AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

The writer’s strike is over. The picket lines are gone. People are getting back to work I think now is a good time now to examine what’s happened here in Hollywood over the past three months or so and see if we can piece together some of the more interesting facts to get to the bottom of all this, for as it is with many disasters, the true meaning and intention can often be seen clearly with the benefit of hindsight.

For it is in the shimmering clarity of hindsight that I believe one can see that this was never a strike about DVD sales or the internet. This strike was never a battle of labor vs. management. It never was. This was first and foremost an opportunity. An opportunity for the studios, and more importantly the corporations that run the studios, to make some vital economic changes to the structure of their business models, and the WGA contract negotiations provided the best smoke screen and business opportunity in which to achieve these necessary changes. In the same way, one could argue, that even though the U.S. government might not have caused the attacks of September 11th, the U.S. military saw a perfect opportunity to build a case against Iraq and Saddam Hussein, regardless of whether or not he was responsible, and took that opportunity to make some massive restructuring of the middle east and by extension world economic structures as they saw fit. That might seem like a long shot of a comparison, but allow me to lay out the formulas and although lives were not at stake in the WGA vs. the AMPTP, the situations are not as far from one another as you might think. After all business is business is business.

As stated above, the WGA strike was never a case of labor vs. management. Even though I know that what we were all watching and I do believe that many people, including the writers and actors and other sympathizers who were on the picket lines and making all those savage short films for the internet believed in their hearts it was. I wouldn’t be surprised if some members of the WGA negotiation team still think it was. It is my intention to show a case explaining that that was all a smoke screen to keep the masses occupied while the corporations and conglomerates stepped in and re-arranged a few things to the structure of the television industry specifically to streamline production, clear out dead weight and save themselves hundred of millions of dollars each year. And I also hope to show that this was necessary, and for the good of the medium.

The lay of the land:

Hollywood, it has been said, is a factory town, and the studios are the factories. If this is the case, then TV show, more than movies, are the widgets that the factories produce by the millions and sell around the world. TV is where the money is.

In recent history vertical integration has made it possible for the television networks to develop, produce and distribute their own shows, rather than having to purchase them from outside production companies. Today each of the major television networks is owned by a large media company: NBC/Universal is owned by GE, The Walt Disney Company owns ABC, Viacom owns CBS and of course News Corp. owns Fox. Each network is also affiliated with a major Hollywood studio: NBC/Universal, obviously, is in the title, Disney owns ABC as mentioned, Viacom own Paramount, and News Corp. owns 20th Century Fox. Indecently Time Warner owns both the Warner Bros. studio and HBO. Warner Bros. Television, although not a full owner of a TV Network does produce a vast amount of Television for all networks mentioned. This leaves the vast majority of Hollywood in the hands of very few owners all of whom are in the business of making money. Which after all is always the bottom line, isn’t it, at the end of the day.

Thus the problems facing the networks, who answer to the corporations, is money. And when searching for the root cause of any major business deal, or action, the safest bet is to always follow the money. So why the need to restructure network TV? They were not making money. For one the networks are losing viewers to cable TV, to the internet, to video games, and even oddly to TiVo. The old model simply didn’t work any more. There was too much money being poured into dead-end production deals, pilots costing 3-10 million dollars that never get aired, and the overly lavish spring tradition of the Upfronts where 5-10 millions per network is spent wining and dining the ad executives, getting them super excited about the network’s new fall season, where they hope to sell them the ad time.

There was more money being spent then there was money generated. Something needed to change. For starters the fall schedule, in the modern television landscape, is unnecessary. A year round schedule is needed. But if one was to say outright: “We need to stop doing the Upfronts” or “Let’s switch to a year round development/pilot schedule” no one would listen, because to make it work everyone would have to do it, and no one wants to be the only one to chance it and fail.

Let’s go back Iraq for a moment. Here’s a little behind the scenes history: On October 20th 2000, Saddam Hussein switched from trading oil revenues on the dollar standard to the euro standard. At the time he lost a lot of money, as the dollar was stronger than the euro. But in a few months, the euro was suddenly worth more than the dollar and that makes Saddam a lot of money. This seemed interesting to the rest of OPEC who mulled over the idea of trading all oil world wide on the euro standard, all of which at the time being traded on the dollar standard. Had this occurred, the value of the dollar would have plummeted and the United States would be plunged into a depression virtually over night. Our government would not let this happen. But rather than solve the problem diplomatically, which may have averted the crisis with ease, the U.S. decided to attack the guy who started it. All they needed was a reason to invade Iraq. Then September 11th happened. I won’t say that the government caused the attack; I’m just saying they saw an opportunity.

