Progress report

And there is progress to report on the strike front. The Guild and producers have agreed to return to the bargaining table next Monday. Hopefully everyone's yummy Thanksgiving dinners will have them in high spirits and ready to hammer out a deal. Never underestimate the power of stuffing, I say. And hopefully it's not just a ploy to get the showrunners back on the job (as they've agreed to do if the producers came back to the table) and get the last few scripts in the can before non-reality series grind to a complete halt. Their walkout was one unexpected twist that may have brought a little more pressure to bear a little sooner than expected. Not enough to cause any real "pain" to the studios but not an insignificant gesture either.

I walked Friday morning at Paramount. Got to meet John (as great as you would expect from his blog), a writer/producer from Journeyman and Sports Night (among many other projects), and one of the directors of the series Sabrina the Teenage Witch (he worked with TV's Frank!). And JJ Abrams brought us donuts, apparently -- without his glasses, I didn't recognize him (which supports John's Theory of Screenwriter Invisibility I suppose).

In the meantime, I'll link to this article, which Max notes really lays it all out in terms of what's at stake for writers and non-writers alike. The coverage out here in the trades and the LA Times has been stupendously pro-studio and Toni tells you just why that might be.

With the parties talking again, maybe the parties' stockings will be stuffed by Christmas with a big fat new minimum basic agreement that fairly compensates everyone for their works in whatever format they may be sold or used.