Friday Fox Rally Recap

For those of you who missed the Friday rally at Fox, I can tell you it was a very powerful and invigorating morning. Also: churros.

We'd all been isolated at our respective studio pickets for four days, and the rally was a chance to come together and see the scope of our numbers. WGA officials say the rally was the largest event in Guild history. The estimates of attendance are north of 4,000 people, and I'm told the LAPD estimate was 5,000. The energy was positive, the speeches stirring, the picket signs creative, the mini-set acoustic.

A brief timeline based on my notes:
10:12 AM -- I spot Simpsons writer George Meyer surveying the massive crowd and sighing with what looks like pure delight. Or maybe he is thinking about fried dough coated in cinnamon and sugar.
10:27 AM -- Tom Morello takes the stage. Mini-set commences.
10:32 AM -- Zack de la Rocha, Tom's bandmate from Rage Against the Machine makes a surprise appearance. He alters the words to a few union/protest songs to reflect the writers' situation. Favorite quote: "I like the reality shows and all that shit, but what we need is reality wages." Amen.
10:37 AM -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson brings his fiery enthusiasm to the podium. A man next to me says, "I never thought I'd find myself in a situation where Jesse Jackson was rallying me. But here we are." And that is an interesting point I've heard other captains mention: This is the first time many WGA members have had to confront being "labor." Keep in mind, two thirds of the current membership wasn't around for 1988. This is the first time many writers have understood how interconnected our fates are with SAG, the Teamsters, IATSE and the other unions that make Hollywood's immense profits possible. "But here we are," and now we're standing together.
BIG THANKS to all the DGA, SAG, AFTRA, IATSE and Teamsters who showed up!
10:47 AM -- John Bowman makes a very funny speech telling Nick Counter, "It's all my fault." It's a shame the WGA underestimated the crowd size and didn't have a sound system powerful enough to cover the whole crowd. People in the back have a particularly hard time hearing Bowman, who can't quite raise his voice enough. "Come on, guys," he responds when the crowd yells for him to speak up. "I'm a writer."
10:52 AM -- David Young: "We are winning this strike!" Crowd: Whew!
10:57 AM -- Alan Rosenberg, president of SAG, takes the stage, and he tears that shit up. This guy's a dynamo. I'd follow him into hell. Or into the theaters in the Beverly Center, which are actually worse.
11:02 AM -- Seth MacFarlane of "Family Guy" explains his own awakening to the importance of the WGA and emphasizes the stakes of the strike. He's hilarious, easily the highlight of the program for me. Video of his speech will be posted here ASAP. Once it's up, the "Family Guy" fans are going to go nuts. And the "American Dad" fan will too. (Sorry! Bad blogger, bad!) In the voice of Stewie, Seth concludes, "Victory will be ours!" Crowd goes wild.
11:12 AM -- TV legend Norman Lear closes us out. Best line: "I was there when we struck the Pharaoh."

I just realized I didn't write down any of our prexy Patric Verrone's many jokes. If MacFarlane doesn't punch me, Verrone will. Great.

After the rally, the crowd moved down Avenue of the Stars and picketed on Pico to the Motor Street gate. It felt a lot like a street party, except for whole "life turned upside down" part. There were probably about a dozen Fox employees by the fountains waving and calling out to their writer friends. My writing partner and I have people we like on the other side of that fountain, and we'd much rather be working with them right now. "But here we are." Let's hope that this rally got us a little bit closer to a contract.

Photography by Hamilton has posted an enormous photoset of the event on SmugMug. On Flickr, take a look at photos from slackmistress and k4kafka. Variety's Michael Jones posted a gallery of kids and dogs and one of creative picket signs.