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Family Guy creator and head writer Seth MacFarlane is actually walking the picket line in support of the writers’ strike going on in California right now. Because of the wrtiers’ strike, the last completed Family Guy episode airs this Sunday, November 11.Here’s more:
Wednesday morning I spoke to Family Guy Seth MacFarlane as he walked the picket line in front of the Walt Disney Studios, joining a formidable assemblage of showrunners from nearly every series currently on the air. MacFarlane told me that the key issue surrounding the current Writers Guild strike is “Regular middle class people, who for the record do not make $200,000 a year. They are just regular people who drive ’92 Toyotas. And all they want is a fair participation on revenues that are generated by things they create for new media — which is Internet, DVD — and as anyone can see, that stuff is going to be very important in the future and they want to make sure they’re protected.”
MacFarlane said he was feeling pretty pessimistic as the time winded down towards the strike, noting “All I was hearing was that it was not looking hopeful because the Writers Guild put forth what was a reasonable deal that was deemed unreasonable by the corporations.”
Apparently, during negotiations between the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers), the AMPTP never were willing to consider discussing a system to pay writers for new media. MacFarlane said he felt the reason for this was “Because when you’re that rich the worst thing in the world is to become a little less rich. You reach a certain level of income and it scares the hell out of you to lose money.”
“I don’t know why there’s such resistance,” he added. “The answer that they’re giving is ‘Look, we don’t know what this new media is going to mean.’ And neither does the Writers Guild. Nobody knows. But everyone’s sort of in this together and we’re all in the same boat. When the train leaves, we’re all on it. So whatever that amount of money is that comes in, if a fair division is established, then everyone will deal with it.”So what does he think it will take for the sides to come to an agreement? “It’s going to take the big wigs, the guys in the ivory towers, to agree to talk and to recognize that these are the people that create the things that make them all this money. There’s a very bizarre mentality a lot of times from studios and that is ‘If it weren’t for these damn writers and these damn actors and these damn producers and these damn TV shows, we could actually run a business.’ But what on Earth would you sell?!”
As for MacFarlane’s specific situation when the strike began, he noted “Ironically, my old contract expired and I haven’t completed renegotiations on my new contract. Technically, I don’t even work for them. At the risk of being too crass, I hope to, when all this is over, continue to be working for them for a long time. Because the experience, despite all this, creatively has been very good. But at the moment, I’m in this weird twilight state.”
Because most animated series require a long lead time it was thought that Family Guy might have more episodes ready to air this season than most network shows during the strike. However, MacFarlane told me “Family Guy is running its last completed episode this Sunday. After that… You know, we’ve been behind [schedule] for eight years. We’re always scrambling to catch up to our air dates. And this is when it’s really going to hit hard.”
Presumably there are other episodes nearly finished, but they likely require some last minute tweaks, and ADR (additional dialogue recording), along with any writing that goes with that. Plus, MacFarlane is the voice of Peter, Stewie and Brian on the show, and thus an essential component in many ways. MacFarlane said that despite the earlier start they have for Family Guy episodes, “When those shows get completed, relative to their airdates, is the same kind of time as any other live-action show. We just start sooner. It is going to affect us in a big way. As I said, we air our last new show this Sunday.” As for the other series he executive produces, American Dad, he said “I think they have a little more breathing room, but not much.”
I remarked what an impressive gathering was standing together at Disney, and MacFarlane smiled and said “It was a Guild event. Everyone chose to support it. I tell you, the last time I have been up this early, was probably the 8th grade.”
What do you think of this whole writers’ strike thing? Let’s hear in the comments.
Actually, I saw Mr. MacFarlane on the picket line on Wednesday as I, an actress, marched in solidarity. I’ve only just realised it was the man himself, after recognising his sign with the likeness of Stewie!!
It was incredible to see so many creators and producers take a stand — most writers are middle-class and rely on residuals to bridge the gap between jobs. Aside from the sheer principle that they should be PAID FOR THEIR WORK, it is not just frivolous Rodeo Drive money they want … they, like everyone else in America, would simply like to pay the bills and feed the kids and maybe even take a nice vacation one of these days.
Awesome MaryAn, thanks for your comments. I don’t think most people realize this – I think they probably assume that writers are getting paid like the celebrities are.
Good for him. The bulk of Guild writers are regular people just trying to get paid for the work they do. Imagine writing Gilligans Island and not making a penny off of all the years of syndication and DVDs. They didn’t have crystal balls and couldn’t anticipate the future. That’s what will happen to writers today if they don’t insist on getting paid for THEIR work.
When you pay $19.99 for a DVD, the writer gets four cents. When you download it on the internet, the writer gets nothing. How are they supposed to pay their pensions and health insurance as technology changes if payment doesn’t change with it?