45 entries from December 2007.




Leno gets Huckabee; Letterman gets Robin Williams

NBC must really be desperate to have the first guest for their non-union show be a union-hating Republican presidential candidate. Now it's a given that no Democratic candidate is going to cross the picket line, and Nikke Finke mentioned that Mike Huckabee has courted union support, but just look at the facts and tell me what his and NBC's intentions really are.The guy is going to cross a sizable union picket line after asking for union support.If there are any late-night talkers you should be watching during the strike, I suggest you tune in with David Letterman who has signed an interim deal with the WGA that allows his writers to return to work under a fair contract, the kind...
, , ,

In Brief

Still experimenting with new ways of linking news and writing commentary here, so bear with me as I try a daily post with summaries to things that might not warrant a post of their own but still may be of interest. Please leave comments if you have any.Featured: Letterman, 4400/Dead Zone, AvP, bad puns, more.....
, , ,

Girls dreams screwed by stupid parents and souless business

I love watching Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" segment every night, and if I could nominate somebody or something, it'd have to be a retail clothing outlet called Club Libby Lu. They held an essay contest of some sort with a set of concert tickets to a Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana concert as the prize, which this girl and her parents won, only to find out the essay lied about the little girls supposedly dead father.The result while not unexpected, was cruel and despicable nonetheless....


Patriots & Giants draw record numbers

Here's a fact that surprised absolutely nobody: Sunday's game between the Patriots and Giants pulled in a bit over 34 million viewers spread across two national broadcast networks and one cable channel, the latter being owned by and displaying only NFL content.Ultimately I think it's kind of funny, that with NBC and CBS fighting each other for viewers that neither one ended up with terribly impressive numbers. Almost 16 million people opted to watch the game on CBS, while 13 million eyeballed NBC. If either had won out, they'd have been sitting on nearly 30 million viewers, up there in American Idol territory.For whatever reason, 4.5 million people watched the game on the NFL Network, which considering the importance of...
,

Ron Moore on the Letterman Deal

In case you didn't know, Ron Moore (Battlestar Galactica) started a blog to jot down his personal musings during the strike, which is rarely updated yet fairly insightful and a must read if you track that kind of thing at all. There was a great story about staff writers on Star Trek TNG peering through a window from their office building over to the next with binoculars into Rick Berman's office trying to figure out how he was mangling their scripts on any given day.Good stuff, and naturally he had a short statement on Letterman's company Worldwide Pants striking a deal with the Writers Guild of America, allowing him to return to the air with his writers while no other...
,

5 Things to do During The Strike

With only a few series left to air new episodes in January, there's just not going to be much to watch on TV if you're not a fan of reality for a good long while. That got me thinking of things you could do to get your fix, and if your life is anything like the rest of ours, then there's plenty of things to see now that over the years you just didn't have time for.But now you do!Subscribe to Netflix and look up some TV series that you thought you'd probably like, but knew you didn't have time for. For me, that means the second and third seasons of House, and pretty much every season of Lost. With...


No Movement in Writers Strike

In returning from the unplanned holiday break, I'm happy to say things will be picking up steam in the next day or so even though we're heading into a traditionally slow weekend where hardly any news or content is released. That's fine, I'll work through it this time around since there's probably a ton more to catch up on that I care to think about, beginning with strike news.Of which, there isn't very much I'm sad to say. The growing sentiment now and something that seems as likely as any bit of reasoning to me has the corporate giants known as the AMPTP (principally about seven or eight multi-national conglomerates that create and control virtually everything we see on TV,...
, ,

Closed for the holidays

I got burned out on blogging and believe me, that can happen no matter how much or how little content you write on a daily basis. There hasn't been much strike news and there doesn't figure at least until after the new year. Chances are even then, we're going to be stuck with this one for a while.Other stuff has been building up and what I'd like to do is try to write more original content and also bring in more posts highlighting other original content, and fewer link posts to industry news. I'll try that after Christmas, when I'll be back here with full energy and attention. There's little point to starting that all right now since most people...
,

Letterman strikes deal with WGA

Late-night TV is about to come back on the air with all hosts returning to their shows, minus writers, with the exception of David Letterman who actually owns his show and has negotiated an interim deal with the Writers Guild of America. Naturally CBS distanced itself from the deal because they didn't want to look like they were making positive efforts to end the strike. They really want to own that "greedy retarded child" image, don't they?News about it here, here, and here.I can see how writers are upset that Leno, O'Brien, and Letterman are going back on the air during a strike when they are all WGA members, crossing picket lines, and damaging the strike by putting money back...
, ,

