2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike


2007 Hollywood Strike  

282 members have voted

  1. 1. Who do you support in the strike?

    • The AMPTP
      35
    • The WGA
      140
    • Undecided/Don't Care
      107


Recommended Posts

Does anyone know what's going on with the show Scrubs?

Sucks that all this happened during its final season.

I heard something about the last few episodes going straight to DVD.

I don't think I would be happy if the last few episodes go to DVD because it needs to end on telly where it started.

Yeah, because who knows when those last episodes would hit DVD. It could be a couple months from now or it could be a year from now.

NBC Announces Return of Scripted Series

NBC will resume the broadcast of many of its scripted series in April with new original episodes following the settlement of the Writers Guild of America strike, including "The Office," "30 Rock," "My Name Is Earl," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," among other programs, it was announced by Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, and Marc Graboff, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios.

The list of comedies and dramas includes: "My Name Is Earl" (Thursdays, 8-8:30 p.m. ET), which will return with a one-hour episode on Thursday, April 3; the Emmy Award-winning "30 Rock" (Thursdays, 8:30-9 p.m. ET) will begin on Thursday, April 10; likewise, the Emmy-winning "The Office" (Thursdays, 9-9:30 p.m. ET) also resumes with new episodes on Thursday, April 10; and "Scrubs" (Thursdays, 9:30-10 p.m. ET) will come back with original episodes beginning Thursday, April 10.

"ER" (Thursdays, 10-11 p.m. ET) also will come back on Thursday, April 10 with new episodes following the complete run of "Lipstick Jungle," which concludes on March 20.

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (Tuesdays, 10-11 p.m. ET) will return with fresh episodes on Tuesday, April 15. "Law & Order" (Wednesdays, 10-11 p.m. ET) resumes with original episodes on Wednesday, April 23. Meanwhile, "Medium" (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. ET) continues in originals.

Specific plans for other NBC scripted series are currently being determined and will be announced later.

The following includes NBC's new spring broadcast schedule denoting new return dates with original episodes for some of its scripted programs:

"Medium" (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. ET)

Continues current run

"My Name Is Earl" (Thursdays, 8-8:30 p.m. ET)

Resumes April 3 with one-hour episode

"30 Rock" (Thursdays, 8:30-9 p.m. ET)

Resumes April 10

"The Office" (Thursdays, 9-9:30 p.m. ET)

Resumes April 10

"Scrubs" (Thursdays, 9:30-10 p.m. ET)

Resumes April 10

"ER" (Thursdays, 10-11 p.m. ET)

Resumes April 10

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (Tuesdays, 10-11 p.m. ET)

Resumes April 15

"Law & Order" (Wednesdays, 10-11 p.m. ET)

Resumes April 23

NBC Renews Chuck, Life and Heroes

NBC has picked up its freshman drama series "Chuck" and "Life" -- as well as its hit "Heroes" -- for the 2008-09 season, it was announced today by Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, and Marc Graboff, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios.

All three series will have major re-launch campaigns next year.

"We are thrilled to be bringing back the high-energy dramas 'Chuck' and 'Life' for next season," said Silverman. "Additionally, we will be saving and re-launching our #1 drama and most successful franchise, 'Heroes,' so that it will run in all original episodes in the fourth quarter."

"These pickups are a sign of our confidence in these quality series and will allow the respective producers to get a head start on their creative arc for next season," said Graboff. "As a result, they give us a lot to build on as we point to next year's schedule."

It is official. The strike is over, the writers will be back at work tomorrow :D

Grrrreat! :jump: Can't wait for House / Greys Anatomy and maybe even Desperate Housewives to return. *cough* the last two are shows only my wife enjoys. :shifty:

Oh and any news on 'back to you' :dizzy: 'private practice' and 'samantha who' ? Once again, nothing I watch.. Only my wife :$

UPDATE: NBC Claims It Was Asked By H'wood Foreign Press Assn And Dick Clark Productions To Join Lawsuit Against WGA; DCP Denies NBC Claim Of Involvement

