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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!
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Having had to watch the Show for an animation job, can I tell you, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s not funny. Very static – talking heads. I don’t see how it fits in at all with the Fox animation line up. Sony thought they were going to do it all in house and save a ton of money. When they realized Fox wasn’t going to allow for the shitty looking animation they provided, and had to go out to other animation studios and pay REAL money for it, they got scared about the cost. Mitch is notoriously slow as a show runner, plus he’s never done animation. So now Sony has to bring on Bill and Josh promising them a FULL YEAR’S SALARY to run the show Mitch can’t. IATSE was one way to cut costs.
Maybe Sony just wants this show to go away because they can’t afford it.
Sony is crazy to sue Oakley, Weinstein and Hurtwiz.
The writers sony should sue for “breach of contract” are the ones that write for “Rules for Engagement.” From what I hear, the show’s supposed to be a comedy.
Soozie Q:
Prime time animation on Fox has not “historically been an IATSE covered arena” as you suggest. Family Guy, Simpsons, etc., all employ writers under the WGA contract. It is not at all unreasonable to expect Sony to do the same for this show.
As someone else said, where were the agents in all of this? Remember that it really doesn’t matter for agencies whether the show is IATSE or WGA– they don’t commission WGA residuals anyway– so if anyone had the motivation to look the other way when negotiating these deals, it was the writers’ reps. I suspect it was a wilful failure to communicate on someone’s part.
Greg O -
As a member of IASTE, maybe you’d be interested to know that the studios screw your brother IA members all the time. A few seasons ago, hundreds of IA members returned to their jobs on long running sitcoms to find out their wages had been slashed 33%. The studios switched the shows from film to digital, and exploited a loophole in the contract to fuck all your IA brothers over. These shows (Yes Dear, Still Standing, and Belushi among them) were all huge moneymakers, and on their way to syndication. What did your almighty IATSE leadership do? Not a thing. It would have been nice if someone sttod up for those folks. It sure the hell wasn’t you.
I guess your attitude is that if your union does a shitty job taking care of its people, than all of them should. That’s a tragic, small minded way to look at things, but sadly, all too common.
GO IATSE! ALL THE WAY TO THE POORHOUSE!
Against the law for Sony not to pay these writers for two months. Doesn’t matter whether they signed their contracts or not. Sony broke the law. Writers are eligible for thousands of dollars in penalties now, plus back wages. Sony business affairs has botched this. Writers should call the California Labor Commissioner’s office. (213) 620-6330. Ask about back wages AND penalties. File a simple form, and boom Sony loses.
While everyone here seems to think the issue is about the WGA vs. IATSE…the REAL issue is:
Who the hell are the yahoos running Sony that they would even allow this to get to this point??? It’s obvious why Sony TV’s rep is so bad these days…this latest debacle really should cause someone over there to finally clean house.
THE LABOR COMMISSION did not step in when the big studios refused to pay us for work already delivered. Why would they do it now?
The writers walked off the show due to a dispute about what their contract stated when it was sent to their agents, and the hopes they would persuade Sony to turn it into a WGA show instead. Unless it said WGA in writing when the paperwork went to your agent, you’re screwed. They can pretend that they “tried” to ankle IATSE and go WGA but it just wasn’t possible. They should pay you your IATSE rates and let you go find greener pastures. NEXT TIME – DEMAND TO SEE YOUR CONTRACT IN WRITING BEFORE YOU GO. THEY’RE COUNTING ON US HAVING “GOOD FAITH” IN THEIR WORD BUT THOSE DAYS ARE LONG PAST US NOW.
You have power BEFORE you sign your contract. Your agent should be PROTECTING you from muddy messages from Sony, Mitch, Bill & Josh. LET’S HEAR FROM THE AGENTS OF THESE WRITERS ON “SIT DOWN.” WHAT’S THE PAPERWORK SAY THAT WAS SENT TO YOUR ATTORNEYS?
The show runners may have thought that they’d go along with the IATSE deal, get the writers in place and then walk off the job if Sony didn’t cave to their WGA demands. Not a terrible plan, but one that they should have been up front about to the writers who signed on. Because sometimes plans like that just get everyone fired. Reagan and the air traffic controller firings comes to mind.
And I’ve read several snide “thanks Patrick” remarks, as if the whole animation problem could be solved by one man. IATSE animators and writers continued working during our 4 month strike. If you all wanted in this union as badly as you claimed, you needed to walk off your jobs en masse and walk with us. We were in breach of contract, too. If one scab stays behind and works, it tells the studio there are plenty of scabs they can hire and they don’t need to negotiate with us. WGA members had bills, kids, medical conditions, and fear of bankruptcy. There just comes a point where you know you need to fight for what’s fair. And you can’t expect other people to do your fighting for you.
