Join us on The Common Bridge as Rich talks with stage, screen, and television star Greg Jbara's inspiring journey from a public school system to Juilliard and his rise in the performing arts. We explore the impact of the ongoing Writers Guild strike, differences between guilds, challenges faced by actors and producers, and how automation is reshaping the industry. We emphasize supporting artists and understanding the issues driving the strike. Tune in as we navigate the shifting sands of entertainment.
Engage the conversation on Substack at The Common Bridge!
Join us on The Common Bridge as Rich talks with stage, screen, and television star Greg Jbara's inspiring journey from a public school system to Juilliard and his rise in the performing arts. We explore the impact of the ongoing Writers Guild strike, differences between guilds, challenges faced by actors and producers, and how automation is reshaping the industry. We emphasize supporting artists and understanding the issues driving the strike. Tune in as we navigate the shifting sands of entertainment.
Engage the conversation on Substack at The Common Bridge!
Welcome to this episode of season 4 of the Common Bridge, where policy and current events are discussed in a fiercely nonpartisan manner. The host, richard Helpe, is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and political analyst who has reached over three and a half million listeners, viewers and readers around the world. The Common Bridge is available on the Substack website and the Substack app. Just search for the Common Bridge. You can find the program on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. The Common Bridge draws guests and audiences from across the political spectrum and we invite you to become a free or paid subscriber on your favorite medium.
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome to the Common Bridge. I'm your host, Richard Helpe, and we have a great guest with us today, a famous actor, Greg Jabara. Greg, it is very good to see you.
Speaker 3:Hello Rich, you can see me now actually.
Speaker 2:Indeed, yes, we'll talk about Greg's background on stage, on film and, of course, on television programs. Today we've got a very important topic. It might not seem important but it is. It's about the strike of the actors and the writers in Hollywood for a big umbrella title. So we're going to just jump right into it with our guest, greg Jabara. Award-winning actor, greg, I know that you're well known to very many people and I think at an early age you wanted to get into the arts. You were talented enough to get into Juilliard and then your career took off from there. Can you give a little bit of the career arc and don't leave out anything important like winning a Tony Award and being nominated elsewhere. I think it's important for people to know.
Speaker 3:Well, the real starting point is being a child who grew up through the Wayne Westland Public School System, because from K through 12, as you well know, there were opportunities available to us that don't exist as readily at least not in the Wayne Westland community as prevalently as it was. But when we were going to school the boomers were throwing tax money at education and we had a TV studio in our high school. We had a 68-member male chorus in our high school that I was a member of. There was very active student politics, foot sports, everything you could possibly want. And I had, over the years, found that I had a knack in the performing arts and gratefully had the opportunity to develop those talents.
Speaker 3:And when physics, though a passion, didn't become my journey in life because the academic world is a little more competitive, I was very competitive as a performing arts person and went to the University of Michigan. Parents said no, you're not going to be an actor, you're going to be a communications major. I went OK, and then all I did was non-departmental theater while I was at Michigan, with a minor in physics and a major in communications, and while I was there and being cast in every non-department show that was happening and then, to my parents' dismay, changing my major to theater and doing nothing but and being a founding class member of the musical theater program that is now in existence. Also the Impact Jazz Dance Company that still is thriving as a non-department dance company with the students at Michigan, still happening today. Those are all things I did. But the faculty, my mentors, they went. You know the musical theater programs knew we don't know whether it's going to take off. You have an ability to compete on a higher level.
Speaker 3:I was encouraged to look at other programs. I call it the Michigan Mafia because then Sharon Jensen, a Michigan alumnus, was the president of the League of Professional Theater Training Schools and she I got on the phone with her because she was best friends with my voice teacher and mentor, connie Barron, and she told me all about the league schools and I made the decision that if I was going to leave Michigan and that meant even if Michigan didn't stay, the musical theater program didn't work I could go to Wayne State or Eastern or other options and stay in state. But I knew if I really wanted to do this I needed to go to New York and the idea being as a student when I finally did get accepted into Juilliard that all of your work that you do in your last two years is open to the public. So the industry gets to see your breadth of ability over two years, where people who get really great training, say in the middle of America, and then have to go and beat the pavement in New York or Los Angeles, they're kind of starting at ground zero once they're done with graduation and if they're not in a program that has, say, a presentation at the end that serves up their graduating class, which is pretty prevalent now in the training programs.
Speaker 3:But I went to New York knowing that that's where I had to be because I'm also, you know, I like to sing, I can move without embarrassing myself. And then when I survived the four years at Juilliard because then they did a cut after the second year of the original 26 students, they cut the class down, and not just to cut the class, they let students go who really don't need the training, who are ready to fly and be, you know, pushed out of the nest, and so they're not just taking their money. And then there are students that probably need to rethink what they really want to do in life and those people are are let go, but also when you're in repertory, meaning you're doing three or four shows a year and you have 26 actors, it'd be very difficult to give all 26 actors meaty work in all the production. So by having a smaller class toward the end of your year, you were able to better challenge every single actor and fortunately I survived that entire process.
