As if this week's controversy over non-WGA member Carson Daly crossing the picket line and going back to work wasn't enough, here's more. Adam Waring, a WGA West member and sitcom scribe who wrote for Two And A Half Men and Still Standing, tells me he had a too-close encounter of the picketer-vehicle kind with the SUV ferrying Daly to NBC's Last Call on Thursday. (And now that he's gone public about it to me in an email with the subject line, "Carson Daly Almost Ran Me Over at NBC," Waring quipped when I called to authenticate it, "Well, I'll never get a job on that show.") The incident at Bob Hope Gate was also witnessed by writer Ron Osborn whose emailed recounting backs up Waring's:
I'm told that Waring, Osborn and writer Shari Goodhartz were picketing at NBC on Thursday when the WGA organizers instructed them to be on the lookout for a black Cadillac Escalade with a bike rack. because it is Carson Daly's car. The late night host was returning to work for the first time since the strike started, and the WGA "was determined to try and stop him," Waring explained. "At about 2:30 PM, they got word that his car had driven past one of the gates but had not turned in. Then they realized that there was no one picketing at Gate #3." That gate on Alamada requires a swipe card and is used mostly by executives. "They sent three of us from Gate 1 up there at a sprint, and, within 5 minutes of getting there, we saw his car," Waring recounted.
Daly was being chauffered by a driver and was seated on the passenger side.
According to Osborn, "Sure 'nuff, his Escalade drives up, sees us, and turns away, going north on Niagara, a side street. He's gone for a few minutes. A guard then walks out from the building and stands by the key entry. A moment later, the Death Star comes back from Niagara and barrels across Alameda. Adam gets in the way at the driveway, and the vehicle slows down to a crawl. Carson's window is down a few inches and we shout at him to 'respect the line.' I try to shove some leaflets into the window."
Waring said, "We stood in his path. But his window was cracked [open], and we all distinctly heard him tell his driver, 'Keep driving.' And he did!"
Osborn added: "And sensitive to our situation, he says, 'Keep driving.' The car accelerates. Adam jumps aside. My fliers don't make it in."
According to Waring, "He slowed down a little, but he kept coming at us. I finally had to move out of the way, but we all were yelling and pleading with him to reconsider going back to work because he was really hurting our cause, etc. But he didn't respond. In the meantime, a security guard had appeared, opened the gate and Carson's car drove on. A big bummer and highly dramatic."
Summed up Osborn, "We kept him from makeup and wardrobe and his cappucino machine a good five minutes or so as he skulked around the studio. I wish I could say I watched his show so I could boycott it."
And while I'm on the topic of Carson Daly, I was told by NBC he was probably going to lose his show if he didn't return to work. Oh, like that would have been a great loss to humanity, much less television. It's incredible the lousy publicity which Daly's decision to cross the picket line is creating. After Carson began soliciting scab jokes, several websites (here and here are two) sprung up soliciting jokes about Daly, the nastier the better.
Here's David Letterman writer Bill Sheft's from lateshowwritersonstrike.com: "The networks are furiously retooling their primetime schedules in case the writers strike continues through the holidays. Over at NBC, Carson Daly will be hosting his own three-hour special December 31, 'Scabbin' New Year's Eve.' "
WGA Scolds Carson Daly For Returning 'To Support Staff' And Seeking Scab Jokes
How is Carson Daly’s Escalade like a Band-Aid?
They both hide scabs!
P.S. Thanks for the link!
Comment by Simon Scowl — December 1, 2007 @ 4:41 am
As much as I have enjoyed your coverage of the strike and applauded your effort to show the writers’ side as well as the AMPTP, I feel like this was a little too editorial.
You said:
“And while I’m on the topic of Carson Daly, I was told by NBC he was probably going to lose his show if he didn’t return to work. Oh, like that would have been a great loss to humanity, much less television.”
