With the assistance of Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? writer Bob Kushell helps you survive your marriage during the Writers' Strike.
11/28/2007
The Strike, Your Marriage and You
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70 comments:
Oh poor Bob Kushell, having troubles with his wife. Whether that is true or not this is just pathetic.
Here is a guy who pulls in well over 20k a week probably bitching (he calls it comedy) about his troubles at home with his wife. Meanwhile look at the crew on his show, or any other show shutdown. Many of them work paycheck to paycheck, especially PA's while this fool is making more in two weeks than some do all year.
The WGA says pencils down means pencils down. Why do these videos keep popping up? Why do you keep working for free, in a media you are fighting to get paid for. It is so hypocritical of the members like Bob Kushell.
And before Captain Obvious can post a response, yes I get he is trying to be ironic and humorous. It's just when you have a significant other who lost their job over this its a little hard to find this funny in the slightest.
OMG, that was great. Love it. Very funny!
I'm flattered...
I gotta give this guy credit for having Christina Applegate play the role of his wife.
She can play the role of my wife any day of the week.
BRILLIANT!
Remember how United Artists began? The talent, revolted (pun intended) by studio greed, started their OWN studio.
Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith formed their own company to protect them from studio mergers that threatened salary cuts. The famous line associated with this move was "the idiots have taken over the asylum."
Call me crazy.
RS
DEAR SHUT UP ALREADY -
I've never heard it put so well. After the strike is over I'm going to quit my 20K a week job.
SINCERELY,
PLEASE KEEP YAMMERING
Bob, as anyone knows, you make Bisquick pancakes with milk, not water. Since you got that wrong, how can you expect me to take anything else you do or say seriously?
Harrumph.
Studio flunkies... getting paid $7/hr to troll the web.
All this time I've been walking the picket line with Kushell and didn't even know who he was...To me he was just the loud guy who never seemed to shut up.
Imagine my chagrin now. All this time I've been in the presence of comedy greatness and didn't even know it...
Note to self and the AMPTP: Pay more (and pay them more) attention to writers, they're not only funny people, but are more valuable then they think. So take advantage of them, just give them what they're asking for and be happy it isn't more.
Seven dollars now but they promised me a development deal once this is over so ha ha stupid writers.
If there weren't so much sexism in television then a man laughing over the concept of "Female comedy writers" might be amusing. But according to guild statistics, women comprise only twenty-five percent of all writing rooms and comprise only THREE percent of late night writing comedy staffs.
Sometimes things are funny because they're true. And sometimes things are sad because they're true.
Sexism is true and it is sad, as are ageism, racism and all the other predjudices at work in any industry. But let's stick together to win THIS war. Don't let them divide and conquer.
Once this is over, I'll see you on THAT picket line.
Hey "Shut Up Already",
You cry poverty, yet have enough time to post endless rants about a comedy video?
How about spending that time picking up a 2nd job. These writers have a right to picket... and have a right to spend their free time doing what they love... ENTERTAINING!
Sorry, but this vid just tries waaaaaaay too hard. And trust me. I know a few people that have worked with Bob. He really doesn't think women are funny. But he sure thinks HE is!
I'm with WGA writer above. Bob has never thought much of the women he's been in a room with. That said, go writers! Even the bad ones!!!
Oh, and notice how the first post on most of these blogs are negative? Those trolls sure are fast for having such little chubby fingers!
Bob should be lucky he found someone to marry him at all. He should leave his wife alone before she wises up and leaves him.
Oh wga member #1534563a... why not just click "anonymous" if you're not willing to identify yourself while attempting to smear someone?
You then go further by using a "few people" to support your baseless assertion that Bob doesn't find women funny?
Did you happen to notice the two actresses in the piece with Bob? Were they not women?
He continues to work with Christine Zander (from his days on '3rd Rock) over and over again. Why would he do so if he truly thought "women weren't funny" as you say?
To me it looks like YOU are the one trying waaaaaaay too hard to hide your jealousy of someone who's parlayed their humor into entertainment success.
Calm down Anonymous. Mr. Writer number was only puting out his opinion. Just take a deep breadth and realx.
Having seen Kushell on the picket line inter-acting with his fellow female writers, I'd say Bob has a healthy respect for them as writers, but as people as well...
So, it's safe to conclude Kushell was just poking fun at the biases we don't often want to admit we sometimes hold.
While the video was predictable, it's still better than anything the AMPTP could come up with, hence the importance of talented writers.
Go Red Sox!
Dear mister Anonymous who's so conscerned about whether the pancakes has water or milk in it...yes you can make some mixes with water and not milk..i do it all the time..my kids love the new verson "just add water" they've had out for about several yrs now. But i guess you got your head too far up your backside to know that the "just add water" mix has been out for quite some time.
YOU SHOULD get your story straight before you blindly in arrogance bash someone else when even you don't know what you are talkin about.