Peter Jackson and New Line kiss, make up

But Jackson won't be directing either of the Hobbit films, instead he'll produce while exerting creative control over the projects. I find it kind of strange that any director would sign on without having his or her run of the ship, especially with something this high profile. I mean yeah, we've all heard that Sam Raimi would do it if Jackson produced but does anybody really think one of them is going to take second seat to the other?...
,

More media-complicit spin

Tired of strike stuff? Tough, I'm going to keep repeating myself until this fact is stuck firmly in the minds of everyone that is pissed because their favorite shows are now off the air. From Michael Hinman at Sy Fy Portal:We have the writers on one side, who feel they are being left out of the whole new technology game. We have the studios on the other side, who feel they are being asked to pay for something when no money is being made.Yes, I know it's almost impossible to boil down the entire Writers Guild of America strike in two sentences, but that's basically how the people who are paying attention to all of this are seeing it. And...


Lost returns even more fragmented than ever

So the TV writers are starting to get all in a tizzy over the return of Lost next month on ABC. Can't say I agree, I missed the first season, watched the first quarter of the second season and was turned off by stagnant writing that really never rose above my own preconception of a boring drama set in a jungle. The flashbacks that everyone seemed so enthralled with were devistating to the narrative and did nothing but yank me out of the show and make me wish they'd pick one or the other.They really did feel like cheats.Anyway, when ABC decided to stop making full seasons, I figured it was a sign they had lost faith in the once...


Will Smith overpaid? Give me a break

There's a questionable list of the most overpaid actors in Hollywood running on Zap2it.com, if you care to take a look. Russell Crowe tops the list which I think is kind of unfair. Most of the list is actually pretty unfair because it seems to run under the assumption that A-list talent -- real A-list'ers -- can open films and bring in audiences on a regular basis and hence earn their paychecks while the rest are just pretty faces who got lucky once or twice and have since proven unreliable novelties.Really, the people on this list are subject to the simple reality that films are hit-or-miss ventures where 90% miss on a regular basis, and anything less than that is...
,

Letterman coming back?

There isn't generally speaking a lot going on with the writers strike. SAG wrote a letter to the WGA membership telling them what they already knew: SAG wants them to win this battle so that they don't have to next summer. It may not matter if the DGA undercuts both of them so they can get a doggy biscuit from management, so we'll have to see if they get a chance to show how far their commitment really goes.If you're a Letterman fan, though, there's good news for you....


A legendary box office for Will Smith

Just dropping in after a series of power outages that probably aren't over quite yet, to give a hat tip to Will Smith and company. I Am Legend killed at the box office this past weekend despite a devistating winter storm that has been battering the heartland and the north east. $77 million I believe the projection was, a good 35% above expectations (note to Nikki Finke -- that's not "nearly double"..) which will undoubtedly trigger five sequels of questionable quality.I wonder what it would have done without the storms getting in the way? Regardless, it topped the December openings of everything in history, including all three Lord of the Rings films, and Narnia.Well played....
,

SAG Awards gets strike waiver

Now isn't this interesting: the Writers Guild of America has granted SAG a wavier for its award show, meaning WGA writers can now participate without breaking the guilds strike rules. I love the gesture and thought they should have done it no matter what, but doesn't it seem a little bit like ass kissing between the two?Writers stand to gain immeasurably from a SAG strike -- if and when there is a SAG strike -- in the summer of next year when their contract comes up for renewal. Kiss kiss, hug hug, lots of love!Officials from other bashes -- including the Golden Globes and Academy Awards -- are scrambling to obtain similar waivers from the WGA, which has been on...
,

Cameron's Avatar moved to blunt strike shortfall?

That's what I'm asking myself, with news that Avatar has been moved May 22nd, 2009, all the way back to December 18th, 2009. It's not a production delay, we know that for sure. We also know that the writers strike isn't going to hurt any 2008 productions because they were ready to into production before the strike hit.That means the feature films that will be crunched would have been the films still being tweaked and put together right now for release sometime in...2009. If the studios are predicting a growing shortfall in '09 because of a strike that seems like it's going to last into the second quarter of next year, it only makes sense to start spreading out your...
,

AP strike FAQ is full of nonsense

The Associated Press released a FAQ (frequently asked questions) on the writers strike yesterday, and based on how the first answer looks, I'd say it was written by someone taking notes directly from the AMPTP. Glenn Greenwald has written a lot recently on how the mainstream press believes its job to be writing down what one side says and then publishing it -- and then if the other side disgrees -- publishing a "correction" stating that the "others disagree."Pretty much like I said, our vaunted investigative free press thinks its job is to dictate memos rather than finding and publishing the truth between two or more conflicting positions. Since both sides can't possibly be right, the press has basically resorted...