Now, I don’t like Carson Daily. I don’t think he’s funny at all, and frankly his limp, emaciated body frightens me. That snarky comment in your post, though, is not the kind of “balanced” reporting that is going further your cause to be seen as a real journalist.
Comment by not quite "middle" America — December 1, 2007 @ 5:05 am
Ron Osborn’s comment of “I wish I could say I watched his show so I could boycott it,” mirrored what I, and probably many others, felt when we heard the news about Daly.
Comment by Rich Drees — December 1, 2007 @ 5:08 am
Nikki, I recently discovered this site (looking for the REAL strike news - one of “The Office” sites pointed the way.) Fabulous work, woman!
Carson Daly is terrible - I almost never intentionally watch his show (only if I’m in a stupor after Conan and the remote’s out of reach, or a guest I REALLY adore is on - and I don’t think he can book most of those). But I’m more disgusted by him now than I ever thought possible.
Here’s a thought - why don’t we start mailing boxes of Band-Aids to the SCAB! Anyone know the mailing address of his show?
Comment by Catherine — December 1, 2007 @ 5:14 am
Okay, now this is getting irritating. I could care less about Carson Daly. I’ve never watched his show and I never will. But he’s not a WGA member. He’s basically being required to go back in. And some people bombard the car and then pitch fits when it keeps moving? Now I don’t know the situation. Maybe a car did speed forward with every intention of murdering innocent people. But it also could have not happened at all. WGA, do you not have bigger fish to fry than someone who is just doing what he has to? I understand that Daly *should* respect the picket line, that it would be nice if he’d give up his show to do so, but I think that’s just expecting too much. If you have the energy to run over, yell at him, and try to shove flyers through his car windows, why don’t you have the energy to all march into AMPTP headquarters and refuse to leave until you get a deal? Or to take the studios to court? It was already a bit of an overreaction with Ellen, and now this? Again, I’m not gonna defend Daly. But seriously, it sounds like your here to yell at third parties more than the people you should actually be negotiating with. And then you come here and mutter at people about how long the strike is going to “have to” last. If you spend more time on things like this than on demanding to get what you deserve, maybe you’ll be right. Focus on what you need to be getting done, people. Priorites, WGA, seriously.
*Disclaimer* All that said, if Daly and his driver really did almost seriously injure these people, then that’s horrible and there should be consequences.
Comment by Caitlin — December 1, 2007 @ 5:15 am
What a total NON-story!
I can’t stand that talentless anorexic buffoon Carson Daly but, if things went down as these writers say, then these writers are being total drama queens.
So, in essence, a few of them tried to block Carson’s car, the car kept moving forward until they got the hell out of the way and then, without having touched them, the car disappears onto the lot.
Um… okay… where’s the drama? Where’s the “almost ran me over” part as if the car was doing 80 towards them?
Yet the drama queen writers in question come up with a sensational National Enquirer worthy headline (concept) but paired it with a blah non-existent story (execution).
I hope their scripts aren’t as piss poor as this tale.
With that in mind, Ethan Hawke once brushed against me on the street in NYC. Maybe I should send out press releases that he beat me up and left me for dead which is as idiotic as the non-story these drama queens are dribbling on about.
Comment by Non WGA Writer — December 1, 2007 @ 5:28 am
Golly, I’m no fan of Carson Daly, but how often do you get the chance to run over Adam Waring with a car. Sometimes the universe offers you little gifts and you should take them. Let’s all calm down and not rush to judgement.
Comment by mmmgood — December 1, 2007 @ 5:55 am
Listen, I’m just as frustrated with you about this strike and I am in the corner of the WGA, but come on Adam– picketing is one thing, trying to STOP A CAR from entering, when YOU SEE it’s NOT going to stop??!! And then you have the nerve to say he ALMOST ran you over?!! Get out of the fucking way! This is nonsense!
Comment by frustrated — December 1, 2007 @ 6:01 am
I believe that Carson drove through a gate that was not allowed to be picketed for some arcane legal reason.
