OfficeTally

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike from Monday, November 5, 2007 through Tuesday, February 12, 2008. This included all the WGA writers who work on ‘The Office.’

The strike came after “three months of negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers).” Areas of contention included DVD residuals and payments for “new media” (like last summer’s webisodes).

Latest news:

• Feb. 26: Writers Guild Members Overwhelmingly Ratify New Contract — “The members of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) today put their final stamp of approval on the deal that ended their 14-week strike, giving writers new rights and protections for work distributed on and created for the Internet and other new media platforms. An overwhelming majority of the WGA membership voted in favor of ratifying the three-year contract by 93.6 percent of 4,060 votes cast in Los Angeles and New York. The term of the agreement is from February 13, 2008 through May 1, 2011.” More NEW

Videos: The Office is Closed | Why We Fight | This Is Our Moment

Call to action: Write a letter | Write a letter (part 2)

Ongoing strike coverage: Deadline Hollywood Daily | United Hollywood

Previous news after the jump.

• Feb. 13: from Ask Ausiello — ” … an Office crew member e-mailed me to say that Carell and about 20 other Office actors/writers sent letters to the crew over the weekend alerting them to the fact that they’d soon be receiving $2,000 checks … ” More
• Feb 12: Writers Guild Members Vote to End Strike
• Feb. 11: “If the strike is called off, we are planning to do another six episodes this season,” said Greg Daniels, show runner for NBC’s “The Office.” Source
• Feb. 10: Showrunners back to work Monday.
• Feb. 10: TV Guide interviews Paul Lieberstein outside last night’s meeting.
• Feb. 10: United Hollywood’s FAQ on what happens next.
• Feb. 10: An account of last night’s L.A. membership meeting by United Hollywood.
• Feb. 10: WGA to hold 48-hour vote. “WGA members will have the chance to vote on whether to end the strike under an expedited 48-hour voting process, WGA leaders told members during Saturday’s night’s meeting to detail the contract deal just reached with the majors.” Perhaps the strike will be called off as early as Tuesday?
• Feb. 9: Tentative deal sent to WGA membership for review before tonight’s meeting.
• Feb. 7: Writers Strike Isn’t Over (… Despite What FrankenEisner Says).
• Feb. 7: Former Walt Disney chief executive Michael Eisner says the strike is over. (I’ll believe it when WGA.org posts an announcement on their website. But things do look hopeful, don’t they …)
• Feb. 5: Letter To Membership From WGA Presidents. “In order to have a full discussion with you of the terms and how they were reached, and in order to get your input before making recommendations or decisions, we have scheduled membership meetings for current-active members only for this Saturday, February 9, in New York and Los Angeles.”
• Feb. 2: United Hollywood has posted a link to this New York Times article — Deal to End Hollywood Writers’ Strike May Be Near. Dare we hope?
• Jan. 26: Final thoughts about my L.A. trip.
• Jan. 23: OfficeTally live blogs from the picket line.
• Jan. 22: WGA presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship sent a message to the membership today: “We have responded favorably to the invitation from the AMPTP to enter into informal talks that will help establish a reasonable basis for returning to negotiations. During this period, we have agreed to a complete news blackout … In order to make absolutely clear our commitment to bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations, we have decided to withdraw our proposals on reality and animation.” Source
• Jan. 21: Informal Talks To Begin This Week.
• Jan. 18: “Once the strike ends, how long will it take for TV shows to start production again? Let’s say the strike is settled on Feb. 1 … Comedies like The Office would be able to churn out around five installments, according to an NBC source.” Source
