Tuesday, January 13, 2009

More Hollywood Labor News

The big Screen Actors Guild exec board meeting finally adjourned after more than 30 hours, which means it lasted longer than half the shows on the NBC fall schedule. What was decided? Apparently, nothing. But the guild's head negotiator, Doug Allen, has not been fired...at least, not yet. Both Variety and Hollywood Reporter reported that he was terminated, and the Hollywood Reporter website still says so, more than seven hours after others who announced it began retracting. (By the way: If you read either of those papers' accounts of the local labor situation, keep in mind that they both operate from a premise that in any dispute, those with the most power, fame and money must be in the right. Variety especially seems to have this notion lately that if you run a studio, especially a studio that buys a lot of ads in Variety, you can do no wrong.)

So where does this leave us? In theory, S.A.G. is still going to call for a strike authorization vote for its members but no one is saying when or betting that it won't be called off. Allen is still in his job but no one's betting that will continue unabated. My guess is they're trying to stitch together some sort of coalition negotiating team, with or without Allen, that can present a united front of two factions that have been galloping in opposite directions. There has to be some fear that if they can't manage that, this messy working-without-a-contract situation will never end...but the Screen Actors Guild might.

• Posted at 10:12 PM · LINK

Hollywood Labor News

The big Hollywood Labor News at this hour is that there is no big Hollywood Labor News...but some could be along any minute. The 71-member board of the Screen Actors Guild has now been meeting since 9 AM Monday. That is not a typo. The meeting has gone on longer than 24 hours...presumably with some participants leaving and returning. They're trying to figure out what to do about the current negotiating mess. Rumors have leaked and been denied that the Chief Negotiator, Doug Allen, has been fired. Rumors have leaked and been denied that the Board has decided to cancel the planned Strike Authorization vote or maybe proceed with the planned Strike Authorization vote or maybe schedule a leg-wrestling contest instead of the planned Strike Authorization vote. No one seems to know.

But whatever's gonna happen, it's probably gonna happen soon.

• Posted at 1:41 PM · LINK

Tuesday Morning

Why does it scare me that George W. Bush is giving a farewell address on Thursday night? I'll tell you why: Because of the old government adage that if you have to release news that you don't want people to notice too much, you do it on Friday. I have the feeling that Bush has a pile of last-minute edicts and executive decrees and especially pardons that will outrage all decent Americans, and he wants to have his last, semi-dignified address before we get whacked by them. He couldn't very well sit there and talk about the integrity and lawfulness of his administration right after he'd signed pardons for himself and all his top officials, right?

• Posted at 11:00 AM · LINK

Who's in Stu's Studio?

Another week, another plug for Stu's Show, the flagship program on Shokus Internet Radio. Tomorrow, your enthusiastic host Stu Shostak welcomes one of my best buddies, writer Paul Dini. Paul has a long, long list of credits in television and comics, his TV work including both animation (Batman, The Animated Series) and live-action (Lost). In comics, he's one of the main current writers of the Batman character, the creator of the lovely Jingle Belle, and...well, Paul's done a lot of quality stuff. Here's your chance to hear him interviewed about his impressive career and you can even call in and ask questions. Someone ask him about the production of A Christmas Carol that we went to see a couple weeks ago.

Next week at this time, I'll be plugging next week's Stu's Show, which will focus on the world of animation voicing — how it's done, how folks are cast, how to become one of those folks who are cast, etc. I'll be a guest along with vocal legends Gary Owens and Janet Waldo, and writer-actor Earl Kress.

Since I'm getting tired of rephrasing the following each time I write about Stu's radio station, I'm going to crib the rest of this from the last plug I gave him. This is not a podcast. You can't download it and listen to it whenever you want. You have to "tune in" when it's on...which in this case is from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM to 9 PM Eastern. Stu's Show is done live on Wednesday and that's the best time to listen because, among other reasons, you can call in and ask questions. You can hear the show on your own computer by going to the website of Shokus Internet Radio at the appointed hour and clicking where you're told to click. (The show reruns on other days, usually in the same time slot. Check out the site for a full schedule...and while you're there, take note of some of the other fine, free programming.)

• Posted at 10:51 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

You won't bother to watch the entirety of this here but I can't resist. I have the opportunity to embed any whole episode of The Prisoner, the historic 1967 TV series by Patrick McGoohan. I picked the first but you can view any one of them over on this page of the AMC Website. I gather they've been placed online as a teaser for a forthcoming DVD release of well-restored prints.

There are also little "Prisoner-in-a-Minute" videos there that chop each installment down to a fast summary. Some of you may find them no less coherent than watching the entire hour.

I was not as big a fan of this show as some of my friends when it first aired. It would have required too much effort to be as big a fan of this show as some of my friends when it first aired. You'd have had to talk about it every waking moment and find double, triple and quadruple meanings in every line of dialogue and every prop or piece of scenery. What I guess intrigued me the most was that every time a new episode aired, I'd hear the discussion and analysis all over the schoolyard. No two people agreed. No two people seemed to be remotely on the same page as to what had happened, let alone what any of it meant.

And of course, everyone was blood certain that they and only they understood the show. I used to occasionally wade into these conversations, not because I had any better grasp but because it was fun to lob in a grenade or two. I'd stroll up to the mob and having no idea what I was talking about — but unlike the rest of them, knowing that — I'd ask, "And did everyone notice the scene that represented the Cuban Missile Crisis? And the sign in the background of the last shot that said, 'Number Six is Number Nine?'" This was back before we had VCRs, so no one could race home and replay the show and freeze-frame it to see that I'd made that up. It made the discussions somehow livelier.

The only other thing I can think of to mention about the show is to tell the following story. One evening about 1973, I was on a date with a young lady whose all-time favorite TV show was The Prisoner. I learned this when we were walking in Westwood and she suddenly noticed someone about thirty yards down the sidewalk and shrieked. "Omigod," she gasped, pronouncing it that way (as one word). "There's the star of my favorite TV show." I couldn't see who she'd spotted but I ran after her as she sprinted up to the gentleman. Before I could stop her, she accosted him and blurted out, "Mr. McGoohan, I have to tell you that I think The Prisoner was the greatest TV show ever made and I think you are a genius."

The man thanked her, very so politely, but said, "I'm sure Patrick McGoohan will be pleased to hear that but my name is Patrick Macnee and I was on a TV show called The Avengers." Then he looked at me and said with a smile, "Don't worry...this happens all the time." Here's the other Patrick in her favorite show...

• Posted at 12:47 AM · LINK

My Dinner With Aaron

I ate a meal last evening with Aaron Barnhart, a friend I made over the Internet around '94, back when the World Wide Web ran on kerosene. At the time, Aaron was just one of those guys on the 'net writing about what interested him, which was primarily late night TV. He started up an e-mail newsletter on the topic and it led to a number of high-profile freelance assignments and his current gig, which is as the TV critic for the Kansas City Star. Not too shabby.

He also operates a fine weblog of TV news which you oughta check out. It's called TV Barn and it's one of the best places to keep up with what's going on in and around the world of television. For that matter, here's an interview with Aaron that you might enjoy.

• Posted at 12:31 AM · LINK