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Those WGA writers and writer/producers who walked out on Sony’s IATSE primetime toon for Fox, Sit Down, Shut Up!, received breach of contract letters last night. Funny thing is, they never signed their contracts. But I truly can’t believe the inacurate reporting by the trades on this. Oh wait — yes I can. Because Variety and The Hollywood Reporter keep genuflecting to Big Media spin. Anyway, the central fact of my original story is that Sony lied to the WGA writers for months on end. Because if everybody were always on board about this being an IATSE show, why did this dispute only blow up now vs months ago when the WGA writers were hired? See my previous, Sit Down, Shut Up, Now Walk Out!
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Please keep us informed on this. I think it will be interesting to determine whether these people actually want to make this show, or whether they want to “backdoor man” the unions.
14 more unemployed WGA writers. Go Patric!
Sony’s move is laughable and embarrassing. You don’t have contract with these writers. And you can’t enforce the breach when you told these writers’ agents that the show would be WGA.
Whether they signed their contracts or not by showing up to work they were “saying” they signed their contract by act of working.
Good Faith negoiations (should have been) taking place, these guys didn’t walk into the writing room based on a keep working we’ll pay you something. If they did they’re idiots.
This doesn’t excuse the breach of good faith by the Studio, merely an explaination of how they could be seen in breach when in fact there was no final agreement, probably a few hundred red-line copies.
i don’t understand. it is always the “Big studio” spin when it isn’t good for you. How about the idiots who worked for two months without a signed agreement and do you really think that they did not know it was IATSE.. Oh Well, their choice to be un-employed.
uhhh…because months ago when the WGA was striking they could have worked under the guise of being on an IATSE show.
This whole thing smells. Show me one person (other than these writers apparently) who doesn’t have their new potential contract in their hands or their reps hand within 30 minutes of agreeing in principle to come on board. It simply isn’t done.
As soon as that paperwork came in it would have been painfully obvious which unions jurisdiction this show was being created under by the GIANT logo that every union puts at the top of their agreements.
NF- love your work. Your spin is even more adorable. My mileage rate just got cut from what we expected. Where’s my op-ed piece? Am I a patriot? Yawn.
Greg O–
It’s obvious from your post that you do not work in Hollywood. If so, you’ve surely worked on a job at a studio before your contract was signed. Often one can work on a show for a year before the contract is done. The reason? Studios tend to sit on unfinished contracts for months on end. If you insist on having everything signed before you start, you simply don’t get the job. Plain and simple.
It takes A LOT for someone to walk off a paying gig. Especially in this job market. And especially after 100 days on strike. These people have mortgages and bills to pay. I’m sure it’s not a decision made lightly. For these people to take such drastic action, they must feel really lied to. I commend them for having the balls to stand up for themselves.
If “Sit Down” is already an IA show and there’s no going back, Sony could still solve this problem quite easily. Simply give each writer on the show a studio overall deal (for the same amount as their show deal), then loan the writers out to their bullshit IA signatory shell company, Adelaide. That way, the writers get their health insurance and pension contributions, and there’s no problem with the show being IA. Of course, there’s the problem that IA writers get no resids, but Sony already boasted that they have “an internal mechanism” for doling out wga style residuals.
The problem for Sony is, Fox doesn’t need this show! They have one animation slot open, and with 20th’s “Cleveland” coming down the pike, “Sit Down” is expendable. I have every confidence that Sony will fuck this up. They’re not bright people, and that place is do for a total personnel overhaul.
Regardless of the circumstances, if all of the writers/creators of this show have the guts to walk off and risk their jobs in order to try and make it WGA covered, my hat’s off to them. ANYONE who’s in a union should respect that type of courage. And anyone that goes in and takes their jobs as a non-union worker or as a member of a phony sweetheart union like IATSE is a F-ing scab. Period.
(this does not apply to all IATSE jobs and situations obviously, but I think it clearly applies to this one)
Wait, didn’t the WGA take jurisdiction over animation (and reality) writers off the table when they kissed the AMPTP’s ass? So the “Sit Down, Shut Up!” scribes were on their own from the git-go, right?
I’ll bet dollars to dinars that there are memos, e-mails, and other messages showing promises that it would be a WGA show. Because anyone who screws a show into the ground before it even airs with their shenanigans, will probably leave a paper trail of their blunders.
What was the executives thinking? That WGA writers would just give up their contract so easily after the unpleasantness of the strike, and even if they do get a breech of contract suit filed and somehow forces them to write, whatever comes out will suck and the show will be canceled faster than any non-reality show Fox airs.
If anyone needs to be fired, it’s the people who cooked up this hare-brained WGA/IATSE scheme in the first place.
hey been there,
yes i am in a union in hollywood. Local 44. and when i or any of my cohorts work, we find out if this is a union show; whether it is cable, hbo or regular rate. the fact that it was an IATSE show and you hoped your union could make it a wga show. when that failed, like the strike, you feel that you are entitled and that everyone else has to bend to your will. Guess what, the business model changed and the wga worked themselves out of a lot of jobs. you have no one to thank or complain to except yourself. GO IATSE!!!
This is a perfunctory move. You don’t need a signed contract to have an enforceable agreement and I’m sure Sony’s legal beagles are reserving their rights (even in the absence of executed documents).
Still a stupid move on a lot of people’s part.
“Because if everybody were always on board about this being an IATSE show, why did this dispute only blow up now vs months ago when the WGA writers were hired?”