• Jan. 17: From amptp.org — “Today, we invite the Writers Guild of America to engage with us in a series of informal discussions similar to the productive process that led us to a deal with the DGA to determine whether there is a reasonable basis for returning to formal bargaining. We look forward to these discussions, and to the day when our entire industry gets back to work.”
• Jan. 17: DGA reaches tentative deal with AMPTP. “The town’s focus will immediately shift to whether the terms of the DGA deal will be acceptable to the WGA. A group of moderate writers have been pushing in recent days for the leaders not to reject the DGA deal out of hand but optimists believe that the DGA deal will be enough of a breakthrough on new-media questions to pave the way for a WGA pact.”
• Jan. 15: Studios cancel TV writer contracts.
• Dec. 24: picketing has stopped for the holidays, and resumes January 7th. In the meantime, here are some interesting links: 1) GE To Cuts Costs, Q4 Projections For NBCU; 2) Rainn talks about the strike, and lastly, 3) a scheduling idea for Thursday nights on NBC (including The Office).
• Dec. 8: Producers, Writers Negotiations Collapse.
• Dec. 6: Striking writers sound upbeat note on latest talks. “For the last two days, we have had substantive discussions of the issues important to writers, the first time this has occurred in this negotiation,” the Writers Guild of America said in a statement as talks adjourned for the day.
• Dec. 4: Talks Day #5: “Questions & Haggling.”
• Dec. 1: More Clarification on the AMPTP’s Numbers.
• Nov. 29: Talks Day #4: Producers Present New Media Proposals To Writers; WGA Responds It’s A Rollback & Rejects; But Is This The Whole Offer Or Just 1/2 Of It? Talks resume on Tuesday, December 4.
• Nov. 28: Hollywood writers strike and your TV (the pressure)
• Nov. 28: Deadline Hollywood Daily reports, ‘I was told last night by a top Hollywood CEO that the moguls had decided to allow AMPTP to put on the negotiating table a sweetened deal at Talks Day #4 today. “The producers are trying to put something on the table tomorrow [Thursday] that will jaw this loose. It will include streaming and EST [electronic sell-through] and all the rest,” the source said specifically.’ More here
• Nov. 28: Deadline Hollywood Daily reports, ‘There’s little more to say about Wednesday’s talks other than that, unfortunately. “This is not heading in the right direction,” a mogul quoted his labor exec as saying to him yesterday. Another source told me, “It’s stalemated. Nothing’s getting achieved.”‘ More here
• Nov. 28: Dan Beals, PA at The Office, blogs about filing for unemployment.
• Nov. 28: Deadline Hollywood Daily reports, “Yes, the AMPTP and WGA are still talking — or what passes for talking between this bunch. What was only supposed to be three days of talks is now four days of talks. Next round skedded for 10 AM Thursday.” Source
• Nov. 28: Deadline Hollywood Daily reports on Tuesday’s talks: ‘Tuesday was the day that the writers and the producers were supposed to start considering “new business” during their resumed contract negotiations. But, instead, they just kept focused on old business.’ More here
• Nov. 26: Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily reports on today’s talks between the WGA and AMPTP. She says “I am thrilled to be able to give you a report on how today’s contract talks went between the writers and the producers. And they went well, according to my sources.” More talks are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. More here
• Nov. 26: has a deal between WGA and AMPTP already been struck? Deadline Hollywood Daily says … quite possibly.
• Nov. 26: cross your fingers — both sides go back to the negotiating table today!
• Nov. 20: “With no more new episodes of ‘The Office’ or ‘Scrubs,’ NBC announced that ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ would take their place beginning Jan. 3.” More here
• Nov. 16: both sides going back into talks Nov. 26th! More here
• Nov. 16: an email I just received from The Office’s Co-Executive Producer, Kent Zbornak — “Jennie, please visit the following website http://www.myspace.com/ofcf. We are trying to raise funds for special Christmas aid for the staff and crew during the WGA strike. A very noble cause that I thought maybe you would like to add a link to.”
