http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/news...0,7677303,full.story

From the Los Angeles Times
Hollywood focuses on fast end to long strike

The guild and studios are near a deal. Work could resume Monday.

By Meg James, Matea Gold and Maria Elena Fernandez
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

February 8, 2008

Hollywood could be back on its feet as early as Monday.

The major studios and the Writers Guild of America are putting the finishing touches on a deal that could bring an end to the costly walkout. Today the two sides are expected to finalize a three-year contract that guild leaders plan to present to thousands of writers in Los Angeles and New York on Saturday. The guild board could approve the contract Sunday and encourage writers to return to work the next day, according to people close to the negotiations.

Studio executives and TV producers have been preparing for that day for the last two weeks, hoping to salvage the remainder of the television season by quickly revving up production to bring back some popular TV shows that have been languishing in repeats or were taken off the air.

"Everyone is motivated to get back to work as quickly as possible," said Jonathan Littman, president of Jerry Bruckheimer Television, which produces "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Amazing Race," among other shows, for CBS. "They want to begin producing as many original episodes as they can."

Movies that were derailed by the strike also could lurch back, including high-profile projects such as Columbia Pictures' "Da Vinci Code" prequel "Angels & Demons" and Warner Bros.' "Shantaram," starring Johnny Depp.

Films are blessed with long lead times, and last summer studio executives accelerated development and production schedules in anticipation of a strike. As a result, the movie industry was not as hard hit by the Nov. 5 work stoppage as broadcast TV.

Production shut down in December and January, after the supply of TV scripts had been depleted. That compromised the season, which officially ends May 21.

It will take four to six weeks and tens of millions of dollars to ramp up TV production in dozens of cavernous soundstages in Los Angeles, Burbank and New York, and not every prime-time series will immediately return to the air.

"It's not just flipping a switch and having everything come right back on," said Barry Jossen, executive vice president of production for ABC Studios. "There are a lot of factors and considerations that go into these decisions. We are trying to determine the amount of material that was finished before the strike started, the creative status of the show and the broadcast schedule needs."

Only about 10 to 20 prime-time network programs are likely to return this spring with fresh episodes, including some of TV's biggest hits, such as "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" on CBS. Some viewers might not see new episodes of their favorites until fall -- at the earliest. Shows with complex plots, large casts and complicated production elements, such as NBC's "Heroes" and Fox's "24," are expected to roll over to next season.

Studio executives say they can't justify the increased costs of ramping up production for every program halted by the strike. It would cost the studios millions of dollars extra -- an average $200,000 more an episode, according to one estimate -- to produce an abbreviated run for each series. Crews must be rehired, sets need to be rebuilt, and the costs of production would be spread over a smaller number of episodes.

Some struggling shows might not be worth saving. Shelling out millions more for marketing campaigns to try to relaunch an iffy drama could spell sudden death for such programs as NBC's "Bionic Woman" and CBS' "Cane," industry executives predicted.

Television executives are vowing to use the disrupted TV season as an opportunity to do what they have talked about for years: change their decades-old rituals in an effort to contain costs in an era when audiences have declined and technologies such as the Internet and digital video recorders have changed the way people consume media.

"TV executives haven't been sitting around thumbing their fingers during the strike; they have been giving a lot of thought to how they run their business," Littman said. "We're seeing some industrial Darwinism as the business changes."

For decades, broadcast television has operated on a rigid schedule. In the fall, writers submit hundreds of scripts to the networks, which place orders for their top prospects in January and February; producers hire staffs and shoot pilot episodes from February through April in what's typically known as pilot season.

Networks are running out of time for a full-blown development season for next fall, which could give shows such as "Cashmere Mafia" on ABC and "Reaper" on the CW a new lease on life.

Networks plan to scale back the number of pilots they order this year. In recent years, as many as 120 comedy and drama pilots were produced for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the CW, all competing for the vacant slots on their prime-time schedules. Last year the networks ordered about 40 of the pilots to series.

"Broadcast networks can no longer spend tens of millions of dollars every year creating dozens of pilots that never see the light of day," NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker said.

Of all the pilots produced last year, only one, "Samantha Who?" on ABC, became a bona fide hit. That's a lousy batting average in an industry that can spend $8 million for an hourlong pilot.

TV executives hope to usher in year-round development and adopt more of a cable-TV programming schedule, where the focus is on ordering fewer shows and introducing them throughout the year.

"We are looking at the long-term health and stability of the business for multiple seasons," ABC Studios' Jossen said.

TV comedies will be the first to go back into production. Multi-camera shows such as "Two and a Half Men" on CBS and "Back to You" on Fox are likely to resume production within the next two weeks. Single-camera comedies, such as NBC's "The Office" and "My Name Is Earl" and CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" also are expected to quickly shift back into gear.

