Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fred Kaplan on what should happen next with Iran. And I also think that a good indicator of what's going to happen there would be to watch and see when David Letterman starts booking new guests. Especially if he has Regis on.

The most interesting things currently going on with our favorite topic — the strike — are the reports (like this one) that the member companies of the AMPTP are not quite all on the same page with regard to how long they're prepared to take a hard line and not give the WGA enough of what it wants. In '88, as that work stoppage slogged on, we heard increasingly that this company or that one was eager — in some cases, almost desperate — to settle but that "The Monolith of Management" was holding together via its own internal pressures. And of course it stands to reason that, just as not all writers are being hurt equally by the strike, not all networks and production companies are looking at equivalent losses.

The other day, I heard someone compare it to Tournament Blackjack, which happens to be a game I've been studying lately. In Tournament Blackjack, as opposed to regular Blackjack, all the players simultaneously play against the House but more importantly, they play against each other so it's possible to gain by losing. If I'm playing against you and the dealer beats us both, we both lose our wagers…but if you've bet more than I have on the hand, you lose more than I do. So I gain on you or even pull ahead of you. You can lose every hand in a Tournament Blackjack competition and still win the game because you bet small.

So it is with a strike like this. Some of the studios are being hurt less by the strike so they're gaining a competitive advantage on the others. No one could reasonably expect that Sony or Universal is going to break away from the Alliance and cut a separate deal with the WGA…but someone in their internal meetings is more anxious to end the strike than someone else.

Yesterday in this space, we told you that the WGA wasn't going to settle this thing without addressing some of the issues that don't relate directly to dollars and cents…and sure enough, yesterday in the bargaining sessions, our team presented demands for the Guild to expand jurisdiction over so-called "reality" or "writerless" shows. Tomorrow, at about the hour the National Weather Service says it'll stop raining in L.A., there's a big rally out in Burbank outside the office of one of the main companies that produces such shows.

(By the way: I noted that the rally was near the Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, which is where one can often find Drew Carey dining, and I mentioned the rumor that he owns the place. I am informed that he does not, but that he may have set up some sort of running tab there, whereby he pays for the meals of any diner who flashes a WGA card. Check before you assume that's true. Mr. Carey does apparently own Swingers, which is a coffee shop near CBS Television City that is feeding WGA members for free.)

No new predictions on how long this thing's gonna last but the more I think of it, the more I think the best indicator that it's close to ending will be David Letterman. The late night shows are taking a bad hit during this strike and they'll rush back into production as soon as the picket lines go down. Jay Leno's having all sorts of problems with NBC that relate to his future, or possible lack of one at that network. Dave's going to hit the ground at full sprint to get back up and running — that's one of the reasons he's paying his staff to keep working. So the second it looks like there's an end date for the strike, CBS exec Les Moonves, who's in the thick of the negotiations, will surely alert Mr. Letterman. When we hear that Dave is lining up a real guest list for even a tentative resumption of tapings, that's when I'll start believing the rumors that the strike is near settlement. Not before.

Quick! Check the time down in your system tray! Is it between the hours of 4 PM and 6 PM Pacific Time? (That would be 7 PM and 9 PM in the East and other hours in other time zones.) If it is, you can tune in right this second and hear Stu's Show, a wonderful talk fest on Shokus Internet Radio that's on at this very moment with me as a guest!

We'll be discussing the Writers Strike. We'll be discussing the life and times of Charles Schulz (with his son, Monte, and long-time business partner and friend, Lee Mendelson). We'll even be discussing the new, upcoming Garfield cartoon show I'm working on, plus we'll be taking your phone calls if you want to comment or ask a question.

"But how do I get there?" I hear you ask! It's as easy as falling off a building. Go to the Shokus Internet Radio website. There, you will find three different audio browser links. Pick one, wait a few seconds for it to connect…and listen in! If it doesn't connect, which occasionally happens, try another browser link. But it's simple and it's free and it's all happening right this minute…

…unless, of course, you've missed it! But fret not: The show reruns tomorrow in the same time slot. It's not as good as hearing it live but it's better than nothing.

No word on what's up with the strike other than assurances that they're talking and that everyone is considering everyone else's proposals. This could mean progress or it could mean that any minute now, both sides will be out there accusing the other of not knowing a good formula when they see it.

These things are always roller coasters, always a matter of hopes being raised and then dashed, raised and then dashed. It can make the strike seem longer and more painful if you allow it to keep doing that to you. My guess is that when we are close to a real resolution, there'll be no doubt about it. It won't be a matter of unsourced rumors. Dave, Jay and Conan will be talking about booking actual guests the following week for tentative new shows. The WGA will announce a general membership meeting. The AMPTP will find a way to assure advertisers and theater owners that new product is on the horizon.

