HollywoodIdiocy.com

Following a membership meeting Saturday and a press conference Sunday, it appears the WGA has reached a labor agreement with the AMPTP that could put striking writers, who’ve missed three months, and almost four months, of work while out on strike, back to work as early as Wednesday of this week. Show runners have been ordered by all the major studios and networks to report to work today (Monday) to start preparing for the return of writers.

Networks are hoping to salvage as much of the remaining 2007-08 TV season as possible. As recently as a week ago, some show runners for shows like Pushing Daisies, have said that this season is already a wash and they would expect any return to work to be in preparation for next fall. While some shows may indeed skip the rest of the season, you can bet the Big Four - ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC - as well as possibly the CW - will want at least their top-rated scripted comedies and dramas to go back into production for fresh episodes immediately.

It’s still unclear, however, how fast productions can get back up and running. NBC’s The Office, for example, notoriously laid off over 100 nonwriter, nonactor and nondirector technical staffers with no guarantee of being rehired once the strike was over. Whether shows in that situation, like The Office, can regroup, recall and/or replace entire tech crews and get back into production in a timely matter is still a relevant question; some of their previous workforce, due to the length of the strike, may no longer even be available to be rehired, which would necessitate a filling positions left vacant on the fly; in other words, it could be as much as a month before some shows are back to their normal production schedules, filming and completing episodes for broadcast, even after the writers start writing again.

And that’s not even taking into consideration all the paperwork involved in rebooting the suspended season, including everything from drafting revised production schedules to re-employment considerations like the paperwork for job benefits like health care, dental insurance and even Medicare insurance. After months of inactivity, look for the next month to be a frenetic frenzy of activity on all fronts.

read comments (0)