Veep and White House Plumbers Showrunner David Mandel Fears the WGA Strike Will Be Long and Bloody – Yahoo Entertainment

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David Mandel isnt one to sugarcoat. Its a trait that appears in his work, from the vicious insults of Veep to the intentionally reprehensible characters at the center of HBOs White House Plumbers. It also emerged when TheWrap asked the longtime series creator his thoughts on the currently unfolding WGA strike.

I have no good answer, except to say, I think its going to be long and bloody, and its going to suck, Mandel said.

Also Read:Striking WGA Writers Say They Were Intentionally Hit by a Car While Picketing

Mandel, who is currently 52 years old, emphasized that hes been working in Hollywood for a long time but the current state of the industry doesnt make sense to him. His IMDb page reads like a collection of comedys greatest hits Seinfeld in the 90s, the cult hit EuroTrip in the 2000s, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep in the 2010s and over 60 episodes of Saturday Night Live over the course of three decades. And yet Mandel has noticed that in the last two years, even his contemporaries have struggled.

Im not talking about COVID. Im talking the changes are not working, Mandel said. They are scrounging for jobs in a way that doesnt make sense to me. I dont know what else to say. It does not make sense.

Mandel has heard leadership say theyre trying to turn writing into more of a gig economy.

It makes perfect sense because these are no longer studios. These are studios that are pieces of giant corporations. And giant corporations, since the heyday Jack Welch 80s, have basically decided to maximize profits by basically outsourcing anything and everything that you humanly can, Mandel said.

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Also Read:David Zaslav Says Studios Dont See Writers Strike as Cost-Saving Opportunity: We Are Not Glad (Video)

They devalue research, they devalue R&D, and thats what we are. Were research. Were the new product. Were R&D. They dont value us. They dont care. They worry about stock prices and debt sheets, Mandel said. And the irony is that their debt sheets and their stock prices are in the toilet because theyve made business decisions like, Hey, lets get rid of the cable money and go all in on streaming. I did not tell them to do that. I dont remember the writers getting consulted on that. So when these guys are at the bargaining table pleading poverty based on their own terrible decision-making theyre never going to admit they messed up their own businesses. And now theyre trying to take it out on the writers.

Mandel also briefly touched upon one of the most nerve-wracking parts of this strike: the threat of AI.

When the Writers Guild says to them, Hey, we want to talk about AI and they go, Oh, my God, no, theres nothing to see here, you start to go, Oh, man, theyve got weird plans for AI and replacing all of us,' Mandel said before concluding that he thinks the strike is going to be bad and long.

On Tuesday, the WGA started its strike following weeks of failed negotiations between the Writers Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). This marks the first WGA strike in 15 years since 2007s 100-day strike. There is a laundry list of concerns at the center of this strike, from the rise of professionally stifling mini-rooms to fears about artificial intelligence. But more than anything else, the strike is a response to the major ways Hollywood has changed in the age of streaming.

Truncated seasons and the rise of miniseries have resulted in fewer opportunities for newer writers to climb the professional ladder. Meanwhile, streaming shows have all but eliminated residuals paychecks writers often depend on to survive and the lack of viewer transparency from these companies has wounded writers bargaining power.

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Also Read:WGA Strike Roundtable: Writers Say TV Is Broken, and Were Reinventing It Poorly (Video)

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Veep and White House Plumbers Showrunner David Mandel Fears the WGA Strike Will Be Long and Bloody - Yahoo Entertainment