From the E-Mailbag…

Douglas Mangum writes to ask…

There's something I've wondered about a WGA strike. During a strike, does a TV or film writer continue to work on their script, knowing that it will be turned in once the strike is over, or do they set it aside and go no further on it because doing so would go against the spirit of the strike?

Official Answer: We all stop writing on WGA-covered material. We can work on novels, comic books, non-WGA animation, poems, magazine articles and such. But if we're in the middle of an assignment for a WGA-covered project, it's "Pencils down!" and we don't add another comma to it.

Honest Answer: A lot of people will add another comma to it…or even finish the script. But as long as it isn't turned-in until the strike is over, no one seems to complain.

Every time I've been on strike since I joined the Guild — that would be 1981, 1985, 1988 and 2007 — I had some WGA job at the time and I just put it on hold. Stopped in the middle of page 23, which is where I was when the strike was called…resumed in the middle of page 23 when the strike was over. I worked on comic book scripts and also on cartoon shows that were not under WGA jurisdiction, and in '88, I also wrote an episode of the Superboy TV show, which was a WGA show that signed an interim agreement with the Guild to remain in production. But I don't think I wrote a word on the WGA-covered projects until the work stoppage stopped.

In two of those four strikes and also in a strike by the Animation Union, the producer of my interrupted-by-the-strike job called and asked me if I would finish the script and hand it in to them surreptitiously. They suggested I drop it off at their home or said they'd send a messenger or meet me at a restaurant so I wouldn't be seen crossing a picket line or entering the studio. I just said, "Sorry. I can't finish it because I can't write until the strike is over." There was some grumbling but they understood.

When the Animation Union was about to go on strike in '79, I was writing scripts for a then-new cartoon studio called Ruby-Spears, working on what would turn out to be one of the shortest-lived cartoon shows ever, a misfire called Rickety Rocket. Among the many things that went wrong with it is that it had to be produced in much less time than you need for something like that. Here's part of a story that I posted here six years ago…

It was an impossible workload for what was then a new, small studio and everyone was working overtime-plus. Not only were airdates looming (the first episode would be broadcast Saturday, September 22) but there was a decent-sized chance that the Animation Union would go out on strike on August 7. Not wanting to chance that a labor action would disrupt delivery dates, Joe Ruby (co-head of the studio) called me in and said, "If we have to, we can get scripts storyboarded and designed outside the union's jurisdiction but we have to get the scripts done before the strike. Can you write six episodes of Rickety Rocket in three weeks?" Usually, we had two weeks to write one script.

I was young and foolish in those days. I'm still foolish but not foolish enough to say yes to a question like that now…but I was then. I wrote six half-hour scripts in three weeks along with other assignments I had at the time, including a variety show for Sid and Marty Krofft. On August 7, not having slept the night before, I drove the sixth of these scripts out to the Ruby-Spears Studio, all the time hoping the strike was not happening…or at least not happening yet. I had enormous quarrels with that union at the time, some of which ended up before the National Labor Relations Board…but I was not going to cross any picket line. Fortunately, there was none outside the building when I got there at 1:45. What I did find was Mo Gollub — a fine gentleman and artist, as well as the president of the union — outside, pulling picket signs out of the trunk of his car. I asked, "Is the studio on strike?"

He said, "Not yet. We're going out at two."

I said, "Any reason I can't hand in a script now?"

He said, "None whatsoever." So I ran inside, delivered the last Rickety Rocket script and then came out and helped Mo finish unloading the picket signs. By 2:05, I was carrying one.

At the same time, I was writing scripts for another Saturday morn show and one of those wasn't finished when the strike commenced. The producer called up and suggested that it would be nice if he woke up the next morning and found the completed script on the front step of his home. I suggested it would be even nicer if I handed it to him in his office a few days after the strike ended and the picket line was gone.

In fact, he called several times to sweetly pressure me to finish the script and get it to him. That strike only lasted about a week so he had his script when he really needed it…but if that had been a month-long strike, I think things might have gotten a tad nasty.