Back to Hollywood. The need to restructure television was growing. The fall 2007 season was a disaster. But how to make these massive changes and not cause an uproar? Enter the WGA.

If you recall, the strike seemed inevitable back in October. And it was. Just as the invasion of Iraq was inevitable. There was never any actual dialogue with the writers. Even after the strike began, there was no real dialogue. The AMPTP wouldn’t even come to the bargaining table. They would make an appearance, but they never took the talks seriously, which got all the writers pissed, which agitated the situation which is exactly what needed to happen. The bigger the distraction, the better for the plan to go into effect.

The studio moguls quietly waited for the first 6 weeks to be over. This enacted the force majeure clause in the contracts of the many development deals that were sucking millions of dollars and providing very little in return. In mid-January all those contracts were canceled. The studios were cleaning house.

Next they needed to kill pilot season. Pilot season traditionally took place in late December and January where scripts for newly pitched shows arrive on executive’s desks and the ones that are liked are put into production over the first few months of the year and then delivered. Based on these pilots decisions are made as to what shows will be on the fall schedule. The fall schedule is then announced at the Upfronts in May.

Well they simply canceled the Upfronts. Done. One more to go, and possibly the biggest and most important. Streamlining pilot season itself. One of the negative sides of pilot season was that everything was so rushed and hurried, from the development phase to the casting and prep phase, to the production phase, to the cutting and delivering phase. Plus all of this was happening at the same time of year, for every network, putting a massive strain on the both the creative and physical elements for each pilot, thinning the talent pool immensely. For example once an actor is locked into one pilot they cannot read for another. The directors, DPs, PDs, and crews are all in demand, but who gets them and when? And after all that the completed pilot must be amazingly funny, or powerful, or dramatic, or all three right out of the gate, or else it gets passed on and never given a chance to prove itself, one way or anther. Compare this with how things are done on a premium cable network like HBO where there is no fall schedule, no pilot season. At HBO an idea is nurtured. It’s developed over time with the creative and producing teams, in the same way a feature film would be, so that they can make sure to get the best for their money. The result? HBO shows, I think it’s safe to say, are better in tone and quality and thus longevity (DVD sales, reruns, even syndication) than the majority of network shows. In a market where “Content is King” as Sumner Redstone recently stated, it’s more profitable to have better content, than a high concept that goes no where.

It was recently announced that going forward the networks are going to order six scripts for new shows. There will no longer be a lavish Upfronts show in New York. And new shows will now be developed year round. All major networks will be doing this, and no one needs to take the risk. They are all in it together.

This was all happening while all that aggressive gibber jabber on the streets kept us all distracted. This theater of Labor vs. Management is the show everyone was watching while TV quietly got the overhaul it needed.

The studios might have lost money over the past three months, but I guarantee the corporations that own them didn’t. Viacom is not feeling the pinch. Nor GE nor The Walt Disney Company. This was never about Labor vs. Management. The striking writers were never going to get their demands met for the reasons of their refusal to work. Striking in this world of macro economics is like spitting into the ocean and thinking you’re making a difference. I know most members of the WGA believe in what they are doing, and they are not wrong. On a base human to human level, I think there are a lot of positive things going on. On the battlefield the soldiers are keeping hope alive. But the generals on the hill don’t care. As long as they get what they want. Those who lost their jobs, lost their houses, that’s just collateral damage. Even the Golden Globes was a sacrifice worth making. I mean that’s the foreign press. Forget them. Hollywood loves their own. And only, really, their own.

So it was announced that the strike is over, just in time for the Oscars. Seriously, the Oscars were never in doubt. What better ending to the story, to the piece of public and political theater, than to have a huge celebratory party where Hollywood gets to congratulate itself on a job well done. And who says producers can’t write.

As for Iraq. Well, they say there was never any exit strategy. And that very well might be true. They say that the plans are constantly changing because the number of militant Islamic insurgents was greater than anticipated. Seems right. But I’ll tell you this: There is nothing more profitable than an on going war. I reiterate: If you want to find the root cause of things on a macro-economic level, follow the money.