Wednesday, April 15, 2009

SORDID LIVES Creator Fed Up With LOGO

SORDID LIVES creator Del Shores published a letter on his Facebook page on Tuesday explaining to fans why SORDID LIVES: THE SERIES is not moving forward into its second season. According to Shores, LOGO, which reported to him that "it was off the charts...20 times bigger than any show they had ever aired" ordered the show contingent on two other partners ordering the show, and despite the network's ordering a second season, its partners have yet to do so.

The 12 episodes have now aired 262 times collectively (in America alone). Each time SLTS airs, the writer, director and actors are to receive compensation -- residuals. The production company is the signatory with all the Guilds, meaning they have agreed to pay the residuals. To this date, WE HAVE BEEN PAID NOTHING! I wrote and directed all twelve episodes and am personally owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have been paid nothing! I took a huge pay cut to do this show. I made less money in four years working on SLTS than I made in one season on QUEER AS FOLK. The actors, who worked for minimums or slightly above, have also BEEN PAID NOTHING. The Guilds have stepped in, but these claims takes months.

Shores says his home has gone into foreclosure and credits his husband Jason Dottley for getting him through a difficult period: "I live daily with gratitude. Jason told me it would be okay and suggest that I start teaching and to get back on stage to tell my stories. I did and it saved me."

Via Towleroad

3 comments:

  1. Ugh. Logo...a textbook definition of how NOT to do a network like this. Edited so that everything is PG or G, mostly cheap reality fare, endless reruns.

    I have read some folks thinking Logo might be an interesting place for the next evolution of GL...especially if that evolution is Otalia heavy. That was actually intriguing to me, until I remembered it was LOGO.

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  2. Mark, I have been very disappointed in Logo. From the day they launched it seemed like they were more about not offending people than actually being a gay network. Since MTV has always had gay content and gay people on shows like The Real World, I was expecting a young and hip channel devotd to gay content. But that's not how it turned out.

    I'm a huge Sordid Lives fans. Loved the movie, love the TV show and hope to see the play soon.

    In my interview with Patrika Darbo she talks about her connection with Del Shores and show bad timing led to her not playing Nolita in the SL film - the role she had played on stage.

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  3. I suppose these events are playing into Season 1 still not being released on DVD. Very disappointing, all around. Here's hoping Del Shores gets the respect (and money) he deserves.

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