Until then, assume the strike is indefinite.

Even when we have the above indicators, there may be stumbling blocks. The deal isn't the deal until the rank-and-file of the Writers Guild membership votes to accept. If the Guild's Negotiating Committee and Board of Directors vote to recommend it, then that will probably happen…but it isn't one of those George Tenet brand slam-dunks. Expectations among the members are high, not so much for the dollars and cents involved but that a number of the so-called "moral issues" will be addressed and improved.

The WGA never strikes only for money. We always have issues relating to the way the business works…matters such as screen credits, expanding the Guild's jurisdiction (into reality shows and animation, for instance), separation of rights, etc. Two big concerns that have loomed large the last few years are the matters of Late Payments and Free Rewrites. A number of employers have quite consciously opted to make the checks late so they can collect interest on the money a little bit longer. I once worked for a producer who had that built into his budget. It was planned that all checks would be two weeks late because this would net him an extra $1200 or thereabouts.

In the era of electronic payment, you would think this kind of thing would be ending…and in some areas, it is. I'm working on a project for a European company and when I hand in a draft, they sometimes have the payment in my bank account within six hours. But if I work for certain major studios in Hollywood, it will somehow take three weeks.

We'd like to mop that up and we'd also like to stop Free Rewrites. The contract between the AMPTP and the WGA specifies a certain number of drafts that you do on a script for the agreed-upon fee. Producers have been known to pressure writers to do more…and often, it can turn into writing a whole new script as an alleged "rewrite" of another. After you've delivered the final draft of the script in which everyone goes to the planet Neptune in search of water, the producer decides it'll be too expensive and instead, they want it to be a story in which everyone goes to Starbucks in search of Colombia Nariño Supremo. Well, okay, those decisions get made…but to get out of paying you or another writer to write that new script, they want to consider it a rewrite of your old one, the one you finished, and have you not charge them. We'd like that to stop, too. There are also matters relating to age and racial discrimination, product placement, honest accounting and several others.

Every negotiation, the WGA comes to the table with issues that are more involved with ethics and creative control than cash, and every negotiation, the AMPTP seems to take the attitude of, "Oh, they aren't really serious about anything but the money," which is always wrong. A large part of the Guild cares at least as much about the moral/ethical/creative concerns as they do about how much loot goes into our wallets. In the current bargaining, if you hear that they've settled the money questions, that may not be the end of it.

That's Charles Schulz, not long after he'd begun drawing a comic strip that was somewhat successful.  As you may know, a highly-controversial book was recently written on Mr. Schulz. That book will be the second topic tomorrow on the first anniversary broadcast of Stu's Show on Shokus Internet Radio.

I will be the main guest for the two-hour program which you can hear live on your computer at 4 PM Pacific (7 PM Eastern). This is not a podcast that you can download at your leisure or listen to whenever you like. It's a streaming audio program and to hear it, you have to be at a computer when it's streamed. (It reruns in the same time slot for a week after but again, you have to tune in when it's being streamed.) This may sound a bit difficult in this era of TiVos and VCRs — actually tuning in to a show when it's broadcast — but those who make the effort seem to find it quite enjoyable. And you can also phone in while we're on the air and ask questions.

As I said, the book of Charles Schulz will be the second topic, which means we'll get to it after Topic #1, which will be my views on the Writers Strike for the benefit of anyone who's not sick of reading them here. So some time around 4:15 (Pacific), we'll begin discussing the book, and our host Stuart Shostak has lined up perhaps the two most-qualified people on the planet to join us for this discussion. Monte Schulz, son of Charles, will be participating and so will Lee Mendelson, who co-produced all the Peanuts animated specials and series. So you have the man's son and one of his closest business associates and long-time friends. Can't do much better than that.

Following that, if there's time, we'll be chatting about the new, upcoming Garfield cartoon show I'm writing and also about my past association with the character. And you can call in and ask me to talk about something more interesting than that.

Okay, now let me tell you how to listen to Shokus Internet Radio. Go to that website. Select an audio browser. Click and listen. And you can do that at any hour of the day because there are always interesting shows to be heard. Go there right now and try it out if you don't believe me. It's free. It's easier than you'd think. And it's addictive.

That's Stu's Show, tomorrow (Wednesday) from 4 PM to 6 PM on this coast, 7 PM to 9 PM on the East Coast, and if you're somewhere else, you can probably figure it out from that.

