Spooky Weds and Sci Fi Day Strike

Heather and I drove out from Utah to Burbank early Weds morning, arriving at 7:30 am and went to the picket lines around 8. There were many brave writer's in the early morning chilly air. We were glad we brought coats. My friend Shannon came, she lives in LA and was excited to be able to attend and support the writer's strike.

We got to rub shoulders with many writers from such series as Rules of Engagement, 24, Smallville, The Shield, Moonlight, Mad TV, Supernatural, and Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I got to meet Josh Friedman the creator, he also wrote War of the Worlds.  It was a lovely morning, with many expectations for upcoming talks with the studios.

 We then went down to the NBC studios for the SCI FI fan Appreciation day. This lasted from noon to 2, so in total we striked for 6 hours. WOW, great exercise. It started out with a big Guild meeting led by Desperate housewives creator Marc Cherry and The Shield's creator Shawn Ryan; which basically said  The bargaining committee and boards of the East and West Coast guild plan to review the proposal before sharing details Saturday at membership meetings in New York and Los Angeles. If writers like what they hear Saturday, the closed-door meetings could be a major step toward a resolution of the strike. Many of the writers encouraged each other and us fans not to stop being solid in our support, cause if the offers not right then they just don't write.

We got to meet Ron Moore the creator of the new Battlestar Galactica, one of my favorite shows. He said he believes the rest of the story will be told, and the remaining episodes will be made, if no other reason than the fans would never let it end without being complete. I got to meet Michael Trucco, who plays Sam Anders, Starbucks husband on the show and Kate Vernon who played Ellen Tigh. Michael was just recently in a horrible car accident and has a huge scar on the back of his neck and is lucky to be alive and in such great health today.  My friend Rene won the phone call from him for donating pencils at the pencil mogul campaign, and they talked about his accident and his character and his dog, it's a really great recording. I told him I was friends with the winner of his phone call and he piped in oh Rene? She's great just great. You can hear a copy of their phone call here: Copy this and paste it in your browser:  mms://media.plattsburgh.edu/burlrl/MT02feb08phonecallwma.wma

Then the highlight of our day! Michael Muhney and his new little baby Ella came and immediately after him came the one and only Joss Whedon. My 9 year old son Ronan had started writing and drawing a comic book for Joss Whedon for our meeting with him at comic con last year. He wrote the second part and gave it to Joss at Mutant enemy day and had just finished the 3rd installment when he came down with strep, he was devastated he would not get to see Joss and give it to him but we promised to do so. When we first saw Joss Whedon, he was swarmed with people wanting autos so he signed some things and went to take a breather on the phone then we came back out we caught him and gave him Ronan's comic, he remebered who Ronan was and said,"AHHHHHHHH" when we told him why Ronan could not be here. Joss walked the line and did many interviews and talked to the various writers, actors, and fans.

My other good friends, Kazumi and Tanja came by to support the writers, as well as other podcasters and photographers were there to tell and show the story. I got to meet Ed Quinn from Eureka who plays Nathan Stark, he is a tall very handsome man :) I met Pat, who played the demon on Buffy at Double meat palace. We got to stand by the Jay Leno tonight show sign, and hopefully we got to be there as the strike is winding down and our beloved writers get a deal they have been waiting for, that's fair and right.  We all need to keep up our efforts, let the studios know we are behind our writer's and that it is not over til it's over! Jane Espenson was there with all her energy and smiles and kept reminding us all "We wont write until it's right" and none of us can forget Joss's words, "This is not over, Nor is it close. Until the moment it is over, it can never be close. Because if we see the finish line we will flag and they are absolutely counting on us to do that. … Remember what they've done. Remember what they're trying to take from us. FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT."

Many more pictures here