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UPDATE: The number of TV fan sites observing "Dark Tuesday" is up to 20. From the Glowy Box fan site: "On November 13th, this blog and the blogs listed below will be on strike for the day in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America. As fellow writers and as TV fans, we are coming together to express our strong support for the writers and their goals. We believe that when a writer's work makes money for a company, that writer deserves to be paid.
"Many writers depend on residuals for a stable income, and that income shouldn't be based on an outdated formula which ignores the existence of new media and all but a tiny percentage of DVD sales. The talented writers responsible for so much of what we love about television should and must be paid fairly and equitably, and we will stand with them until they reach that goal. For everyone's sake, and for the sake of television, we hope both sides can come to an agreement quickly.
"To further that goal, we are calling on our readers to sign this petition and to contact the following television networks, voicing support for the writers and for a return to the negotiating table: ABC, FOX, CBS,
NBC Universal.
"After the blackout, we intend to continue our campaign to support the WGA until the dispute has been resolved fairly. In solidarity:
The CineManiac
Daemon’s TV
Ducky Does TV
Gabby Babble
Give Me My Remote
Glowy Box
I am a TV Junkie
Mikey Likes TV
Pass the Remote
The Pie Maker
Ramblings of a TV Whore
Seriously? OMG! WTF?
Silly Pipe Dreams
Tapeworthy
Televisionary
TiFaux
The TV Addict
TV Series Finale
Tube Talk
Watch with Intelligence
Previous: I've been getting lots of individual emails about this, but TV Week says already a total 17 entertainment blogs — among them Televisionary, Give Me My Remote and Glowy Box —will go dark Tuesday, replacing their sites with WGA solidarity statements. "Some people thought we'd be against the writers because our favorite shows are going away, but we wanted to show that some things are more important than a few shows airing full season," says Glowy Box blogger Liz Pardue, who organized tomorrow's "blog strike." Battlestar Galactica fans, in town for a convention, are pledging to join a picket line with the show's writing staff at Universal Studios on Friday. I've already reported how CSI fans funded a Burbank aerial banner fly-by with a statement of support. Fan site AintItCoolNews.com and others have linked to a petition supporting the writers that claims more than 44,000 signatures. As more fan news re the strike comes into me, I'll update this post.
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I’m a screenwriter strike-blogging but I’ll pledge to go dark tomorrow!
So I take it this is a bad sign for people who want the strike resolved, right?
That is so lame – like anyone is going to be affected by these sites “going dark”
Who cares! Get your asses back to work so i can get in the lots without having to wait for you morons to get out of the way.
Boring!
how about instead of going dark, bloggers coordinating an effort among viewers to stop watching tv and movies for a day or a week, and not buy or download any movies or tv shows, to show the alliance that they support the writers, directors, and cast of their favorite shows. hit them in their wallets.
this is awesome. Thank you TV fans.
I heard a great suggestion at the Fox rally Friday. Boycott the movies Thanksgiving weekend. It’s easy, all you have to do is stay home and spend more time with your families (okay maybe not easy but simple) Thanksgiving is one of the biggest weekends of the yeah and lowering the box office take that weekend will really hit the studios hard. Hard core fans could even picket their local movie theaters if they wanted to…
lineproducer, those are great ideas. I have been wondering why WGA hasn’t made a concerted effort to get the fans to be part of this. The viewers have shown that they have power and are willing to work together, in large numbers, to support a cause, such as saving Jericho. I know a number fans at the site I visit often, E!Online’s message board, want direction on how they can help. They have been asking if not buying DVDs would help. They are looking for direction, why isn’t someone providing suggestions? If WGA had people posting on fan web sites as well as picketing, it might help in the long run.
My name is Terry Moore, and I am the wife of Ronald d. Moore, the showrunner on Battlestar Galactica.
There will NOT be 3000 Battlestar Galactica fans in town for the convention, let alone on the picket line. This is a rumor that got out of hand after a FEW fans thought it would be a good idea to come down and show their support — which we appreciate. Some genius then took that gesture and amped it up into thousands of fans (in costume) descending on Universal. We love the fans, but we don’t expect anything approaching that number of people on Friday.
Terry Dresbach Moore
I am not saying that they are right or wrong, but these are fan sites and the writers do need all the support they can get. Already, the Battlestar Galactica fans that are scheduled to picket with their writers will likely try to scrub any plans to turn the Sci-Fi network into the SF network.
Wow…you guys are really grasping at straws now, and its only been a week.
As a former assistant to one of the more powerful people in this town, I think it’s time to elicit the help of the fans of Movies and TV. What can they do? They can call the offices of Les Moonves, Bob Iger, Brad Grey, Dick Cook, etc. and clog their phones. Most of these offices cannot let calls go to voice mail during the 8a-8p shift and if there was a massive campaign to target one per day, it could literally shut down the office. Who else is on board?