I encourage ALL animation writers not covered under the guild to WALK OFF THEIR JOBS TODAY AND STAY OFF UNTIL WE’RE ALL COVERED BY THE WGA. STUDIOS CAN’T REPLACE YOU WHEN NO WRITER WILL STEP IN AND FILL YOUR PLACE. THAT’S TRUE SOLIDARITY. ANY SCAB WHO STEPS IN WHILE ALL OF YOU ARE OUT ON STRIKE, THOSE AROUND, TAKE DOWN THAT PERSON’S NAME BECAUSE THIS WILL BE RESOLVED AND THEY WILL NOT BE WELCOME TO WORK IN OUR INDUSTRY AGAIN.
STICK TOGETHER LIKE THE CAST OF FRIENDS, PEOPLE!
EVERY ANIMATION WRITER UNDER IATSE SHOULD WALK OFF THEIR JOBS TODAY AND STAY OUT UNTIL THESE COMPANIES ALLOW YOU TO BE COVERED UNDER THE WGA.
STICK TOGETHER LIKE THE CAST OF FRIENDS. THEY CAN’T REPLACE EVERYBODY. SHUT THE TOWN DOWN AND DEMAND WGA. NO ONE CAN WIN THIS FIGHT BUT YOU. AND YOU’VE GOT A GREAT START WITH THE “SIT DOWN” SHOW LEADING THE WAY.
PEOPLE WORKING WITH THE STRIKING WRITERS, TAKE DOWN ANY SCABS NAME WHO COMES IN TO WORK. MAKE A BIG LIST AND PUT IT ON THE INTERNET SO WE KNOW NEVER TO HIRE THESE PEOPLE AGAIN – NOT EVEN TO SHARPEN PENCILS.
SOLIDARITY – HANG TOUGH WITH SAG. YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE REPRESENTED BY THE UNION OF YOUR CHOICE, NOT THE ONE THAT’S CHEAPER FOR THE COMPANY.
HEY AGENTS — I’D LIKE TO SEE A COPY OF THE CONTRACT YOU LOOKED OVER FOR “SIT DOWN SHUT UP” AND RECOMMENDED YOUR CLIENTS TAKE!!!! I BET IT CLEARLY STATE IATSE ON IT.
I think Mitch, Bill & Josh thought they’d go along with the iATSE thing, and once they had their staff in place, demand to be a WGA show. Hence the unclearness of how writers at an IATSE studio, who clearly tells everyone their IATSE, thought they were going to “work some things out” and become WGA.
One of my first questions is: are you a WGA show? If they waffle about how the benefits are “just like” the WGA – I have my answer. They’re not.
Does anyone really even care about this show? The buzz I heard was it was weak. The Jason Bateman was rifting on the demo reel about how little he was getting paid that he didn’t bother coming up with a character study, “They don’t pay me enough.” The actors joking around with each other was funny, but the animated stuff was death. Why is this animated at all? Put the actors on camera and let them do their funny thing. Who wants to see funny people in 2D? Give us the real thing.
Dear “Industry Wide Walk Off!” :
First of all, using all capital letters doesn’t make your stupid ideas any smarter, so KNOCK IT OFF.
Second, the labor commissioner’s office — not “The Labor Commission” — can get involved here precisely because the writers on “Sit Down, Shut Up!” are being told it’s NOT a Guild show. For work not covered under a collective bargaining agreement (Sony says it’s not WGA, writers never joined IATSE) the labor commissioner’s office has a procedure in place calling for up to six weeks of pay as a penalty for an employer who willfully refuses to pay you. (Willful in this situation is defined as not paying even though they agree the work was done.) That means that by filing a simple form with the labor commissioner’s office these writers will not only get their back pay, but a penalty equal to six times their weekly salary.
For you — as for me — when the big studios refuse to pay us for work already delivered we can not avail ourselves of the labor commissioner’s procedure because our work was done under a collective bargaining agreement that calls for arbitration to settle all disputes.
So basically, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. But anybody who read your ALL CAPS screeds would have known that already.
In fact, as a self-proclaimed fellow writer, why would you deter these writers from advice that will mean big money for them? The only real answer is that you are a shill from Sony who’s afraid these writers will follow this procedure, which given what Mitch and Josh and Bill must be getting paid per week, would quite possible cost Sony more than a million bucks in penalties when all is said and done.
I think this situation just provided the cover these writers needed to get out of this train wreck — once they discovered what working with Mitch was actually like.
