a united front. It’s too late now to back down. I really feel we are facing an opposition that does not intend to let us have our jobs back, not until they have broken this union, stripped us of our benefits and reduced us to the level of the third world workers these corporations are used to dealing with.

  It’s a shame that “people are going to lose their houses over this.” Well guess what, you spineless cowards, you ALWAYS were going to lose those houses.

  The AMPTP has their eyes set on our profits and benefits. They were going to find some way to take them anyway, no matter what.

  In fact, they already have. It just took this strike for most of us to realize it.

  You’ve already lost half of the fees you make off TV scripts. The network rerun is dead. It has been since the day some bean counter at the networks realized they could save $20,000 per script by rerunning on the net.

  There goes your house.

  So if the house is going to go anyway, isn’t it more noble and principled to lose it in a fight?

  On your feet?

  Instead of on your knees?

  You don’t speak for me.

  Don’t try to again.

  Comment by anotherWGAmember — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 3:20pm PST  Reply to this post

• Sherilyn,

  You may not like the letter that went out, and that’s your opinion. Although I can’t for the life of me see where the writers who signed it ever placed themselves above any other writers, or do anything to cause such venom.

  But you really hope all the unions implode? So that there would be no health insurance for any workers in the industry. No one to make sure Teamsters don’t work so many hours that they get into deadly accidents doing their jobs (has happened and will happen a lot more if you have your way.) And I guess you don’t want any union workers– people who dedicate years to this industry– to have a pension and be able to retire one day. No getting old under Sherlyin’s watch! And you definitely better not get old AND sick. She’ll just kick you to the curb.

  Hey, I know what you’d love, why not get rid of minimum wage and allow child labor again too?

  You would make a great media mogul, Sherilyn. Thanks for sharing your Christmas spirit!

  Comment by George Glass — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 3:36pm PST  Reply to this post

• Sherilyn,

  I guess you don’t realize that you become a part of the WGA by selling a feature script or writing enough episodes of network TV. You work to become a member, you don’t become a member of the WGA and then they find work for you.

  And maybe you’re right, we get rid of all unions (bye bye health plans!) and nepotism in the world will completely disappear. I mean, take Ruport Murdoch. He’s the union-buster in chief, so I’m sure he isn’t letting his kids run his company because they’re related. Nah, had nothing to do with it, right?

  Comment by Jenny C — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 3:47pm PST  Reply to this post

• For God sakes, leave Jeff alone. He’s a great guy. At least he had the nerve to post here using his own name.

  Comment by JS — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 4:27pm PST  Reply to this post

• Hmm, when was the last time any of you had a pilot deal? In fact, when was the last time any of you were staffed?

  Comment by jealousy, jealous — Tuesday December 25, 2007 @ 5:14pm PST  Reply to this post