The creator of "My Name Is Earl," Greg Garcia, said he would like to get his writing staff back together Monday. Production should begin within two weeks after the strike ends, Garcia said, because the writers had left two completed scripts that were not shot and had outlined several other episodes.

"We're kind of ahead of the game, so we can mobilize quickly," Garcia said. "But it all remains to be seen."

Established dramas could begin production in March.

Howard Gordon, the show runner for "24" on Fox, said he has been busy contacting his writing staff.

He said production could feasibly resume six weeks after the writers boot up their laptops. But the drama's unique storytelling device, with each of the 24 one-hour episodes equaling a day in the life of terrorist-fighter Jack Bauer, has complicated matters.

"24" typically runs from January to May, but Fox delayed the premiere indefinitely rather than airing an incomplete season consisting of eight episodes that were on hand.

Fox has not decided when the show will return, Gordon said, but is considering three scenarios: airing 12 episodes as soon as possible and returning in the fall for the last 12, running all 24 episodes in the fall or waiting to premiere in January 2009.

There won't be room for every show on the schedule. Some scripted programs lost their time periods to replacement reality shows, as "Chuck" did on NBC to "American Gladiators."

At the FX cable channel, two shows felt the immediate brunt of the strike. Executives decided this week not to pull the plug on the second half of the season for "Dirt" and "The Riches." Both shows had completed seven episodes of what would have been 13-episode seasons when the labor stoppage forced production to halt in December.

Even if the writers could go back to work next week, the network concluded they would not have enough time to complete the second halves of the seasons before May, when a slew of scripted programming is expected to return to the air, making the landscape that much more competitive. FX has not decided whether to pick either program up for a third season.

Dmitry Lipkin, creator of "The Riches," said he was disappointed but understood his sacrifice: "My issues don't hold a candle to what the guild is trying to achieve," he said.

Will Scheffer, co-creator of HBO's "Big Love," said he and the other writers were in the midst of drafting the first six episodes of the show's third season when the strike was called.

"The forced downtime changes your creative mandate in a way that never would have happened had there not been a strike," Scheffer said. "In the shower, you get new ideas. We'll revisit all the scripts. There will be some minor changes and maybe a few major changes that we didn't expect that presented themselves."

As for the strike itself, Scheffer declared it a success.

"It's going to establish the writers' position in Hollywood as being a little bit more substantial," he said. "I think we showed there is an importance to the work, to scripts. That's a huge aspirational thing."

In the short term, he said:

"No one came out of the strike completely victorious. We all came out limping and bleeding."

quote:

Originally posted by Zedman2:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/news...0,7677303,full.story

Crews must be rehired, sets need to be rebuilt, and the costs of production would be spread over a smaller number of episodes.

Why would sets need to be rebuilt? Did the studios really pay people to take the sets down during the strike? If so, why? It isn't like the studios were going to be used for anything else.

quote:

Networks are running out of time for a full-blown development season for next fall, which could give shows such as "Cashmere Mafia" on ABC and "Reaper" on the CW a new lease on life.

I don't think Cashmere Mafia will have its lease extended.

quote:

Networks plan to scale back the number of pilots they order this year. In recent years, as many as 120 comedy and drama pilots were produced for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the CW, all competing for the vacant slots on their prime-time schedules. Last year the networks ordered about 40 of the pilots to series.

Short term one-year thinking: that leaves about 80 pilots to work with without having to create anything new. Could shows like 'Aquaman', for example, get dug out of the trash bin?

quote:

Of all the pilots produced last year, only one, "Samantha Who?" on ABC, became a bona fide hit. That's a lousy batting average in an industry that can spend $8 million for an hourlong pilot.

Is Samantha Who? really more of a hit than Private Practice, Big Bang Theory, or even Chuck?

From New York Times (Source):

February 10, 2008

Tentative Deal Is Reached in Writers' Strike

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES — An end to Hollywood’s long and bitter writers’ strike appeared close on Saturday, as union leaders representing 12,000 movie and television writers said they had reached a tentative three-year deal with production companies.

The strike, which began Nov. 5, remains in effect until the governing boards of the two writers’ guilds gauge the sense of their membership in mass meetings on both coasts this weekend and decide whether to end the walkout. The boards are expected to meet as early as Sunday, and the strike could be over by Monday morning.

A resolution would be good news for the producers, who have been patching together prime-time schedules with reruns and reality shows and have delayed some of their feature film plans. It would also bring relief to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which was nervously making plans for an Oscar night on Feb. 24 without writers or stars.

Late-night talk shows that have operated without writers would benefit immediately. Shows like NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” are already inviting writers back to work on Monday, assuming the strike ends. Dramas and comedies like Fox’s “24” and “Back to You” are likely to take weeks to get back in production. Weaker shows might not return at all, and shake-ups in network planning might delay the return of some shows, even though production would soon be possible.