NBC sources are now clarifying for me exactly where the network stands about suing the WGA. Or are they? (This updates my previous reporting on this fast-breaking story, Sources: NBC & Hollywood Foreign Press May Sue WGA Over No Golden Globes.) "A lot of lawyers out there are trying to point fingers at a lot of people," a network insider just confirmed. I can tell you that, based on my previous conversations with NBC insiders right after the Golden Globes were canceled, the network was seriously expecting to be sued by Dick Clark Productions and possibly even by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Today, I'm told by NBC that lawyers for the HFPA and Dick Clark Productions are presently in hot pursuit of what they think are possible legal claims against the WGA. But lawyers have also told NBC that the network could take some sort of legal action against the guild as well, network insiders tell me. "So what happened," an NBC source explains, "is a week and a half ago we were approached and asked, if they [the HFPA and Dick Clark Prods] decide to take legal action, would we join their lawsuits. And we said no. And that's it. But they did come to us." However, other sources insist to me that it wasn't until today that NBC gave a "no" answer. Nevertheless, if HFPA and/or Dick Clark Productions file lawsuits, NBC will inevitably be dragged into it and no doubt be forced to cooperate. But if Jeff Zucker's "no" truly means "no", then he'll stand a lot taller in the Hollywood community.

2ND UPDATE: Now a spokesperson for Dick Clark Productions just told me that the company "has no intention of suing anyone at this time" and denies NBC's claim of involvement. I understand that prior to the Golden Globes cancellation, DCP did examine all the possible legal remedies it had. But at the time, says a DCP insider, "NBC was rattling their sabers and claiming they were going to sue us." Indeed, my initial sources on this story never claimed that Dick Clark Productions would be involved in any lawsuit. Here's an idea: how about no one sues anyone over the no-go Golden Globes and we call it a day.

3RD UPDATE: NBC confirmed to me later today that the HFPA is planning to sue the WGA for its "secondary boycott" having to do with the guild's decision not to grant an interim agreement or awards waiver to Dick Clark Productions. But get this: network sources also told me "don't be surprised" if NBC winds up pursuing a lawsuit against someone or something from the Golden Globes mess.

Grrrreat! :jump: Can't wait for House / Greys Anatomy and maybe even Desperate Housewives to return. *cough* the last two are shows only my wife enjoys. :shifty:

Oh and any news on 'back to you' :dizzy: 'private practice' and 'samantha who' ? Once again, nothing I watch.. Only my wife :$

Private Practice and Samantha Who were renewed for Season seasons.

Scrubs April 10th! Woot!

Sadly its still two months away, but at least is wasn't wasted.

I'm very happy for Bill Lawrence to be honest. He's poured his heart and soul into this show and while it has suffered IMO in the funny business for a while, I still enjoy watching it and I'm very happy that he'll get to end the show the way he wants to. Kudos to NBC for allowing him to do that :yes:

Actors Urge Talks to Avoid Strike

Four of Hollywood's biggest stars have taken out adverts in US trade papers urging their leaders to start contract talks in a bid to avert a strike.

Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro want the Screen Actors Guild to negotiate with studios over a contract which ends on 30 June.

Their call comes as US writers begin to return to work after they voted to end a three-month strike.

Networks have started to announce the return of shows halted by the strike.

Strong support

The adverts, placed in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, appeal with leaders of the 120,000-strong Screen Actors Guild (SAG) to begin talks over a new contract.

On Wednesday, SAG national executive director Doug Allen said the union would open negotiations over pay and conditions "at a time that will most benefit our members".

Last week, Clooney warned SAG leaders their negotiating power would diminish if they waited before starting talks with producers, because of "a lot of strike fatigue".

The actors' union offered strong support to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in its strike over work distributed on DVD or over the internet.

TV and film writers are now returning to work after the WGA's back-to-work order was approved by 92.5% of the 3,775 members who voted on the deal struck by leaders at the weekend.

But it will take weeks for the TV industry, in particular, to mobilise while new material is prepared.

Network CBS has announced that a number of its most popular dramas, including Cold Case, Criminal Minds and Without a Trace, will be back on air by early April.

And ABC's courtroom drama Boston Legal will be back in front of cameras as soon as next week because the script was already half-finished when the strike began in November.

Long wait

The current US TV season runs out in late May.

Viewers will have to wait longer for shows with continuing storylines than those with self-contained episodes with many networks choosing to wait until they can show seasons in their entirety.

