Well, Yay

So the strike is over. Pardon me while I quietly stand for a moment and say: "Yippee."

The terms aren't ideal, but on a macro level, the most important elements of the deal were resolved in the writers' favor. As an example, if I'm reading this correctly, a formula was created for internet content whereby writers will receive a percentage of distributor's gross revenue--something about which the producers definitely had their backs up. What it means, in brief, is that money generated by a program on the internet will get split with its writers--money that is usually generated mostly through advertising. The producers kept claiming that writers have never taken a direct share of advertising money before (that point is arguable--depends on how you define revenues from commercials) and that they shouldn't now; but it appears the producers caved on that point.

The overriding thing is this: everybody went back to work today. Jon Stewart should have his writers improving his show as soon as tonight (and he needs them...), CBS has already announced return dates for 14 of their shows, and I'm sure that every production company in town has been buried under phone calls. We've got some calls to make ourselves... to see whether any of the people we were talking to before the strike are still employed. (We already know of a couple who were fired, meaning we're basically back to square one with those companies. So it goes.)

The Screen Actors Guild is next, with a contract expiration date of June 30th. Some A-list talent (George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and so forth) are already agitating for early negotiations with the producers, in hopes of getting all the issues resolved way in advance without any risk of work slowdowns. (It's been standard practice for months now to make sure that any production will be done by June 30th.)

I figure that SAG will indeed get their issues resolved pretty quickly, or at least well in advance of June 30th. Between the DGA and WGA deals, there's already a fair consensus over what the new numbers look like in Hollywood. There shouldn't be too much left for the actors to have to wrangle over.

So there we are. Something very like success for my dear writer friends, and now everyone leaps back to work with a vengeance. Well, yay.