Hey Bob, loved the video!! Keep crankin them out!
I thought the video was quite funny and I'm a girl!! I didn't take it personal that Bob was teasin on women..least he ain't stealin me blind!!
from
~~Miss writer~~
Loved the Vid Bob!!
We're all behind ya!! (-:
Hey Bob, I hope this strike is over soon or you may not be able to get another job. Your video made me laugh.
Freakin loved the video bob!!
And btw, my college roomies and I have the "just add water" mix type of pancakes all the time!! So I agree with the person with the kids, get your facts straight sock puppet before you go shootin off your mouth.
signed
Female College student
people please... said:
Calm down Anonymous. Mr. Writer number was only puting out his opinion. Just take a deep breadth and realx.
#1: How do you misspell "breath" and "relax" in one sentence?
#2: He did everything BUT give his opinion. He used information from some nameless "few people" who supposedly worked with the writer in question. Completely worthless.
lol...they can't get their story straight because they don't have a brain to think with female college student!! If they had a brain...they would know that there is a flaw to what they are sayin, but they get paid not to think, but just to dog on the writers whatever nasty little thing they can find.
Enjoyed the video though Bob! Gotta love our women who support us!
Hey, i'd marry bob if I had the chance...if his wife for whatever reason divorces him..HE's Mine!!! (-:
And I know I'd have to fight a couple hundred women (yes they are pretty and not ugly and they have 20/20 vison) for him!
Okay Anonymous, you got me. I didn't proof. I was just so excited to tell you to calm down, I didn't think. Thank you for pointing it out for me. I will not let it happen again.
Now, relax, take that breath you need, and have a good evening.
Wow, 7:37... quite a vigorous defense! If I didn't know any better, I would think you were Bob himself! (Those of us who know and love Bob know he's gotta be refreshing the comments every two minutes to see what people said about him.) Admit it, Bob! You're here right now! Come out of the shadows!
I can relate to the video. My husband who's a lawyer bugs me like crazy when he gets home from work.
Loved the part when the wife in the video yells for him to "walk it off!" That would be something my husband would say since he's a sports fanatic! "Walk it off honey! you're doin great just walk it off!"
Its great to see the woman in the video yelling the same thing!! Payback time!!
Anyway Mr. Kushell, it was a funny video!
*Lawyer's Wife*
Oh i don't know...I like it when my husband gets time off from his job because that means he becomes "Mr. Mom" and takes over the kiddies for a while!
And its nice having an actual grown up around to carry on a conversation with. It gets a little hard sometimes being a stay at home mom with three kids under 5 years of age! With one infant and two three year olds, I love it when my husband is home!! In fact I wish his job would let him off more!!
Bob loved the video. You ever need somethin to do..I'll gladly hire you as my babysitter!!
Thank you, Bob and Christina, for this entertaining video.
Those of you who'd rather b***h than laugh are going to worry yourselves into an early grave. I hope you can learn to turn off your inner critic and start enjoying life.
I haven't watched "Samantha Who?" yet, but after seeing this video, I'll have to give it a try. (Oh, so that's the value of writers making free videos in their spare time!)
A man mocking the concept of females writing comedy is offensive and degrading and falls under the definition of hate speech. Try Bob's "joke" with another minority: "Asian comedy writers? (laughs loudly; re: wife) She's dumb but I love her."
While I'm sure Bob would insist that some of his "best friends are female comedy writers," he's perpetuating a negative stereotype. It would be nice if he took the video down and edited out the disrespectful part.
We're all in this together.
i wasn't offended at all! Besides don't you know that women wear the pants in the familes now and days!
Good video!
my favorite part was where the "poor, underpaid" writer's wife went to run errands in her $80,000 mercedes.
I worked with Bob......on "Samantha Who"....He does think women are funny (I know first hand) but he is also a writer. Which means he has an overinflated idea of his own self-importance. Most writers I know, and I know several, think they are way too important to the process. They are just words on a page.....nothing more. Get back to work and start making lame network television.......it's better than lame You-Tube videos.
p.s. why do you fools think that everyone who has something to say against this strike is getting paid by a "company"....that is just short sighted.
Quick, someone post a new video, Bob has too much heat on him. It's just a video people.
I devour worlds. I know everything and everybody. And I say Bob is funny.
With out those words actors and actresses wouldn't be famous now would they?
Several actors, actresses say so themselves that without those words on the page, they wouldn't be who they are: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZRzgUT36TVk
man these bashers can't enjoy a simple video.
probably the same type of people who show up to our gaslight plays with scripts in hand just so they can point out where we traveled a tad bit from the script to make it funnier and yet staying with the basics of the play. *rolls eyes*
Ppl get a freakin grip! the video was funny and sorry you couldn't appreciate a simple funny video without trying (without success) in trying to tear it apart!
