As you may or may not know, the WGA is now taking a strike vote as the WGA-AMPTP talks stall and the Guild's contract winds down (it expires on October 31st).
Strangely enough, we've received a number of calls from writers asking if they'll be able to write on TAG-covered animation shows during a Writer Guild strike...
The answer is: "Yeah, sure, of course."
The way it works is, WGA covers most prime time animation, news, live action and various game shows.
We cover the majority of other animated product, and have since 1952 (when we started.)
We have no legal right to prohibit animation writers under our jurisdiction from working on WGA product. And the WGA has no legal right to prohibit WGA writers from working on TAG product.
The work is governed by different labor contracts, you see.
I first became cognisant of this reality when my mentor, former WGA writer Larry Clemmons, told me how -- just before a WGA strike in the early sixties -- Walt Disney stopped him in the studio hallway and said:
"Larry, the WGA is going out in a few weeks. I'm going to switch you from live action to animation work before it happens. You okay with that?"
Larry said, "Yes."
Larry explained to me -- years after the fact -- that when Walt Disney asked you a yes-or-no question, the smart thing to do was always say "yes."
Which was how Larry came to work on The Jungle Book.
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4 comments:
based on the level of quality in most movies and television shows these days it wont matter to me if they go on strike. just put some diseased chimps in front of a laptop. the results will be about the same.
Now ,now. There are fine things being written in a variety of mediums.
As a former 'toon writer, I don't want other writers being disparaged. I just want to get info out.
"based on the level of quality in most movies and television shows these days it wont matter to me if they go on strike. just put some diseased chimps in front of a laptop. the results will be about the same."
I'm a member of TAG and WGA...great writers and bad writers in both guilds...the fact that you can only recognize the bad ones, simply shows ignorance...or maybe one of those "diseased chimps", found their way to your laptop. Cheers, D.
Aren't unions supposed to SUPPORT each other during strikes?
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