Huh? What the hell are you talking about?

Okay I assume your one of the haters of the 11 episode season 2. Anyways, because of the amount of special effects and the serialized storytelling, that's what Kring meant when he said he can only get 3 episodes finished. Stop being a hater and wait for season 3....I think Kring and his writers will put together a solid season.

FX sure likes to announce long seasons and then breaking them into 2 seasons instead

First of all, I know what Kring meant by "3 quality episodes". It just made a joke. Not a good one, admittingly.

Second, while I saw a clear drop in quality from season 1 to season 2 I enjoyed season 2 more than 90% of the people that post in the weekly threads. It started a little slow but so did season 1. It got awesome a little later but was unfortunatly rushed because of the strike. I had to stop reading the weekly Heroes thread because the nitpicking was getting annoying.

Finally, even if I really didn't like season 2, why should I "stop being a hater and wait for season 3?" If I really didn't like season 2, I have every right to bail on the show now and hate on it. I choose not to do that. All I choose to do is make a lame joke about the decline in quality and the overall dislike of season 2 many people on this board share.

Makes sense, considering it looks like Sylar will play a large role and Quinto is out of pocket for awhile with Star Trek.

Which makes sense. Out of all the shows, Heroes was the smartest with their strike pre-planning. Breaking volume 2 where they did kept the show intact as a mini-season. The only other shows to best accomplish that IMHO were Chuck and Journeyman (RIP). Odd that they were all Monday night NBC shows.

I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but the last episode of "30 Rock" that was produced felt like a season (if not series) finale. According to the posted chart it's finishing out the season, but if the strike were to go on longer they would've had a good stopping point,

The WGA strike is officially over!!

Jadzia: You can probably close this thread now.

BC-Hollywood Labor, 4th Ld,0351
URGENT
Writers vote to end 3-month strike that crippled Hollywood
Eds: APNewsNow. ADDS background. Will be updated. Moving on general news, entertainment and financial services. AP Video.
AP Photo KSD101, CACP101, KSD103, KSD105, CACP105
By LYNN ELBER
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Striking Hollywood writers are going back to work.
The Writers Guild of America says its members voted Tuesday to end their devastating, three-month strike that brought the entertainment industry to a standstill.
Writers will go back to work Wednesday after voting in Beverly Hills and New York.
The union's board of directors approved a tentative contract Sunday giving writers a share of the growing revenue from programs offered on the internet and other new media.
Guild leaders say they are fighting for a piece of the future, as Internet-delivered entertainment is expected to claim an increasing share of the market.
The writers' walkout stopped work on dozens of TV shows and disrupted movie production. The strike also turned the usually star-studded Golden Globes show into a news conference and threatened the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony.
APTV-02-12-08 1909PST

According to The Hollywood Reporter, SNL is coming back March 1 with host Ellen Page (Juno).

Cool news about the strike and Ellen Page on SNL, is that her first time on SNL?

Yeah, first time for Ellen to host SNL, she's a relative unknown, though she has some notoriety for "Hard Candy" and among comic fans as Kitty Pryde in "X-Men 3". "Juno" definitely pushed her stock very high of late.

I heard Feb. 23rd for SNL. Grrr..

Here's an AP story that deals with what could happen with various TV shows, now that the strike is over:

TV writers are getting their new contract, but when will we get our post-strike shows?
By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) _ No more writers on picket lines. No more network TV bosses scrambling for replacement shows.

But enough about them. What about us?

Two simple questions prey on every viewer's mind: When will my favorite scripted programs be back with new episodes? And, WILL my favorite shows be back?

Here are the short-and-sweet answers from industry insiders after the three-month Hollywood writers' strike:

— Many hit series (such as ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy," as well as CBS' "CSI" trio) will be back this spring for what's left of the current season, with anywhere from four to seven new episodes. But don't bet on weaker, "on-the-bubble" shows (NBC's "Bionic Woman" and CBS' "Moonlight," for example) returning until fall, if then.

— And be prepared to muster a little more patience. A minimum of four weeks will be needed for producers to get the first post-strike episode of comedies (such as CBS' "Two and a Half Men" and NBC's "My Name Is Earl") started from scratch and back on the air; a drama will require six to eight weeks from concept to broadcast.

But there's no simple rule of thumb, added these TV execs, most of whom agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media. Every show is its own special case.

If a series had a script near completion when the strike was called in November, it's got a head start resuming production now.

For example, CBS' "Criminal Minds" had one script in progress and a network-approved outline for another, said co-executive producer Chris Mundy, who cited something else that gives his show an advantage: "We didn't have to break down our sets. We're luckier than most."

Meanwhile, a complicated serial drama with vast technical demands — notably the NBC hit "Heroes" — may not be deemed worth returning this season at all. The cost of ramping up for such a production may not justify that expense when only a handful of episodes are being ordered.

Other shows, including ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" and NBC's "Chuck," also aren't expected until fall. And Fox's "24" is unlikely to be back until early 2009.

Adding to this vexing calculus, each network will have to integrate its returning series into a prime-time schedule that, during the strike, has adapted to the absence of those shows with substitute fare.

Networks will also continue rolling out new series that were in the can before the strike. A CBS sitcom, "Welcome to the Captain," debuted just last week, as did NBC's dramedy "Lipstick Jungle." Fox has no fewer than four new dramas and comedies on tap.

No wonder if, amid all this turmoil, the networks will be rationing their new, post-strike product. They say they don't want to put fresh episodes at risk of getting lost in the shuffle.

"The networks will have to decide the tipping point: How many new shows is too many?" said Katherine Pope, president of Universal Media Studios, which, like NBC, is part of NBC Universal.