WB Exec: "We know there's not going to be a strike this year, we can handle the Guild."

The ability to present thoughts in a clear and precise manner is a talent you'd think would exist in generous quantities amongst professional writers, but, as it turns out, a gift for fiction isn't the same thing as good speaking ability. Luckily for us, one person I know with an exceptional speaking ability in J. Michael Straczynski has written about the strike a couple of times, and this latest missive is actually quite devistating to the AMPTP....


John Campea still doesn't get it

Back in September, I rebutted some things in a post on The Movie Blog about the strike in which its author, John Campea, got just about everything wrong. You can read everything I've written on the topic since this site was launched by going to the labor category.Since I've fallen behind in news gathering recently, I decided to target a few specific sites that I knew would have interesting content (good or bad) and topping that list was The Movie Blog. Given how badly Campea had been covering the strike up until that point, I figured there'd be some ripe material that needed corrections and explanations that Campea has proven in the past unwilling to publish, or even debate.I wasn't...


Initial proceedings for David Chase lawsuit begins today

The AP is reporting that jury selection for the lawsuit filed against The Sopranos creator David Chase was set to begin today. Apparently one of Chase's unofficial consultants is suing him over the success of the show, even though it's not really clear here what the legal claim is. Robert Baer, a prosecutor and former judge did some leg work well before the show went on the air to give Chase some background on the Jersey Mafia which inspired the show.It seems like the work Baer did amounts to little more than consulting, so I'm not sure what he thinks he's going to get out of this. The "he stole the show idea from me" rap never holds up in...
,

Journeyman time-travels to the graveyard

I know many publications expend a lot of energy coming up with clever titles to the same news a dozen other outlets are publishing that day, but it can occasionally be fun when you have to make a joke about crappy shows being sent to the television afterlife. No so funny perhaps to fans of this doomed drama, though.After giving Chuck and Life full season orders which they will never end up fulfilling due to the strike, it has been reported that NBC has let its option on Journeyman expire:"Journeyman" has earned some critical praise of late after tepid reviews for its pilot, but it has struggled in the ratings pretty much from the start. It's averaging 7.34 million viewers...


A list from the past at AICN

Quint at AICN wrote about a couple of new flicks recently, one of which I had a weird experience with a number of months ago. For a while I was spending time in a screenwriting newsgroup (until I realized it was nothing but a personal chat room for one huge jerk, a bunch of wannbes that could have been contenders, etc) where a new guy showed up one day looking for help with the basics. A short time later he showed up celebrating the purchase of a spec script called The Bucket List in a way that intimated it was his sale.Nobody questioned this right off the bat, but things eventually came crashing down around the troll and he later...


John McTiernan gets bail pending appeal

While I love some of the guys films, I can't say I care much for his conduct off the set. You know, little things like lying to federal investigators and stuff. I don't know what part McTiernan played in the Anthony Pellicano scandal, but it must have been serious or at least pretty embarassing if he lied to the feds about his involvement. Here's a thought though, I'm pretty sure Canada doesn't let people in that have criminal records at all, so McTiernan can't run off to film his stuff up north on the cheap anymore.McTiernan then tried to rescind the guilty plea for a bevy reasons: (1) he had been jetlagged at the time he was questioned by agents; (2)...


Strike debate in L.A. Times

Feature writer Craig Mazin has been debating Matt Edelman in the L.A. Times this week, which will continue I suppose until Friday. I don't know who Edelman is other than he's the guy who was pegged to defend big media's indefensible positions. I think Craig did a decent job in yesterday's publication with what he knows but he wasn't able to address a specific point that perhaps I better can....


ABC fires the 'Big Shots'

No, sadly I'm not referring to the networks CEO who along with every other big media exec is causing 13,000 writers and god knows how many below-the-line people to be out of work during the holidays, but a freshman drama about...a bunch of unruly CEOs.The network has opted not to air the three remaining original episodes of the series, which had been scheduled for Dec. 13, 20 and 27. In its place following "Grey's Anatomy" on Thursdays, ABC will air repeats of "Grey's" spinoff "Private Practice."ABC's decision is a little bit of a head-scratcher, given that original episodes of scripted shows will be at a premium as the writers' strike drags on. On the other hand, in a season without...


Citizen Kane script barely bags MBA minimums

Quick and ironic news about the sale of Orson Welles' script for Citizen Kane:Orson Welles' personal working script of "Citizen Kane" sold for almost $100,000 Tuesday, but his Oscar for the 1941 film was withdrawn after bidding failed to rise above the seller's minimum price.Am I the only one noting that he'd probably have gotten more money for that script if it were sold today, just because of where the (now old) minimum wages are set? Apparently people think so little the value of a priceless script like that, that a studio would have to pay probably a shade more than that bare minimum just to buy the darn thing no matter how little or great they valued it.Personally, I...