Now I am told that because he did cross there, that gate CAN be be picketed.
Comment by CarsonisnoCarson — December 1, 2007 @ 6:53 am
Publicity? On web sites? You gotta be smoking the Hollywood weed, kid. Nobody, like in nobodee, gives a dam about a writers strike in a culture almost all of us have come to despise. The industry lost 1.5bln dollars last year, most of which is attributable to declining DVD sales and actor participation in grosses taken off the top. So this strike really depends on SAG and whatever monies their robber baron star dominated so-called membership decides to squeeze from a business that is going downhill in a hurry. You live in a bubble. The financing for the latest round of movies (past three to five years) with insanely high priced talent has come exclusively from Merrill Lynch and their hedge funds, Goldman Sachs ditto, Morgan Stanley together with various investment vehicles–ALL of whom are in the toilet for sums of billions of dollars from which they may not be able to extricate themselves. That’s BILLIONS. In addition, the banks are on the hook for not only 45bln in mortgage financing but up to one trillion in assets that are now sneaking back onto their balance sheets. Everybody in the industry better realize that financing for almost everything over the past three years has come from outside the confines of studio funds and that this free money stream is bankrupt. Everybody should be getting together because the financial situation in the real world is very very bad, made worse by focusing on some dope who breaks a picket line, one that the actors will break in a micro second if they see their pay checks threatened. They’ve been doing that for at least twenty years. I know because I’ve been an SAG member for twenty years. Actors have busted every picket line set up by every union (including the crafts unions) for as long as I can remember. The only one they care about is a DGA line because directors can directly refuse to hire them. This strike is moronic and should somehow or other be stopped til people can smell reality.
Comment by Howard Veit — December 1, 2007 @ 7:04 am
This is a story? This is something you’d expect to see on Perez Hilton, not here. Nikki, I come here because you’ve got good sources, but you’ve become such a WGA shill, it’s not even funny.
And it’s funny…if Carson didn’t get back to work and got fired, his writers wouldn’t have a job to come back to.
Comment by really? — December 1, 2007 @ 7:06 am
Daly going back to work helps the writers because it shows how desperate the studios are without shows that they have to lean on someone as inconsequential as daly - whose show nobody watches.
We didn’t even know daly had a show. That whole phone-in-your-jokes gimmick only shows how crucial writers are.
When his show returns and stinks, it’ll help the writers even more.
Keep note of who appears as a guest on this scab show. Jerky Ellen’s guest roster has been a joke.
Hope things are uncomfortable on set for Daly when the strike is over.
Comment by equityfund — December 1, 2007 @ 7:28 am
{enter moral shock and outrage line here} note to idiots: no one gives a shit if you are picketing. get out of the way! i learned how to avoid cars when i was 5.
Comment by The Hammer — December 1, 2007 @ 7:36 am
Daly would only be hurting the strike if he were actually talented, respected or if anyone actually watched his show. He’s a joke and even he knows it.
Comment by Hack — December 1, 2007 @ 7:57 am
Ummmm…….while i appreciate the writers’ right to picket and encourage anyone and everyone to join their strike - i think these guys are crazy to step in front of moving vehicles. this isn’t Tiananmen Square here. if i have enter a studio lot to fulfill the tasks of my job (and i sometimes do), i will drive slowly and carefully but i will still drive. the wga needs to remember they’re writers - not stuntmen.
BTW - did you ever post an update about the scribe who was sent to the hospital after getting run over by the producer who announced his intension to drive across the line and then did just that? whatever happened to that dude? the wga is going to need a few extra pennies on each dvd to cover his medical costs, I would imagine. Hospital stays are expensive…
Comment by Voyeur — December 1, 2007 @ 7:58 am
Um, how about you don’t stand in front of his car while it’s driving toward you? I sympathize with you in theory, but c’mon, let’s use some common sense here…
Comment by Chimmy — December 1, 2007 @ 8:07 am
Sounds like he’s on the ropes here. I’m not so sure I would blame him too much. I bet if you were going to lose your gig Nikki, you might do something you didn’t want to do. What if LA Weekly told you to stop reporting on the strike or lose your job…HMMM.
