Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Today's Political Thought

I'm watching Barack Obama give a speech in Madison thanking his supporters for whatever delegates he won tonight. This follows a speech by Hillary Clinton thanking her supporters for the delegates she's just added to her column.

I'm honestly torn as to the question of which of them would make the better president. But jeez, he is so much better at giving a speech than she is.

• Posted at 7:23 PM · LINK

Yogi Berra, Notwithstanding...

The Writers Guild still has to vote the new contract in but the strike is over. I have no idea how they got all those ballots and proxy faxes counted so swiftly but they did.

• Posted at 7:08 PM · LINK

Back From Voting

I hadn't planned on voting in today's Writers Guild election to end the strike (not to be confused with the other, forthcoming vote to ratify the new contract). It's going to pass overwhemingly and it sounded like a lot of bother to go to the Writers Guild Theater, park, go in, etc. But then I realized something: In one of the many coincidences in which my life abounds, my "every two year" ophthalmologist appointment was today...in the building next to the theater during the voting hours. In fact, it was easier and cheaper to park for the vote (they validated) than to park for the eye doctor.

What wasn't easier was to navigate through the mass of reporters — TV, radio, newspaper and ?? — that were massing outside, with all the TV guys either taping stand-ups or grabbing writers for quick interviews. The vote may not be known by 11 PM because it's been so heavy. As of around 3:00, more than two thousand proxy ballots had been faxed-in and while everyone knows the outcome, someone still has to verify and tally and do whatever else they have.

The mood seemed jubilant. I spoke with our president, Patric Verrone, and told him that while I'd voted to end this strike, I'd also voted to reopen the '85 and '88 strikes for him to renegotiate. He pretended to find that funny but I think he appreciated the compliment.

• Posted at 4:14 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's a bit of TV history. For many years, a man named Mike Stokey made a decent living by producing and hosting a series of programs where celebrities played the game of Charades. The one in our clip today was called Stump the Stars and it ran on CBS primetime from 1962 to 1963. Originally, it was hosted by Pat Harrington, Jr and then Stokey, who'd usually hosted in its previous incarnations, assumed command.

Most of its previous incarnations were called Pantomime Quiz or something similar. It started as a local (Los Angeles) show in 1947 where it was reportedly produced on a budget of under $500 per half hour. Subtracting Mr. Stokey's cut and union scale for the celebs, it was probably still done for about that throughout much of its existence. It was one of the shows that was rarely out of production for long. When something else got cancelled, the network would hurriedly order up episodes of Pantomime Quiz. When they needed a summer replacement for some series, the network would hurriedly order up episodes of Pantomime Quiz. It was at various times on CBS, NBC, ABC and Dumont, plus there were also a couple of syndicated versions.

Here's a little over six minutes of an episode that aired on February 25, 1963. The announcer is John Harlan.

• Posted at 1:31 PM · LINK

WGA Stuff

Well, how about if we talk about the Writers Strike? There are two votes to look at. One is the vote that's going on at this moment...a simple vote on whether to end the strike. Members have to go to the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills today to vote — either that or fax in a proxy. Since everyone knows the contract is going to pass, I can't conceive of any argument for not ending the strike, nor do I imagine a lot of people will go to the trouble to vote at all. Voting closes at 6 PM and I'll bet they're able to tally the votes and, in time for the 11 PM News, announce that the strike is over. (I'll also bet that some members are already getting back to work. I mean, it's not like anyone's going to be prosecuted for scabbing if they start writing today.)

The vote to accept the contract will take a bit longer but it will go the same way. Right now, as per the Guild Constitution, "pro" and "con" statements are being solicited to go in with the ballot. I don't know who's writing a "con" statement and I'm sure they don't think they have a prayer of swaying enough votes to matter...but it will probably read a lot like this article by Kim Masters that argues that the deal isn't as good as some are making it out to be.

I'd like the contract to pass but I'd like it to pass 51% to 49%. I always like that. It gets you to the same place but it reminds the other side that what they gave us was just barely acceptable and a comparable offer next time might not be. It's not, however, going to pass with 51%. It's going to be more like 90% and even that might be an underestimate.

So now the big question is the Screen Actors Guild. They have a lot of the same issues we had and they also have quite a few that are specific to what they do. On the "same" issues, one presumes they're going to go for more...especially in the area of jurisdiction for New Media. What the writers get in a deal like this is not always directly comparable to what the actors get because we do different things but I doubt SAG is going to be satisfied with exempting as much of that marketplace as the WGA and the DGA have. My "read" of the actors is that they're even more militant than we were, and we were pretty danged militant. So if the AMPTP thinks they can offer them the same thing and avoid an actors' walkout, Jay and Dave and Conan may be getting more time off.

• Posted at 12:41 PM · LINK

Tuesday Morning

I haven't felt like posting here since yesterday afternoon because...well, it may sound silly but I didn't want to bump the Steve Gerber obit out of the featured slot on my "current" page. A phrase I'm hearing a lot from his friends is "I knew this was coming but I didn't think it would hit me so hard." I know how they feel. People ask me why I write so many obituaries and there are really two reasons. One is that with some of these people, if I don't, no one will. The other reason is that it's busy work. Someone calls and says, "A friend of yours just died," and it gives you something to do that's not unrelated and at least feels a little constructive.

As I think I said somewhere else on this site, I think grief is often a very overrated emotion, one we too often fall into because we think it's expected of us. I once attended (spoke at, even) a funeral where the widow seemed to think that she had to keep showing us her pain in order to show us how much she loved him. She also seemed to feel she had to get physically ill and to bring her own life to a screeching halt. When we got to the burial portion of the ceremony, you half-expected her to vault into the pit with the departed and ask the men with the shovels to cover them both over.

But a little grief, a little remembrance...that's okay. We need that.

There are hundreds of tributes to Steve all over the Internet, which is great, just great. Steve loved the Internet. He was one of the first people I knew to embrace it and realize what it could be. Back in the days of the 1200 Baud Hayes Smartmodem, Steve taught me the joys of a service called MCI Mail, which was not unlike the kind of e-mail that Barney Rubble would have used to send something to Fred Flintstone. I remember sitting with him in an office at DC Comics...I was there to support Steve (not that he needed me) in his explanation that some day soon, we'd be delivering most of our scripts via electronic transfer, and that artwork would go by this new thing called "Federal Express" until such time as the technology had advanced to the point where art could be sent via wires, as well. He was explaining this to one of the company's executives and the person looked at him like he was predicting a Martian invasion.

So I love it that everyone's celebrating Gerber on the web. A lot of it's over on his weblog, which I have hijacked and which we're putting to good use as a central clearing house for Gerber remembrances.

As I say over there, no word yet on any formal memorial services or anything. Actually, I think we're having a very fitting memorial service on the World Wide Web. I could tell you how important Steve and his work were to so many people but nothing drives home that point better than all those messages on discussion boards and all those postings on weblogs.

I don't know what my next post here will be about but it won't be about Steve. It's time.

• Posted at 11:38 AM · LINK