But a potential game-changer could be in the cards: One or more networks might elect to extend the season beyond May, which, of course, would call for even more new episodes. The chances of that happening aren't great. Viewership traditionally dips during summer months, and networks don't like running their best stuff when viewers aren't watching. But the post-strike landscape may not bow to tradition any more than the season has thus far.

Next season, too, is already being shaped by the strike.

NBC wants us to know it's been planning ahead. It recently announced a series pickup for the American adaptation of "Kath & Kim," a comedy hit in Australia. Likely to premiere this fall, it was a straight-to-series order that required no pilot.

But overall, the so-called development process for next fall has been delayed by the strike. Don't expect the usual crush of freshman shows right after Labor Day. And that looming void could have an impact on what we see (or don't see) this spring. In some cases, a network will opt to bank a series' remaining episodes to help fill the autumn programming gap.

These are decisions that must be made quickly, and industry execs say they prepared for numerous contingencies as the strike wore on.

"But until the studio and network and show runner for each series can get in a room together and talk, we don't have answers," said a studio executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media. Many such meetings were expected to take place Monday.

Damon Lindelof is eager for some answers. An executive producer of ABC's mystery serial "Lost," he should learn this week what his show's future holds as it closes out its fourth season.

"Lost" has been back on the air just two weeks. But the strike meant a planned 16-episode shooting schedule was halted after just eight episodes were shot. Fans braced themselves for no more this season.

"But we very much want to come back and do as many episodes as possible," said Lindelof, who then listed a few issues that first need to be settled.

"How many episodes can best serve our story? And what are the production realities?" He noted that the shooting facility in Hawaii, 2,500 miles from his Los Angeles office, had been shuttered since Thanksgiving. The crew has dispersed, the huge cast has scattered.

The first new post-strike episode of "Lost" could possibly be ready for broadcast the week after episode eight appears, he said. There likely would be three or four more after that.

Could there be even more?

"I'd be surprised if the network wanted to air episodes deep into the summer," he said. But if all the pieces fell into place, "Lost" fans would be blessed: "I don't see why we couldn't deliver all eight remaining episodes."

That kind of zeal should warm viewers' hearts. Lindelof and the rest of TV's creative community seem delighted to be back.

Almost as delighted as we are.

Just a little happy dance that the strike is over.

Just bracing myself for the SAG strike...

SAG strike will be worse...

I believe that given the economic fiasco that was the WGA strike, expect a new agreement with SAG by early May 2008--NOBODY wants another strike with all its economic consequences. They'll probably use the current WGA agreement as the model for the new agreement.

So did the writers get their 4 cents?

TV Guide on the fate of LOST season 4 :


Exclusive: Lost Boss Outlines Revised Season 4 Plan


Lost by Mario Perez/ABCMake no mistake, out of all the shows whose fate has been left dangling in the wind by the just-concluded writers' strike, the one we're most concerned about is Lost. Good thing, then, that the sixth fifth fourth third second first call Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse made after meeting with ABC execs this evening to finalize the new plan for Season 4 was to, yep, you guessed it, Variety Hollywood Reporter Entertainment Weekly Golf Digest Mac Addict me!

Welcome back!
Carlton Cuse: It's good to be back. It'll be even better tomorrow when the writers all start rolling in and we start getting to work... pending the vote, of course.

What came out of your meeting with ABC today?
Cuse: Damon [Lindelof] and I are going to try to make five more episodes before the end of May, which is ambitious. But we've found ourselves in a situation where we had eight episodes of story planned, and we're going to try to fit that into five hours of the show. Even though it's going to be very hard to execute, we felt like any less would be doing a disservice to the story we had planned. We really want to give the fans the best possible experience and ending... to Season 4.

Any chance that the first of the five episodes will air the week after that last pre-strike episode — thus eliminating any scheduling gap?
Cuse: No, there's probably going to be four weeks between the airing of the first batch of episodes and our new episodes.

What will happen to the three "lost" episodes? Will they roll over into next season's 16, or will they vanish forever?
Cuse: Damon and I remain committed to producing the 40 additional hours of the show that we promised. We haven't figured out exactly when we'll put those other three on, but we're not eliminating them from the show. You will get those three episodes downstream.

I know it's early, but have you decided what will have to get cut from this season's arc in order to accelerate things? Are we going to lose some flashbacks and/or flash-forwards?
Cuse: All those conversations will take place tomorrow when we actually start talking about story.

Is it possible that some guest actors you were planning to use before the strike may no longer be available now? Like, for example, Andrea Roth?
Cuse: Yeah, there are a lot of issues that have to get sorted out. We're also in the middle of pilot season.... We're kind of figuring out what has happened to all of our actors who have gone on to do other things. Literally, there are cobwebs on the couches in the writers' room. Call me in a couple of days and I should have more answers for you.

OK, last question: Have you come up with a code word for this season's top-secret cliff-hanger?
Cuse: [Laughs] Not yet. That's a very good point. We'll have to get on that. If you have any ideas, Mike, let us know.

(BTW, I was joking in my intro. I'm pretty sure I was Carlton's first. Wait, that came out wrong.... )

Glad to see this thing finally over. Now that we know the fate of LOST, what about other shows, like prison break/24 ??

So Lost is going to condense 8 shows into 5... Interesting.

No chance of 24 until Jan. 09.

and still give us three "downstream"...

So what happens to New Amsterdam now that new programming is returning? Is it still going to air?

SNL is actually coming back 2/23 with Tina Fey.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/ar...in&oref=slogin