1988 Writers Guild of America strike
The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was a
Summary
Formal negotiations between the writers guilds and producers began in January 1988. The main disagreements[2][3] included:
- Residuals for hour-long shows (producers, claiming syndicated reruns of these shows were performing poorly in syndication, wanted a softened, percentage-based formula; writers wanted a residual hike)
- Expanded creative rights (the writers wanted consultation on the choice of actors and directors for some projects)
- Cost cuts in other areas (a producers' demand)
The guilds' previous deal with producers expired on February 29, 1988. One day later, 96% of guild membership authorized a strike. On March 7, 1988, one day after rejecting a softened final offer from producers, 9,000 movie and television writers went on strike.[4] Negotiations took place during March and April under a federal mediator but broke off before resuming on May 23, again with a federal mediator.[3]
After intensive bargaining, producers made a "strike settlement offer" on June 16, 1988; the offer included an extended contract term (to four years) and expansion of creative rights, but still included the percentage-based residuals studios demanded and not a foreign residual increase writers demanded. The offer was turned down by the guilds' membership by a 3–1 margin.[3]
During July 1988, the Guild devised an interim contract. Membership approved it, and more than 150 smaller producers signed it. Major studios and outlets including Fox,
On July 23, 1988, formal bargaining resumed, again under the auspices of federal mediators; by July 30, however, talks collapsed, with studios threatening to not bargain any further and to concentrate on producing work with non-union scripts. Behind-the-scenes "shuttle diplomacy" involving Guild negotiators, studio heads, and emissaries began on July 31 in an effort to revive talks. Guild officials and studio representatives met on August 2 to discuss the proposals, and on August 3 announced a tentative deal.[3] While the new deal gave studios the sliding residual scale they sought for hour-long reruns, writers won a modest financial gain when hour-long shows were sold internationally. The writers also gained creative rights regarding original screenplays and TV movies. The Guild board approved the deal by a 26–6 vote; Guild membership also approved the deal (2,111 in favor, 412 against), and the strike formally ended on August 7, 1988.[5]
Effects of the strike
Television
The writers' strike forced the
While waiting for their fall seasons to begin, the networks still had access to scripted original series. Despite refusing earlier in the summer to accept new projects from independents who settled with the Guild, TV networks gained a benefit from the Guilds' decision to offer independent contracts to producers, with the offers beginning in late May 1988. The agreements would allow producers and writers of such shows as The Cosby Show, A Different World, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Late Night with David Letterman to resume work.[3] Johnny Carson actually resumed work on The Tonight Show before the agreement, returning with the Guild's blessing on May 11, 1988 (after Tonight was in reruns since the strike's start) without writers and with his own material; David Letterman would follow suit, returning to Late Night on June 29.[6][7]
The strike also led to a revival of
Soap operas continued to air during the strike; however, without experienced script writers many suffered in quality. At first most stories were dragged out for as long as possible, then plots lurched forward that did not leave shows in the best of shape, including
The strike significantly shrunk average television audiences, and had a lasting effect.
The strike did not, as some later claimed, lead to the advent of
The cancellation of Moonlighting[9] was attributed in part to audience loss stemming from the shows' long hiatuses due to the writers' strike.
Films
The horror film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers narrowly avoided the strike. Writer Alan B. McElroy had only 11 days in which to come up with the film's story and subsequently write the script. McElroy did just this and managed to turn the script in just hours before the strike commenced.[10]
The
According to the Ultimate James Bond DVD Collection, the movie Licence to Kill, starring Timothy Dalton, lost one of its co-writers, Richard Maibaum, so his partner Michael G. Wilson elected to finish the screenplay on his own.[12]
The 1988 work stoppage laid the foundation for the next decade's "spec-script boom," as documented by Thom Taylor in The Big Deal: Hollywood's Million-Dollar Spec Script Market (HarperCollins, 1999). The reasons for this were primarily two-fold: (1) striking writers returned home from picket-lines to write screenplays on speculation that they would someday sell them after the strike ended; and (2) studio development pipelines had dried up, requiring buyers to often participate in bidding-wars for completed feature scripts. With regularity, literary agents were able to drive sale prices into million-dollar deals.
See also
References
- ^ Jennifer Liu. "Hollywood strikes have already had a $3 billion impact on California's economy, experts say: It's causing 'a lot of hardship'". CNBC. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
- ^ This Writers' Strike Feels Like a Rerun From 1988 Archived 2018-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, The Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2007
- ^ a b c d e f "Writers Strike Chronology," Archived 2011-03-10 at the Wayback Machine from Los Angeles Times, 8/4/1988
- ^ Strike Announced By Writers For TV Archived 2018-07-27 at the Wayback Machine, New York Times, March 7, 1988
- ^ "Writers Ratify Contract, Ending Longest Strike" Archived 2018-06-12 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, August 8, 1988
- ^ "news.bbc.co.uk". 5 November 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
- ^ "usatoday.com/life". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2011-05-24. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
- ^ "The ... '88 Writers Guild of America walkout ... didn't unleash a flood of reality, because filming on sitcoms and dramas had largely wrapped and because alternative shows had yet to become a trend." Writers strike means reality boom times Yahoo! News 27 November 2007. [dead link]
- ^ "Moonlighting never recovered after going off the air during the 1988 strike." CLAUDIA ELLER, RICHARD VERRIER Hollywood bracing for a writers strike Archived 2011-05-22 at the Wayback Machine Los Angeles Times 28 October 2007. Subscription required.
- ^ Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, DVD Feature: Halloween 4 "Final Cut". Anchor Bay.
- ^ "Your Friend 'Til the End: An Oral History of Child's Play". mentalfloss.com. 2016-10-28. Archived from the original on 2022-01-13. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
- ISBN 978-0-7535-0709-4.
- ^ Salisbury, Burton, p.145
- ^ Salisbury, Burton, p.78-80
Further reading
- ISSN 0028-792X. (Later included in Didion's 1992 essay collection After Henryunder the title "Los Angeles Days")