LAist: WGA Strike: Day 34

hc

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:01:48 -0800

From the LA Times on Oct 16: "As a young writer, Marc Cherry found early success on NBC's hit show "The Golden Girls," then toiled in obscurity for the next 12 years. Two shows he created for Fox and CBS were canceled. None of the TV pilots he developed clicked. In debt $30,000, he sold his Hancock Park home, moved into a small condo in Studio City and even borrowed money from his mother. What sustained him in the fallow years, before his desperation inspired ABC's 2004 hit "Desperate Housewives," were the little green envelopes that showed up in his mailbox. Reruns of "The Golden Girls," which got a second life on the Lifetime cable channel, brought residual checks that one year totaled $75,000. .....writers say these payments help them weather Hollywood's feast-and-famine work cycles. Without residuals, Cherry said, he might have been forced to "get a real job." TV viewers might never have had "Desperate Housewives," the darkly comic tale of suburbia that helped lift ABC out of the doldrums. "These residuals allowed me to survive long enough to create a show that is a huge profit center for the network," said Cherry, 45, a Long Beach native and member of the Writers Guild of America negotiating committee. "That's what kept me afloat." The fact that Marc Cherry says he may have been forced to "get a real job" (his words, not mine) leads me to believe he did not get a day job. Though, as he implies, if he had been forced to get a real job, the world would have been denied Desperate Housewives. What a tragedy that would've been. I'm sure no one else would've written a hit show.

smerd

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:27:32 -0800

Studios are fat and greedy. TV content is less interesting than what I can read on a ceral box. Hair,teeth, tits, cop/medical/'news' soap operas, docudramas based on something over heard in the checkout line, 'reality' TV. Late night 'entertainment'. Staff writers are suckin off the tit of a dead medium. Grow up & get a job if you cant write. If you can write, write. Thank you very much.

jackclay

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:07:42 -0800

hc, That completely misses the point. First of all, do you know Marc Cherry didn't get a day job at some point in the interval described? Second, in the end, I disagree - if corporations, studios, networks continue to make money off your work, then you should have an income while they do so - employed or not. A writer's work is what they create; if what they create remains financially viable - then that is a legit income. We are not making loaves of bread.

hc

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:37:42 -0800

Okay, this is one of my biggest beefs with the whole strike: "We're fighting so that when we're out of work for years (Marc Cherry, I'm looking at you) we have a little breathing room." I've been out of work too. You know what I did? I got another job! I don't know why some writers think it's their right to write - and only write - and continue getting a paycheck when they're not writing (or not selling any writing). I get the argument that you created the work, you should get paid for the work. I get the argument that when others are getting paid to re-air your work, you should get a cut. I absolutely disagree that you deserve residuals so you can have an income when you're out of work.