This TV Season? Put a fork in it
This TV Season? Put a fork in it
Joined: 12/31/69
This TV Season? Put a fork in it#1
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:07pm
You know what this means: No more new 30 Rock, Office or Ugly Betty episodes till.......?????
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four major studios have canceled dozens of writers' contracts in a possible concession that the current television season cannot be saved, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The move means the 2-month old writers strike may also endanger next season's new shows, the Times said.
January is usually the beginning of pilot season, when networks order new scripted shows. But the strike leaves networks without a pool of comedy and drama scripts from which to choose.
20th Century Fox Television, CBS Paramount Network Television, NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Television told the Times they have terminated development and production agreements.
Studios typically pay $500,000 to $2 million a year per writer for them and their staffs to develop new show concepts.
"I didn't see it coming," Barbara Hall, a writer and producer whose credits include former CBS series "Joan of Arcadia" and "Judging Amy," told the Times, which said ABC executives gave her the news Friday. "I am not entirely sure what their strategy is, all I know was that I was a casualty of it."
The newspaper said more than 65 deals with writers have been eliminated since Friday.
Studios cancel contracts
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#2
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:29pmCant wait for the Emmys!
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#3
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:32pmGot the Beijing 2008 Olympics coming up in August.
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#4
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:33pmI hope things change before August. Why haven't soap operas been impacted by the strike?
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#5
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:36pmI miss the Office and Samantha Who?
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#6
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:38pmSesot, I'm thinking that their writers are on a different contract.
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#7
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:42pmThanks Dottie. Too bad they weren't the ones that went on strike. I guess for now soaps are the only new non reality shows on air right now.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/20/07
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#8
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:48pm
They still have the History Channel and the Discovery Channel. I know a lot of people don't bother to switch to those channels, but they've got a LOT of diverse information and it's always presented in a really interesting way.
Who were the writers for the last season of Gilmore Girls? Boy, that show's script went down the toilet those last few episodes. But I miss it anyway
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#9
Posted: 1/15/08 at 4:53pmSoaps ARE on a different contract, mainly because they don’t re-run, so there is no problem about residuals. But I read somewhere that they may soon be impacted.
Joined: 12/31/69
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#10
Posted: 1/15/08 at 5:00pmAnna, I find a lot of the History channel's programming downright insulting lately. A Biography of Evel Knieval? Nostradamus crap?
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/20/07
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#11
Posted: 1/15/08 at 5:02pmI haven't seen that. Come to think of it, I haven't seen History Channel in a while. LIFE AFTER PEOPLE looks pretty cool.
Joined: 12/31/69
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#12
Posted: 1/15/08 at 5:03pmI am looking forward to that. I have a hunch this planet will be far more enjoyable when the rest of you aren't here.
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#13
Posted: 1/15/08 at 5:12pm
>> Soaps ARE on a different contract, mainly because they don’t re-run, so there is no problem about residuals. But I read somewhere that they may soon be impacted.
Uhm... yes, they do. The Soap Opera channel.
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#14
Posted: 1/15/08 at 5:18pmI thought the soaps had months of scripts stockpiled and that's why they are still churning them out, but I could be wrong.
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#15
Posted: 1/15/08 at 5:20pmNope, those are written and re-written right up to taping. That's one reason why the scenes are all so short: the actors generally get no time whatsoever to learn lines.
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#16
Posted: 1/15/08 at 5:47pmSee, that's what I always thought - which admittedly came from movies like Tootsie and Soapdish - and then I read a couple of blurbs before the strike saying they had scripts written very far in advance, and I wondered if that was some sort of bs.
re: This TV Season? Put a fork in it#18
Posted: 1/15/08 at 5:59pm
That was a below-the-belt hit. Wonder how the WGA will deal with it. Will they budge an inch? I definitely support them but wouldn't a poorly remunerated job be better than no job?
Meanwhile, I'm going through PUSHING DAISIES, 30 ROCK, UGLY BETTY, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, HEROES, GREY'S ANATOMY, SAMANTHA WHO? and BROTHERS & SISTERS. Okay, I know a few of those shows aired new episodes last week but knowing that I won't see them again for a long long time to come makes me sad. I used to not watch TV, now I'm a lost cause.
I think the ones suffering the most are the new shows that needed their freshman season to grab their future audience. I am also worried about the mid-season shows that never really had the chance to wrap up their 11-15 episodes (I think that's usually the mid-season number).
30 ROCK also needed the chance of a full second season.
The show that worries me the most is LOST, it was bad enough waiting till January for new episodes, now we'll just get a handful of new episodes and that's it for who knows how long? 
Sad, sad, sad.
Only silver lining is that perhaps now some great theater stars working on TV will get the chance to do a few shows: Jane Krakowski, Chandra Wilson, Kristin Chenoweth, Swoozie Kurtz, Vanessa Williams, etc.
Videos