You say it’s no big loss to the world if his show is cancelled, well it is to him. I’m certainly not a big fan of his but I understand this.
Comment by Anonymous — December 1, 2007 @ 8:30 am
What a douche-bag. Carson Daly has one of the worst shows on television - makes Adam Carolla look like Johnnie Carson. If this opens the door for scabs to follow, then the networks really are in trouble.
Comment by thom taylor — December 1, 2007 @ 9:04 am
I’m all for the writers and hope they get everything they’re asking for and more, but attempting to cajole Carson Daly seems a bit outside the realm of sanity. Is the Regis and Kelly Ripa show picketed? The View? Please explain to the great unwashed in the flyover states the difference between the Regis show and Carson Daly.
Comment by anonymous — December 1, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Getting in the way of vehicles and trying to shove leaflets into windows do not seem like the way to persuade anyone to support your side of an issue. However, you did slow him down for 5 minutes and wish you watched his show so you could boycott it. Zing! I guarantee there are 75 crew/staff members (and families) who are grateful for Carson’s decision.
Comment by BTLer — December 1, 2007 @ 9:33 am
Leave him alone. He’s not a member of the WGA and he’s trying to make a living, just like the other 100,000 of us.
Comment by Back to Work — December 1, 2007 @ 9:45 am
I don’t see why Carson needs to care about the strikers if this is how aggressive the WGA is being. While I agree his (and others, like Ellen) actions should be condemned, these situations are making many strikers appear childish. If someone is close enough to try and shove leaflets through a window, they’re close enough to be run over. No, but wait, that’s somehow Carson Daly’s fault. As well, you want his support in not crossing the picket lines, yet in the same breath you slam the guy’s show. I think his show is a piece of crap, but having said that, I’m not also asking for his assistance with something. If his job is on the line, that’s all there is to it for him. It’s self preservation. He may face consequences with writers once this is all over, but given how he’s being raked over the coals to begin with for simply existing, I’m not so sure if the writers can do much more to him.
That said, don’t get me wrong, the guy IS a douche.
Comment by Anonymous Outsider — December 1, 2007 @ 10:04 am
Are you kidding me? Are we now behaving as if we are Jehovah’s Witnesses? Shoving fliers through windows? Let’s please show some dignity. Yes, Carson Daly is a no talent hack. But, how many of us in the WGA don’t have a show(s) we’re not ashamed of writing? I, for one, would prefer to watch Carson stammer through 30 minutes of a poor monologue and inept hosting then having to pop in a betacam of “Duckman” or “Phantom 2040″. Glass houses people, glass houses!
Comment by wryter — December 1, 2007 @ 10:36 am
Awesome! The more Carson works, the better argument he makes for good writers and good entertainment.
You’re giving this guy waaaay too much publicity - I didn’t know he even still had a show.
Comment by girl scribe still walking — December 1, 2007 @ 10:49 am
You’re lucky I wasn’t driving! -Jeff Z.
Comment by jeffz — December 1, 2007 @ 10:55 am
Daly is willing to run over writers to keep his job but he is being used by the network. His show will be canceled anyway next season. Shhh don’t tell Carson.
Comment by ReelBusy — December 1, 2007 @ 11:10 am
It’s hard to stop when you’re tweakin’
Comment by Benda Dickson — December 1, 2007 @ 11:11 am
You reap what you sow.
Your callous disregard of the pain, loss and suffering your strike has caused countless individuals undercuts any of your pleas for fair and decent treatment from the studios.
You think being treated unfairly gives you the right to spread that pain & suffering around. I don’t know what makes you think YOUR life, YOUR family, YOUR hardships are of more value than anyone else’s.