This will interest those of you who have a love for the movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I write a lot about it on this site and get a lot of mail about it. An oft-asked question is whether there's anything to the near-constant rumor that a full-fledged, updated remake is in the works. Answer: No, and I've long been skeptical that it even could be done. The joy of that film is in its celebration of a certain kind of comedian and character actor that just plain doesn't exist any longer. There are a lot of funny people in the world today but they're not funny in the same way that Phil Silvers was funny, that Buddy Hackett was funny, that Milton Berle was funny on those rare occasions when Milton Berle was funny, etc.

However, there have been movies that have attempted to replicate some of the spirit of Mad World. And as my fellow Mad World enthusiast Paul Scrabo reports in our video link today, there has even been one film that looks darn close to a remake…

Supposedly, a new offer is being presented in negotiations today, and the AMPTP guys are telling reporters that this will not be a "take it or leave it" offer but, rather, a starting point for further discussions. At the same time, the WGA is said to be readying some sort of proposal which, one assumes, will be on the same basis. That all sounds good if it actually comes down that way. My suspicion is that we're in for a few more rounds of the Producers presenting us with offers that they say are made of gold…then our guys do a little scraping and say, "Hey, this is just gold-colored lead paint over a lot of Play-Doh." Whereupon each side rushes to the press and accuses the other of not being serious.

Speaking of "the Producers," I have this from Jack Lechner…

I'm loving your analysis of the strike. But I do have to point out, as the Producers Guild already has, that it's a misnomer to refer to the AMPTP as "The Producers." Fact is, the AMPTP is the studios and the networks, and their affiliated lackeys, vassals, and subdivisions. Almost every producer I know is entirely sympathetic with the WGA. Hell, I've already suffered serious economic woe as a result of the strike — and I'm entirely sympathetic with the WGA. So please call a spade a spade, a producer a producer, and a greedy conglomerate a greedy conglomerate!

Well, the AMPTP does stand for "Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers" but in a sense, you're right. The noun "producers" does cover a pretty wide spectrum of folks in Hollywood. I've even been a "producer" on some of the shows I've written, though I can't recall doing many things on them that I wouldn't have done in my capacity as Writer. The title gets applied to folks who do the day-in/day-out business of getting a movie made or a show on the air and it also applies to the studio and the money men. I've also worked with people who had the title of Producer or even Executive Producer who insofar as I could see, didn't do a damn thing on the show except sometimes to watch it.

I've been using it rather generally and maybe I shouldn't, if only for the sake of clarity. I'll try to watch it…but everyone should be aware that not all "producers" are Mel Cooley. Some of them are Sumner Redstone.

While I'm in the "corrections" part of the e-mailbag, here's one from my pal Vince Waldron…

Nice piece on the oddly slanted coverage of Leno's damned-if-he-does-damned-if-he-doesn't behavior toward his workers and the strikers
outside. (Like you, I wonder why it's only talk show hosts who are expected to serve as mother hens to their studio hired staffs.)

But I'm actually writing about your parenthetical aside regarding The New Price is Right, in which you assert — jokingly, I assume — that the show has no writers. As you no doubt know, the show does indeed employ writers, and more than a few, to provide at least some of the words that Drew speaks, as well as pretty much everything his announcer intones, as well as all the words spoken by whoever it is that reads the prize descriptions. The fact that the show's writers aren't credited is almost solely due to show owner FremantleMedia's desire to avoid having to offer them the same industry standard benefits that accrue to writers on most other network shows. But, curiously, someone at FremantleMedia thought enough of their "writers" to submit three of their names to the TV academy for Emmy recognition, as Writers, for the 2007-2008 season — a strange gesture indeed for a company that claims not to employ scribes on their shows.

That and other subjects of more than passing interest to WGA members will likely be aired at this Friday's WGA rally to Win Industry Standards for Fremantle's writers, to be held this Friday at noon outside the company's Burbank HQ (at Pass and Alameda, just down the street from Bob's Big Boy.)

Hey, isn't that the Bob's Big Boy where Drew Carey always eats? Someone told me he owns it, and he may, but apparently he's there several times a week for meals. Maybe you could all go over there after the rally, see if he's eating at the counter and get him to spring for lunch.

But you're entirely right, Vince. That show has writers and like most writers on shows that are supposed to look spontaneous, they probably do a lot more than is readily apparent. This is one of our key issues in the current talks and I shouldn't have glossed over it as I did.

