I’ve pointed you towards awesome writer John Rogers before. He used to do stand up comedy (after getting a degree in physics) and it turns out one of his old bits is online. Quite funny stuff.
If you missed the first season of his show Leverage, find it and watch it and then watch the next season as it comes out. It’s like the A-Team crossbred with Hustle and a dash of Burn Notice.
Freakzoid. DVD. ‘Bout damn time.
Here’s a handy list of struck companies so you can boycott any content released by them digitally.
Don’t buy their content off of iTunes or Amazon or any other site.
Don’t watch their streamed movies or TV shows from Netflix, NBC Direct, Hulu, Joost, et al.
When anyone redistributes a movie without the studios getting a cut, they call it piracy. When the studios do it, they call it promotional.
Here’s how I suggest you can show support (and please spread this idea around):
Boycott any studio produced content on new media. Don’t buy movies or shows off of iTunes or Amazon. Don’t watch streaming episodes or movies off network sites or Netflix or any other service.
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John Rogers, as always, has one of the best posts explaining the whole strike situation. It’s lengthy, but well worth a full read.
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Poor, poor Steve Carrell. Due to a bad case of enlarged balls, he is unable to do any filming for The Office.
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While eight episodes of the new Terminator series have been shot, only the pilot has been completed and show runner Josh Friedman is not crossing the picket line to do any work on it.
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Show runners Shonda Rhimes of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice along with Shawn Ryan of The Shield and The Unit are also not doing any work on their shows either. For Shawn Ryan that means missing out on the filming of the series finale of The Shield and, if the strike lasts long enough (which certainly looks to be the case), missing out on the wrap party.
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For regular updates, I suggest keeping up with United Hollywood, Ken Levine, and Mark Evanier.
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Oh, and it turns out I was wrong the other day. The average WGA writer does not make as much as a teacher. Average yearly pay is actually only $5,000.
As I’m sure everyone knows now, the Writers Guild of America is striking, which means no new Daily Show or talk show episodes now and, in a few months, no new drama or sitcom episodes. For a good look at things from the WGA side, check out this site, United Hollywood. For a look at the corporations’ side, check any main stream media outlet (since they own them all).
That final bit is the real sticking point, not DVDs as most media outlets report. The studios are helping that mis-information by admittedly using the term “DVD” to refer to DVDs and electronic distribution so when reference is made to DVDs, keep in mind that’s not really what they mean. So basically, the writers want to be sure that they don’t get stuck with a very low residual for 20 years for electronic distribution the way they did for home video.
Not being a member of the Guild, I can’t help by not writing. Not living in L.A. means I can’t go picketing. They already get residuals for movies and TV, so not going out or switching off my set won’t help. Then I realized I do have a way to show support and something everyone I know can do too. So I suggest the following and ask that you spread the word:
Boycott studio-produced content on new media. Don’t buy any TV shows or movies off of iTunes or Amazon. Don’t watch shows streamed off network websites (including the massive Daily Show archive) or Joost or the new Hulu site.