Time's Up, Pencils Down

I've gotten a lot of emails asking me how the WGA strike affects me here at G4, so here's how it lays out.

First of all, here's a video that breaks down what the writers want.

Attack of the Show! is a non-union writing job and I am a non-union writer. This is why I showed up for work on Monday morning. If this show WAS a union job, it would not be covered by the Writers Guild. We are considered a "soft-news" program (not to be confused with "soft-core"... sometimes) which means that if this were a union gig, it would be covered by the news-writers union and not the WGA. I've had people joke around with me and ask me how my "scabbing" is going. It's not funny. I take this shit really seriously and back the Union 100%, no matter how fucked up or behind the times any of them might seem. Scabbing would be if I called up the producers of a WGA covered show and offered to write for them while their union writers were out picketing.

I am hoping to get to a picket line at some point to show my support for the writer's guild members. After all, SAG members want the same thing, and we might be in the same boat when our contracts expire later this year. SAG members are still allowed to go to auditions and work on union sets because we have a "no-strike" clause in our contracts. This means that we are allowed to picket and show our support for the WGA but contractually, we must report to work.

Meanwhile, I find myself a result of the trickledown effect of the strike. I was hired as a freelance writer as part of a "big push" that G4 is doing with AOTS. Ratings have been high, and so we were given a bigger budget to do more things. A new writer concentrating on the daily live show means that the other writers are freed up to write more comedy sketches. I was originally supposed to be here until December 21st, and after that I was free to move on to any other show or go home and eat doughnuts and cry (two other shows on the network approached me about coming on board as a writer on their shows in January). Last week AOTS approached me about staying until May to replace Blair. Blair is going to be one of the hosts of our Heroes post-show until the season ends, then she is back as a writer/host on AOTS. I agreed to stay until May.

Monday the writers go on strike. No writers means no new Heroes episodes after December 3 (assuming the strike drags on - which sadly, it looks like it's going to do...) No new episodes after December 3 means no Heroes post show. No post show means Blair comes back to AOTS. Blair coming back means.... oh good lord, you get the point. No job till May.

I'm talking to the EP of another show today about writing for their show come January. I have a meeting in 45 minutes about it. I'd like to stay here on AOTS - not because I don't like the other show - I do! I like the people that work on it and i am already friends with the hosts -- it's just that they focus on ONE thing, and we run the gamut of schtuff. I like it mixed up.

Well, we'll see.

So yeah, the El Jay peeps know this already but - Neil Gaiman was in the studio on Monday talking about Beowulf during "The Loop" segment. Here's how geeky I am. I had seen that he was scheduled to talk in the show rundown - but assumed they would be conferencing him in, which happens a lot in The Loop. I'm standing down in the studio and I notice a girl that looks familiar. I think to myself, "that looks like Neil Gaiman's daughter..."

Before you get all freaked out that I would know who she was - she often guest writes on his blog and posted some hilarious videos of herself trying to make sense of comic-con. It then dawned on me that he. must. be. in. the. studio. the. place. where. i. am. right. now.

It would have been very easy for me to a) ask the segment producer to introduce me to him or b) walk right up to him and introduce myself when the segment was over -- right? What? are you NEW to this blog? I am a fucking spaz. I did the only thing possible to do in that moment. I got really quiet and small and just stood there gawking. I *did* manage to tell his daughter that she should guest blog again because she was awesome. Oh and I got squee all over my Executive Producer. I walked into the elevator with him, and NG was standing in front of the doors chatting with someone. The doors closed and that was it -- release the squee. He hassled me and ribbed me about it for the rest of the day, but you get respite here because everyone's got the thing that gives them a nerdgasm. Everyone.

It's fun here, and totally random things happen. The head writer said to me yesterday, "did you see that?" and I said, "what?" and he said, "go - go over there"... so I walked into our reception area where we have all the video games - and yes, people were milling around, and there were people actually sitting in all the chairs we have out there, and a guy that looked like P-Diddy standing by a cubicle on his phone - but nothing that I could see that was worth a walk.

I come back and say, "Did I miss it? What was going on?" and he says, "You didn't see P-Diddy???!"

*sigh* I like the world I live in. The sky is real pretty here. And the cookies are fresh and soft.

I am going to go play some more "Rock Band" before my meeting. Just try and stop me.