I'm hearing from a lot of folks who feel Jay Leno got slammed unfairly for…well, I'm still not sure exactly what the crime was. Something to do with assuring his staff they had nothing to worry about and not coming through with checks in the six hours after they were laid off. A lot of the pieces (starting with The Drudge Report, which is always a good place to get off track) said that Jay had fired his writers. Jay didn't fire anyone, especially his writers. They said he'd fired his staff…but the staff works for NBC. NBC laid them off, and this seems to have been done largely to send a message of fear out there. One of the Stupid Management Tricks that doesn't seem to be working this time is the concept that any time someone peripheral suffers as a result of the strike — a secretary being laid off, a business losing business, etc. — it's the fault of those awful writers for not just taking the rotten offer and getting back to work. It couldn't possibly be the fault of the AMPTP for giving them that rotten offer and refusing to budge off it.

That's worked in the past to ratchet up the pressure on us. But I don't think it's working this time.

Lastly, I need to clarify something that a number of correspondents and websites have gotten wrong. In 1985, a Writers Guild strike collapsed after three chaotic weeks and the WGA accepted what a lot of us think was the worst deal in the history of Hollywood labor unions. Some of us thought so at the time; others have since come 'round to that view. Among those who at the time campaigned for us to accept it, you now get a lot of, "Oh, no, I was never one of those idiots who were yelling that it was a good deal." What it was was an immense rollback in our compensation when a movie or TV show we wrote was sold on home video. As I've written here a couple of times, there was talk then of studies that would reassess the marketplace for video cassettes (this was pre-DVD) and some sort of upward adjustment if that industry turned out to be more lucrative than some thought.

Some people seem to think these studies were part of the '85 deal. They weren't. The settlement we accepted that year was that we'd take a whole lot less on home video, end of story. There was absolutely nothing in that contract that required the studios to spend ten seconds studying the marketplace or to give us ten cents more if, as it turned out, they were suddenly making billions selling movies on tape. The "talk" was all consolation statements…studio heads telling the press, "We're going to look into this…see if the writers deserve more…" But they were in no way obligated to do it so they didn't do it, and we all knew (or should have known) they weren't going to do it.

Moral of the story: We have a saying around the Writers Guild that if it ain't on the page, it ain't getting on the screen. It's the same way with deals. You don't get the money if it doesn't say so on the paper. And sometimes, not even then.

Here's a great example of someone furiously spinning the news to their advantage and getting slapped down for it. As you may have heard, two scientists — an American named James A. Thomson and a Japanese counterpart — recently announced they had developed an embryo-free way to produce genetically matched stem cells. This prompted columnist Charles Krauthammer to proclaim that the debate about embryonic stem cells was over and that George W. Bush had won. By insisting that science curtail the use of embryos in such research, Bush had spurred them on to find an alternative. Wrote Krauthammer, "Rarely has a president — so vilified for a moral stance — been so thoroughly vindicated." The piece, which ran in the Washington Post, was filled with quotes from Thomson that seemed to support all this.

That was last Friday. Today, the Post has a piece by James A. Thomson and a colleague, essentially saying that Krauthammer doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. The rebuttal, co-authored by the guy who was Krauthammer's star witness in support of Bush, says that Bush and Krauthammer were wrong both from a scientific perspective and as a matter of governmental policy. It's about as thorough a smackdown as I've ever seen in any newspaper and it concludes with a plea for Congress to override Bush's veto on the subject.

They should. There's no earthly reason to not pursue embryonic stem cell research other than a bunch of guys like Krauthammer, who don't have a clue about the science involved, have convinced themselves it's a variation on the abortion debate. They think they can't lose on one without losing on the other and they're wrong.

The new National Intelligence Estimate report says that Iran won't be "technically capable" of producing an atom bomb for quite some time. What does this mean? Fred Kaplan reads the thing so we don't have to.

Two weeks ago in New York, I saw and enjoyed the new Broadway show based on the movie, Xanadu. Here's a five minute sampler of this fun musical…

I will be appearing (again!) this Wednesday on Stu's Show, the keystone program on Shokus Internet Radio. Matter of fact, it's the one-year anniversary of Stu's Show and since I was the first guest, host Stu Shostak is having me back to celebrate one whole year of his weekly broadcasts. We'll be discussing, among other topics, the Writers Strike, the new book on Charles Schulz, and the upcoming new Garfield cartoon show which I am writing these days since it is not affected by the strike.

The show can be heard live on Wednesday from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM to 9 PM in the east. I'll post a link here among the umpteen reminders to which you'll be subjected between now and then. But make plans to be at your computer then so you can listen in.

Back in the eighties, I did a comic book called Crossfire, which was drawn by a superb artist named Dan Spiegle. Crossfire was a super-hero (sort of) who in his other identity was a bailbondsman. He drove around L.A. in a 1957 Thunderbird that was identical to a 1957 Thunderbird that I then owned and often drove around L.A. One day, Dan was drawing an issue and he called up and asked me what our hero's license plate was. He had drawn a panel that required that info…so I thought for about two seconds and said, "BAIL4U." Thereafter, whenever Dan drew the T-Bird, that was usually seen on the plate.

