Into the Black Hole: What’s at Stake for Comedy/Variety Writers in the WGA Strike

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 12:43:04 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://writingcooperative.com/into-the-black-hole-whats-at-stake-for-comedy-variety-writers-in-the-wga-strike-29d58b4c93c6>

"When Greg Iwinski joined the Writers Guild of America East, his work as a
late-night writer was covered under what is known as Appendix A in the Guild’s
Minimum Basic Agreement with the Association of Motion Pictures and Television
Producers. “It’s called Appendix A because our contract is literally stapled to
the back of the MBA,” he tells me over Zoom when I ask him to explain it to me.
“It’s an appendix of all the weird shows that don’t fit in this thing.”

This means, “Comedy/variety, late-night, daytime soap operas, news and
documentary all fall under there,” according to Adam Conover who is, like
Iwinski, a member of the WGA’s Negotiating Committee with the AMPTP. “And then
there’s this category ‘non-dramatic program’ which represents basically
everything else. We like to call it the black hole.”

Conover might describe it as a black hole, but to me, it sounds like Appendix A
is the WGA’s equivalent of the Island of Misfit Toys."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

Comment via email

Home E-Mail Sponsors Index Search About Us