Great video!
sorry repostin the link so its clickable:
Glen Close and other actresses, actors talk about the importnce of writers
Bob has an overall deal at the studio he works for...so its more like 750K-1.2 million that he makes, not 20K a week on the show. Outrageous that he won't be getting that extra 1500 bucks a month for that online streaming...I'm sure his kids will be going to community college as a result.
if youtube was so lame...why are so many people using it on a regular basis??
Easy btw, because you guys are really sock puppets paid by big congloms to shootdown everything posted by everyone...just as you have to some of the writers on this post.
Its not hard to see it.
love the video bob!!
Way to go!!
enjoyed the video!
We're behind you writers!!
Hang in there!!
Don't cave in!!
Don't give an inch!!
funny video!! Yay for funny women!!
scatt d - so you "have worked with him". Which means what, you were in the same room, same set, same street? Please permit me to say - "Yeah, right".
"They are just words on a page.....nothing more." Yup, just words, which form a script, which enables everyone else to go to work. Or not, as the case is. How exactly does film and TV work without the writer? Oh, that's right, it doesn't. Maybe that sense of importance is because it's kind of true. Envy isn't pretty scatt.
You smell a bit trollish. Or maybe of old ham. I can't decide - You pick.
Shut up already, the basis of comedy is pain. Always. Laugh because otherwise you'd cry. There is a reason that traditionally oppressed groups are strongly represented in comedy - Irish and Jewish comedy writers abound.
WGA members that are making very good money once lived paycheck to paycheck too. No one starts at the top. Now he is doing well and has worked his way up and you are holding this against him? I assume you have worked your way up in your own job? What is wrong with being good at your job and advancing? Isn't that what we are meant to do? It's already been said, but I'll say it again, the strike is for ALL of the WGA, not just the rich members. Again, not all WGA members are rich.
It's not as if the strike was designed to put your family out of work. The studios/networks laid crew off. That was their choice. They could have kept people on if they had any intention of seriously solving the impasse over contract terms. But they didn't. They chose to try to create resentment towards the WGA by mass layoffs.
Strikes happen. IATSE is striking in NYC right now. Reportedly every single stagehand makes $150,000 a year. Sound familiar? That is typical Managemnet talk when a strike happens. They paint the union as greedy and rich. They also constantly bring up all the other people who get put out of work due to the strike. Just like you are doing now.
The WGA has no contract, they are Shut up already - the basis of comedy is pain. Always. Laugh because otherwise you'd cry. There is a reason that traditionally oppressed groups are strongly represented in comedy - Irish and Jewish comedy writers abound.
WGA members that are making very good money once lived paycheck to paycheck too. No one starts at the top. Now he is doing well and has worked his way up and you are holding this against him? I assume you have worked your way up in your own job? What is wrong with being good at your job and advancing? Isn't that what we are meant to do? It's already been said, but I'll say it again, the strike is for ALL of the WGA, not just the rich members. Again, not all WGA members are rich.
It's not as if the strike was designed to put your family out of work. The studios/networks laid crew off. That was their choice. They could have kept people on if they had any intention of seriously solving the impasse over contract terms. But they didn't. They chose to try to create resentment towards the WGA by mass layoffs.
Strikes happen. IATSE is striking in NYC right now. Reportedly every single stagehand makes $150,000 a year. Wow, they are so rich! That is way more than I make. Sound familiar? That is typical management talk when a strike happens. They paint the union, no matter what the industry is, as greedy and rich. They also constantly bring up all the other people who get put out of work due to the strike, calling the strikers heartless and selfish. Just like you are doing now. But it’s never the strikers who fire anyone – that would be management who uses these other people as pawns, as a weapon against the union in the PR battle.
The WGA has no contract, they are legally entitled to strike. No contract = no work in most jobs.
It's just a video, and not a bad one at that. Christina is great on Samantha Who? and she really makes the vid here. Him, not so much. There's a reason he is WGA and she is SAG. No offense, Mr. Writer guy.
Walk it off is a great read of a great line. And by the way, it’s probably Christina’s car.
First comment person - "pencils down" refers to work for a struck company. Try to get the facts straight. Writers can write for themselves as much as they please.
Maybe you should read the small text of an ad or news story, not just the big headlines. Just a thought. Reading comprehension skills are very important in life.
Yeah guys. Talking about pencils down is sooo two weeks ago.
Watch it again. You'll catch the joke. His writing is his. HIS. That's what this is all about.
It's OUR content. We just LET you have it, AMPTP! LET! I have super-sweet content in my hands and YOU CAN'T HAVE IT NYAH NYAH. Treat my fellow writers right or no writings for you!
See how this works?
For me, Bob Kushell comes off as kinda hacky and as unkind for portraying his wife as a total bitch.
