# Writers on strike! Quick...fill in for your favorite shows! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060 "2007-11-02T21:09:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/81 "2007-11-06T08:03:37Z")
[QUOTE=Elenfair] Well, this scribe tells everyone who thinks they can do a writer’s job to go ahead and try. / Seriously, folks, do you even have half a clue what it takes to do this work? Really? Any idea? [/QUOTE] Er, yes, actually. I do. I earned a living as a writer for about five years (okay, I actually earned a living as a writer for much longer, but only the first 4-5 years were spent writing for television and other creative media). And I agree with the posters who say it isn’t as hard or as difficult as the writers are making out. I guess any job can be described to either sound harder or easier than it really is, and I don’t blame pro writers for getting all melodramatic about how arduous their work really is, but who do they think they are fooling? 99% of what gets shown on TV, especially American TV, is conveyor belt pap processed by committee and built to a rigid and predictable formula. There are exceptions, of course. There are exceptions to everything. But no matter how hard you claim it is to write one of these shows, I’ll tell you something that’s even harder: remembering any of it one hour after you’ve sat through it. So, yes, thanks, I do have half a clue. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/82 "2007-11-06T13:31:38Z")
> [@elenfair](#): > > Seriously, ianzin, do you even have half a clue what it takes to do this work? Really? Any idea? [QUOTE=ianzin] So, yes, thanks, I do have half a clue. [/QUOTE] I corrected **Elenfair** ’s post so that yours makes sense now. You’re welcome. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/83 "2007-11-06T13:52:29Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] _Everything_ is built off of something else now-a-days. I honestly believe we could fire every writer currently working in Hollywood and start over with people who honestly think they can give it their all and not be any worse for the wear. [/QUOTE] I honestly think that 1% of the people who think they can write actually can. And of those 1%, even fewer actually do. ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/84 "2007-11-06T13:56:09Z")
[QUOTE=ianzin] 99% of what gets shown on TV, especially American TV, is conveyor belt pap processed by committee and built to a rigid and predictable formula. [/QUOTE] By your location, I see that you’re in London. Did you work out in the UK, or in the US when you worked in television? ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/85 "2007-11-06T14:01:58Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] I honestly think that 1% of the people who think they can write actually can. And of those 1%, even fewer actually do. [/QUOTE] [Why Writers Are Scum](http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/archives/001348.html) ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/86 "2007-11-06T14:40:38Z")
[QUOTE=Trion] [Why Writers Are Scum](http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/archives/001348.html) [/QUOTE] Hats off to Mr. David. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/87 "2007-11-06T14:45:41Z")
[QUOTE=Trion] [Why Writers Are Scum](http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/archives/001348.html) [/QUOTE] I was with him right up until he mocked the idea that “everyone can write but not everyone can draw.” Everyone _can_ write, it’s only a matter of degree. Some will be great and some will suck. And yes, some will not be able to do it as often as they’d like because they believe their family should be able to eat this week. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/88 "2007-11-06T15:39:13Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] I was with him right up until he mocked the idea that “everyone can write but not everyone can draw.” Everyone _can_ write, it’s only a matter of degree. Some will be great and some will suck. [/QUOTE] Which is exactly the same as drawing. Everyone can draw to the same degree as everyone can write. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/89 "2007-11-06T15:47:51Z")
[QUOTE=Elenfair] …Showrunners make over 200K easy. Unfortunately, we’re not all Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson and Carol Mendelssohn. [/QUOTE] Showrunner Joss Whedon is on your side. Here’s [his report](http://www.dollverse.com/index.php/Latest/FROM-THE-FRONT-LINES.html) from the picket lines–posted at the fansite for _Dollhouse_. That’s his just-announced series starring Eliza Dushku, scheduled to start this Fall. If the strike ends in time, that is. And Whedon’s many fans probably want the strike to end the right way–by the guys who earn far more than $200,000 a year loosening the grip on their money bags. However, much of this thread is a lighthearted look at current shows, rather than serious scabbiness (scabbitude?). Some of those shows _do_ seem far too predictable. But that’s more the fault of the big guys than the writers. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/90 "2007-11-06T16:25:28Z")
