In two recent messages here, I said that The Simpsons Movie was covered by a Writers Guild contract. I said that because I'd been told as much by a couple of folks who should have known. I am now informed by one of the Simpsons writers that is not so.
On the other hand, I have it directly from Neil Gaiman, who co-wrote the recent Beowulf animated film that it was covered by the WGA. And I'll bet he's right.
2008 will mark seventy (70) years since Superman first appeared in Action Comics. Michael Sangiacomo, who writes for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, is challenging locals to do something about it. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created one of the great figures in American popular fiction, hailed from Cleveland…and yet the city has no official recognition of this. No Siegel and Shuster Street, no statues, no plaques, nothing. Thanks to Jef Peckham for the link…and thanks to Mike Sangiacomo who at the Mid-Ohio Con last month, gave me copies of his fine graphic novel, Tales of the Starlight Drive-In.
My latest excuse for being behind in answering your e-mails is a good one: I seem to have a Toxic Waste Dump in my kitchen.
Remember that trip I took to New York, Indiana and Ohio a few weeks ago? The last Saturday night of it, I was in Ohio, leading a group of folks from the comic convention out to dinner, when I got one of those phone calls you never want to get when you're outta town: The lady who was house-sitting for me was calling to say that water was dripping out of my dining room and kitchen ceilings. As we soon discovered, the supply line carrying H2O to an upstairs toilet had burst. Fixing the toilet cost about thirty bucks. Fixing the water damage will be a little costlier…to me (a $1000 deductible) and to my insurance company (a lot more than that).
My dining room is usually lined with bookcases and piled high with boxes of "to be sorted" books. About a third of the room was seriously damaged…although, miraculously, only one box of books. Perhaps fittingly, it was a box of books that I wrote and they're easily replaceable. It was almost like the leak knew which things not to get wet.
In the kitchen…well, I now have about half a kitchen. The wall oven was destroyed, along with several cabinets and their contents. The wall behind the sink was soaked and in order to fix it, they started by ripping the walls open and leaving some huge dehumidifiers in there, running 24/7 for a week to dry things out. Then they came and ripped out almost everything in there — the cabinets, the counter, the sink, the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, etc. Before they did any of this, they put up floor-to-ceiling plastic walls to create what they call a "containment area." It contains half my kitchen and a third of my dining room. To get into it, you need to go through a little airlock, which is what you're looking at in the above photo. The black thing at right is my refrigerator. To the immediate left of it is the access into the containment area, carefully posted with warning signs in English and Spanish. The Spanish is there, I guess, for when Sergio Aragonés comes to visit me.
Monday and Tuesday, three men were in there all day, wearing respirators and full-body protective gear. They finished opening all the walls and removed all the lath and plaster. Then they carefully washed and vacuumed everything else. The enemy here is mold and it sure looks like they got all of it out. This morning, a man from another company came to by to take samplings. If the analysis shows that all the biological no-nos are gone, reconstruction work can begin. The firm that's doing it says six weeks so I figure I'll be lucky if it's done in ten. If I decide to do some remodelling in the process, as I probably will, it could run longer than an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
'Til then, I'll be washing dishes in the downstairs bathroom and living out of the boxes we packed of all the food and utensils that could be saved from the ailing half of the kitchen. There won't be a lot of cooking, which is fine. Even under normal conditions, my cooking leads to other kinds of biological hazards.
Still, it's a bit disconcerting, when I walk in there to get a tomato juice or a sandwich, to see health warnings posted next to my icebox. After it's all done, I may leave the signs up. Just in case my new oven looks so neat that I get the urge to bake.
Here's a short trailer for a reissue of The Music Man, which features Robert Preston doing some special lyrics just for the trailer. The longer, original version of this trailer (which I can't find) had more of this and didn't have the bad edits in it. But for now, you'll have to settle for this…
John Pekkanen on one of our country's greatest exports. We may not be good at spreading democracy but we're darn good at encouraging people to smoke cigarettes.
Hey, kids! It's Sourpuss and Gandy Goose, who were two of my favorite characters until I actually saw them in a cartoon. Even when I was six, I gave a lot of animated films the "Springtime for Hitler" look and about half the output of Paul Terry's shorts did that for me. Nevertheless, I liked a lot of Terrytoons so I'll be listening tomorrow when Animation Historian Jerry Beck discusses them and other classic cartoons on Stu's Show, the endlessly-plugged talk show that you can hear on Shokus Internet Radio. Each broadcast can be heard live on your computer on Wednesday — from 4 PM to 6 PM on the West Coast and from 7 PM to 9 PM on the East Coast and if you're somewhere else, you can probably figure out the time from that information.
