Late Night update

NBC'S 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' and 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien to return to the air with the new shows beginning Wednesday, January 2007.


BURBANK -- December 17, 2007 - After two months of repeats, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" will resume broadcasting all-new episodes beginning Wednesday, January 2, 2008 (11:35 p.m., 12:35 a.m., respectively).

The late night shows suspended production due to the strike by the Writers Guild of America on November 5 and have aired repeats since.

"During the 1988 writers strike, Johnny Carson reluctantly returned to 'The Tonight Show' without his writers after two months. Both Jay and Conan have supported their writers during the first two months of this WGA strike and will continue to support them. However, there are hundreds of people who will be able to return to work as a result of Jay's and Conan's decision," said Rick Ludwin, Executive Vice President, Late Night & Primetime Series.

Guest lineups for the shows will be announced at a later date.

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" is from Big Dog Productions in association with Universal Media Studios. Debbie Vickers is the executive producer.

"Late Night with Conan O'Brien" is from Universal Media Studios in association with Broadway Video. Lorne Michaels and Jeff Ross are the executive producers.



Statement from Conan O'Brien


"For the past seven weeks of the writers' strike, I have been and continue to be an ardent supporter of the WGA and their cause. My career in television started as a WGA member and my subsequent career as a performer has only been possible because of the creativity and integrity of my writing staff. Since the strike began, I have stayed off the air in support of the striking writers while, at the same time, doing everything I could to take care of the 80 non-writing staff members on Late Night.

Unfortunately, now with the New Year upon us, I am left with a difficult decision. Either go back to work and keep my staff employed or stay dark and allow 80 people, many of whom have worked for me for fourteen years, to lose their jobs. If my show were entirely scripted I would have no choice. But the truth is that shows like mine are hybrids, with both written and non-written content. An unwritten version of Late Night, though not desirable, is possible - and no one has to be fired.

So, it is only after a great deal of thought that I have decided to go back on the air on January 2nd. I will make clear, on the program, my support for the writers and I'll do the best version of Late Night I can under the circumstances. Of course, my show will not be as good. In fact, in moments it may very well be terrible. My sincerest hope is that all of my writers are back soon, working under a contract that provides them everything they deserve."



Noted: Re-posted from the NBC website.

writers and strikebeards

writers and strikebeards
are my rainbow.

watch the message from Conan!


much thanks, Aaron (left)! for the Late Night Insider and Late Night Underground!

Nikki Finke: Conan O'Brien To Pay Staff

EXCLUSIVE: Conan O'Brien To Pay Staff
November 29, 2007, 10:54 AM


I just learned that Conan O'Brien has made arrangements to pay his staff who will be laid off by NBC as of Friday. About 80 production people -- like talent bookers, producers, production assistants -- will be taken care of by the Late Night host who is supposed to move to The Tonight Show in 2009. Sources tell me this is on a week-to-week basis for the moment until or if Conan, who's a WGA member and got his start as a comedy writer, goes back to work. Obviously, NBC is dying for him to return to the air because its late night ratings for the repeats have tanked. None of the late night shows have been in production during the entire November sweeps and the networks have to give sponsors free spots or “give backs” at a cost of millions.

I'll say this: it's a great PR move by O'Brien as well as an incredibly nice thing to do. After all, he's the least paid of the Big Three (including Letterman and Leno), and unlike Dave's Worldwide Pants, which is generously paying its employees through at least the end of the year, Conan's company Conaco doesn't own Late Night. NBC does.


Posted by Nikki Finke.
Read the rest of the article here.
With courtesy, re-posted from the Deadline Hollywood Daily.

cheers to writers

cheers to Writers
who fight
for their writes

(rights).

John Aboud: So This Strike Thing Is All Over, Right?

So This Strike Thing Is All Over, Right?
November 27, 2007, 6:50 AM


Gosh, I don't know. Do you?

I've been asked many times if the strike is going to end this week. Nikki Finke posted a very optimistic report from an insider yesterday morning, and that has set off a wave of enthusiasm. "Fire up the margarita machine!" you say.

Well, not so fast. First of all, it's November, and who drinks margaritas in November?

What if this round of negotiations falls apart? Personally, I didn't think it would come to a strike in the first place. It seemed inconceivable that the conglomerates would stand by a platform that was so -- no other word for it -- evil. But they did. And we went on strike. Had the AMPTP proposal been only 60% evil, who knows what would have happened. As Craig Mazin recently wrote,

"Either they dared us to strike to see if we had the balls (dumb, because their deal was so ridiculous, who would possibly agree to take it?), or they forced us to strike in order to… well, hell, Nick Counter, buy me a drink one day and explain that to me if it’s the case. It certainly seemed like the AMPTP forced a strike, but to what end?"