A few weeks ago, I was driving through a parking garage in Century City when I did an automotive double-take. I literally passed another car, saw something, realized what I thought I'd seen, hit the brakes and then backed up about ten yards so I could see if I'd actually seen what I thought I'd seen. Sure enough, it was the license plate from Crossfire's car…

Fortunately, I had my camera with me. Unfortunately, the plate was not on a 1957 Thunderbird. It was on a late model Mercedes that I'm guessing belongs to a rather successful person in the bail bond business.

There's really nothing more to this story than that. I just thought it was amazing that I noticed the plate, and I figured there might be one Crossfire reader who visits this site who'd be amused by it. I didn't stick around until the owner came back to the car. I was afraid it might be my character.

Another Private Snafu cartoon. It's called Gripes and it was directed by Friz Freleng and released in July of '43. (Someone added Freleng's name on this print. When these films were released, they were without credits.) This one has kind of an interesting moral. It's that if you treat our soldiers well, you'll get your ass shot off. So it's dangerous to complain if they make you peel a lot of potatoes. I don't buy it, either but that's apparently the message that the Army wanted the animators to sell.

Mel Blanc does all the voices except that in the crowd scenes, you can hear Tedd Pierce, a WB storyman who occasionally played parts in the films.

If you eat in chain restaurants, you might want to check out this list of The 20 Worst Foods in America. It's really amazing sometimes how many calories are in something you'd think wouldn't be as bad as it is.

Yesterday, Jay Leno was the subject of some press reports that cast him in a bad light for declining to pay the salaries of Tonight Show staff members who have been laid-off because of the strike. Today, it's being reported that he is paying their salaries on a week-to-week basis, but he's being portrayed in a bad light because he didn't come through faster with the assurance…or something like that.

Here's a link to the article and I'm a little mystified. The staffers were laid off on Friday and on Saturday, Leno's producer was phoning around to assure them they'd be paid. That's not soon enough? The guy's shelling out a pretty large piece of change to people who don't even work for him — they work for NBC — and the response is that morale among the staff members is low because of Jay's behavior? That strikes me as finding a negative where there isn't one. Last night, I spoke to one Tonight Show employee who painted quite a different picture and who said that everyone there understands that Jay is having some tough negotiations with the network that are unrelated to the strike.

But this article seems to be going out of its way to spin positives into negatives. Here are a couple of examples…

"A lot of people don't want to work for Jay anymore," another staffer said. "His true colors have shown. We were told he won't cross the picket line until David Letterman or Conan O'Brien do so that he can look like the good guy to the WGA."

Even assuming that's a true summary of Leno's mindset — and it may not be, since it's at best an anonymous third-hand source from someone who may have been speculating in the first place — so what? If Letterman, O'Brien and Leno all stay out until the strike is over, they will be "good guys" to the WGA. That's all the guild is asking of them.

Beyond Leno's misplaced optimism about the financial well-being of his staff, he further damaged himself — in the eyes of some workers — with his public behavior. While he privately expressed concern for the jobs of all staff members, to the media he seemed preoccupied with supporting striking writers, including handing out doughnuts to picketers and mugging for press photos.

Translation: At a time when his staff members were still being paid, Leno was out supporting his union. In case no one's figured it out, the WGA has asked actors and performers to come out, join the picket lines and be photographed with us.

Just what is it Leno allegedly did wrong here? The staffers had not yet been laid off and might not have been laid off if, as many were speculating, the strike was close to a settlement. Apparently, he was supposed to not go out and back his guild. He was supposed to be lining up jobs for these people who don't work for him and might not have been laid off…this, despite the fact that employees are being laid off all over town and no star is helping them find work, and most aren't offering a dime out of their own pockets. (It is apparently only late night talk show hosts who are expected to come up with their staff's paychecks during a strike, not stars of sitcoms or dramas or anything else.) I don't get it.

I like the fact that Jay went out and bought doughnuts for the picketers. It's a good, blue collar way of telling America that he's behind the strike, as if closing down his show wasn't enough. I helped run the picketing of NBC in '88 and I don't recall Mr. Carson coming by and passing out crullers. That strike might have lasted a few weeks less if he had.

Actually, because I usually picket over at CBS, I really like the fact that Drew Carey, who's inside there most days hosting The Price is Right (a show without writers, let's note) has been arranging for pizzas to be sent out to the WGA members marching about outside. One day, he arranged for a dozen to be delivered and one writer outside told a reporter, "We want to thank Drew for sharing half his lunch with us."