This sums it all up for me, Nikki. They clearly weren’t informed by The Studio and neither were their Reps. The Writers had absolutely no choice in this and had to take this stance. The sad thing is it could have all been avoided had the Studio been upfront and honest about it.
A lawsuit would be a big favor to the writers, but the studios won’t let it get there. They’re just posturing – making one painfully transparent last ditch effort at bully tactics. THAT’S what is YAWN.
unfortunately you’re wrong on this one, nikki. as much as we would all like to believe that the studio execs at Sony are moustache-twirling bad guys tying the poor defenseless writers to the railroad tracks, they never flat out lied to the writers. did they mislead the writers? possibly, yes. but the fact of the matter is that Sony has NEVER produced an animated show under the WGA, and even though i think the writers are justified in walking off the show if working under a WGA contract is very important to them, i think everyone’s goal if they care about walking back on to the job is to stop the pointless name-calling in the press and figure out a real solution to this thing. We forget sometimes that Hollywood is a business, but also a community. Egos are involved. Everyone wants to save face in this situation. But its difficult to save face when everyone’s hurling pies at one another.
Maybe Bill & Josh and Mitch Hurtwitz, the producers, should have informed the people that they hired, right..they hired the writers..that it was an IATSE show. Sony or Adelaide did not hire the writers…the producers did…so why are people all upset with the studios when its the producers who hired the people and its the producers who knew it was IATSE and it was the producers whom thought they could get a WGA deal. why are the producers not being held accountable. just askin?
To Greg O who writes:
“i don’t understand. it is always the “Big studio” spin when it isn’t good for you. How about the idiots who worked for two months without a signed agreement”
This is pretty typical practitce in tv staffing. People start working before contracts are finalized (though not before fees are negotiated) because by the time staffing is finished, there is a time crunch.
That said, there does seem to be a weird discrepancy between the studios’ and wrtiers’ account. If I had to take a guess as to what happened, I would guess that the business affairs people at the studio told the writers’ agents’ that it was an IATSE show (or at least the deal memos mentioned this) but that this was not communicated explicitly, and nobody noticed until now.
That’s just an educated guess, though.
This is the same crap we SAG actors are getting with AFTRA. Bait and switch. The breakdowns say “union” which has always meant SAG. AFTRA was always specified since it’s always a much lower contract. Then you get there only to find out it’s AFTRA. Not to mention that AFTRA has a different contract with EVERY SINGLE SHOW. Not a template that they use for a TYPE of show, EVERY SINGLE SHOW cuts a new deal with AFTRA. It’s a huge hassle trying to find out what the deal is on each show. Some union !
I applaud the writers on Sit Down and Shut Up for honoring their union. Drawing the line in the sand is one thing. Crossing over it is entirely another thing.
Peggy Lane O’Rourke
Betty: Actually, Sony and Adelaide *did* hire the writers. Josh and Bill and Mitch may have told them who to hire, but it’s the studio business affairs folks who do all the hiring– the showrunners are pretty far removed from these kinds of issues, and I think it’s nuts to blame them.
As a WGA member, my contracts specify that my employers must be WGA signatory — and that clause is there to make sure my work is covered by the WGA MBA. In TV, often writers are WGA and members of the crew are IATSE, so these are not mutually exclusive unions on a show. Animation is in flux, and that’s the problem here. I’m certain these writer’s contract state this is WGA work. If not, frankly, quitting/protesting is the right thing to do and they have a beef with their agents — who get paid to make sure these contracts protect them. This is an agenting issue as well.
IATSE is a scab union
Why is it always someone else’s fault or responsibility when things don’t go the way we “want” them to be not they way thing are? People take responsibility for your own stuff! The WGA contract did not include animation. I would think that if you are signing on to an animation show, that has historically been an IATSE covered arena that especially now. you should proactively be reading the terms of your contract? I find it hard to fathom, that grown up professional people, that struck for more than 100 days would continue to be passive and take things at face value? And just leave it to an agent, studio, producer to make certain that all the ducks were in a row. We all have personal choices in this country and with it regardless of how many handlers we think we deserve or have we, we alone are responsible for ourselves. If something doesn’t seem “right” or its vague or there is a question, blithy going alone and then blaming everyone else just makes me incredibly sad. I just nixed a contract that when verbally was explained to me was a far different animal than when I got it in weiting. I sadly, but responsibly walked away from the job and you know what. 2 months later those that just signed have also now worked for 2 months without being paid and will probably not get it. Good luck with your next gig.
Thank you ME Tinker for finally saying it: Where were the agents during all of this? This is really bad communication at work, and the agents seem to be left out of the discussion.
MITCH, BILL AND JOSH, NEED TO WALK OFF THE SHOW AND DEMAND THEIR WRITERS GET ANOVER ALL DEAL TO END THIS.
It’s the show runner’s responsibility to tell the studio that they are only working as a WGA signatory show regardless of the studios previous history. If they want my show or me to run one of theirs, that’s the requirement. It should have been in Mitch’s deal, and Bill and Josh’s deal.
EVEN I KNEW the show was to be IATSE months ago. Sony was telling everyone they called to help with their lousy looking animation that that’s how they were going hire the staff. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. CALL THE ANIMATION STUDIOS THEY HAD IN TO WATCH THE CRAP SONY STUDIO ANIMATED. We were ALL told IATSE.