Did Leno break the Rules?

[Nylo]

With the Writer's Guild strike going on, Leno returned to the show and performed a monologue he wrote himself. Under strike rules, Leno isn't supposed to write monologues because he's taken a contractual oath to support the strike.

Leno crossing the picket line....ok; I can deal with that. NBC basically said get your ass back here or you don't have a job. But I'm iffy on the monologues on this one. Personally, I like Leno, but this echos of the "douchebag"ness Letterman fans always pin him for.

Did Leno turn his back on the strike?

[Madferit]

Jay Leno hasn't been funny since the Clinton era.

[morefngdbs]

At 1/5/08 12:14 PM, Nylo wrote: With the Writer's Guild strike going on, Leno returned to the show and performed a monologue he wrote himself. Under strike rules, Leno isn't supposed to write monologues because he's taken a contractual oath to support the strike.
Did Leno turn his back on the strike?

;
It seems to me to be a very blurred line when someone who is the host, & also a writer does their own bit.
I don't see him doing anything wrong in doing his "own" material.
IF he was writng for others that appear on his show & they do his written script then I would say that he would have violated his unions rules.

In the U.S. people have a lot of freedom & rights when it comes to speaking & speaking their thoughts.
His monolog ,I believe falls under those protections & no union is by its charter allowed (nor are their memebers allowed) to break the laws of the land.
BUT
If he does write bits for others, then I can see him getting in trouble that could haunt him down the road.
I really don't think the union has a legal leg to stand on, but they may be able to sway him ,to helping their cause by not helping the show.
Tough call for him, I think.

[MortifiedPenguins]

Well to really answer this question.

We would need to see the contract that Leno signed, or the conditions of it.

[Nylo]

At 1/5/08 12:42 PM, MortifiedPenguins wrote: Well to really answer this question.

We would need to see the contract that Leno signed, or the conditions of it.

Hmm, very true. But that might prove a little too tedious for the normal mood of the BBS.

I guess a better way of thinking about it is: Is Jay still helping the strike, or is he hurting it now by writing his own material?

To be fair, Conan O Brien also returned this month. He wrote for SNL and the Simpsons for years, so he's a natural show writer. But from the looks of things, he and Letterman are doing things a lot differently than Leno:

Conan's life during the Strike

[SmilezRoyale]

FWWAAAAAA!!!

Writers Strike!

*Pow*

[stafffighter]

First of all, you're right, Leno isn't funny. But it's not entirly his fault becase as I've seen endless times waiting for Conan to start he takes a producer credit for his show and no writing credit.

[YuanYan]

At 1/5/08 12:14 PM, Nylo wrote: With the Writer's Guild strike going on, Leno returned to the show and performed a monologue he wrote himself. Under strike rules, Leno isn't supposed to write monologues because he's taken a contractual oath to support the strike.

This was my understanding as well.

Leno crossing the picket line....ok; I can deal with that. NBC basically said get your ass back here or you don't have a job. But I'm iffy on the monologues on this one. Personally, I like Leno, but this echos of the "douchebag"ness Letterman fans always pin him for.

I had heard he was going to skip the monologue and have more guests or something. Guess not.

[RommelTJ]

At 1/5/08 12:49 PM, Nylo wrote: To be fair, Conan O Brien also returned this month. He wrote for SNL and the Simpsons for years, so he's a natural show writer. But from the looks of things, he and Letterman are doing things a lot differently than Leno:

Conan's life during the Strike

And Carson Daily and Craig Ferguson. All of which are funnier than Leno. If I were Leno, I'd be seriously worried about the future of his show, so it's understandable if he bended around the rules a little bit.

Fact is, the Union no longer likes him after he fired a dozen of his employees. And it is very likely that most of them will not get a job with him again. His approach was very different than Conan's. Conan paid his employees from his own money.

And Letterman is his own company, so he and Ferguson get their writers back.

Did Leno Break the Rules? Of Course he did, but they can't do anything about it. It's not like they're gonna lose their jobs. LOL XD

[SEXY-FETUS]

Leno doesn't have many options other then his late night show. He's gonna be limited to a car dealership and bit pieces in movies.
He needs to get back to work and showing himself to be more valuable then the writers at the same time.