Speaker 2:Did you start? On the stage, on the screen or through television? Where did you get? Where did you get going?
Speaker 3:So my first job was actually for the Detroit Free Press. No kidding, my very first union job was on camera commercial for the Detroit Free Press and it was cast in New York and shot in New York and I was still a student oh, I still actually. I graduated, I just graduated, but that was my first on camera job. My first voiceover job Wallo was still a student was 14 national commercials for Norelco. Back then there was the Molson Golden couple. There was, like you know, witte Bantor, sexy, you know dialogue between a couple talking about Molson Golden beer. So Norelco wanted to do the same thing, showcasing their products, but having this attractive couple being that, witte. Well, they hired the models. They didn't like the way they sounded. They hired Lauren Brown and myself to be the voices. So we overdubbed everything on those commercials and that was my foray into working as an actor.
Speaker 3:And the one class that I wish I had while I was at Juilliard was finance, because there's common sense. I mean, you know that you have to pay their taxes. There's, you know, withholding for FICA, but I just assumed it was all being done. You, you know, a paycheck goes to the payroll department at your talent agency. They take their 10%. You get your check and I look and I go, okay, they're taking X amount out.
Speaker 3:But for my entire life, since I was a janitor at Wayne Dale Plaza on Wayne, michigan, at next to Marshall Junior High, I always wrote exempt on my tax returns because I never made more than $5,000. Habitually, when I booked that job, not knowing, I wrote exempt and ended up with a significant debt my student loan, about $10,000 that my very creative and brand new accountant, who nearly had a heart attack, managed to work out and it was a he still quotes me to this day goes you're, the first thing out of your mouth was when I said, oh, here's all the money you're going to owe. Do you have anything? And I had like $300 in my pocket and he said I said, well, good thing I'm young, because you know, ultimately.
Speaker 3:It took about eight years, but got out from underneath that debt while I was a working actor doing commercials.
Speaker 2:So your fame, not only from being a Tony Award winner on Broadway and Billy Elliot, which I had the privilege to see you were great in that and being on television programs, which I'm not sure I can talk about during the strike period, and being in movies, you're also well known at the Internal Revenue.
Speaker 3:Service.
Speaker 2:Okay, I mean, you've really literally covered the waterfront here.
Speaker 3:It's true. Yeah, for hope may may. May no one listening ever have to suffer this. But the government finds your source of income and then they start leaning on it. The great thing about being an actor, where you're constantly looking for new work, is, by the time they found a commercial I did, and start leaning on an income, I'd already booked another one so they could start taking that money, and it was, you know, a slow, brutal process, but ultimately it's behind me and it's the first thing I ever teach in a masterclass is get to know your fiscal responsibilities.
Speaker 2:Well, that is very germane to what we want to talk about today, because the entertainment industry is an industry, it is a business, and in a business we have owners, we have marketeers, we have financiers and we have labor. And you've been at this game for a long time and now we're hearing about there's a strike in Hollywood. This is the way it's being presented and most people either don't know, don't care or both. But I think this has implications beyond the entertainment industry is my take on it, and your challenge today is to take me from a level of reasonably intelligent kindergartner to you know something into the PhD range, so you can assume, like absolute ignorance and infinite intellect, because what you do and what you've done in your career, it's very opaque to people that are not there.
Speaker 2:I don't even understand the names of all the players and how things work, but I'm above average at finance. If you ever need some help with that, so Right. And the IRS has no idea who I am. I hope so there's no. Okay. So, greg, who are the players in this drama right now We've heard about SAG and WGA and studio heads and who are the combatants here?
Speaker 3:So since probably the 60s, which was the last very important creative strike against the producers am PTP is the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, so it's all the people that create entertainment content. They have this organization that represents them when it comes to negotiating contracts with all the different unions. Then you've got there, there, the it's them against. Currently the WGA is the Writers Guild and they are all the people who create the stories, who put pen to paper, who do the rewrites. They are, they are Shakespeare, they are. The play is the thing. Without content, without great stories, without great writers writing great stories, you don't have entertainment. And then the other party that is currently in striking against am PTP is SAG after, and it's screen actors Guild, television and radio artists, right. So the screen actors Guild. They used to be two separate entities.
