Sunday, April 24, 2011

NEWS: Job Loss After Cancellation, 17 WGA Members, Hoover, Holbrook

New York Post: What death of the soap opera says about our economy, unions
Union super-minimum wages lead directly to high unemployment. AFTRA requires each of the main performers to be paid at least $913 a day, but stars get much more.

Seventeen Writers Guild jobs disappear when the two ABC soaps go dark. They aren’t getting paid in Palmolive, either. Head writers (of whom there might be more than one) get at least $35,345 a week. Writing expenses are minimal on reality, which the WGA hasn’t successfully penetrated yet.

An AFTRA source who didn’t want to be identified says, “We’re certainly mindful of the challenges the industry faces,” although not mindful enough to back down on their main goal: “We want to increase pay and benefits for our members.”

Hundreds of IATSE members are going to be out of work. Even unionized reality programs like ABC’s upcoming soap replacements THE CHEW (Mario Batali cooking show) and THE REVOLUTION will bring far fewer jobs in makeup, costumes, set moving, etc.

Hoover, a brand owned by Techtronic Industries Co., had bought time for six ads this week, four of them on soap operas, Kirkendall said. He would not detail how much money in ad spending Hoover had committed to ABC before this protest.
Hoover, a brand owned by Techtronic Industries Co., had bought time for six ads this week, four of them on soap operas, Kirkendall said. He would not detail how much money in ad spending Hoover had committed to ABC before this protest.

Hal Holbrook on Mark Twain: No updating necessary
"I was on a soap opera (THE BRIGHTER DAY), which is the worst thing you could be on to be considered a serious actor, and I opened this little show, ‘Mark Twain Tonight!,’ in this little off-Broadway theater and got astounding reviews. I was totally unprepared for it. Suddenly I was somebody."

BFI to screen ATV medical soaps EMERGENCY WARD 10 and GENERAL HOSPITAL
Fans of classic ITV ‘medical soaps’ produced by ATV are in for a treat as the adventures of the Oxbridge General Hospital and The Midland General are aired by the BFI in London next month.

Britain’s first medical serial, EMERGENCY WARD 10 - famous for giving Richard Thorp, now Alan Turner in EMMERDALE, his earliest television role - forms part of the British Film Institute’s season looking at television's love affair with the NHS. There is also a chance to see ATV’s other medical saga GENERAL HOSPITAL, which ran from 1972 to 1979.

WWE: Top 10 Heel/Face Turns That Need to Happen‎
"The WWE needs to make some drastic changes to some of the superstars persona's to start using the wasted talent and improving their ratings."

3 comments:

  1. That NY Post article was a hatchet job. Blaming the cancellation of soaps on union wages ignores the utter mismanagement of ABC's soaps by Brian Frons and the rest of the executive suite.

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  2. Agree it is hatchet job. Union wages being the reason for soaps being cancelled? What else will they come up with next for attacking workers and excusing the corporate destruction of the soaps? Also Jill Lorie Hurst on Twitter just said she and the other head writers on GL split the minimum. They weren't each paid that amount.

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  3. Unions are being attacked and ABC Disney are now joining the fight.
    I am a retired teacher and hopefully my pension will not be attacked but it is the way of the United States now. Unions that have been so helpful in making our work lives safer are now under attack.

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