NBC's superhero series Heroes is expected to stay off air in the US until autumn for that reason.

Fox thriller 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland as agent Jack Bauer, is now scheduled to begin in January 2009 so that all 24 episodes can be shown in full.

Films have not been as severely affected because they have longer production times.

Some 10,500 writers stopped work on 5 November, a few days after their old contract with studios ended.

Sunday's deal gives them a greater share in money made from TV programmes and films offered over the internet and other new media.

TV and film production was crippled by the strike and it led to the cancellation of the Golden Globes ceremony.

The Academy Awards, which were also threatened, will now go ahead.

The wait for new shows is shorter than we thought! The CW has just announced the return dates for its original programs -- and some shows will be back in just over a month. Here's the scoop:

The Game will return on March 23 with an expected 9 new episodes.

One Tree Hill will return on April 14 with an expected 6 new episodes.

Smallville will return on April 17 with an expected 5 new episodes.

Gossip Girl will return on April 21 with an expected 5 new episodes.

Reaper will return on April 22 with an expected 5 new episodes.

Supernatural will return on April 24 with an expected 4 new episodes.

Yay Reaper is back!

I think we all said that when the writers talks started and 3 months later :(

No, this is different. The people 'in the know' always said the writers were going to strike, going back months before it happened. They aren't saying the same about SAG.

No, this is different. The people 'in the know' always said the writers were going to strike, going back months before it happened. They aren't saying the same about SAG.

Oh right thats cool then!

?BONES? Returns with All-New Episodes on April 14

??TIL DEATH? and ?BACK TO YOU? Return with All-New Episodes

on April 16

?HOUSE? Returns with All-New Episodes on April 28

New Series Premieres Include ?UNHITCHED? on March 2;

?CANTERBURY?S LAW? on March 10; ?NEW AMSTERDAM? on March 10

with Sneak Previews on March 4 and March 6 after ?AMERICAN IDOL?;

and ?THE RETURN OF JEZEBEL JAMES? on March 14

Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) has ordered many of its current series back to production and has announced airdates for spring 2008. Among the series slated to return are BONES, BACK TO YOU, ?TIL DEATH and HOUSE. 24 will also return to conclude production on its seventh season, but the Emmy-winning series starring Kiefer Sutherland will not premiere until January 2009, allowing the drama to once again run 24 episodes consecutively. FOX?s animated series, including AMERICAN DAD, FAMILY GUY and THE SIMPSONS, are also returning to production on future episodes. The following highlights the spring schedule:

SPRING SCHEDULE RECAP (All times ET/PT):

BACK TO YOU

Tuesday, Feb. 26 (9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT) Original episode

Wednesday, Feb. 27 (9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT) Original episode

Wednesday, April 16 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) Time period premiere with originals

UNHITCHED

Sunday, March 2 (9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT) Series premiere

NEW AMSTERDAM

Tuesday, March 4 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) Series preview

Thursday, March 6 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) Series preview

Monday, March 10 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) Time period premiere

CANTERBURY?S LAW

Monday, March 10 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) Series premiere

THE RETURN OF JEZEBEL JAMES

Friday, March 14 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) Special one-hour series premiere

Friday, March 21 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) Time period premiere

?TIL DEATH

Tuesday, March 25 (9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT) Original episode

Wednesday, April 16 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) Time period premiere with originals

HELL?S KITCHEN

Tuesday, April 1 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) Season premiere

BONES

Monday, April 14 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) Time period premiere with originals

HOUSE

Monday, April 21 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) Time period premiere with encore

Monday, April 28 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) Originals begin

I'm assuming they already produced some or most of the episodes of 24 before the strike, correct? If so, how are they going to manage to keep a consistent appearance now (what with 24 being all in 1 day) between episodes? I guess it doesn't matter with some of the older actors as they may not age that much. But any younger actors are going to look very different between episodes now.

I'm assuming they already produced some or most of the episodes of 24 before the strike, correct? If so, how are they going to manage to keep a consistent appearance now (what with 24 being all in 1 day) between episodes? I guess it doesn't matter with some of the older actors as they may not age that much. But any younger actors are going to look very different between episodes now.

Eh, you're talking about months between shoots, not years, so how would they look very different? Besides, 24 doesn't follow children.

