Blooming Late and Next Year's Pilots

I TRIED, and probably failed, recently to explain the concept of royalties to somebody on a message board, and why the WGA was so dead set against having them rolled back.

And by extension, why the hardline on internet royalties is needed (because the business is moving to downloads, and a bad deal on net usage royalties amounts to the same thing: a rollback in effect if not name.)

I know that issues in any Labor dispute are hard to understand for people who aren't intimately familiar, or immediately concerned about them.

That's why something that I read somewhere else in all the strike coverage has really stayed with me. Forgive me for not being able to attribute this -- I just don't remember where I saw it. But it's a good, concrete example.

Royalties allow writers who bloom late to hang on, and make enough of a living til that one great idea comes along.

See, development can take years. It's intensive, it's in your own head -- the creative process, mysterious and weird and peculiar as it is, doesn't often work on an easily monetized timetable.

Writing -- good writing -- also requires smarts. Lots of smarts. It's no exaggeration for me to say that the writers I know are mostly also the smartest people I know.

Now, if you're smart, there comes a point where you just can't justify doing this thing that makes you so little money, when you know for a fact that if you went into law, say, or advertising or marketing you'd be able to support your family, or even yourself better.

Even if you're a great writer, it's entirely possible that you will go months, and years between jobs. That's just the way it is. In the U.S. system, your royalties can carry you and keep you in the business long after you think, "maybe I would be better off doing something else."

Now take an example like David Chase. Chase wrote for The Rockford Files and Northern Exposure -- and did some great work. But that one great idea, that game changer, actually came pretty late to him in life.

If he hadn't had royalties to support himself, he probably would have quit. Money runs out, writing is hard, at some point -- stop struggling. Go do something else.

If there were no royalties, it's entirely possible we would have never gotten The Sopranos.

Now, for a 180 degree turn, friend o'the blog Blueglow has the laugh out loud dark cloud to the dark cloud of this strike:

I guess my biggest fear regarding the fallout of the strike's eventual outcome will be the number of shows and stories about "labour disputes" I am going to have to endure next year.

Oh God. Right. That's gonna be horrendous.

Midseason 2009 Pilot Schedule

FOX

Labor Pains - A buxom yet misunderstood legal secretary (Pamela Anderson) convinces all the secretaries at her law firm to fill out union cards. It's the suits versus the saucy secretaries! Co-starring Kathy Griffin, and Flava Flav as the boss.

Final Offer - Each week, a firebrand mediator (Adam Arkin) has just eight hours to conclude a contract before a key industry shuts down forever. Co-starring Knocked Up's Dr. Ken as the People's Republic of China, with special appearances by Abe Vigoda as the Ghost of Sam Walton.

CBS

Black Rock - Each week, Les Moonves yells at somebody. A lot.

Steeerike! - Kevin James plays a former Showrunner who once ran a 40 million dollar action adventure show, til he refused to cross a picket line and was blacklisted forever. But none of that stress compares to the horror of coaching Little League Baseball! Starring Mischa Barton as the skinny wife.

NBC

Hardliners -- Three lovable lugs (Kenan Thompson, Andy Samberg, Kristin Wiig) walk the picket line as the strike against Globalco enters its 3rd year. In a very special Episode 3, Former Vice President Al Gore stops by to fit the pickters with solar-generating beanies and windmills for their signs.

...are you rocking foetally yet?

Any other suggestions, let loose in the comments below. *unless you're a striking WGA member that is...pencils down means pencils down.