Re: “INDUSTRY WIDE WALK-OFF”
Please, walk off! I beg you!!!! It would be fantastic if all the IATSE animation writers would walk way. Cartoons would instantly become better once all the ‘kids’ cartoons were written by the storyboard artists. The best cartoons are written by artists- as they understand what makes a fundamentally visual artform work. The best Cartoon Network shows – Powerpuff Girls, Dexters Lab, Samurai Jack …written by the storyboard artists. Nick’s hit Spongebob – artist written show. All the classic Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, etc…they’re not funny because someone typed up “Cat chases mouse. Cat crashes into wall” …they’re funny because of the artists. Disney’s current show “Phineas and Ferb” is written by the artists, and is doing quite fine without writers.
Granted – I’ll concede that prime time animation is a different beast…it makes sense for them to be scripted like sitcoms, in my opinion …..but man…if all the “writers” on the kids shows went away…fantastic. Great cartoons would start popping up all over, with story back in the hands of the artists.
Lets get rid of all these overly-talky, try-to-hard-to-be-hip, passionless visionless cartoons….writers, walk away!!!!
Animation ARTIST – I could not have said it better myself. Yes, yes, yes, and YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!
Why do you think cartoons on cable became suddenly amazing when networks like Nick and Cartoon Network decided to try to do animation back in the early 90′s?
Wait for it….here it comes….
They let the ANIMATION FILMMAKERS and the ARTISTS THEY PROMOTED to CREATE THEM! Wow. Imagine that! How revolutionary.
Dear “Animation Artist”:
If you got something to say, the world is waiting for you. Go ahead, trust me. If you’ve got some brilliant words to to put with your pictures, do it. But alas, like most people, you’re not good at two things. So why don’t you just shut up and keep on doodling and let the real writers handle the words. Thanks.
These writers should consider themselves lucky not to be working for the geniuses at Sony Comedy. What a train wreck. Sony Television, the place where comedy goes to die, is also notoriously bad at paying writers. Not paying them their quotes, paying them at all. They are absolutely the most difficult studio to get your money from and the don’t care. I hope this leads to Sony TV’s overhaul.
The writers on “Sit Down Shut Up” are not going to be saved by the labor commissioner’s office. The writers had legal representation, called an agent, when they AGREED to go to work at SONY. Look at your contract, because you’re obviously a “Sit Down” writer who didn’t READ it before showing up to work.
Everyone around town KNEW they were going IATSE. SONY told all the animators they paraded in there to animate the show that it was IATSE. And the animation houses will confirm that in a court of law. There was no secret. The writers went to work on an IATSE lot. Sony’s cheap. Get your pay and go work somewhere else. If Sony says you’re in breach of contract — then you better check that contract your AGENT agreed to on your behalf! If you see “IATSE” on it, you better sit down and shut up.
I’m certainly not a SONY shill. I’m just a person who takes the time to read my contract and since I know what kind of cheap scum Sony is, I read their’s twice!
Those out there still complaining that as animation writers you’re not covered by the WGA, then get out there with the “Sit Down” writers and walk the picket line. (AGAIN PROOF I’M NOT A SONY SHILL – WHY WOULD I ENCOURAGE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BY ALL IATSE WRITERS?)
I agree with “Animation ARTIST” that they do provide a lot of funny visuals for Saturday morning cartoons without the help of a writer.
Omigod HONESTLY – you’re right! These writers should pray this show goes down and they don’t have to work under Mitch, or Bill & Josh. They all cwazy! Neither of them have a very good reputation with dealing with people at all. They kind of deserve each other. Maybe it’s some sort of a karmic debt thing. They’ll each implode the other.
As someone who has worked for both Sony TV and Mitch Hurwitz, let me say that it is a dead heat for who is worse. Mitch believes in the 7 day work week, 4 1/2 of which are spent pontificating about how many “levels” his comedy is working on. As for Sony, in a town filled with idiotic note givers, they really work hard to rise to the top. And by the way, their casting department is headed by perhaps the most unpleasant woman this town has seen since Gail “Jennifer Hudson Can’t Act” Berman.
Manny –
You write:
<>
Television writers rarely _ever_ see contracts. (And even reps don’t see them for months — the language isn’t negotiated yet, you see.) Seriously, if I sign a contract before the season is over, it’s only because they’re refusing to pay my last 10 percent or whatever they’re withholding. A writer starting work knows the “important” deal terms — price per ep, title, options, shit like that. But I’ve never ever asked if a show is WGA or not. Why would I? Especially when the studio is telling me it is WGA, as is evidently the case with Sony.
Bravo to the writers for standing up for themselves and walking. I hope their actions make Sony and the other studios realize writers actually grew a spine or two during the strike.
“READ YOUR CONTRACT DUDE” is the same asshole who’s posting as “INDUSTRY WIDE WALK OFF!” as evidence by their love of caps and their obvious insider Sony desperation.
I can’t believe the studios still have shills on their payroll like during the strike, pretending to be people with talent.