24 only has eight episodes complete. It's possible that they'll film as soon as scripts have been completed with the show returning in January 2009.

I'm assuming they already produced some or most of the episodes of 24 before the strike, correct? If so, how are they going to manage to keep a consistent appearance now (what with 24 being all in 1 day) between episodes? I guess it doesn't matter with some of the older actors as they may not age that much. But any younger actors are going to look very different between episodes now.

They only filmed 8 episodes. It won't be hard to keep consistency, Lost does it all the time, so has Heroes. This will be just like in between seasons. The only thing that would suck is if something serious happened to one of the actors between seasons, but that's a constant fear now.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Yup, that's a doozy right there 😄
    • It's a bundle of tools created by a variety of people, so things can go wrong sometimes. It's a great addition to Windows, and I use a lot of the tools on a daily basis. Also, it's still a 0.**** release so quick updates are to be expected 😉
    • Oh, I did. And it's even worse than I was hoping! Besides a lot of techno-babble jargon (yes I understand 100% of it but it's still all just techno-babble) there's 2 key points that make me super-weary about even considering testing this out. -- By default, after installation, a relay is automatically set up, so you do not need to care about that. * Non-chatmail apps use email servers as a long-term message archive while chatmail clients use email servers for ephemeral instant message relay. * Supporting the full variety of classic email setups would require considerable development and maintenance efforts, and complicate making chatmail-based messaging more resilient, reliable and fast. -- Basically, the end-user device is the 'server' (relay) so there is NO ARCHIVING whatsoever because every message is necessarily ephemeral. Great for techno-paranoia (and for illicit activities preferring no tracks to cover) but terrible for everybody else. It's also ironically contradictory to engineering principles of redundancies besides the transport layers due to the explicit absence of any persistent storage. Instead of 'classic email address' retaining multi-GB messaging archives on its server, now every device must retain 100% of those storage demands. (Email messages were originally meant to be short correspondences, not the multi-MB attachments boondoggle that now exists with unlimited spam engines flooding every potential recipient.) Any device swap or reset (or loss) makes the entire message history go bye-bye forever... lest there's an off-device auto-archival "relay" mechanism that's really a separate server that holds onto all transported messages (an email server) that utilizes 'chatmail email address' identities (like an email server) and its own persistent storage archive (like an email server). But... this solution is hoping to exist alongside real-world email address identities (based on the email server relay pathway) but simply render messages in chat thread format in an ephemeral manner (with contents being encrypted, and messages auto-expiring) ... In the end, it's a chat app/experience for the Web3/P2P-at-all-costs zealots. (I have accts on all sorts of federated web3 services so I understand the technical and non-technical alike.) For any practical users, however, it's just another service to download/install, register, cross-share id cards/qr codes, but know that there's no history/archive whatsoever (by design) so no account/message recovery whatsoever... update the device, install a bummed update patch, or dare upgrade your device... all history, poof, gone. Ya gotta start everything over again like they're a brand new person.
    • You've tried DuckDuckGo and Brave Search, now get serious with SearXNG by Paul Hill Over the last decade, it has become quite trendy to dump Google Search in favor of privacy-preserving alternatives such as DuckDuckGo, Startpage, and Brave Search. These search engines have done a very good job at highlighting dodgy practices by Google, such as adjusting search results based on what it thinks you’ll like (filter bubble) and stalking you around the web to advertise to you. While these search engines are good starting points when compared to non-private services like Google, there are still quite a few issues with them. For example, both DuckDuckGo and Brave Search require running non-free JavaScript in your web browser, which is comparable to running proprietary software on your computer, meaning you can be sure about what it’s actually doing in the background. Another issue is that these search engines are hosted on the respective companies’ servers, and you are using a service that you don’t control. Finally, DuckDuckGo, while offering privacy features, relies heavily on Microsoft’s infrastructure for its results and, in the past, has permitted Microsoft tracking scripts. If you are looking for a more private search solution than DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, and Startpage, then I recommend taking a look at SearXNG. It is a privacy-respecting metasearch engine that can be used via different public instances, which is useful for mobile users, or you can install it on your computer or server and run it locally with maximum control. Unlike Google, Bing, or Brave Search, which crawl the web and have their own search indexes, SearXNG is a metasearch engine, meaning it taps other search engines, stripping your identifying data, such as IP address, user agent, and cookies, in the process. Your search query is sent to the other search engines you enable before aggregating the results. SearXNG has deployment flexibility. If