Bill Needle

You can if you're a member of WGA. Now give him Deez sack of money.

CPA-ESQ.

I was reading an article and the writer mentioned that some studios like Disney are using the writers strike as a "WOKE Purge."

They are cutting costs by eliminating legacy projects, canceling shows, movies, and culling jobs by implementing staff cuts.

Honestly - I hope this is true. I am really tired of the lack of good story telling, lazy writing, and the current: Let's reboot an old show/franchise for the 'Modern Audience,' When the modern audience is not asking for, nor do they have any nostalgic investment in some of these historical movies/shows.

Nesbit

Woke purge!

Noonan

You think the potential result of purging talent will be BETTER original content? You sir, are in for a rude awakening. If anything we're on the verge of even more reboots because they're cheaper and don't require talented writers. You're thinking backwards.

RichC2

This comes up every few years and still isn't true. The easiest thing it to just not watch the content.

And lets face it, the "reboot an old show and modernize it" has been happening for decades, and isn't going to stop anytime soon. Neither are crappy sequels nobody asked for.

fujishig

I don't think Disney Plus purged anything prior to this most recent round, which is almost assuredly due to whatever they negotiated for residuals, so I can imagine it's connected (maybe a shot over the bow that if everything streaming gets increased residuals they might get pulled from the service altogether?) The anti-woke thing is garbage though.

What is the current union demand for streaming residuals anyway? If it's tied to just being on the service I don't think that's good long term, if it's tied somehow to views or something that seems more in line with gauging the popularity of a show.

Josh-da-man

If the WGA want a fixed amount (annually, quarterly, whatever) for just being available on a service, we can probably expect providers start removing scripted content right and left.

If they want residuals for individual views like Spotify or other music streaming services, then I really doubt they're going to be satisfied with their residual checks when something they wrote a decade ago only gets eight viewings.

The thing is that there is an astronomical amount of scripted content out there and it's all competing with itself. And it's also competing with an astronomical amount unscripted content. And we're adding more every day. New content is going to be favored by viewers and in most all cases will be forgotten and unwatched after a couple of months unless its something from the MCU or a becomes a cult classic.

Troy Stiffler

Sorry. Writers aren’t at fault for the perceived change in quality. There are no longer industry gatekeepers. Movies used to get vetted so heavily and only certain people were allowed in. There was finite money and talent, which has increased exponentially. The perceived lower quality is due to film and tv being democratized and the market being saturated.

Jay G.

Considering the size of some of the residual checks they're getting now for current content, I'd think they'd be overjoyed with fair payment for decade-old content, since that implies fair payment for newer and just-released content as well. I'm pretty sure it's the studios that absolutely do not want a performance-based payment system, since they'd be paying out WAY more for the very successful shows than they are now.

Note that currently, Theatrical residuals are revenue-based, while "regular TV" residuals are a mix of a fixed residual and revenue-based.
https://www.wga.org/members/finances...survival-guide

JeffTheAlpaca

Summer sucks anyways but with no late night shows and Fallon it is going to be painful.

AaronHernandez

If it was just trying to nickel and dime residual payments it wouldn't explain why so much of the Disney Purge was documentaries,competition shows,reality tv and nat geo content etc. Clearly there's a lot of money being paid out to distributors/producers etc.(ie not the actual on camera talent or crew members) of these shows. Writer/actor residuals are a drop in the bucket for all the other people getting much biggers pieces of the pie and they are using the writers as a cost scapegoat.

GoldenJCJ

To be fair, he left House because he had an offer to work at the White House. Kinda a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Giantrobo

People are shocked when I mention AI Script writing is an aspect of this strike. It's not the main thing, but it's on the minds of Writers apparently.

RichC2

I forgot he was on House I'm slowly working my way through that series again right now (just finished Season 2, which if you haven't seen that season finale in a while - it is remarkably squishy.)

I don't think leaving had much of an impact on his career. He left, worked in politics for a stint, and then did 3 seasons of Designated Survivor.

Edit: Amazon really needs to negotiate the opening song on that one. It was Teardrops for a little more than half of season 1, the rest has been ... generic House music.

Noonan

I watched an episode of Las Vegas on I believe E! the other day and the intro was some horrible, probably copyright free, track. It was so bad and jarring after watching the show for years with the classic opening.

Count Dooku

The good old days when a successful TV show was just moronic plots, generic action, and lots of pretty gals.

Count Dooku

I'm really missing the talk shows. So nice to be able to sit down and watch some 5-7 minute clips of different shows.

jjcool

So not "A Little Less Conversation"? That theme really made the show better.

Noonan

Correct. No idea what it was but it was terrible.

Edit: looked it up. Apparently it's the track they used for the show internationally during its run. Let it Ride is the name. Still think it's awful.

Decker

It's weird, I haven't heard this sentiment much at all during this strike. During the 2007 strike, what will happen to the talk shows was really the biggest question. Of course there's a lot more new content available now, bit I haven't really heard people clamoring for a return of late night talk shows and was wondering if that signified the beginning of the end for the format.

windom

Don't a lot of the late night shows take a lot of time off during the summer anyway? Didn't Kimmel take a whole summer of recently? I think they might have had guest hosts during that period though.

Count Dooku

People still have to come on the late night shows to promote their summer movies, so among all the shows, there is always some new stuff to watch.
When Kimmel took the summer off, they had guest hosts every week and new shows.



Yeah, it really sucks

JeffTheAlpaca

Fallon still did shows but he would have maybe a couple of 2 weeks break mixed around the summer calendar and then come back for a while and take a break.

Decker

DJariya

I have a feeling this strike is going to last much longer than the last one 15 years ago.

No one is feeling it now because it’s summer and most shows aren’t in production. Also unlike 15 years ago, most people are so backed up on their TV shows. So they are maybe months behind with all the providers out there.