Let me tell the writers of the show — if they’re reading this — that if you never signed your contract, while you may indeed have an oral contract, the agreed upon terms of such are very limited. For example, you probably had a per week or per episode rate agreed upon before you started. But if you didn’t sign your contract, that’s because your agent and/or lawyer was reserving rights while the rest of the document was negotiated.
Regardless, if you’re being told it’s not a WGA gig, then you in fact DO have access to the labor commissioner’s office. Don’t take my word. Someone posted the phone number above. Call and ask. It’s that simple. Why will you be able to get your back pay plus a hefty penalty simply by filing a complaint? The answer is because Sony is in violation of California law. Legally, they are required to pay you within seven days of the end of your work week. Their violation is willful because they have paid you NOTHING. The lowest you could legally be paid is minimum wage and they have not paid you even that. And because they didn’t, they are “willfully” not paying you for work they can’t dispute that you’ve done. Thus, the labor commissioner’s office IS REQUIRED BY LAW, upon receiving your easy-to-file complaint form, to request back wages and substantial penalties from Sony.
Sony must know this and are nervous that this opportunity has been pointed out to the writers, since they are now on the hook for possibly a million dollars in penalties alone, plus back wages, and so they have set their shills to work posting on the board here to deter people from pursuing this course of action.
Someone has posted all the info above. Call the labor commissioner’s office. File your complaint. Get your back wages plus six extra bonus weeks as a penalty. Laugh at Sony’s blunder.
Hi, I had to speak up because of “Read your contract dude” and his/her odd interpretation of the law.
If you writers didn’t sign, what you can be said to have agreed to is very limited. This happens all the time in this biz. People start working while the contract goes back and forth. In these cases, while the contract is still being ironed out and going back and forth, about all that can be said to be agreed upon is the deal points that got your ass in a chair there in the first place. Namely, term and salary and credit. I find it hard to believe that 14 writers had agents who received contracts that said IATSE and no one mentioned this to their client or showed it to their client.
It’s irrelevant whether “everyone knew it was going to be IATSE” if you guys didn’t know. It’s also irrelevant if “Sony is an IATSE” house. Doesn’t mean they could do your show as WGA if they wanted to.
I highly doubt “Read your contract dude” is a Sony shill because shills are at least intelligent enough to have gotten hired by Sony in the first place. This is just some blowhard IATSE bulb-changer who thinks he knows the law from watching Boston Legal. Whoever he or she is, they’re an idiot, and ignore them.
Not sure about the labor commissioner thing but sounds legit and a way to bring pressure if nothing else. And if you’re entitled to a substantial windfall because of Sony’s arrogance, then why not take it?
Of course sony told the animators it was IATSE — that’s the union animators belong to. However, that doesn’t mean that the writers would also be covered by IASTE. Aren’t all Fox animated shows jointly WGA and IATSE? Aren’t all live actions shows jointly SAG/AFTRA, DGA and WGA? I can’t fathom why so many posters on this board think that’s some sort of smoking gun.
Today, Variety did some fairly balanced reporting, and gave props to Nikki. According to the article, Sony admitted that some execs “may have” told the writers the show woulde be WGA. Sony then went on to say that the writers and their agents should have been smart enough to ignore that. They basically said in print “You should have known we would lie to you.”
That cinches it for me — and probably for a civil court. Sony can be sued for fraud. The cheesy Zack VanAmburg and his idiot cohort should be fired on the spot.
EVEN A BROKEN CLOCK IS RIGHT TWICE A DAY…
VARIETY PUTS THE BLAME ON SONY…
EXCERPT BELOW:
Now, it appears likely that some execs may have given assurances to scribes without fully understanding they couldn’t deliver. After weeks of promising that a WGA deal was in the works, the execs finally broke the news to scribes that it wasn’t happening.
In a corporate statement, Sony didn’t address what the writers might have been told, instead focusing on what it claims the scribes should have known: That “Sit Down, Shut Up” would be an IATSE-repped project given that union’s deal with Sony Pictures TV’s animation division, Adelaide Prods.
Professional Writer – I can write, and I can draw…and I’ve done them both, and made some funny cartoons along with other artists who can write and draw.
I’ve worked with great writers as well – writers who respect the artform of animation. When there’s mutual respect, you get a good show…it’s collaborative storytelling, getting writing and visuals to work in sync.
Your tone really shows how you don’t respect the artists in animation…sad, but unfortunately common.
During the WGA strike, the AMPTP issued the following statement:
“Your Animation proposal, W-14, is likewise unacceptable. As you know, there is another union which has long had jurisdiction over the work you are now seeking to cover by your proposal. We believe that it should be up to the writers in this field, using the procedures carefully established by Congress in the 1940s‚ in the same legislative act that validates the very existence of Writers Guild of America, East and West‚ to express their desire as to whether they wish to be represented by the WGA or that other union.”
It seems the writers of this show have voted with their feet.