If you want any sympathy or understanding you’ve got to give it to get it.
Comment by Fed Up — December 1, 2007 @ 12:42 pm
I don’t like Daly either, but it seems that Waring and the other WGA picketers got too close to Daly’s car. I wasn’t there and I know that strikers have to be vocal about respecting a picket line, but it’s dicey to get too close to a moving vehicle.
What about using a bullhorn to make your feelings known from a safer distance? If a picketer is worried about his or her physical safety, then stuffing leaflets into the window of a moving car should be the last thing on his mind.
You don’t put yourself at physical risk by confronting a car. It helps no one.
Comment by Tim — December 1, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
Trolls a plenty today!
Comment by Drake — December 1, 2007 @ 12:57 pm
Fed up:
I happy you weren’t one of our Founding Fathers. If you were, we would be singing “God save the Queen”!
Comment by Wil Burns — December 1, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
@”fed up” aka studio shill
go collect your troll paycheck from the people who are causing this strike — AMPTP
is there another drudge link today because there is an avalanche of imbecilic comments today
the writers are doing the right thing, the studios are desperate, carson daly is pathetic
and, once and for all, the phrase is “could NOT care less”
go WGA, you have the support of the nation!
Comment by equityfund — December 1, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
ALL WRITER HATERS -
We’re not going any where. I feel TERRIBLE for people put out of jobs, but that does not negate my right to fight for better pay in mine.
First thing I ever learned in the biz (I worked in many craptacular below the line positions before becoming a writer), no one guarantees you a goddamn thing here. At the very least, not job security. You have to save and be covered for a month or two off at a time or you’re in the wrong business. That’s the painful reality.
And that’s me speaking as someone who was laid off in the 2000 sag strike. And that’s more and more a rule in general all over America.
And hey, AMPTP, suck it. My hopes aren’t raised and dashed. Nice try. Believe it or not, walking in a circle with a sign is pretty stinkin’ easy. I can do it for longer than you can wait to show up to upfronts empty handed.
Comment by Blame the Amptp — December 1, 2007 @ 1:27 pm
To all fellow striking writers -
Bottom line. Many “Below the liners” are with us, to a point.
We are asking for something that is ours, that is true. But the complex reality is that asking those BTLers that this strike has put out of work to “stand with us” is a tough one.
Wednesday I walked at Paramount and watched a writer blocking a woman in a beat-up Ford Taurus from getting onto the lot. What good does that do? Perhaps the driver of that car was going to do make-up for or audition as an actress for some project that the WGA member has already been paid for.
The Bottom -below the line, our fight is NOT with her. It is not with Carson Daly’s crew. Yes, a WGA member should not work on a WGA show during the strike, but if other people want to work, well they can, will and should.
Lord knows, that when this strike resolves, we may walk the line with other Unions, but I’d like to meet the WGA writers who won’t shrug and say, “We don’t have a clause in our contract allowing us to NOT work just because you are picketing. But, hey, we’re with you, brother.
Let’s stay firm in our resolve, but let’s not take this to the moral high ground that we are being screwed so badly that other’s should stand with us or be condemned.
The support will wane, and will wane faster if we scream in the faces of people barely making a living.
Fight the studios. Not the workers.
redblack
Comment by redblack — December 1, 2007 @ 1:33 pm
To Whom it May Concern, Adam Waring is a man with a huge amount of integrity. He is also extremely talented and funny, and has contributed greatly to my life. He is one of my dearest friends, and if Carson Daly had steam rolled Adam, ala that poor guy at Tienamin Square, for standing up for his rights, it would have been beyond horrible for me, and I would personally have to let Carson know what a selfish, shortsighted, unconscionable man he is for taking the life of someone for the sake of a TV show. Adam is my hero.
Comment by Chrissy Conant — December 1, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
Well, the sad news is that I bet the network was hoping Daly wouldn’t show up so they’d have a reason to shut him down.