• Nov. 16: “Universal Media Studios on Thursday began notifying the regulars on NBC’s “Bionic Woman,” “The Office” and “30 Rock” that the studio is suspending them, citing the force majeure provisions in their SAG contracts.” More here.
• Nov. 15: a letter to the fans from The Office writing staff.
• Nov. 14: Kate Flannery and Leslie David Baker joined the picket line yesterday. Bob Thiele sent this photo in (below) and said: “We sang some Woody Guthrie songs on the picket line yesterday. Here’s Kate and Lily Tomlin rocking “Which Side Are You?” (Accompanied by the Scrantones!) You can also see Kate and Leslie sing at the start of this video.
• Nov. 13: Photos of Leslie David Baker, Kate Flannery, and Creed Bratton.
• Nov. 11: Mike Schur’s Modest Proposal: CEOs Go First.
• Nov. 9: Dale Alexander, a key grip on The Office, writes about layoffs on the show.
• Nov. 9: Photos of Mindy Kaling and Ed Helms.
• Nov. 9: photo of Angela, Oscar, Creed, and Ed on the picket line.
• Nov. 9: Dwight Schrute, diplomat?
• Nov. 8: Watch With Kristin interviews Greg Daniels.
• Nov. 8: Jenna talks more about the strike.
• Nov. 8: Mindy Kaling talks about the strike.
• Nov. 7: ” … what’s the creator of the best comedy on television — Greg Daniels of The Office — gonna do if the strike goes on? “I’ll go back to teaching …” More here.
• Nov. 7: Greg Daniels: We’ve seen the future, and it is us.
• Nov. 7: Jenna Fischer blogs about the strike.
• Nov. 7: the WGA explains Why We Fight.
• Nov. 7: ‘ … Steve Carell informed NBC he is unable to report to work because he is suffering from “enlarged balls.” Not just enlarged, I’d say, but brass ones. The source on this one adds, “We wish him a happy, slow recovery.”‘ Source (Update: Mike Schur told us later in chat that Steve did not say that.)
• Nov. 6: From Dan Beals’ MySpace blog — “After a 7am call time with a 9am crew call, after standing around for 7 hours at our location waiting for the studio to make a decision once it was realized that Steve Carell would, once again, not be crossing the picket line of the Writer’s Guild picketers, our producer called the entire crew into the set of Michael’s condo and announced that The Office is officially shutting down.” More here.
• Nov. 6: From Office Source #3 — “the studios decided this afternoon to officially shut our show down, so all production on it has ceased.”
• Nov. 6: Without Carell and Wilson, only two scenes of “Office” were shot Monday, sources said. Source
• Nov. 5: A photo of Gene Stupnitsky and Ed Helms.
• Nov. 5: “Rumors that the Teamsters are refusing to cross the picket line over at the studio there, and the show may shut down shooting. Word that both WGA members Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson did not show up today in support of the writers strike, so The Office had a short production day.” Source
• Nov. 5: From Office Source #2, “There are many of them, including actors, picketing outside their set offices.”
• Nov. 5: Daniels Pickets ‘Office’ Production
• Nov. 5: “Actor Oscar Nunez of “The Office” said the show’s star, Steve Carell, and co-star Rainn Wilson declined to come in to work.” Source
• Nov. 5: Steve Carell did not report in for work today. Source (NSFW)
• Nov. 5: Office Source #1 answers questions about the strike.
• Nov. 4: ‘Office’ co-stars caught in strike zone
• A statement of solidarity from various showrunners, including The Office’s Executive Producer Greg Daniels.
• Nov. 2: “Greg Daniels, executive producer of the show, wasn’t sure exactly how much a strike by the WGA would effect the show immediately, although the conclusion was eventually made that for every month there was a strike, three episodes would not be made.” Source
• Nov. 2: “At last weekend’s The Office Convention, executive producer Greg Daniels said the show was about three episodes ahead of schedule, so the strike won’t have an immediate effect.” Source
• Nov. 1: E!’s ‘Watch With Kristin’ weighs in with Hold on to Your Couch Cushions: The Writers’ Strike Is Here
• Oct. 29: “… you may be hearing more accents on TV as networks might look to other English-speaking countries to fill in the gaps. According to Slate, NBC is looking into airing the original U.K. version of “The Office.”” Source

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