Bob has an overall deal at the studio he works for...so its more like 750K-1.2 million that he makes, not 20K a week on the show.
Let's see... 20k X 50 weeks is ONE-MILLION DOLLARS.
Aren't we splitting hairs here?
Since this guy is living in the 50s, maybe in a few years, he could re-negotiate the 1960 WGA deal where writers gave up residuals in order to get pension and health.
why are people so mean to the writers. its like their idiots or something.
On a Street, On a Set, even in a closet.
Blow me
why are the scribes using YouTube?
Isn't that a little contradictory?
YouTube is owned by Google. The enemies are:
1. Time-Warner
2. Disney
3. Fox News Corp
4. Viacom
5. GE
6. Sony
You guys are ridiculous. Kushell's a really good dude and the whole thing was tongue-in-cheek. He's making fun of himself for being a pest. It's a character he's playing -- the self-absorbed husband who doesn't realize that while he's off at work, his wife has a busy life without him. It's a funny premise. The piggishness about women being comedy writers was part of his character -- a guy who is so clearly supposed to be a fool. Thus, his disbelief that there could be female comedy writers is obviously meant to remind us of the opposite. It was his way of being sensitive, and not assuming that all comedy writers are husbands.
I know Bob, I've walked the lines with him, I've met his wife, I've even coached against his older son in Little League (the little bastard hit a home run), and like I said, he's a good dude. He deserves kudos for taking the initiative and making a clever video that keeps our strike in the public view, rather than being vilified by the angry and the humorless.
Everyone focuses on how much money they think we make. Some of us make very good livings (perhaps all the striking and fighing for our rights may have something to do with that}, but it's always a crapshoot, and you don't know from year-to-year if it's going to be feast or famine. A sit-com writer doesn't get on a staff in May, and they may not have a chance to make another dime until the following staffing season. Unlike other jobs in production, it's not like you can just catch on with another production. There are fewer staffs than ever before, and those staffs are about half the size they were ten years ago. There used to be 60 comedies on the air, now there are about ten. Even if you get on a show it can be cancelled after six or twelve episodes, leaving you out looking for work again at a time when no shows are staffing writers. You like those odds of finding work? Come join the WGA.
Yes, yes they're very ridiculous.
I agree with your analysis, Anonymous @ 1:18 AM. Some people need to learn to laugh. Maybe wising up a bit might help, too...
The guy may be a "really good dude" in real life, but he made a video that was more "According to Jim" than "Samantha Who?"
Depicting writers as piggish and self-absorbed is not an ideal image for our cause.
Clueles, nebbishy husband... hot, put-upon wife... Where have I seen that before? Oh yeah -- on every sitcom in the last twenty years.
How very hacky.
Good work, Bob!
No wonder that show is so not funny...it all makes sense!
Scott d - Sure about that? I have very sharp teeth (good dental plan)
Yo, pancake nazis:
The "just add water" stuff comes in a bottle. The video featured the Heart Smart variety of Bisquik, which calls for nonfat milk.
(Obviously, I understand what's REALLY important in this whole debate.)
And, for what it's worth, I thought the Bisquik joke was just that, a joke, and funny to boot...unlike Mr. Try-Too-Hard in the video. Not thinking Bob K. is funny isn't the same as not supporting the strike. Hackiness is hackiness, wherever it appears, and should be called out.
He's got every right to write his own stuff, not for pay, not for the financial benefit of struck companies, during the strike. He's just embarrassing himself because he's showcasing how outdated and hacky his comedy writing "skills" are.
I've been in a writers' room with him. And I've watched his self-loathing compete with his desperate need to be loved. Both are evident in this video.
Yours in Pancake Peace.
1:08pm -- nicely put. You nailed it right on the head. Kudos. Let's end comments on this thing and get back to what's important.
To all the writers who are calling this video "lame", "hacky", and accusing it of "trying waaaay too hard":
Just where are your cutting-edge videos? Just a TV fan here (who suuports the WGA 100%), but I found the video to be funny and well-executed. Am I stupid?
If you have better, I'd like to see those as well?
It seems pretty easy to sit back, do nothing, and criticize those who've made an effort. How about showing your genius to us all? That is, IF you actually have the ability.
The weatherman doesn't have to make the weather; he just has to tell you what's going on, and predict what's going to happen next.
By 2:27 p.m.'s logic, movie critics' opinions aren't valid because they're not trying to make better movies themselves. Although this point's been made before by others, I can't say I agree with it. Making commentary is a legitimate pursuit, as is sharing opinions on a public forum such as this.
You're entitled to think this was a funny piece. Others are entitled to their widely varying mileage.
And NOW it's time to move on.
Oooh, just one more before moving on.
Bob doesn't really like women. Oh, sure, he enjoys staring at them or sleeping with them, but he doesn't think women are his equal.
Now we are moving on!
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