That's cool! It's such a great performance from her in this episode, I was a little surprised that there wasn't much else that I'd seen her in. (Not that she hadn't been in things, just that I hadn't caught them.) I haven't watched Golden Girls (or its many spin-offs) for a long time - I suspect if I went back to it, it's packed full of guest stars I know from other things! 🙂
Yeah, Suzie Plakson comes to mind on TNG as K'ehleyr. Just perfect and she adds so much.
Guest stars do deserve more respect/compensation. Another reason WGA/SAG is on strike. Character creation/royalties. Did you know the VOY Paris character was going to first be the Locarno character from 'First Duty' but they didn't want to pay the TNG writers for a creator's fee? LOL - that's Hollywood!
I knew that they started by saying 'they wanted a character like Nick Locarno' and ended up hiring McNeil to the role - but this is the first I've heard of any talk about dodging creator royalties (I would have expected Paramounts contracts by that point to have simply taken all the IP control to be frank!).
Honestly, the entire intellectual property landscape is messed up, and the writers' part of this only a small part of the problems. As your example makes clear, character royalties seems like a great idea on paper - until it means that new characters don't get used because it would mean a royalty has to be paid. It's not easy to unweave the mess that is IP law, alas...
Yeah, I suppose budget logic was since Michael Piller, Rick Berman & Jeri Taylor would be paid as VOY creators, why pay out another writer team for Locarno. Also, TNG was technically another TV show, even though it's still Trek. I recall vividly during my meeting with Jeri Taylor - after I brought up a reference to DS9 characters/story - she smiled, pointed up to ceiling & said, 'We've NOTHING to do with the boys up there.'
Rules are confusing, complex, but creative work a writer does coupled with the chance a character becomes really popular should be rewarded.
Look at how popular Q became. Roddenberry is no doubt credited for him - but if it was another writer, all action figures/dolls/things Q's brought to franchise would have royalty complexity if Q had been summoned up through an outside creative. 'Based On Credits' for new shows born of originals is yet another credit mire, chock full of $ agreements & royalties. So yeah, it's crazy....
Alas, the situation is even worse in videogames. There is a game that I worked on as lead designer and writer that still sells today, and has a cult following. Not a single person who worked on that game gets money from its sale today. Nothing. Things that screenwriters take for granted - 'created by' credits, heck, even getting a credit, is far from vouched for in videogames, and nobody to my knowledge has ever earned royalties from a project they worked on in this media sector (companies have earned royalties, but never staff, never individuals).
IP law was formed in the 18th and 19th century, and needs international reform to reflect the very different conditions today - but the entire system is stacked against this happening. In the meantime, unions can (thankfully) negotiate the borders of the various fiefs, and that might be all we can do without a substantial shift in people's thinking about the relationship between 'creativity' and 'ownership'.
You need to educate me, and all of us more, on videogames and behind the scenes legal intrigue. Wow... I had no idea it was even worse than for Hollywood writers!
'Riker’s away for a while, so everyone’s wondering who is going to do the stupidest thing in his absence..' LOL
Hallie Todd is great in this. She played Blanche's niece in an episode of 'Golden Girls' and now I think she she's an acting/drama coach.
That's cool! It's such a great performance from her in this episode, I was a little surprised that there wasn't much else that I'd seen her in. (Not that she hadn't been in things, just that I hadn't caught them.) I haven't watched Golden Girls (or its many spin-offs) for a long time - I suspect if I went back to it, it's packed full of guest stars I know from other things! 🙂
Yeah, Suzie Plakson comes to mind on TNG as K'ehleyr. Just perfect and she adds so much.
Guest stars do deserve more respect/compensation. Another reason WGA/SAG is on strike. Character creation/royalties. Did you know the VOY Paris character was going to first be the Locarno character from 'First Duty' but they didn't want to pay the TNG writers for a creator's fee? LOL - that's Hollywood!
I knew that they started by saying 'they wanted a character like Nick Locarno' and ended up hiring McNeil to the role - but this is the first I've heard of any talk about dodging creator royalties (I would have expected Paramounts contracts by that point to have simply taken all the IP control to be frank!).
Honestly, the entire intellectual property landscape is messed up, and the writers' part of this only a small part of the problems. As your example makes clear, character royalties seems like a great idea on paper - until it means that new characters don't get used because it would mean a royalty has to be paid. It's not easy to unweave the mess that is IP law, alas...
Yeah, I suppose budget logic was since Michael Piller, Rick Berman & Jeri Taylor would be paid as VOY creators, why pay out another writer team for Locarno. Also, TNG was technically another TV show, even though it's still Trek. I recall vividly during my meeting with Jeri Taylor - after I brought up a reference to DS9 characters/story - she smiled, pointed up to ceiling & said, 'We've NOTHING to do with the boys up there.'
Rules are confusing, complex, but creative work a writer does coupled with the chance a character becomes really popular should be rewarded.
Look at how popular Q became. Roddenberry is no doubt credited for him - but if it was another writer, all action figures/dolls/things Q's brought to franchise would have royalty complexity if Q had been summoned up through an outside creative. 'Based On Credits' for new shows born of originals is yet another credit mire, chock full of $ agreements & royalties. So yeah, it's crazy....
Alas, the situation is even worse in videogames. There is a game that I worked on as lead designer and writer that still sells today, and has a cult following. Not a single person who worked on that game gets money from its sale today. Nothing. Things that screenwriters take for granted - 'created by' credits, heck, even getting a credit, is far from vouched for in videogames, and nobody to my knowledge has ever earned royalties from a project they worked on in this media sector (companies have earned royalties, but never staff, never individuals).
IP law was formed in the 18th and 19th century, and needs international reform to reflect the very different conditions today - but the entire system is stacked against this happening. In the meantime, unions can (thankfully) negotiate the borders of the various fiefs, and that might be all we can do without a substantial shift in people's thinking about the relationship between 'creativity' and 'ownership'.
Thanks for a stimulating digression, Will!
You need to educate me, and all of us more, on videogames and behind the scenes legal intrigue. Wow... I had no idea it was even worse than for Hollywood writers!