Seth Green

The aforementioned donuts in hand, Robot Chicken co-creator Seth Green stopped to show support with fellow Family Guy actors, including Mila Kunis and Alex Borstein. I’d joked with Green before that he seems to know everyone in Hollywood, which seemed to be the case on the picket line, as he greeted and gave words of encouragement to numerous actors and writers from many different series, most of whom clearly already knew him.

Green told me that for him, the very impressive collection of talent from both behind and in front of the camera assembled at Universal that day was about solidarity. "That’s really what it is. The writers are the most important facet of any kind of entertainment. The people responsible for where the creation actually starts. So to kind of deny them the basic contract points, it’s ludicrous. We’re all banding together to demonstrate how important it is."

Busy not only as an actor but a writer and producer, Green said the strike had already affected him and his collaborators. "Anything we had in development we can’t sell. Anything we were conceiving to work we can’t work on. It’s a literal pencils down situation."

In order to resolve the situation, Green said "I think the producers union are going to have to bend ever so slightly and admit that the writers are important, which they’re not willing to do, and it’s sad." Green added that when it comes to how long the strike might last "I expect it to be a long haul. I think it has to last a long time to make any kind of impact to the point that the producers will even take notice and admit that it’s a problem." Commenting on the large conglomerates that own the studios and networks, Green added "They have so many other sources of income, their entertainment divisions are just an egotistical novelty for them. They demonstrate that in the way that they negotiate."

Echoing his fellow actors, Green said "Nobody wants to strike. But this is a necessary thing. The last time that the writers struck it was over similar issues like VHS. The producers are like ’Oh, this is new media. We don’t know how it’s gonna work. We can’t really monetize it.’ It’s stupid, because as they make money all the writers are saying is ’We want a percentage of the money that you make.’ They’re not saying ’We want an annual salary or a monthly income.’ They’re saying ’As you make money, we want a percentage of it - of the income generated by the material that we created.’ That seems fair, doesn’t it?"