http://www.variety.com/article/VR111797537...d=2821&cs=1

 

how this sets up for tv shows.

I would like to see Jimmy Kimmel wing it tonight.

I'm pretty happy it looks like my shows will stay on....Psych, Monk, Dirty Sexy Money...

The moment I have not been waiting for.....

Daniels Pickets ?Office? Production

By James Hibberd

 

?The Office? showrunner Greg Daniels has joined the picket line at his production company?s Van Nuys location in an attempt to shut down production of his show.

 

?We?re trying to shut down ?The Office,?? Mr. Daniels said. ?We have the star of our show and the entire writing staff behind us.?

 

Mr. Daniels says he arrived at 4:15 this morning and none of the show's actors have crossed the line. ?The Office? cast includes several performers who are also writers on the show, like B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling and Paul Lieberstein. ?Office? star Steve Carell is a WGA member and is not showing up for work as well, he said.

 

Mr. Daniels is one of many writer-producers facing the decision this morning whether to continue acting as producers on their shows. Sources say a group of top showrunners met this weekend and largely decided to not cross the picket lines. Studios maintain showrunners should continue working to fulfill their production duties.

 

?We have non-writing producers on the show who are perfectly capable of doing any non-writing producing duties,? Mr. Daniels said. ?They want me do to writing-producing and just pretend it?s producing. Every decision you make has a writing aspect to it. If they really just thought it was producing, they could just as easily get somebody else to do these tasks.?

 

Mr. Daniels said there?s only one unproduced ?Office? script that?s ready to go, but it?s a good one.

 

?Last week we had our best table reading of the entire run of the show, and that?s what we were going to shoot this week,? he said.

I have a television pilot script written and collecting dust. It's good. If the writers don't want to work, I will.

You know, I have no problem with this. Writers get the short end of the stick when it comes to credit and revenues. Without them, TV and Film would be nothing more than a bunch of vacant self-important douchebags running around and bumping into each other on screen.

I agree, I totally support the writers in this.

a bunch of vacant self-important douchebags running around and bumping into each other on screen.

 

So the E! Network should be fine.

I have a television pilot script written and collecting dust. It's good. If the writers don't want to work, I will.

 

it's probably going to be your only show you get to write for tv because you won't be able to join the writers union after they come back from strike (unless they decide to walk away from tv permanently).

 

and yes, i strongly support the writers strike.

LOS ANGELES — Production has stopped on at least six sitcoms filmed before live audiences because of the Hollywood writers strike.

 

"Back to You," starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, will not return from a planned hiatus on Wednesday. said Chris Alexander, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox Television.

 

Star Julia Louis-Dreyfus said production has also stopped on her CBS show, "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

 

In addition, the sitcoms "Til Death," which airs on Fox, and "Rules of Engagement," "Two and a Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory," all on CBS, will also end filming, according to people familiar with production of the shows who were not authorized to be quoted and requested anonymity.

 

It was not immediately clear how many of the shows might already be finished.

 

Network officials referred calls to companies producing each show.

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5278493.html

JJ Abrams was picketing with Lost writers today.

 

That is the first time he has been doing anything Lost related in a while. That makes me smile that he is sticking up for his show.

If this continues past the new year like the last one did, we really could see the networks scrambling.

 

College Basketball every night of the week on some network?

If this continues past the new year like the last one did, we really could see the networks scrambling.

 

College Basketball every night of the week on some network?

Heck Yeah!!!1!1!!!

I was with the writers until I found out that the Daily Show and Colbert Report are off the air for an indefinite period, and the 7th Season of '24' may actually be scrapped. That really made me angry.

over/unders on the strike?

 

i'm saying this one lasts 10 months...if that's the case, i think we may lose the young people to video games forever, although i support the writers.

1 month

Grey's Anatomy and question: will this affect only networks like abc, fox, etc or also cable channels like FX?

At least Heroes has an ending in December. Happy they decided to do that.

It depends, if it isn't done before one month, I would expect it to go possibly up to 12 months causing a huge disruption to the television networks.

It depends, if it isn't done before one month, I would expect it to go possibly up to 12 months causing a huge disruption to the television networks.

 

add that to the director and actor unions contracts ending on june 30th and we will have a whole mess of problems on hand. the perfect storm, shall i say if the writers are still striking eight months from now.

