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A Family Guy writer’s perspective on the writers strike

by Wendy on December 4th, 2007

Over at DamnYouAll.net, one of my favorite forum sites on the Web, one of the official Family Guy writers has taken some of his own time to enlighten us all on what the ongoing writers strike is all about: money, equal rights, money, MORE money, and did I mention money? Because it’s about money.

Anyway, I kid. Kind of. The writer’s name is Patrick Meighan, and here’s what he has to say:

My name’s Patrick Meighan, and I’m one of the 12-15ish writers on the “Family Guy” staff. Not the best writer on staff (far from it), nor the best looking (that’d be Kirker Butler)… just the tallest (Steve Callaghan can suck it!) and the only one who happens to be here, at this moment, to give a writers’ pov on this here writers’ strike we got goin’ on.

Okay, before I continue, lemme say that, like many/most of the “Family Guy” writers, I’ve lurked around DamnYouAll.net on and off over the past several years, but I’ve never actually registered for an account and/or posted here ’til today. So if this were talk radio, I’d say, “Hey, long time, first time,” and if this were Dr. Laura’s radio show, I’d prolly be masturbating while saying that.

Anyhoo, the strike: whazzup wit’ it? Let’s start the explanation with a thought experiment: suppose you’re working for a business that’s making billions of dollars in profit, and when your contract expires, your boss comes to you and says, “Hey, DYA Reader, now that it’s contract time, I want to re-sign you to keep working the same job, but, this time, I’m gonna force you to do it for less money. Not ’cause my business is doing poorly (’cause it isn’t), and not ’cause I think you’re doing a bad job (’cause you’re not), but just ’cause I can.” Would you stand and fight? Or would you roll over? And if you *do* roll over, what do you suppose is gonna happen three years later, when it comes time to negotiate your *next* contract? How ’bout three years after that?

Continue reading more about the strike:

That’s what’s happening now, guys. The studios have come to the writers and said, “Hey writers, we studios are making awesome profits on your work, and we want you to keep it up… we just wanna pay you less, is all, and if you don’t like it, go eat dog penis.”

See, what a writer gets paid–what a writer has ALWAYS gotten paid–comes in two parts: X and Y. X is the initial upfront money when he/she first writes an episdode of, say, “The Johnny Douchebag Show.” Y is an additional, deferred payment when the studio re-airs that episode of “The Johnny Douchebag Show” and makes additional money on it. In tv lingo, we call Y a “residual.”

The studios agreed, long ago, to pay the writer X + Y on any episode that he/she writes. That was the deal. It’s been the deal for decades. And it’s been a deal that’s worked well for the studios, that’s worked well for the writers, that’s worked well for the whole town (’cause, by the way, actors get residuals too, and so do directors, and many other Hollywood trade unions get residual money contributed directly to their respective health and pension funds).

So what’s changing now?

Well, what’s changing is that now the studios are re-airing episodes on broadcast television less and less often, and will do so even more scarcely in the future. Why? Well, because now (and increasingly, in the future) the studios can post episodes of “The Johnny Douchebag Show” on the *internet* (which is this new thing, I’m telling you, you’re gonna just *love*… I understand it’s a series of tubes). So instead of watching a rerun on commercial television (which would’ve given the original writer Y dollars), you and I can go to iTunes and pay to download “The Johnny Douchebag Show” straight to our ‘puters. Or we can have Netflix or Amazon digitally deliver that classic Season 1 of “The Johnny Shithead Show” directly to our TiVos. Or we can simply go to the network’s own website and watch a streaming version of “The Johnny Douchebag Show,” with commercials before and after the show, and sometimes even *while* Johnny Douchebag is doing all that funny stuff that makes Johnny Douchebag so beloved.

All that stuff is increasingly taking the place of the re-run, and, remember, the re-run is what gave the writer the Y part of his/her X+Y salary. For thousands of writers each year, that Y part, the residual, is what makes the difference between the writer having health insurance coverage that year, and the writer (and his/her family) going without health insurance.

Anyhoo, when this contract negotiation began, the writers went to the bargaining table and said, “Hey studios, you’re moving re-runs over to the internet, which is making more money for you, but it’s taking away our Y. So what we want is for y’all keep paying us our Y… even though the re-run is on the internet now, instead of broadcast television.” The studios responded by telling us to pound sand. Wouldn’t consider it. Said that us even continuing to *ask* for it is out of bounds. Said we could take their crappy contract (with a rapidly disappearing Y) or go on strike.

So we went on strike.

P.S.: This issue, and this fight, is, ultimately, bigger than just the writers, of course. We’re just on the front lines, ’cause our contract came up first. But make no mistake, if the studios break the writers, next they’ll go for rollbacks from the actors, the directors, the editors, drivers, assistants, grips, gaffers… we writers are gonna have a lot of pounding company in the sand.

Is striking fun? Are we loving it? No, and no. Speaking for myself, I picketed for 5 hours outside Fox Studios this morning, choking on diesel fumes, for no money… and rolled outta bed at 5am to do so. Eff that ess. I’d *much* rather skip into the “Family Guy” production office at 10:45 each morning, eat a bagel, and get to work dreaming of new ways to abuse Meg (ah, Meg). So, no, it’s not like striking is how writers get their jollies. But this is a fight the studios forced on us, and it’s a fight the writers will take to the finish. Seriously, to the last effing breath. So that’s why the whole “Family Guy” staff, from the highest (Seth MacFarlane, David A. Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith) to the lowest (me), from the shortest (Cherry Chevapravatdumrong) to the tallest (me… eat it, Steve!) is out there on the picket lines, every single day, fighting for a fair contract, instead of writing the show we love, with the people we love, for the fans we love.

So that’s what this is about.

How can you help us?

Well, if you live outside of the Los Angeles or New York areas, you can sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/WGA/petition.html

However, if you live in L.A. or New York, or you’ll be visiting sometime soon, join us on the picket lines! Perhaps you’ll meet a “Family Guy” writer and can tell him or her, face to face, to be nicer to Meg.

I’ll post the picketing schedule below and bring this post to a close here, but I’ll come back from time to time to answer questions that come up on this thread. Right now, though, I think I’m gonna call Dr. Laura and have a nice time.

Thanks DYA people,

Patrick Meighan
“Family Guy” writer

Well, I’m glad to hear the writers perspective - I just wish that all parties would work out a compromise, and SOON.

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POSTED IN: Family Guy in Real Life