Sci Fi Channel gets a gameshow

Apparently the "Sci Fi Channel" is about to step beyond "professional" wrestling and into pure reality programming sometime in the near future. A published report from the 7th said that Sci Fi had greenlit a reality/gameshow based on a Japanese property that will be called Run For Money.The only reason I'm bothering to tell you this is because it's well past time NBC found a new name for their formally niche cable network. With an overwhelming number of original fantasy and horror films (all of them bad) paired with fantasy mini-series, pro-wrestling, and now a game show, they have lost the right to be even be associated with the science fiction genre, much less be named after it.Production is set...
, ,

New AMPTP adivsor hemoraging union clients

Have you had enough of the strike crap? Soon my friends, soon. Before we move on to more interesting things, it was reported sometime within the past couple of days that two former Democratic strategists that deep-sixed Senator John Kerry's campaign in 2004 were recently hired by the AMPTP to help them win the PR war against the writers. What wasn't reported until today is that, according to Jane Hamsher writing for Firedog Lake, a rather predictable result in hindsight has come into being.Namely, Chris Lehane - one of the two advisers - is losing all his union contracts for siding with multi-national corporations against a union in the middle of a strike:SEIU Local 99 in Los Angeles -- education...


NBC is feeling the cash crunch

The studio and network bigwigs tried selling the tale about a month ago that they didn't care if the strike put a premature end to the fall television season - in fact they seemed downright relieved not to have to deal with the consequences of green lighting a large crop of mostly bad shows. Nobody really believed that particular piece of fiction, at least nobody that could do the math:Fourth-ranked broadcaster NBC has quietly begun reimbursing advertisers an average of $500,000 each for failing to reach guaranteed ratings levels, the first time a network has taken such a step in years, media buyers said.NBC was the first because they've had the worst ratings and the biggest cash crunch of any...


If DGA makes an early deal, DGA could find itself left behind

Still craping news from Friday, I just ran across a story that could change the landscape against conventional wisdom. I knew people like to say that if the DGA swoops in and makes a deal with the AMPTP sometime in the next couple of months, thereby undercutting SAG and WGA, that both of them would be forced to take the same deal via negotiating precedent. I've never bought into that line of reasoning, that just because that's how it always happens, that doesn't mean it has to happen every single time.I've deferred judgment on that to people who know a lot more about this than I do, but really you can't argue against plain logic when its only foe is...
, , ,

Walkouts: AMPTP 2, WGA 0

Here's a fun fact; the number of walkouts by each side since the strike began on November 5th:WGA: 0 AMPTP: 2So which side was it again, that was hell bound for a strike? Can't be the side that worked five days past the end of its contract only to have management walk out on those talks. Can't be the side that wanted to negotiate through the holidays after management started threatening ultimatums just before walking out a second time....
, ,

AMPTP breaks off talks. Again.

For the second time since the negotiations began, the AMPTP (studios+networks hereby referred to as either "big media" or "management") has walked away from the table once they realized the other side wasn't simply going to do what they were told, and that's really what this fight has been boiled down to.If you read what Nikke Finke says about the mental state of these CEOs (and use some of that Hollywood pixie dust to suspend believe for a moment that she's not being played like a drum) and believe what she says about them, then it's not hard to believe that what this represents is a lot of stately older white men holding their breath as long as they could,...
, , ,

Directors: Friend or Foe?

There's a good story I missed in Variety from yesterday that I think represents the most intriguing and important storyline of the writers strike. We know mostly where both sides stand in that dispute, and I keep reading that the only question about how it will end depends on when the DGA decides to step in and start negotiations for a new deal of their own.I have strong feelings about that because I understand that the DGA is just as weak, if not more so, than IATESE is (if you believe what SAG says about them.) Primarily, that they are the least likely of the big three to strike under practically any circumstances and wish to avoid conflict at nearly...
,

Clooney's secret tribute

George Clooney gives a hearty congrats to Julia Roberts from a very special place - hilarious....


Dexter on CBS? Hurrah!

There really isn't very much going on right now with the strike having nuked production on basically everything related to television, while most shows are really starting to run out of new episodes to air. Heroes is done, I guess The Office is done. Desperate Housewives, which will be a bitter pill to swallow with the great ratings it's getting, is just about history. All the nets seem intent on driving away what few people there are who are still watching television by pushing reality programming into overdrive in January.Some nets have held back shows for whatever reason or excuse, so those that have it are going to have a few new things to sprinkle on the tube while they...