Comment by Oh well — December 1, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
You know, comments like the above from Fed Up are really starting to annoy me. They accuse the writers of being selfish…when their own viewpoint is just as selfish. What makes anyone else’s hardships more important than the writers’?
EVERYONE is screwed here. No one is happy. The writers on my show were in tears when they told us what they had to do. But they had no choice, so they’re doing it. If your boss threatened your job and your family, you would do the same thing, even if it hurt others. You wouldn’t like it, but you would do it.
I’m sorry if your life is so bad that you just automatically assume the worst of everyone. But this is not some kind of careless gamble on the writers’ part…they are not doing it offhandedly, without noticing the consequences to everyone else. And if you think they are, then you should probably get help, because you are clearly only able to see yourself as a victim.
These people are not out to get you. They are defending themselves. If you want to defend yourself too, instead of writing whiny comments on an entertainment blog, then get out there and picket with them. The real bad guys here are very big and very bad and it’s going to take all of us to fight them.
Comment by megschlegel — December 1, 2007 @ 2:34 pm
And yes, the Carson story is ridiculous.
Comment by megschlegel — December 1, 2007 @ 2:36 pm
Fed Up,
I have talked to a lot of other writers on the picket lines this month, and I have not found one writer — not one — who has been callous or disregarding of the pain of non-writers who have lost their jobs because of the strike.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re not an amptp shill and just someone angered at the shutdowns our strike has led to, but can we look at something for a second? Let’s say we are offered a very bad deal… like one where we would be making less than we are now, since that’s what we’ve been offered. So we should just take that because otherwise non-writers will lose their jobs for some period of time? I can see why you’d be tempted to answer “yes” but that doesn’t really make sense, does it? This was such a bad offer we received that it managed to unify a guild which, believe me, has never been unified before. But if we don’t get paid for the Internet, the WGA will cease to exist. That may be just fine with you, but we won’t let that happen, and we ARE sorry for the collateral damage THAT THE STUDIOS HAVE CAUSED by toying with us this way.
Comment by Anon writer — December 1, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
I always knew Carson Daly was a Tool, but I didn’t know he was a back stabbing scab! Shame on you Carson Daly! Your making a lot of enemies, your career is over, babe! Is this what you want? Back out now and maybe just maybe there’s still some hope for your career! It’s not too late! Be a Man Carson Daly!
Sincerely,
Cindy Loves Conan
Comment by Cindy Loves Conan — December 1, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
“You think being treated unfairly gives you the right to spread that pain & suffering around. I don’t know what makes you think YOUR life, YOUR family, YOUR hardships are of more value than anyone else’s.”
It’s not that I/we don’t care about YOUR family. But I sure as f*ck care more about MY family.
Maybe you shouldn’t have chosen a profession that leaves you so vulnerable.
Comment by alex cuttere — December 1, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
Carson Daly is really stupid and shallow. he has had people do things for him his whole life. The guy is a total tool.
Comment by blackballGavin — December 1, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
Fed Up, I don’t think anybody thinks their welfare is more important than yours. The fact of the matter is that the AMPTP has put us in a position where the survival of our union is at stake. Your anger is justified, but the WGA didn’t do this on a whim or without regard for everyone who would be hurt by it. Direct your anger at the people who are really to blame here — it’s the future of our industry that’s at stake and the only hope we have is to stick together. Once we turn on each other, all the congloms have to do is sit back and watch us defeat ourselves. I’d rather not give them the satisfaction.
Comment by DLJ — December 1, 2007 @ 4:20 pm
wtf is up with the shape of that guy’s head? He looks like a freaking martian or something. Is there a skulloplasty procedure he can get?
Comment by Susan — December 1, 2007 @ 4:21 pm
Dumb writers, get out of the way before you DO get RUN OVER. Go find a real cause to protest–like the genocide in Darfur. Idiots.
