In case any of you are wondering where David Shore, the showrunner of House, stands on the strike: http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2529

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that the two actresses from House who are picketing are --->spoiler Anne Dudek & Olivia Wilde strike news edited by GG, information about actors who are still filming at this point can be seen as spoilers by those who are unspoiled.

I'm confused. Why are actors picketing? I was under the impression that SAG actors are under contract and could not join this strike. :?

Picketing in support? Our people did that when a fellow union went out.

I think it's a show of solidarity on the part of actors. Hurrah for Shore for signing that letter (and also Jason Katims, Friday Night Lights, the only other show I watch....).

I know that people who post comments to web articles tend to have the most strongly held opinions, but considering the amount of vitriol being spewed, it seems to me like a lot of working relationships are going to be damaged no matter what the ultimate contract looks like. The weeks leading up to our strike were among the worst in my life. Everyone was at each others' throats, and I don't mean company vs. union - I mean union members vs. other union members. Those wounds lasted a long time. What I really remember is that it was the people who were wailing to the union executive "we have to settle, I have kids to feed" were the EXACT SAME people who afterwards said "the union executive caved, we shouldn't have settled". You couldn't find a single person who would admit to voting to accept the company's deal and return to work, even though it passed by 85%. Strange, that :roll: I read the statement above. Pardon my ignorance but what's "story breaking"?

I thought the forum might be interested in the possible economic costs of a long strike. From forbes.com: Extrapolating from the Milken figures, and adjusting for inflation, it looks like a five-month strike could cost Los Angeles nearly $8 billion. As the strike drags on, more jobs disappear over time, as fewer people can hold out with a shriveling paycheck. In one month, about 11% of the 240,000 (or 27,500) jobs might go. Over five months, up to 30% of the jobs ­(nearly 72,000)­ might disappear. These numbers do not include the potential job loss of the indirect support people. And a House mention: Perhaps the greatest irony is that critics opine that television writing today is some of the best in the medium's history. Consider House, The Office and the now-departed The Sopranos.

I read an article about Jay Leno showing up to support his writers (he brought Krispy Kreme). I got a chuckle out of his comment to the press, "People get the wrong idea about how much writers make. I know I'm real cheap and I don't pay them anything." But seriously, his head writer said the support meant a lot because he's known Jay twenty years and "we're family."

Ihave a question about how th strike will affect new shows. We know that House et all have at least a few more scripts to get them through until sweeps, but how many new shows have a full season of ready scripts, don't most write until they know they will be picked up and stay on? So if they don't have any more scripts this fall seasons new crop could theoratically go away prety quick right?

That's a good question. Maybe some networks picked up shows earlier than they normally would have done, suspecting a strike was nigh, to give writers a chance to submit more scripts, and the fates of these new shows just haven't been leaked yet? Or maybe writers submitted more scripts than usual, just in case. I can imagine they'd want to give their new show every chance it could get. I don't know. It seems pretty unfair to lose a whole bunch of new shows because writers are striking, but then again... that's Hollywood for you.

Several new series got orders for more scripts or more episodes during October. And I think only Viva Laughlin has been canceled. But in terms of stockpiling scripts, I don't think *any* American series for broadcast television has an entire season worth of scripts, except maybe one or two that were supposed to be short replacement series anyway. The cable series (e.g. Monk) seem to be in better shape in terms of having scripts ahead of time. But who knows if it's realistic to shoot them without writers on hand. One of the concerns that has cropped up is that if the strike drags on, borderline shows could get canceled because it's expensive to sort of keep the sets, crew, etc. on standby. On the other hand, if there aren't any pilots to look at for next season, shows could be kept around because there's nothing to replace them :)