The last few months have provided a lot of fodder for this site; stubborn producers robbed us of a good chunk of this TV season and ended up giving writers most of what they were asking for to begin with – pure idiocy. Fortunately, the foolishness is now in cease-fire mode, at least until SAG sits down to the bargaining table.

But worry not. HollywoodIdiocy.com is still here to chronicle the ongoing stupidity (and occasional flashes of brilliance) that emanate from the San Andreas Fault on a regular basis. The strike is over, but HollywoodIdiocy.com goes on and on and on…

Here’s the official “Strike’s over” message from WGA West prez Patric Verrone:

On Tuesday, members of the Writers Guilds East and West voted by a 92.5% margin to lift the restraining order that was invoked on November 5th. The strike is over.

Writing can resume immediately. If you were employed when the strike began, you should plan to report to work on Wednesday. If you’re not employed at an office or other work site, call or e-mail your employer that you are resuming work. If you have been told not to report to work or resume your services, we recommend that you still notify your employer in writing of your availability to do so. Questions concerning return-to-work issues should be directed to the WGAW legal department or the WGAE’s assistant executive director.

The decision to begin this strike was not taken lightly and was only made after no other reasonable alternative was possible. We are profoundly aware of the economic loss these fourteen weeks have created not only for our members but so many other colleagues who work in the television and motion picture industries. Nonetheless, with the establishment of the WGA jurisdiction over new media and residual formulas based on distributor’s gross revenue (among other gains) we are confident that the results are a significant achievement not only for ourselves but the entire creative community, now and in the future.

We hope to build upon the extraordinary energy, ingenuity, and solidarity that were generated by your hard work during the strike.

Over the next weeks and months, we will be in touch with you to discuss and develop ways we can use our unprecedented unity to make our two guilds stronger and more effective than ever.

Now that the strike has ended, there remains the vote to ratify the new contract. Ballots and information on the new deal, both pro and con, will be mailed to you shortly. You will be able to return those ballots via mail or at a membership meeting to be held Monday, February 25th, 2008, at times and locations to be determined.

Thank you for making it possible. As ever, we are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

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.

While all the detailing and chrome accessories have yet to be finalized, the WGA appears to be taking steps that could signal an end to the four-month-old TV and movie writers strike. WGA West has scheduled a general membership meeting for Saturday at which the details of a tentative contract between the writer’s union and the AMPTP will be announced and explained to membership.

If the deal passes muster with Saturday audiences, a union-wide ratification vote and an end to the work stoppage could take place within a week, just in time for the Academy Awards to move forward; some speculate that a few of the bigger network hits may even return to production to crank out several more episode prior to the traditional summer break and ramp-up to the fall TV debut.

If the strike does end, several shows like ABC’s Pushing Daisies are expected to wait until fall to return to air, while others will rush back into production as soon as the pistol sounds for the end of the strike. The Screen Actors Guild, however, may throw a wrench in the works; their contract is up in June and if an early deal is not worked out between AMPTP and SAG, we could be headed right back into a work stoppage, this time due to the actors rather than the writers.

Hollywood may be filled with idiocy, but not everything is stupid in this grand ol’ world of ours.

Take Car Angel for example. Here’s a nonprofit company that accepts things like car donations and turns them into funds for giving away videos to kids and teens in need.

Giving away videos might seem a bit odd; but their content is important and they’ve been able to help something like 2.4 million kids so far, so they must be doing something right.

In Hollywood, with the writers strike, you have a lot of folks doing pretty well for themselves, fighting to do even better. If it all seems a little narcissistic, it probably is. That’s why it’s nice to see a group like this, thinking of others. Especially at the height of the holiday season.

Happy Hanukkah!