Broken comments and search

I made a change on the back end of the site that should make things a lot faster for leaving comments, and everything I do when I write and manage this site. Unfortunately, somebody left out a step when writing instructions on how to do what I was doing, and it caused the links to the comment and search scripts to break across the entire site.I'm sorry, even though it's entirely not my fault. It would have helped if somebody who had gotten one of the hundreds of errors I see in my log that is normally empty would have used the link on the error page to email me and tell me something was wrong. Please, if something doesn't...


Strike over $50m per year residual increase costing $300 million per month

This is what $250 million looks like.Sorry I can't give you a direct link to this but there doesn't seem to be one on this page on SyFy Portal, so we'll just have to make due with what we've got. The deal is this: The 1988 writers strike supposedly cost the networks and studios about $500 million dollars for the 5-6 months it lasted, which doesn't account for the larger industry losses (as far as I know) and layoffs and indirect affects to the catering and transportation business, among many others.That's a pretty big number now, forget about what it felt like 19 years ago. I had trouble finding a solid estimate for what that number might look like this...
,

Jericho Season 2 Premier Date Set

Fans of the canceled and then resurrected CBS drama Jericho shall rejoice thusly: a date has been set for the premier of the limited-run second "season" on Tuesday, February 12th in the ridiculously late time slot of 10pm EST where people are guaranteed not to watch it. It's nice that CBS is using Jericho to prop up its schedule right around the time it, along with every other major network, will have expended their new programming for the year due to the writers strike.The new episodes of Jericho were written and shot well before the strike began in the first week of November. Due to the lack of other original scripted programming, Jericho may well benefit in the short term...


More "The Pretender" on the digital horizon?

I used to love The Pretender, but not while it was actually on the air. I'd catch an episode or two here and there, when I had the chance, but I wasn't dedicated to putting my butt in a chair once per week at the same hour back at that point. It wasn't anything close to a knockout hit, or anything, but I regret not giving it more of my time. Compared to some of the crap that has replaced it over the years and the stuff airing today, The Pretender seems like a step up.So, want some more?...


So what if Golden Compass is anti-religion?

There have been people raising a stink over The Golden Compass since before it went into production from what I gather, and certainly since the book it's based on was published, though probably not as much as the film has generated. So what's the beef?While all anybody talks about is how Catholic groups (gee, what's new there?) aren't just complaining about it - they are boycotting it - I don't see anybody saying "so what of it is?" And we should, too. Who else is always the loudest in the room demanding tolerance for beliefs, but only when they happen to be on the defensive? Imagine what would happen if a rational response to this was people boycotting the Catholic...
,

This strike was always about power, not money

Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed that Nikke Finke reported that a trusted and accurate source had told her that a deal was mostly already in place between the WGA and AMPTP, when later just days after it became obvious that not only was a deal not in place, but that both sides hadn't even gotten on to new proposals yet and were still rehashing their old ones to get caught up for the first time in over three weeks....
,

Bale confirmed for T4

This is old news by now, so I'm going to take advantage of it sitting around to test out posting for this site with Windows Live Writer. The latency of my Internet connection (satellite) makes even the speediest and most responsive sites feel incredibly slow, pretty much because they are when you've got to route your requests for data to an object 20,000 miles above your head - and that's not really accounting for the fact that it has to come back down, go out over the Internet, go back up, and come back down again to complete the circuit.So, anyway, the rumor going around the past week or so was that Christian Bale was going to play John Connor...


Torchwood season 2 censored for your protection

The BBC is apparently going to censor edit the second season of Torchwood (which hasn't aired yet) so they can air it in an earlier time slot and so younger viewers can watch it without them having to endure horrific experiences of swearing on television when they certainly get it every single day at home and at school instead. The original version will still air later at night for all of us sick deviants that like our entertainment written as if we weren't all 10-years-old.I find it kind of funny though that they're going to scrub the language but not the sexual content, of which there is a fair amount in reference, though I'm not talking about nudity here. Beyond...


Digital Streaming Market Valuation Could Top $1.3bn This Year

The machine is idling this afternoon as both sides in the writers' labor dispute are not scheduled to return to the negotiating table until sometime Tuesday, though there is little hope of the work stoppage coming to an end in the near future.The demands put forth by the Writers Guild of America have been consistently rebuffed by the big media corporations who insist on pushing across rollbacks, also complaining of what they claim is an uncertain market, one that NBC has been keenly pursuing extremely aggressively over the past five weeks....
,


Media Pundit categories