Comment by Thomas — December 1, 2007 @ 4:21 pm
Interesting article in the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-et-strike1dec01,1,607451.story?coll=la-headlines-business-enter&ctrack=2&cset=true) About movie stars working RIGHT NOW, using Ad-Libs on shoots, getting projects in the can that will only weaken the guilds position. WHY DO YOU ALL CARE ABOUT CARSON DALY (not a guild member) but MOVIE STARS who do matter get a free walk?
Comment by realworldperson — December 1, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
Man, leaving this bit up for so long as the lead, knowing your hit rate in the last weeks, seems a bit gratuitous. Not sure Carson Daly was affecting anyone’s career, before or after he made the decision to go back to work.
Not in the union. Show is not based primarily on union writer’s work. Let it pass. Give us some substantial news.
Comment by Sinclair — December 1, 2007 @ 6:23 pm
Chrissy, we are talking about the same Adam Waring. right?
Adam had it coming to him, from the sound of things he jumped in front of the car asking for a confrontation. And, frankly, I’m not sure how carson daly is impinging on Adam’s rights. If anything it is visa-versa.
Daly has a right to work, and Adam has a right to picket, but when you start making physical contact with a person or his vehicle, it’s common sense to get the hell out of the way.
What Adam did is far from heroic.
Comment by Iknowhimtoo — December 1, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
All this picking on Carson Daly runs the risk of looking petty and weak. As it has been observed, no one watches the show. He’s not a power broker. There are more worthy targets than he. May I suggest directing all of this anger to the veteran screenwriter John Ridley, who delivered a shockingly destructive anti-writer commentary on NPR last week?
Comment by DAS — December 1, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
His skull looks weird but he’s had that weird emaciated face for a while, anorexia or drugs
Are those blue contact lenses?
Comment by tv viewers — December 1, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
What is with that picture of Carson Daly and his creepy electric eyes?
Comment by Julesandjimmy — December 1, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
“Man, leaving this bit up for so long as the lead, knowing your hit rate in the last weeks, seems a bit gratuitous.
Yeah, Nikki, please do extra work on a Saturday so there isn’t something at the top of the page that Sinclair doesn’t like.
Comment by Simon Scowl — December 1, 2007 @ 8:55 pm
Just goes to show you how absolutely terrible the writers’ collective business sense is. All the A-List stars are still working, shooting movies while putting in a quick cameo on the line before getting back to the set then cashing their huge studio checks and you guys are pitching a bloody fit about…Carson Daly? Really? Your plan for winning the strike is to make sure Carson Daly can’t get to work and shoot his insignificant show that airs at 1:30 in the morning? That’s the key to getting the AMPTP to buckle?
Comment by hilarious — December 1, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
Carson looks like E.T. in that pic.
And strangely manorexic. Not a winning combo.
Make it stop, Nikki.
Comment by phone home — December 2, 2007 @ 12:04 am
1. Wait. I thought pedestrians still had the right of way. Did they change that law?
2. The AMPTP caused this strike and is causing it to continue. Period. End of story.
3. Our fight IS the fight of the other unions. What we’re fighting for affects the future of their unions as well.
4. The AMPTP caused this strike and is causing it to continue. Bears repeating.
Comment by writer — December 2, 2007 @ 12:07 am
Carson Daly is a no talent little bitch, and a SCAB coward. This loser couldn’t be entertaining if his life depended on it. This punk should be blacklisted.
Comment by devin leonard — December 2, 2007 @ 1:20 am
(to the tune of “Grandma got run over by a Reindeer.”)
Striker got run over by C. Daly
Walking the line at NBC
You can tell me there’s no money on the web
But as for me and the writers we believe
Comment by AnthonyDe — December 2, 2007 @ 5:57 am
equityfund,
Are you saying that it’s the “right thing” for writers to throw themselves in front of moving cars?
Um… okay… that’s one way of ending the writers strike - having them commit suicide like lemmings!
Didn’t your mother ever tell you to get out of the way of cars?