As someone who aspires to write screenplays and teleplays in a second life, I'm fully behind the writers on this one. They don't make as much money as alot of people would think and only really hit it big if they get imporant enough to earn an Executive Producer credit or have their show hit syndication. That said, I really hope that they get their demands met by the networks ASAP. If the article I'm including is any indication of things to come, there may be nothing worth watching come spring semester, which would be absolutely terrible cnosidering I watch an ungodly amount of television and hate reruns unless I'm marathoning a season on DVD.

 

Lost may lose half-season

 

By Tim Surette

Published: November 6, 2007 at 02:45:00 PM

 

Picketing showrunner says ABC hit may only get through eight episodes if strike is prolonged...

 

Diehard fans of ABC's Lost have been clamoring to get information about the show's fourth season, which is scheduled for February, and today they got it. Showrunner Carlton Cuse, who was out joining the writers on the picket line in Burbank, California, told Entertainment Weekly that it doesn't look good if the strike continues.

 

Cuse says that the first eight episodes of season four are almost complete and ready to air. But if the writers don't get back to work, that's all that may be available for a while.

 

"There is a cliffhanger at the end of the eighth episode," Cuse said. "It will only be frustrating [for Lost fans] to have to step away from the show and not see the second half of the season."

 

Lost relies heavily on a serialized approach to television; that is, stand-alone episodes are few and far between as the attraction of the show is its many ongoing twists and turns spread out over a season. In other words, breaks in the action pretty much suck for the viewers, as evidenced by the declining ratings that plagued the show after its midseason hiatus.

 

ABC and the producers decided to avoid that pitfall this year, and came up with some interesting ways to do so. The parties agreed to shorten the remaining three seasons to 16 episodes apiece, delay the start of the season until February, and run the seasons straight through without interruptions.

 

Now it appears that could be all for naught.

 

While pretty much every scripted show is getting affected in some way because of the strike, programs known for their serialized natures are particularly at risk.

Late night TV shows have all been dark I believe this week, well now the rumor is Kimmel will be returning as he will write his own material. A great chance for him to steal a new audience.

I think its got legs for two more weeks.

more strike news from variety who has full coverage of the strike. here are some of the highlights.

 

first off, as i've mentioned before, good chance this strike goes into next year: http://www.variety.com/article/VR111797549...yid=18&cs=1

 

WGA strike could go into 2008

Both sides dig heels into the ground

By DAVE MCNARY

Hopes for a quick resolution of the writers strike are fading fast.

 

Back-channel efforts have resumed to avert what's now looking like a long and painful work stoppage. But those moves aren't gaining much traction amid continued hardline public stances by both the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

 

Worries have risen that without reviving the WGA talks, the scribes' work stoppage could easily bleed into the middle of next year.

 

The DGA's expected to launch talks within the next few weeks while SAG's negotiations would probably start in the late winter or early spring. Both the DGA and SAG contracts expire June 30.

 

WGA negotiations collapsed Sunday night, dashing a brief burst of optimism over the weekend that both sides had softened their stances and narrowed their proposals. And since the talks crashed and burned, both sides have ditched diplomacy.

 

second, most tv shows have shut down and late show crews are on notice (meaning layoffs in two weeks if the strike is still on). http://www.variety.com/article/VR111797548...yid=14&cs=1

 

TV shows quickly going dark

Strike shuts down 'Christine,' 'Back to You'

By JOSEF ADALIAN, MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

 

Striking writers chanted loudly and picketed the set of 'Desperate Housewives' on Tuesday. The ABC skein is expected to finish shooting its last available script by the end of the week.

 

As showrunners start to flex their muscle with plans for a major rally today, sitcom and drama sets are going dark -- in some cases sooner than the nets and studios had anticipated.

 

Laffer "The New Adventures of Old Christine" could conceivably produce a seg this week -- but exec producer Kari Lizer shut the show down, as star Julia Louis-Dreyfus hit the picket lines in support of the scribes. Fox's "Back to You" was set to return from hiatus today, but that table-read was scrapped, and it appears the show won't return until the writers do.

 

Also already dark: Fox's "'Til Death" and CBS' "Rules of Engagement." And it doesn't appear as if much is getting done over on NBC's "The Office" either.

 

Even shows still in production will likely go dark in the next week or two, as those remaining scripts are shot, with nothing left in the pipeline.

 

Meanwhile, latenight TV remained dark Tuesday as word leaked out that "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" have told their support staffs they would be laid off in two weeks, barring a strike settlement. "Late Show with David Letterman" has also put its staffers on notice.

"going dark" is the phrase of the next few months for sure.

 

"Slowly, one by one, television shows fell to their proverbial knees, gasping for breath, groping for life...and everything went dark."