For Striking Writers, It's A Family Affair

Picketing was hard work for hundreds of protesters who got cranky and needed naps Monday, so they put down their hand-scribbled signs and made their parents take them home.

Striking Hollywood writers toted their kids to picket lines outside studios to teach them lessons about residuals and payments for shows offered on the Internet.

The issues in the weeklong labor dispute between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were clear for 11-year-old Joey Shapiro.

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Interactive: Star Struck

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"I'm all for my dad," he said outside the Walt Disney Studios.

Joey's father, movie writer Alan Shapiro, said he wanted his two sons to experience the strike.

"It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing - I hope," he said.

Parents took advantage of the Veterans Day school holiday to take about 100 kids to the Disney protest. Most of the youngsters obviously had a little coaching.

One thumb-sucking preschooler held a sign reading, "I'm learning to share. Can you? Play nice."

John Aboud brought his 3-year-old daughter, Penelope, to show her the studio that made her favorite movie, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

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Photos: Writers Strike

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"She brought a little toy rat because I told her we were going to Mickey Mouse's house," said Aboud, who is blogging about the strike and has several TV projects in development.

Penelope made her own picket sign - unintelligible scribbles in green marker.

Many of the kids were excited to join their parents for some family time.

Elijah Newman, 7, "has been dying to strike all week," said his mother, Melissa Carter, a movie writer who lives nearby.

The boy was thrilled when he waved - and passing trucks honked in response. He also enjoyed the endless supply of doughnuts and cookies brought by strike supporters.

Strike T-shirts were hot commodities, with parents snatching them up for their kids.

"The funny thing is, after all this is over, we won't want to wear them," Carter said.
By David Germain

[bobgee_1999]

http://www.helium.com/tm/678519/following-writers-guild-america Read, learn or shut up.

[vastr-wcon]

The WGA has given TV executives and TV viewers a GREAT opportunity. The best TV shows ever were made during the 50''s, 60''s, 70''s and 80''s. Bring them back. Ernie Kovacs, Steve Allen, Mary Tyler Moore, The *** Van *** Show, Jack Paar''s Tonight, Sid Caesar, The Bob Newhart Show, Johnny Carson''s Tonight, The Wild, Wild West, The Jack Benny Program, That Girl, The Avengers, Carol Burnett, Sonny and Cher, Jackie Gleason, Kraft Television Theater, Studio One, Philco Playhouse, Playhouse 90, Armstrong Television Theater, Rowan & Martin''s Laugh In, The Ed Wynn Show, The Saint, The Rifleman, Knight Rider, The Six Million Dollar Man, Mission Impossible, Superman, and on and on. Nothing created since even comes close (except Seinfeld). Make these classics the new stable for prime time TV on all networks. Bring back the best TV ever produced - and everybody wins, both young and old. After several months of seeing these classics, maybe, just maybe, the standard for acceptable TV will increase from its current toilet-level cr''ap-fest.

[dylanxxv]

That''s it you lame bunch of morons...Show your kids what ***** you are...