The rerun blues

If you’re bored with TV reruns stemming from the writers’ strike, check out the iO Theater’s live spec script readings of your favorite sitcoms

By Paul M. Banks

I never thought CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother” could ever synergize with NBC’s “Dateline: to Catch a Predator” until I saw a hilarious live reading of the Neil Patrick Harris show written by improvisational actor Joe Burton. A spec script, or “speculative” script, is what a writer submits to an agent to gain representation. “It’s our very own special episode that will never air,” says iO program student Lisa Linke.

The final of three levels of the writing program at iO (formerly Improv Olympic) focuses on this script type, and for recent graduates, the timing is perfect.

“I know people are getting anxious about running out of new TV shows to watch,” says Chrissy Swinko, “so why not come and listen to a staged reading of your favorite show?”

Swinko and six others are presenting their final assignments as staged readings, with local improvisers and actors executing the dialogue. Due to the WGA writers’ strike, the talent pool for these readings is much deeper than usual.

“The strike is really eating into pilot season,” Burton says. “Normally, a lot of people in Chicago would be going out to L.A.”

Michael McCarthy has been teaching the writing program at iO in Chicago for close to a year, but previously staged numerous readings at iO West in Los Angeles. “Completing the script is just the first step — feedback and hearing it live in front of an audience provides invaluable information for writers,” says McCarthy. The Second City alum has written for “Saturday Night Live,” “Sesame Street” and “The Drew Carey Show.”

The readings are free, and audience members have the opportunity to provide feedback to the writers through surveys handed out at the end of the performance. “We get a chance to see if a joke really hits,” Linke says.

For additional information or questions, contact: lisa.linke@mac.com. Her script of “The Office” will be presented on Feb. 5. Readings are held Tuesday nights 7:30 p.m. at iO, 3541 N. Clark. Another script for “The Office” will be presented on Feb. 19. “30 Rock” will be presented on Feb. 12 and 26.

Driving the strike home
Two local products now in Los Angeles discuss how the WGA strike impacts them

We’re all aware of how the writers’ strike has affected our DVRs, TiVos and leisure time. One of my favorite shows, HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” is currently a shred of what it once was. Even the level of guests appearing on the show has diminished significantly. The corporate media has done a very poor job informing the public about the basis of the dispute. Consequently, many people have tuned out and misperceive the strike as a conflict out in La-La Land with no bearing on their lives. But what happens when the conflict affects you both personally and professionally? Two Chicago natives open up about how the picket line affects their individual bottom line.

Joseph Krembuszewski is a writer and tape operator from Palos Park. Sarah Spain, a Lake Forest native, is a sportswriter and a producer for Fox Sports. Her columns can be viewed by logging on to thesportsbank.net and sarahspain.net

TRC: How does the writers’ strike affect you individually on a professional level?
Spain: Actually, in some ways the strike is beneficial to hosts. All the time slots usually filled by scripted sitcoms and dramas are opened up for reality shows — all of which need hosts. Being a writer myself, I don’t welcome this development, but if I get a big hosting break because of it, I certainly won’t turn it down. Also, I work on the main Fox lot, so I get to honk in support of the strikers lining the sidewalk every day when I pull in.
Krembuszewski: Considerably. I work in post-production, and a majority of my company’s business is episodic television. The irony is that I am a writer with hopes to one day be union. So, as the strike is about to screw me out of a job, it may help me in the future.

TRC: How will the continuation affect you?
Spain: Perhaps positively, if I get a hosting gig. More likely negatively, as my broke writer/actor/behind-the-scenes friends will start asking me for dough.
Krembuszewski: I’ve survived cutbacks thus far. However, eventually, it will catch up to me. I’ve already got word I may get put on “hiatus,” the company’s way of telling you that they don’t want to get rid of you but they can’t pay you. So they give you a non-pay vacation of sorts. They still pay your benefits, and you still accumulate time off. Once the strike is settled, you get your job back. The problem is, when will it end?

TRC: Who do you think is to blame? If forced to choose, who would you side with in this dispute?
Spain: Without having actual numbers in front of me, I won’t claim to know the ins and outs of the issue. Based on what I do know, however, I think it’s the studios who are to blame. They’re making money off the rapid rise of digital media — mainly from advertisers paying to sponsor online episodes — and not sharing the wealth with the writers who wrote those episodes. I tend to always side with writers in disputes because they are by far and away the least appreciated, most underpaid and most under-recognized piece of the master puzzle that keeps the entertainment industry ticking.

TRC: How should they resolve the dispute?
Krembuszewski: Bring in John Rambo. Find God. Read 1984. Sleep with each other. Save with Geico. Nah... give in to each other, compromise. If they can’t get it settled as a whole, perhaps, if possible, have each network strike separate deals to at least get production going and put your friends to work.
Spain: Pay the writers what they are due (they’re not asking for much, percentage-wise) and continue to keep the communication lines open as digital media grows and changes the way business must be done.

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