There’s a difference between picketing and just being stupid by putting yourself in physical danger (and then whining about almost being hit by a car you wouldn’t get out of the way of).
Comment by Non WGA Writer — December 2, 2007 @ 6:14 am
I kinda do respect Carson Daily for putting his show back into production, saving the jobs of his staffers.
Comment by Paul — December 2, 2007 @ 9:55 am
I find it VERY RICH that a writer from “2 And A Half Men” is knocking “Last Call with Carson Daly!” When did “2 And A Half Men” become too cool for school?!
PS- I don’t see what’s so wrong about Daly– who’s NOT a WGA member– going back to work to save the jobs of his nonwriting employees. I kind of respect him a little for that. I mean, it’s better than Leno’s staff getting FIRED! (I will say, however, that the scab jokes are a TERRIBLE idea.)
PPS- I also think that all the petty bullshit of making fun of Daly’s show isn’t helping the writers’ cause any. Not to mention Nikki’s editorializing (”I was told by NBC he was probably going to lose his show if he didn’t return to work. Oh, like that would have been a great loss to humanity.”) Like it or not, people work on that show & depend on their salary to get by. Especially around the holidays. When did it become cool to mock that? I don’t mean to condone putting crap shows on television, but if I had a nickel for every industry colleague of mine who had to work on a shit TV show, I’d be able to pay my rent this month. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that, good or bad (and I happen to think it’s a very, very bad program), Daly’s show employees a good number of nonwriting staffers. “Last Call” employees are no different than “Late Night” employees.
PPPS- I standby the writers, but I have little sympathy for those who are “determined to try & stop” a moving vehicle by “standing in its path” & trying to “shove some leaflets through the window.” Yet when said car “slowed down a little” & eventually passed through the gate, have the balls to distribute an e-mail saying that he was almost “run over!” Please. You’d help your cause more if you stopped whining & tried to convince your peers to settle the strike!
(I tried typing this all out last night, but it didn’t seem to take. Sorry if it eventually posts & I’m repeating myself.)
Comment by Non-Writing Staffer — December 2, 2007 @ 11:35 am
writer, wait. I thought pedestrians and people who surround a car and try to shove their press materials in it were two different things. Did they change the dictionary?
Also, yes, the AMPTP started this strike. The WGA started this story. I’m on your side, but please stop making it hard for me.
Comment by Caitlin — December 2, 2007 @ 11:46 am
to caitlin
stop the exaggeration, you make it sound like it was a gang of frothing hoodlums instead of one or two writers passing out leaflets and doing what people do in a strike - have you ever seen what goes on in a Teamsters strike?
to non-writing staffer
many ,many commenters are not writers or even industry people - but everyone has the right to comment on the quality of the show
Comment by tv viewers — December 2, 2007 @ 2:43 pm
To tv viewers:
I said “a group of people who surround our car and try to shove their press materials in it”.
Here’s what the writer telling the story said:
“They sent three of us from Gate 1 up there at a sprint, and, within 5 minutes of getting there, we saw his car,”, “Adam gets in the way at the driveway, and the vehicle slows down to a crawl. Carson’s window is down a few inches and we shout at him to ‘respect the line.’ I try to shove some leaflets into the window.”, “We stood in his path.”
So maybe, I should have said “small group” and “stood in front of” instead of “surrounded”. But “made them sound like a band of frothing hoodlums”? Maybe I should call you out for making them sound like innocent pussycats for saying they “passed out” flyers instead of “shoved flyers through car windows”
To everyone else: I appologize. I’ll say no more that doesn’t have to do specifically with the article.
Comment by Caitlin — December 2, 2007 @ 3:39 pm
why is this pussy-bitch on my screen?
Comment by pat — December 2, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
If I was Carson Daly and I sucked I would go back to work too for fear of losing my job. What else does he have lined up?
I support the strikers but damn have a heart for other people who actually *need* to work.
Comment by Many — December 20, 2007 @ 8:20 am