you are a casual user or a mobile user and don’t want to run SearXNG locally, you can use a public instance that is hosted by someone else. The main problem with this is that you are putting trust in the maintainer of the instance regarding stuff like logs that they may keep; good hosts should have a privacy policy explaining their policies. If you are trying to use SearXNG, you can also install the software on your device and then head to 127.0.0.1:8080 in your browser and search from there. While you don’t have to worry about a third-party admin like the public instances, search engines could ultimately block your IP address if they frown on you pulling in their search results locally. If you want to run it locally, it’s a good idea to use proxies or VPNs to hide your actual IP. You don’t have to worry about this with a public instance, as search engines never see your IP address. The main privacy benefit of using SearXNG is that it isolates your identity from the underlying engines that it’s capable of searching, such as Google and Bing. These search engines will only see requests coming from a generic server, so they can’t profile you and create a bubble filter that influences what results you see. This also ensures that your search engine doesn’t turn into an echo chamber that prevents you from reading alternative points of view. As a free software project, you are allowed to inspect SearXNG to make sure there are no negative features bundled inside. This sets it apart from the privacy search engines mentioned earlier because you can’t check their source code. As a meta search engine, you are not restricted to getting results from one source. Due to the fact that it scrapes content from other websites, your SearXNG instance will periodically get blocked from different providers, so it’s good to select a range of sources as a backup. While enabling all of the services will give you great results, this can make searching slower. I am personally happy with slower searches for the best results, but you can always check which providers are slowing down your search from the search results page and disable them to speed things up. If you want decent results quickly, enable the main search providers such as Google, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Bing, and Yahoo. This way, you get wide coverage without the latency. On the Engines tab in Preferences, do note that there are different tabs, such as General, Images, and Videos, with their own providers that can be toggled and are not covered by "Enable all" while on the General tab, so be sure to dig into each. Just a note, if you want to enable everything, press "Enable all" in one tab, then hit save at the bottom of the page, then do the next tab, and so on. If you press "Enable all", then do that in each tab, and then save, nothing will stick. When I had just some of the search engines enabled, I searched “define nefarious” and results came back with the definition of “define” - obviously that was a sucky result. However, when I had everything enabled, it found dictionary pages for the word “nefarious” and even had an inline definition on the sidebar, which is quite nice too - that was delivered by WolframAlpha for anyone wondering! Probably the worst thing about this meta search engine is that the engines you select are saved with a cookie, so you must enable them on every new device you use SearXNG on, including if you decide to go into incognito mode with your web browser. Honestly, I would say this is the most annoying aspect, and perhaps if your browser lets you choose a separate private browsing search engine, then it would be best to use DuckDuckGo for this portion of your browsing. Another weakness of SearXNG is the random blocking of it by search providers. When you are on the results page, expand the “Response time” box, and it will show things like “Suspended: too many requests” or “access denied”. This is why it is good to enable several providers so that there is always a fallback to get results from. I won’t pretend SearXNG will be for everyone, however, if you enable all of the providers and put up with the slower response time, the results can be really amazing. Even if you don’t want to use it as your daily driver, keeping a bookmark handy that links to it is a good idea if you ever feel like doing a deep dive into a niche topic where other search engines are just failing to bring up any good result, due to the amount of sources it looks on. If you’re interested in radical user control over the software you use, installing SearXNG locally can also be a good idea, but be prepared to be temporarily blocked from sites if you trigger bot sensors without a VPN. Personally, I’ve opted to use a public instance, rather than install it myself. If you want to use it via a public instance, head over to searx.space to find a provider. Let us know in the comments if you have used SearXNG or its predecessor, Searx. What do you think about the quality of the results?
    • Dear Neowin, If it is not too much trouble, can you start using the new-ish designations for Insider Preview? "Experimental" is different than "former Dev" as it can apply to different models, eg 26H1 or 26H2 etc, right? No need to seed confusion IMHO. And, please "finally" update your graphics. OK?
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Woland13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Woland13 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      503
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      226
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      158
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      75
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      71
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!