The agreement would let writers claim to have bettered a similar deal achieved last month between the production companies and the Directors Guild of America. In the third year of the Writers Guild deal, writers will be paid a percentage of the distributor’s revenue rather than the flat fee for Web-streamed television shows granted to the directors. The writers had insisted on this issue to ensure they not lose out on any new-media windfall the studios and networks may get from Web video. The producers yielded on this point — and the directors did not push it —arguing that Internet distribution is unlikely to become a significant business during the length of these contracts.

Word of the tentative deal came on Saturday in an early morning e-mail message to members of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East. The deal was to be reviewed by members at previously scheduled meetings here and in New York on Saturday.

In their e-mail message, Patric M. Verrone, president of the West Coast guild, and Michael Winship, his East Coast counterpart, said: “Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success.”

While approval appears likely, members have warily debated the expected agreement all week, and they are certain to scrutinize the details closely. Members at the New York meeting on Saturday afternoon appeared largely upbeat, according to a writer who attended but spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with union leaders. But several questioners said they did not fully understand the contract, and some asked why the unions were being asked to lift the strike so quickly.

“It’ll be nuclear winter if we don’t ratify this,” said Terry George, a negotiating committee member, in response to one query. “If we don’t ratify this now, they can take everything back.” Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Winship drew substantial applause when he declared: “It is no exaggeration to say, a new era has begun.”

Speaking outside the New York meeting, Carmen Culver, who has written television movies and miniseries, said “the mood was more positive, certainly, than not.” She added, “There also, of course, lots of questions.”

Spokesmen for the writers and for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents over 300 production companies, declined to comment.

The walkout, Hollywood’s longest since writers went on strike for five months in 1988, shut down dozens of television shows, slowed development of feature films and threw tens of thousands of people out of work.

Writers had demanded a much bigger share of returns from new media than they had received in the past from the distribution of shows on older media like cassettes and DVDs, as well as expanded jurisdiction over reality television and animated features.

Company representatives initially responded by insisting on a complete revamping of Hollywood’s time-honored residuals system, under which writers, directors, actors and others are paid for re-use of their work on television and home video.

As the more expansive demands for wider jurisdiction and a narrowing of residuals were dropped, the sides were finally left with a more conventional negotiation. That turned on precise amounts of, and methods for calculating, payments for the growing digital distribution of shows in the next three years.

In Hollywood, excitement about a possible return to work has been dampened by widespread realization that the Screen Actors Guild, which represents 120,000 actors, is approaching a contract negotiation no less difficult than the writers’ talks.

A memorandum sent to some writers guild members summarized a four-hour meeting on Friday in which union leaders briefed a group of 300 strike captains. According to the memorandum, the captains were deeply divided as to whether the strike should be lifted before a full membership vote.

“Returning to work prior to an actual vote signaled it was over and felt undemocratic,” the memo sent to some guild members said, in summarizing the discussion. “Others felt the deal was being ‘rammed down our throats’ too quickly,” while still others felt that “returning to work was imperative.”

If members balk at an immediate return, the guilds could organize a rapid-fire vote by fax, Web and in meetings, polling writers over the next few days rather than ending the strike by board action. An accelerated member vote might put writers back to work by Wednesday.

The tentative agreement became possible when the sides reached a handshake deal nine days ago on a crucial term under which writers would be paid a fixed residual amounting to about $1,300 for the right to stream a television program online. In the third year of their contract, the writers would achieve one of their major goals: payments amounting to 2 percent of the distributor’s revenue from such streams.

The percentage formula is viewed by many writers as protection against the possibility that traditional reruns — which have paid them residuals amounting to tens of thousands of dollars per episode in the past — will disappear because of Web streams in the near future.

Other major gains include a pay plan that pegs residuals for electronic downloads of movies and televisions shows at nearly double the rate paid historically for DVDs, and calculates the rate as a percentage of the distributor’s revenue, junking an old formula.

The tentative agreement grew from a week-long, and sometimes heated, exchange of contractual provisions. Informal talks between guild leaders and key executives — primarily Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, and the president of News Corporation, Peter A. Chernin — began immediately after companies reached a deal with the directors guild in mid-January, pointing toward solutions that helped resolve the dispute with writers.

Television viewers began seeing the effects of the strike firsthand in the last few weeks, as scripted shows faded further into reruns and networks started promoting reality shows like “American Gladiators” on NBC that do not employ guild writers.

At the Friday strike captains’ meeting, Mr. Verrone said his guild had achieved two of its three prime objectives by securing coverage over Internet work and locking in a residuals formula for new media. According to the memorandum describing the meeting, Mr. Verrone called the failure to win jurisdiction over reality television and animation “a heartbreaking loss for him personally,” though he vowed to continue the fight.

Bill Carter and Colin Moynihan contributed reporting from New York.

Since it l0oks like the Strike is over, how a bout a "Who's On First" Pool game Douglas?

Select 5 shows you think will be back on TV with original episodes first. Only shows elgible are those that are completely out of episodes and out of production.