Hey Nikki, I second the “Dark Tuesday” relating to TV, movies, and downloads. That would be a demonstration.
Best, J
Nikki, why hast thou forsaken us?
We know you got some word on the agents getting involved in the talks, but you can’t release the word yet — am I right?
Love you, Nikki!!!
Please spread positive word soon!
I find this interesting. HDTV is the new toy, and for once, the studios are back in 1970, where they alone provide content for these gadgets. They instead go to the mat, and cause a strike. For the majority, DVD and Netflix will fill any TV “needs”.
Who declared DVD revenues “off the table” ? My understanding of negotiation is that if there’s a strike, it’s all on or off the table.
The writers have been royally screwed on DVD’s and should include this in any “non (Radio Signal)broadcast”.
While lots of studio heads have screwed up movies, and TV shows, none have ever written any….cough up DVD and net residuals.
Been dark, and going dark tomorrow.
http://uninflectedimages.blogspot.com/
Thanks Nikki.
Another tactic would also be to have everyone turn their cable box etc off for a period of time on a given day. That would scare the cable carriers to pressure the nets and studios.
I like the irony of the Web Video Summit banner looming over the article on the TV Week site. They even list NBC and CBS as past/present participants, whatever that means.
I belong to a fan site that is populated by thousands of fans, many of whom have said they won’t watch any reality programming or buy DVDs or download from iTunes while the strike is unresolved. Over at fan sites for Jericho and Criminal Minds and many other shows, fans are making the same commitments. Will it be enough to make a dent? No idea. They could probably use more encouragement to share those intentions with the studios, but I’m doubting we’ll hear that from the writers; I’m guessing they don’t want genuine fan support to be mistaken for WGA-incited butt-kissing.
Wait…you mean Ducky Does TV won’t be posting anything tomorrow? Quick, someone get met Counter on the phone and instruct him to give in to every WGA demand!
Having been on the periphery of online television fandom for a few years now, I can say that even though their hearts are in the right place, these “bloggers” don’t really have much of a following. I can name two of the women behind two of those sights who only proclaim self-importance. I hope they come up with a useful plan for others to follow, rather than denying us something we would never take time to do – read their blogs – in the first place.
What I find amusing is that the biggest television website is now owned by the moguls – television without pity. Let’s see them go dark.
I’ll go dark tomorrow. It’s too bad this wasn’t coordinated sooner, I imagine a huge number would go for this if they all knew about it.
Secondary Boycotts are illegal Big-Time!
While it might help a lot to boycott the theaters over the thanksgiving weekend it is very illegal to advocate that, especially on Nikki’s board which would surely be closed down when the first Studio Mogul secretly objected. You & I would never be told why, just “Poof!”
A much better use of our time would be to read & understand what happened in 1988 when SAG did not support WGA and the writers capitulated AND then the Studios used that capitulation to give the Actors (who were scared to strike because of all the Hate heaped on the writers) much less than they wanted, BUT significantly more than the Writers got.
“Who declared DVD revenues “off the table” ? My understanding of negotiation is that if there’s a strike, it’s all on or off the table.”
Unfortunately, the WGA team heard unofficially from the producers that they’d be willing to move on new media if we gave up DVDs, so they agreed to take it off the table, only to find out yet again that the producers are big fat liars and refuse to bargain in good faith. I don’t think that the strike affects the status, from what I understand once a proposal is withdrawn in formal negotiations it can’t be reintroduced until the next bargaining cycle. Trying to put it back on the table would probably be considered regressive bargaining (reneging on a proposal submitted in negotiations), which isn’t permitted.
While I appreciate the thought behind this, it’s a fairly pointless exercise. Okay, not as pointless as signing an online petition, but real close.
There are a number of things tv fans could do to make their voices heard. I like the idea mentioned above of boycotting Thanksgiving weekend movies. And refusing to watch video streams on the network sites (including the NBC Direct) would also have a direct financial impact. Those are just a couple of options.
People always want to make some grand public gesture of support. But what really matters is the bottom line.
“Jericho” wasn’t brought back for seven more episodes because of a bunch of peanuts. It was brought back because it made good financial sense.
17 completely unknown websites are going dark tomorrow? I have lost complete faith in my union and my fellow WGA members.
Uh, Frustrated Writer? 17 websites are going dark as a spontaneous demonstration of support by fans. It’s a kind gesture, but what in the world does that have to do with the WGA?
My TV went dark when The Unit production office went dark. It won’t come until the AMPTP get serious about negotating.
theunithq.com has joined other fandoms in supporting the Writers and everyone affected by this strike, exclding the AMPTP.
Becca Bryan