As usual, Craig says it best and says it first. Given that history, am I optimistic we'll have a fair deal by the end of the week? Nope. I'd love one. But I'm afraid after how the companies have behaved so far, I'll feel enthusiastic when there's a joint announcement about a deal and not a moment sooner.

So what do we do until that happy email lands in our inboxes? We keep up the pressure. And to demonstrate resolve, we continue to blog in italics. Part of me, the paranoid part, worries these optimistic rumors are deliberately intended to lull us into a false sense of security. We start to slack off, let the pickets go, stop the bloggity blogging, and then, BAM! Nick Counter cackles, "Gotcha, sucker!" as he zooms up the chimney with my Christmas tree.

I think it's safe to say that this strike didn't go the way the companies thought it would. Let's keep it that way. Check out the article by Brooks Barnes that ran in today's New York Times. Brooks has been no mouthpiece for the Guild. (He started out rather hostile!) My favorite quote:

“Wow,” said Leo Reed, the gruff secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 399 and director of its motion picture division. “You are acting like a militant union.”

Surprise! Turns out you act militant when someone tries to steal the future -- not just your future, but the future of everyone you work with above and below the line.

So let's hope we can all get together for those margaritas, and well before summertime. But don't book the back room at El Coyote yet.


by John Aboud
With courtesy, re-posted from unitedhollywood.blogspot.com

Strikin' Photos

outside Fox, 09 November.

More photos from the WGA Strike Gallery

Strikin' Videos

Explaining the Writers' Strike




Straight from the Horse's Mouth

Brothers and Sisters: striking as a family

they are a part of my life!

okay. my straw's been broken -- i have saltwater in my eyes. i'm looking at the picture gallery in the wga.org site and my heart is beating for them. familiar names and faces from movies and tv shows i've seen over and again... they are the people who acted and wrote the stories i grew up with... still growing up with. they are part of my life!

Alec Baldwin on the Strike

Blogs by Alec Baldwin from the Huffington Post



Three Random Things
November 18, 2007 09:16 PM (EST)

I saw Sean Penn's film, INTO THE WILD, this weekend. Hope you all had the chance to see it on the big screen, as well. Give Emile Hirsch the Jim Caviezel Award for the greatest suffering on film. I have not seen an actor put through this much in quite a while. Good job by Sean and Co.

Also, give Ryan Gosling the Ryan Gosling Award for being such an unbelievable film actor. I saw LARS AND THE REAL GIRL this weekend, too. Gosling is one of the few leading men in movies who could pull this role off. He was phenomenal in HALF NELSON and he is remarkable here.

Man, I keep thinking about how I shot my mouth off with all the things I have said about this administration. All the things that all of their opponents have said. What liars, whores and thieves these people are. Then, I get uptight when I watch even a snippet of these debates. Is leadership there? Is greatness there? Is the end of the war there? Up on that stage?

I miss my make-up artist, Stacey Panepinto. I miss my hairstylist, Richard Esposito. I miss all of the 30 ROCK cast and crew, who I don't see anymore because of this motherfucking, motherfucking, motherfucking strike.



What the Strike is Costing Us
November 11, 2007 07:17 PM (EST)

The television show 30 Rock, that I had been shooting in New York until we shut down this past Friday, has been one of the best professional experiences I have ever had. Obviously, the critical success of the show is a significant part of that. 30 Rock has had the kind of reception that writers can only dream of, and I feel that all of our writers, and especially Tina, deserve everything that has come their way.

But any film, stage play or television show provides the opportunity for the cast and crew to bond into a remarkably fun and cordial unit. On the set of our show, we are blessed to have the best shooting crew of any in New York. However, across the board, everyone seems to recognize that the writers have a valid reason for striking.

We finished our last pre-strike approved script on Friday. The atmosphere the last couple of days was thoughtful and a little sad, as some crew members, and eventually many more, are expected to scatter in search of work. There is other work, no doubt, but maybe not the kind like we have had up until now, with a good group of collegial and talented people working on a show that seemed to be growing, in many ways.

Strikes, and the lack of forward-thinking negotiating that results in them, costs more than money. Sometimes, they cost you friends and family, as well.



It's the Studio's Fault
November 7, 2007 05:43 PM (EST)

When I look back on the years I have worked in the film and television business, since beginning in 1980, there have been many obvious changes. Most of those are technological ones and those technological developments have profoundly altered the soul and the math of the business. Cable TV and then satellite, VHS and then DVD and then DVR, and now MP3. Three networks dominating everything and then those three networks dominating nothing. HBO producing original broadcasting that competed with the Big Three for audience share. David Chase giving everyone a reason to stay home on Sunday to watch TV. Who'd a thought?

