The Writers Revolt (UPDATE)

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Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Note: This episode originally ran in 2019 and comes with an update.

In Hollywood, "packaging" has been a longstanding industry practice: A talent agency assembles a group of clients--such as a writer, an actor, and a director--and pitches them all together to a studio or network. Then, instead of collecting a commission from its individual clients, the agency gets a fee from the studio once the project is sold and airs.

David Simon, creator of The Wire, and other screenwriters, say that's killed the incentive for their agents to negotiate on their behalf. He thinks the agents are grabbing more than their fair share of the profits. So, in April 2019, 7,000 writers all over the U.S. fired all of their agents, all on the same day.

A standoff ensued.

Then the pandemic happened and tipped the balance.

Today on the show, we look back at the writers' strike and get the dramatic resolution to a Hollywood fight scene.

Music: "Death Over Dinner," "Smoke And Mirrors," "Stroll Along The Seine," and "Uncle Bill."

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