but, you are aware that there's an invention called Television

[girl]

Chris:  download S2!  I have similar feelings about S1, but, again, this year Dexter has had the best TV season (so far, and with the strike I'm not confident in it being topped by anything other than The Wire, which I don't even consider TV at this point).

(Dexter) Yeah, it's actually been downloading since last night, really slowly for some reason. . . 

[dieblucasdie]

So did everyone see how Dave Letterman's company is trying to make a separate interim agreement with the writers' guild?  His actions throughout the strike have made me actually respect the guy.  hahaha oh man, oh man does that ever put CBS/Moonves in a tough spot.  Serves the bastard right.

Also, hilariously, 30 striking writers managed to get into the audience at Carson Daly's show and kept disrupting the taping.

[Andrew_TSKS]

whoa, really? i wonder if that will be obvious when the finished episode airs. i bet not--i'll bet if i watched it to try and see some awesomeness i'd be thoroughly let down. still, that's awesome that that happened.

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, apparently they kept heckling him one-by-one; so security would be busy removing the last guy.  Also, they pointed out that Daly was using cue cards, which means someone is scabbing.  I don't think anything made it on to the episode, other than the fact that Daly was visibly shaken-up.

[slow west vultures]

the dude was on TRL for several years.  you gotta think the part of him that cares that people think he's a douchebag has grown numb over the years.  also apparently he's a big ND fan.  he gave a speech at the USC pep rally in 2004, and my friend saw him outside of south dining hall the next day, and was so tipsy he staggered up to him "Carson Daly! my man!  give me a hug" and then hugged him. 

[jebreject]

how is it that the writers guild is one of the only labor unions that's doing totally awesome shit any more

[girl]

Blucas, you're right about season 2 of Dexter. It does get better.

[DCDave]

My ex saw Bea Russell today - 3 wire actors in two weeks.

[dieblucasdie]

Blucas, you're right about season 2 of Dexter. It does get better.

Oh man, it just gets crazier, too.

[girl]

Blucas, you're right about season 2 of Dexter. It does get better.

Oh man, it just gets crazier, too.

Yeah, I finished it already. There's enough that I would quibble about that keeps it from being really great, but it was definitely entertaining.

I'm a little blue that all I've got to look forward to now is season 5 of The Wire.

[RoyBiggins]

So, apparently Colbert and Stewart are gonna return and improvise their shit?

Edit: Hah.

Both hosts are Writers Guild of America members. The guild, in a statement, accused Comedy Central of forcing the two hosts back to work and reiterated that the studios should resume negotiations to reach a settlement in the strike.

In a statement, the two hosts said they would prefer to return to work with their writers. “If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence,” they stated.

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, well Conan and Leno have already decided to return and do the same thing.  Again, after 6 weeks of striking, the studios can fire all the non-writing production staff.  So if they didn't come back a whole bunch of people would lose their jobs.  It was pretty much expected that they'd do this eventually (Johnny Carson did it in '88).  Letterman is the only one who's really awesome, trying to make a separate deal with WGA.  Is he that much of player that he can just give the finger to every other production company in Hollywood?  Awesome.

[dieblucasdie]

OMG you guys Fox is bringing back Paradise Hotel.  END STRIKE SAVE US FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

[diesel_powered]

I finally finished season 3 of Weeds. Wow... a different kind of cliffhanger this time!

[bethany_m]

how is it that the writers guild is one of the only labor unions that's doing totally awesome shit any more

This is what I keep thinking about.

[dieblucasdie]

Like this awesomeness?

Honestly, part of it is the cartoonish villainy of the Big Media they're up against.  They won't even discuss giving the writers residuals for digital downloads, but Les Mooves (head of CBS) just filed some papers with the SEC disclosing that his salary is 200% higher than other media CEOs (who are overpaid to begin with).

[Greg Nog]

I can't remember whether I linked this here before, but this attempt at scabbing is one of my favorite things I've ever seen on metafilter.

[dieblucasdie]

WILSON: I, too, am in this episode.

hahaha

[Aglaya]

I would watch that episode.

[jebreject]

Like this awesomeness?

Fuckin' A!

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, it gets really fascinating the more coverage you read.  I'm more and more convinced that (like everything in the world), the whole thing boils down to a personality conflict.  Nick Counter (AMPTP's president) just hates David Young (WGA's executive director) and that's why entertainment fans suffer and thousands of people's livelihood's are stake.  The way the last set of negotiations broke down (with Counter banging on the door of the WGA negotiators' hotel room, yelling out demands, as they tried to work on a counter-proposal) was so hilariously middle-school you can hardly believe a person like this has gotten to such a position of responsibility. 

[jebreject]

uh. no, i do not think it boils down to personality conflicts. i'm sure that's one factor in many, but dude, really?

[Andrew_TSKS]

i guess blucas is saying that, were the personality conflict not there, it'd have been settled by now.

to which i say: eh, maybe, but probably not.

[diesel_powered]

It's an interesting question... what rules this negotiation more? Personality conflicts or the money?

Also, anybody have any theories about why they shot certain scenes in this season of Dexter to look more obviously like video? It could just be budget and convenience (since most of the scenes on video are in and around vehicles and in tight places) but that's not to say that they couldn't have covered it up and made it look filmlike like the rest of the show.

[dieblucasdie]

uh. no, i do not think it boils down to personality conflicts. i'm sure that's one factor in many, but dude, really?

Well, yeah, there are vital issues at stake, and certainly the studios would rather NOT have to pay the writers what they deserve.  But if Nick Counter weren't such a dick, and didn't have a weird vendetta against David Young, I think they'd at least be negotiating rather than the take-my-ball-and-go-home weirdness we're seeing now.  I may have stated my cas a bit strong before; my only point was how shockingly middle-school a lot of it is, given what's at stake.