Dispatches From WGA Picket Lines: Late-Night Hosts Deliver Free Waffles As Mindy Kaling, Glen Mazzara & Jesse Lee Soffer Keep Picketing At End Of First Week Of Writers Strike
05.05.2023 - 23:35
/ deadline.com
Day four of the writers strike and there’s no sign of slowing down for the writers marching in Hollywood.
Outside Paramount, the likes of Mindy Kaling, Jonathan Nolan and Rachel Bloom were on the picket lines with the casts of NCIS and Ordinary Joe expected as well.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg, creator of Netflix’s Bojack Horseman, was dancing on the streets as the first week of striking comes to an end. I think the week’s been going great? I mean, we’d all rather be working. We all want a fair contract. It’s not a vacation… but we’re all really energized by seeing each other and believe in this fight and we’re all down to keep doing it for as long as it takes.”
One Chicago co-creator Derek Haas and Chicago PD star Jesse Lee Soffer were also outside the studio on Melrose. Lee Soffer told Deadline, “I’m striking in solidarity because every role I’ve ever played was written by a writer and there wouldn’t be a Jay Halstead without a Derek Haas.”
At Netflix, there was chicken and waffles in the air as the late-night hosts supplied free lunch to the writers. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver clubbed together to pay for a free food truck that’s been driving around the area. These shows – The Late Show, The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night and Last Week Tonight were some of the first shows to shut down.
There was also a Mariachi band performing to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.
Glen Mazzara, who was showrunner of The Walking Dead, said that there’s no sign of the writers slowing down in the coming weeks. “I was part of the strike in 2007. People did not give up and the writers are unified more unified now than ever before. They will be out here on the picket lines. This is important not