Better still, I won't just be listening to the show. I'll be on it. At the top of the program, I'll be on the phone for a brief but pungent discussion of the Writers Guild strike with host Stuart Shostak. Listen to that, then stay tuned to hear Jerry talk about cartoons, including (I'm sure) some well-deserved pride at the recent animation DVDs that he's helped midwife to great sales and even greater critical acclaim. Jerry, who's also one of the Brewmasters over at Cartoon Brew, is highly responsible for getting some of your favorite animation onto DVD and getting it treated with loving care.
You can listen to Shokus Internet Radio at the appropriate time by going to that website, selecting an audio browser and clicking your way to the fun. You can actually listen right now. There's always something good on there.
The press loves a horse race and often invents them even when there's no evidence of one. If you read the coverage lately, you'd think that Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul were surging ahead with the former likely to grab the G.O.P. nomination and the latter making a stronger showing than anyone had expected…and maybe that's right. But maybe The Gallup Poll is correct when it indicates that Huckabee is more or less tied for a distant second place finish behind Giuliani…tied with McCain, Romney and Thompson. And Paul is way down at 3%, tied with Alan Keyes, who not one person on the planet thinks has a chance of being the nominee. What's more, the numbers show no momentum for either man in recent weeks. Huckabee is right where he was a month ago (with Giuliani even farther ahead of him now) and Paul is down a point from where he was a month ago.
Yet still, you read how Huckabee and Paul are coming up from behind, gaining on the others. Why do I have the feeling that neither man is even running for the Republican Presidential nomination any more? Huckabee's running for the veep slot and Paul's getting ready to make an independent bid.
Publishers Weekly has an article up about how the WGA strike is affecting folks who write both that kind of material and also comic books. And I am one of them.
A lot of folks this AM seem very happy that the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild are doing something that should hurt the Golden Globe Awards — the writers refusing to allow WGA talent to write it, and SAG encouraging its members to stay away. This joy is actually unrelated to the strike. It's that no one seems to really like the Golden Globe Awards very much.
The awards are voted every year by something called the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Who are they? No one seems to know. They throw a good party and they hype the importance of their awards, especially as a precursor to the Oscars. Basically, they have tradition and a good name. If you're in charge of advertising a movie and it wins three Golden Globe Awards, you say that in all the ads, presuming (correctly) that no one is going to go, "Who the hell even votes for those?" The Golden Globes therefore become a bit more famous and people assume they must mean something.
I've heard people debate whether the Academy Awards even mean a lot, above and beyond the fact that people think they mean a lot, and they do bolster careers and box office revenues. There is a convincing argument as to whether the voters have actually seen all the nominated films or if they just handed their ballots to their maids to fill out. Some, it is assumed, vote mindlessly for everything that is connected to them in any sort of business sense or friendship. (Back when movie studios had a lot of people under contract, it was not uncommon for the studio to circulate lists of who they wanted their employees to vote for in each category…or even to say "Just give us your ballots and we'll fill them out for you!") But at least with the Oscars, we know some people are voting whose opinions mean something.
But the Golden Globes? The industry joke is that when you win one, you thank "whoever votes for these things" and don't ask questions. When you get an Oscar, you can pretend that all your peers gave it to you; that the elite of the business unanimously thinks you're swell and that, in the words of Sally Field, they really like you. With the Golden Globes, no one who gets one wants to know too much because they're afraid they'll learn (or others may learn) that their lovely trophy was voted to them by caterers and parking attendants.
Basically, it's all a starfest. America watches because famous people show up…and famous people show up because other famous people show up, especially famous people who are campaigning for Oscar votes. This year, with Boycott in the air, we may be watching to see if famous people show up…or if so, which famous people show up and if any of them use the forum to denounce those who've caused or prolonged the strike. But I think a lot of people in the industry will be watching because they've long believed that the ceremony achieves a level of Phoniness that is offensive even for a Hollywood P.R. stunt, and they'll enjoy seeing it crash and burn.