In the movie business, among the biggest changes is the background, personality and capabilities of your average head of the studio, head of production and their marketing departments. I recall, through the admittedly distorted prism of time, that Mike Medavoy was the kind of old school studio boss who looked at his release schedule and decided to burn one on "the side of the angels." He had a movie and a filmmaker that he truly believed in and, inside of a slate of 20 or 15 or even 12 movies, Medavoy made one with little regard for the box office prognosis. He wanted to make a good film and believed that audiences would follow the filmmaker, and him, to the theatre.

There are no Mike Medavoys running the studios today. There are no Fred Silvermans running the networks, either, Silverman being the television-savant-as-executive, a breed that seems to have all but vanished, save for Garth Ancier, who apprenticed under Silverman. The studios are run by men and women who know very little, if anything, about how to make a good film. That is why so many studio films are so shamefully (or shamelessly) bad. These are men and women who simply do not have the recipe, although each fancies himself as a modern day Cohn, Warner or Zanuck. From what I read of Hollywood history, Zanuck had more talent for how to fit the disparate elements of filmmaking together in one finger than most of today's crowd has in their whole production department. Make no mistake, there are extraordinarily talented and capable people at the studios and networks. Ron Meyer, once the greatest talent agent of them all (he was mine, and I mean every word of that) and Brad Grey are two smart men who have had remarkable careers and yet run major studios that answer to demanding corporate parents.

The writers' strike is upon us because the writers want more of the back end and the studios claim they don't have it. If the studios don't have it, it's more their own fault than anyone else's. We are now in the fully realized age of the modern entertainment corporation, with lawyers and accountants calling nearly all of the shots. Some say the old studio system was bad. However they look more and more like the Medicis compared to what exists today. Even in independent film, so much of the product seems tired. (If I see one more Indie Icon Guy and Indie Icon Gal put one of their parents into a nursing home, while the lighting is dialed down real low to hide the cheap set design, I might cry.)

Many contributors disparaged the striking WGA on this site. I was dismayed by this. Do you honestly believe that most writers are ultimately responsible for what goes on screen, even if their name is on it? That's like saying a plumber is responsible for your taste in fixtures. Sometimes a writer is like a plumber: he installs what he is paid to install. Most writers I know have a great script in one file and a commercial one in the other. They have BILLY BUDD and PORKYS all in the same computer. Don't ever judge a writer by any screenplay that gets made. Unless you're saying something admiring about a real giant, with real power, from another time. Like Welles or Mankiewicz or Robert Towne.

Everyone in the film industry seems to be searching for the risk-free project. There is no such project. Movie-making, music, theatre and TV, even publishing...all creative enterprises that struggle to discern the taste of a mass audience are in a risky business. We need more risk-takers to make movies and produce TV. We need more Mike Medavoys. And let's hope the strike ends soon.



Let's Hope the Writers Get a Good Contract
October 30, 2007 07:59 PM (EST)

I remember the last WGA strike. It was sad. I had been in LA for a couple of years, just getting my feet wet in the movie business after working in TV for five years. The trickle down was incredible. Restaurants, limousine companies, real estate brokers, clothing retailers, travel agencies. The list went on and on. Not to mention all of the direct impact on actors, directors, crews, office staff and accounting, the studios and networks themselves, talent agencies and managers, publicists and business managers. It was a disaster and it was painful to witness.

However, as an actor who has worked in film and television since 1980, I have always been pretty clear about the fact that we are nowhere without the writers in our industry. And that goes beyond the scary concept of a world of unscripted reality TV. Television and film writers are responsible for some of the greatest literature in the history of our society. Go to one of my favorite websites, the Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb). You can pull up CITIZEN KANE, ALL ABOUT EVE and SUNSET BOULEVARD. You can read, online, hundreds of the greatest movie screenplays of all time. Members of the WGA wrote those scripts.

The studios and networks claim that their profits are eroding and blame the cost of stars' salaries and expensive marketing campaigns. One more thing the studios and networks ought to consider is how overstaffed they are themselves. You've never seen a business where more people are required to do the same job until you have worked at a TV network or film studio. Actors don't put a gun to the studio executive's head. They negotiate a price and the studio agrees, or disagrees, to pay it. Sometimes, as an actor, the price you pay is a pretty big number that you arrive at before you even open your mouth.

The not-so-secret truth is that everyone in show business, of those who live "above-the-line," are overpaid. The only ones above-the-line who usually are not are the writers. Let's hope there is no strike and let's hope the writers get a good contract.



With courtesy, re-posted from the Huffington Post

i love my Writers -- they're life's absolute essentials.

Now is the time to give to the writers.

The shows won't survive successfully without them.

for starters, let's sign the petition!

first note

i decided to create a new blog solely for the WGA. i wish i had more time to post everything i wanna post! i'm gonna put up links first, and hope to spread info on the strike as far and wide as possible. obviously, i am from another country, but man, i am in the same page. they have been a part of my life and i'll try to say how in the days to come.

more later!