[Memorize]

At 1/5/08 07:18 PM, RommelTJ wrote:

Did Leno Break the Rules? Of Course he did, but they can't do anything about it. It's not like they're gonna lose their jobs. LOL XD

What an idiotic Union Strike to begin with.

"We voted for the strike. Meaning that if any of you writers every want to work and obtain money, too bad. If you do work, we're going to blacklist you from getting another job".

Excellent idea. People who aren't satified with their jobs forcing people to be unemployed who are.

[bcdemon]

To bad unions are just a business now, with business leaders doing what is good for the business first. Which is what a union is NOT supposed to be. The only good thing about unions now, is they still have the dogfuck clause, for those that can't pull their own weight.

[JoS]

All of these guys face a dilemma. First off while they are writers they are also performers. technically during a writers guild strike they are contractually obliged to preform, but they are not required to write. They have chosen not to preform as well during the strike, but the networks have decided now to force them back to preform. Also it sucks because the writers strike puts everyone else out of work, during Christmas too.

[Tibyrius]

Holy frankenchin, he could poke an eye out with that chin of his.

[LazyDrunk]

I don't think he broke any rules that matter. Like others have said, it's HIS show.

If the union is so pissed that the man can survive on his own, maybe they should banish him, and his union dues, altogether. But they won't.

I find it hard to find fault in an American who has the passion to carry on, in spite of failure all around him. I always liked Leno, not so much for his act, but how he's presented himself as a person. This latest "stunt" makes my appreciation of him grow stronger.

Fuck the losers.

[TheRealEggman]

leno has a nice chin.

[WolvenBear]

Leno said it nicely when he explained his reason for restarting the show, "16 people were keeping 150 people from working." (I may have the numbers wrong.)

But regardless of how right they are...and in the talk show circuit, they're not...the writer's guild was putting people out of work at a rate of almost 10 (not in teh guild) to 1 (in the guild).

[morefngdbs]

At 1/6/08 10:55 AM, JoS wrote: All of these guys face a dilemma. Also it sucks because the writers strike puts everyone else out of work, during Christmas too.

;
Actually Jos , the entertainment industry traditionally shuts down for christmas, christmas shows & specials are done weeks & even months in advance. The same holds true for MOW's that one would see on Life channel for example, these are all shot in advance.
Christmas Hiatus is what we're use to, but then we come back to work.
Unfortunately for so many people (there's like 12,000 writers) there's over 100, 000 I.A.T.S.E. techs in the U.S. ,granted all are not involved in T.V. & Movie Production.
There are also thousands of non-union or other union techs affected.
How many actors are there in the U.S. I don't think anyone knows, you can only get figures for the SAG members (120,000 approximately) although many of them do not work much & only about 1% are what you could call well off as actors, the majority are struggling or are 'background performers'
Still 12,000 people are stopping at least another 100,000 people from working !
And this doesn't include the Directors Guild & their tens of thousands of members!
How many people of this 150,000 + have family members dependant on their earnings?
I don't know, I don't think anyone does for sure.

But the writers don't seem to give a shit about them & neither do the Producers.
Lets not forget that.

[stafffighter]

At 1/8/08 05:52 AM, WolvenBear wrote: Leno said it nicely when he explained his reason for restarting the show, "16 people were keeping 150 people from working." (I may have the numbers wrong.)

But regardless of how right they are...and in the talk show circuit, they're not...the writer's guild was putting people out of work at a rate of almost 10 (not in teh guild) to 1 (in the guild).

Well that's the root of the moral conflict. Should the writers take an unfair deal for themselves for the sake of the others? And if they do that pretty much tells the producers they can do the same with any other faction of their workers, which I understand that they already do. It's the producers, not the the writers, who are keeping those people out of work

[Clown-aRound]

America is having a writers strike? Sucks to be you fuckers.

[Alphabit]

The strike sucks, TV producers should just fire the whole pack of them and get some fresh graduates who aren't going to whine about their fat paychecks.

[Boltrig]

At 1/8/08 08:05 PM, Clown-aRound wrote: America is having a writers strike? Sucks to be you fuckers.

And it sucks to be anyone who watches American made shows. Lets be honest, most of the things people watch in other countries comes from the US. Without their shows being completed, we're all doomed to more dumb as shit "reality" tv shows and reruns.

Deep joy.