Eight years ago today, I started blogging. In fact, it wasn't even called blogging then and there was no neat software like I'm now using to post my every-day-or-so comments. Back then, I was hand-coding my messages and figured to do it once a week, if that often…but I've found it to be fun and useful. It keeps me in touch with all sorts of people I know, gets me in touch with folks I'd like to know…and you'd be amazed at how many old friendships I've renewed. Once, I asked a question here about a famous Big Name Comedian and ten minutes later, the man himself e-mailed me with what I later learned was the wrong answer.
I should thank all the people who've made this possible but I've thought it over and decided it's only me.
Well, I guess I should thank all of you who've tipped the website (hint, hint) and helped make me feel that the effort is appreciated. You've also helped me feed animals in my backyard, buy really weird stuff off eBay and tip other websites. That's all I do with that money.
And I should also thank those of you who've sent in links and comments that were worth passing on. So I guess it isn't only me.
People always ask me, "Where do you get the time?" But I'm a professional writer and to me, posting here is like what an artist does in the morning, sketching to loosen up his drawing hand for the day. It's also very comforting, when I'm in the middle of writing an assignment for someone else, to write something that is wholly mine, even if it stinks. It's like Recess.
In fact, I have to get back to an assignment right now. Thanks to everyone I just thanked and anyone else I should thank.
From the late 1940s, here's five minutes of The Morey Amsterdam Show. The other guy in this clip is Art Carney in what was probably one of his first TV appearances. He imitates some radio performers of the day and does a decent job of it.
I very much enjoyed Bill Moyers' interview of Keith Olbermann. If you missed it on PBS, you can watch it over at this website.
This is me back from the Writers Guild Informational Meeting, held this evening at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
Well, I was wrong. I told friends that I expected some vocal dissent at the meeting. I guess I'm so used to WGA Strikes where there's a small but loud minority that goes against the leadership that I'm expecting it even when there's been so sign of one. As of when I left the meeting, well into the "questions from the floor" section, there still was no sign. The assemblage was solidly behind our officers, negotiating team and chief negotiator — so much so that even those who spoke in criticism prefaced their remarks with statements like "I think you're doing a great job but…"
I'm guessing there were around 2,000 people there. That's a very wild guess but it was definitely a very encouraging, enthusiastic turnout, especially for a drizzly Monday night meeting called without much advance notice. I lost count of the standing ovations given to our Board, negotiators and even to Alan Rosenberg, the President of the Screen Actors Guild, who was a very active participant.
News? There wasn't much. The WGA has voted to deny a waiver to the Golden Globes telecast. That show will have to go on without WGA writers, and Rosenberg suggested that it would probably go on without a lot of actors putting in appearances. He's already hearing that many will not be present and his union is beginning a member "outreach" (the word he used) to encourage more non-participation. The WGA will also not grant a waiver to the Academy Awards if the strike goes long enough for that to be an issue.
There was a question about the WGA possibly making an interim deal with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants company. Our executive director (and chief negotiator) David Young said he would not comment on any specific deal…but based on his non-specific comments, everyone present probably left with the impression that Letterman ain't getting his contract. The WGA is prepared to make such deals but only with players in the industry whose signing will change the dynamic. Granting Letterman the contract he seeks would only enable CBS to get fresh programming for two trouble spots while still fighting the main war against us…or at least, that's the thinking of our leaders and it seemed to be the overwhelming consensus of the hall, as well. I'm not as sure as some are that this is the right way to play this…but a rather compelling argument was made that to allow a company like Letterman's to sign would be, as one speaker tonight put it, "…the Writers Guild playing 'divide and conquer ourselves!'"
(Let me underscore here that no one spoke specifically about the Worldwide Pants situation. But they did speak of how it seemed like bad strategy to make that kind of deal.)
There was some other news about picketing and other protest events, and some folks are putting together something called StrikeTV, which sounds like a WGA version of YouTube…but really, that was the news. The WGA stands ready to negotiate at any time — "…even Christmas Day," someone said. I guess the big news was the great turnout, total lack of dissent and the strong support for our leaders. If someone thinks this Guild is weakening, they're out of their ever-lovin' minds. If anything, the tactics of the AMPTP have just made members mad and reinforced their feeling that we are standing on the highest ground. I feel even better about the strike than I did this morning…and I felt pretty good about it this morning. Still, you may notice that I have changed the graphic to 2008.