[QUOTE=ianzin] But no matter how hard you claim it is to write one of these shows, I’ll tell you something that’s even harder: remembering any of it one hour after you’ve sat through it. [/QUOTE] See, that’s because there’s a little bit of a magic trick involved. They claim copyright on describing the shows and threaten legal action, or even worse, try to get people banned from message boards if they say how the shows were done. ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/91 "2007-11-06T16:27:37Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] Showrunner Joss Whedon is on your side. [/QUOTE] Oh absolutely, and so are Mendelssohn, and Espenson, Leight, Kaplan, Noxon, Kring, Shore… They know what this means. This is about fairness. I mean, just look up what the deal is regarding internet downloads and streaming media. Tell me the current arrangement (or lack thereof) and the AMPTP’s proposal is fair to the writers? The Companies are making money hand over fist off the writers’ backs and the writers are seeing NOTHING in return. Tell me that’s fair. Without writers, the whole industry collapses. Gnarr! … gnarr. _sigh_ thank the Dagda and all his fuzzy nephews for unions. Otherwise, we’d get eaten alive. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/92 "2007-11-06T17:16:03Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Everyone can write, it’s only a matter of degree. Anyone who thanks that “everyone can write” should see some of my classmates’ papers. > [@Bridget Burke](#): > > And Whedon’s many fans probably want the strike to end the right way–by the guys who earn far more than $200,000 a year loosening the grip on their money bags. Well, as **Elenfair** noted, they’re striking for the uncredited writers who _don’t_ make $200,000 as well. And $200,000 seems pretty damn low considering what other people in the process of making a TV show pull in. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/93 "2007-11-06T17:22:07Z")
[QUOTE=Elenfair] So – you’ve got scripts 1, 4, and 6 due in the span of a month because that’s how the chips fell. Oh, and I expect you to have the plotlines for the general arc to be completed, the material for the website revised, and a couple of interviews done for some entertainment show on the parent network’s primetime gawk-fest thingie. Got it? Good! Oh, and by the way the director for 4 said that a scene you wrote needed a complete rewrite, Actor Alpha didn’t like the sound of the pickups in scene 3 of script 1 and wants a rewrite, and ADR is gonna be needed for a couple of scenes there too, so we need you to rewrite those voiceovers, okay? Thanks… By the way, script 4 is about 5 minutes too long even though the page count is right so it needs to be cut for time, script 6 is three minutes short. Have a nice day! Now go! [/QUOTE] Your woe-is-me bit seems a bit pale to those of us who do other sorts of writing. Instead of actors and directors wanting rewrites it’s editors and layout artists. Boo-hoo. Screenwriters only get 1.2% of 20% of sales as royalties? Cry me a river, it’s infinately more than I get. ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/94 "2007-11-06T17:34:17Z")
[QUOTE=kidchameleon] Your woe-is-me bit seems a bit pale to those of us who do other sorts of writing. Instead of actors and directors wanting rewrites it’s editors and layout artists. Boo-hoo. Screenwriters only get 1.2% of 20% of sales as royalties? Cry me a river, it’s infinately more than I get. [/QUOTE] That’s the writers who write 50% of a script or more. That doesn’t include those of us who are staffers, script doctors and editors who still write a shitload but don’t see residuals. At all. You might want to check your royalty figures, especially when it comes to DVD sales. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/95 "2007-11-06T17:36:56Z")
[QUOTE=kidchameleon] Your woe-is-me bit seems a bit pale to those of us who do other sorts of writing. Instead of actors and directors wanting rewrites it’s editors and layout artists. Boo-hoo. [/quote] Elenfair is giving an example of the process in order to refute the idea that “anyone can do it”. Your counter argument is that other sorts of writing are also difficult? What’s your point? > [@kidchameleon](#): > > Screenwriters only get 1.2% of 20% of sales as royalties? Cry me a river, it’s infinately more than I get. How does your renumeration structure matter in any way to what’s fair for them? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/96 "2007-11-06T17:39:52Z")
A couple of my friends had a bit of banter with some guy who wanted to fuck one of them, and he told them that they were so funny that they should write sitcoms and comedy movies. They were quite excited, and came to me for advice since they knew I’d written a few short films. I said, “Great! Let’s get you enrolled in some screenwriting classes on the other side of town. Once you learn the basics, you can transfer to USC or UCLA and, assuming you get in, you can write a whole bunch of scripts and then work 70 hours a week in Hollywood for a while. After a decade or two, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to write something creative that the executives like, and you’ll get a chance to start your own show.” Then I noticed that both of them had ran after “other side of town”. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/97 "2007-11-06T17:40:50Z")
[QUOTE=kidchameleon] Cry me a river, it’s infinately more than I get. [/QUOTE] I don’t get paid at all for writing, but I’m not going to begrudge other people getting something. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/98 "2007-11-06T17:53:39Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] I don’t get paid at all for writing, but I’m not going to begrudge other people getting something. [/QUOTE] I don’t begrudge them getting paid, just whining about it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/99 "2007-11-06T17:59:44Z")
[QUOTE=kidchameleon] I don’t begrudge them getting paid, just whining about it. [/QUOTE] From where I’m sitting, and this isn’t meant as a gotcha but as an observation, your posts are coming across as way whinier about the unfairness of it all. Writing is hard and undervalued. One group of writers attacking another doesn’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060/100 "2007-11-06T18:06:13Z")
Actually, they’re whining about _not_ getting paid, for DVDs and Internet streaming/downloads, when other people (producers, studios)(and when the directors get their contract settled next year, you bet they’ll be getting some of that pie too). Those are the issues that the AMPTP has, last I heard, refused to even discuss with the WGA. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-on-strike-quick-fill-in-for-your-favorite-shows/425060.md?page=6)