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May 5, 2001

WELL, I'VE BEEN SAYING there wouldn't be a Writers Guild strike but it's still nice to hear them say so on the news.  For what it's worth: What I believe happened here was that our Guild approached the negotiations with a new, pre-emptive attitude that paid off.  In the past, the Producers came to each contract negotiation — with all the Hollywood unions; not just us — with a mindset of "We don't bargain.  We don't listen to your demands.  We tell you what we're going to give you and then you get the hell out."  To that end, the Producers would agree among themselves on what that offer would be and from that point forward, they had a very difficult time moving off it.  The seven studios that comprise the A.M.P.T.P. (Fox, Disney, WB, etc.) operate under a "rule of one," meaning that any of them can veto any offer.  That seems to have been what prolonged the '88 strike.  Six of the studios would be ready to make the deal that would end the writers' walkout and then they'd get to squabbling internally and the seventh would play Spoiler.

This time out, the WGA managed to prevent Management from getting stuck on an initial, lowball "final offer."  We had a good show of solidarity before the Producers agreed among themselves on a bargaining position.  Usually, one sees little in the way of Guild spirit until we've already gotten the insulting proposal and have to rally against it.  Moreover, we seem to have positioned the whole dynamic of this negotiation such that the onus was on the Producers to sit down with us — in our offices, whereas we usually go to theirs — and work to make a deal.  The result was that, long before the contract expired, we'd already had hundreds of hours of discussions with them.  That process of sitting down and actually talking does not usually commence in show biz labor negotiations, until the union is marching about with picket signs.  Regardless of the terms of this deal, if we have changed the nature of Hollywood labor relations, that may be the greatest victory.

All of that seems to comprise about half of what prevented the Great Writers Guild Strike of '01.  The other half came from somewhere up in the corporate offices of Time-Warner, Disney, et al, where wise folks looked at the current state of the economy, looked at how much they lost taking a stubborn line in '88 and at the uncertainty of new and changing markets, and told their Negotiators to make a deal.  I can hear the collective exhale, not just of writers...not just of the actors who'll have an easier time making their deal now...but of the waitresses over at Art's Deli on Ventura.  It is by their financial well-being that the hardship of any Hollywood strike is measured.

TURNING TO OTHER BUSINESS: In honor of our 10,000th "hit" here, we have unveiled a major facelift of this site, which has involved moving a number of things around and (probably) creating some new "bugs" that will be fixed in the coming weeks.  If some of it doesn't make sense, know that the new design will make upkeep duties easier for me, and that some of it's configured with an eye on future expansion.  The main differences are cosmetic changes to support a wider range of browser software, as well as our new "Comedy" section and the fact that the latest "News" is now on this page.

THE PHOTO above is to give you a "heads up" that the TV Land cable channel is going to run some vintage episodes of The Phil Silvers Show (aka You'll Never Get Rich and Sgt. Bilko) on the weekend of May 12-13.  Next week some time, I'll post a story that Mr. Silvers told me about one of them.  I don't know the full list I'd make if I had to itemize the all-time best situation comedies...but I do know that the exploits of M/Sgt. Ernest T. Bilko and his loyal platoon would be very near the top if not in first position.  Silvers was wonderful and it wasn't just him.  There was also a terrific supporting cast (especially Paul Ford and Joe E. Ross) and superb writing, mainly by Nat Hiken but also by other folks.  Anyway, tune in when I tell that anecdote.  You'll enjoy it.

AND TO ANSWER the two most-asked questions from my e-mail: Yes, I have tickets to see The Producers in New York.  I'm going in mid-June, and only because I was able to secure house seats from the author.  (I don't mean Mel.  I mean Franz Liebkind.)  And I am now moderating eleven panels at this year's Comic-Con International.  Folks interested in vintage DC history will not want to miss the one we just added to the schedule.

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