A couple of quick points. This article from The Wall Street Journal (dated today) includes the following paragraph…
As of yesterday afternoon, the guild hadn't responded to Worldwide Pants' request to begin separate negotiations. People close to the guild said there was some disagreement among members over whether the guild should make way for late shows to return, with some primetime showrunners — writer-producers responsible for the day-to-day operation of TV series — arguing against it. A WGA representative said no independent deal has yet been worked out with Worldwide Pants, but declined to comment further. Worldwide Pants had no further comment on the deal.
If you do a quick Google News search, you'll see that a lot of sources were saying that Worldwide Pants was already in negotiation with the WGA or even that a deal was almost signed. Those reports were just moonshine, based on nothing. No one at the WGA or at Worldwide Pants said they were already talking but it was reported as if they had. And as I said, it may be a lot more complicated than people expect. (It's even a bit more complicated today with the announced returns of Leno and O'Brien to the air…and before the date that was mentioned for Letterman's possible return.)
Also, a note on terminology: A lot of news stories are saying that Jon Stewart (or someone else) is seeking a "waiver" so his writing staff can resume work. Wrong word. A waiver would be like what the WGA granted for the Screen Actors Guild Awards show, saying that we suspend the strike for a specific event and allow writers to work without a contract. What Letterman is seeking, what Stewart may be seeking is an Interim Contract. That is an actual deal that is made outside the purview of the AMPTP. There may be a clause in it that, later on, would allow Worldwide Pants to shift to the terms that the AMPTP will eventually negotiate with the WGA…but it's still a valid contract, not a waiver. They are not the same thing.
That's all from here. I'll try to resist the urge to blog from the meeting tonight and instead, post something whenever I get home.
And I just got these press releases from NBC, statements from Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno. Looks like I spoke too soon when I said posting here would be light today. Here's Conan's…
For the past seven weeks of the writers' strike, I have been and continue to be an ardent supporter of the WGA and their cause. My career in television started as a WGA member and my subsequent career as a performer has only been possible because of the creativity and integrity of my writing staff. Since the strike began, I have stayed off the air in support of the striking writers while, at the same time, doing everything I could to take care of the 80 non-writing staff members on Late Night.
Unfortunately, now with the New Year upon us, I am left with a difficult decision. Either go back to work and keep my staff employed or stay dark and allow 80 people, many of whom have worked for me for fourteen years, to lose their jobs. If my show were entirely scripted I would have no choice. But the truth is that shows like mine are hybrids, with both written and non-written content. An unwritten version of Late Night, though not desirable, is possible – and no one has to be fired.
So, it is only after a great deal of thought that I have decided to go back on the air on January 2nd. I will make clear, on the program, my support for the writers and I'll do the best version of Late Night I can under the circumstances. Of course, my show will not be as good. In fact, in moments it may very well be terrible. My sincerest hope is that all of my writers are back soon, working under a contract that provides them everything they deserve.
I have mixed feelings about this. I agree that it's awful for staff members to be tossed out of work. It would be awful if Conan's crew lost their livelihoods, just as it's awful that other people throughout the TV and motion picture industries are losing their jobs. On the one hand, it's tough for an outsider to assess the pressures, both from business associates and circumstance, that Jay and Conan are under. On yet another, it's hard not to think that their going back may add some weeks to the strike and cost more people their paychecks.
The statement from Leno is shorter and in serious need of a good writer to punch it up…
This has been a very difficult six weeks for everybody affected by the writers strike. I was, like most people, hoping for a quick resolution when this began. I remained positive during the talks and while they were still at the table discussing a solution "The Tonight Show" remained dark in support of our writing staff. Now that the talks have broken down and there are no further negotiations scheduled I feel it's my responsibility to get my 100 non-writing staff, which were laid off, back to work. We fully support our writers and I think they understand my decision.
I'm a big fan of Jay Leno both as a performer and as a human being. I've seen this guy do some wonderful things for other people just out of plain old human decency. But I remember when there was the big strike at the Comedy Store and other local clubs, trying to establish that comedians should be paid for their work at these places. Leno was a major ringleader of that effort. I marched with the guy carrying signs that said, "No Bucks, No Yuks" and "Catch a Rising Scab!" And I think that if someone had crossed our picket line with that kind of rationale and pretense of showing support, Jay would have run over the guy with his 1955 Buick Roadmaster.