Speaker 3:Screen actors Guild used to represent just people who worked on film, like if your work was recorded on celluloid, on film, because back in the day there was just film and the people that did radio were, after, union members. Then video came along with television and television, because it's not on film, it's electronic signal, analog, but they became a part of after. And then, as years went on and new media came out and they're streaming and there's, you know, everybody's got a movie camera on their phone the unions found they had better power if they worked together in negotiations. And, like in 1960, with the emergence of television and all the producers who, when they made a movie you make a movie, you pay an actor and the fee that they get includes all their days of working and then the right for that producer to air that film theatrically in theaters, and that used to be all there was. Then television came along and the producers who own these films then can resell that content to television networks and run it ad nauseum. And it took several years but finally the union said hey, wait, this is you're making more money off of, because you're reselling content that didn't exist when we initially had our contracts. It's time to we rethink how this all works. And through a strike and some very impressive celebrity leadership at the time they including Ronald Reagan and Tony Curtis they came to an agreement and there was a residual structure that now was in place and that held up through network television.
Speaker 3:Now we've got this thing that the label is. What is it called? It's called the term for other than television. It's called electronic media. What is it? There's another term. I should know this and I do, but I'm 62 almost and I'm allowed to forget everything.
Speaker 2:Well, is this kind of getting into the pivot from theatrical release and television network television to streaming, where there's content being produced and placed out there?
Speaker 3:Right, and for the last since streaming has been out there, it's what it's called something, something content. Anyway, they, they're, they said look, we're only going to pay a minimal amount right now to figure out what, what actually this beast is. And and the laborers, the directors, the writers, the, all the stagehands, all the actors, everyone yeah, that's fair to we figure out what it is. It's more than 10 years and all the streaming manufacturers Netflix, disney, plus they're making a lot of money in subscriber sales and now they have tangible ways of tracking what's being seen, who's seeing it, that sort of thing and yet they're not disclosing what that information is. They don't want to say, oh, here's how we know. Because what now?
Speaker 3:What the directors and the actors want is now that you're, we know what the beast is and you're going to make x billion dollars a year, we're asking for a very, very, very, very small percentage of profits, the same, even less actually, than the ratio that's happening currently with the existing residual structure for television and for film. So it's, but they, we just want a piece of the action now and the, the, the streaming creators, owners, they don't want to share. That's basically it In terms of dollars.
Speaker 2:Look, I thought that was curious because I was doing some reading and preparation for this. And take a writer, for example, that a show would get picked up for a season, they would write 22 episode. They knew they had an income stream. They knew that if the show went into syndication that they got a residual. And now they contracted to do something that's streaming. They, number one don't know how long they're going to work because they don't know how many episodes are going to be. Number two there isn't a clear path to residuals because ha ha, fooled you that now, since we're not sending it out on network TV, you don't get any part of that streaming revenue where you know wait a minute you know there's something I might want to binge. That was made 10 years ago and the crew, the actors, never got a chance to benefit from my subscription, if I'm understanding that.
Speaker 3:That that's a very accurate assessment, that the and what's frustrating is if you're a, if you subscribe to variety magazine or entertainment weeklies or monthlies, there's actually ratings for the top viewed streaming entertainment content and they can calculate in minutes, minutes of viewing time. So, like suits, and there's a couple even what's on the top 10, I just recently saw. But there, there there are, there is, there are calculations where they go, where the people who own the content know that there are there's 8.7 million minutes of eyes on this show, any given block of time, and so the, the ability to track usage and what one of the other sticking points is there. The, the unions are and we understand that you're you're a subscriber base. It's not like network television where a hot show, they can sell their commercial time for X amount of dollars and really hot shows are getting more money per 30 seconds on a TV show than you know than others. In streaming with subscriber base, everybody pays 15 bucks and they have the right to watch whatever they want. But the content providers are able to track that activity and they don't want to devolve that because the actors are going.
Speaker 3:We don't want more money for things that are tanking If people aren't watching it. Of course there's no, there's no. But but for the shows that are doing well, there should be a small pool of your profit from that period of time, and it gets divvied out based on which shows are outperforming the others. And and that's basically the same thing that happens with, you know, or happened with television, which is fate. Network TV is, you know, phasing out that. The other scary thing is there won't be network broadcasting as we know it. It's all going to be streaming content and unless we figure out a way to fairly spread the wealth, it's going to run away from the, the labor class. And that that's the scary part, and that's just the finance. That's not technology yet, which we haven't even touched on.
Speaker 2:Well, one of the things that I think has come up with this is that you know, why should the average person in Wayne West Land, michigan, care about this strike? And you know, look the Hollywood glamour and you know you get recognized places because of the productions that you've been in. And in a better day we can talk about some of the wonderful stuff you've done recently. And you know the perception of your average person is that everybody's. You know, living in bell air with a swimming pool and a rose in the driveway and a small well room dog next to them. I think that's kind of got all the pieces in there and you know they're wondering well, why should I care about what's going on between the haves and the haves in Hollywood?
Speaker 3:Because it's not haves and haves. It's less than 10% of the I can speak from the acting pool, just guesstimates. It's over 80% of the 160,000 actors who are a member of SAG-AFTRA can't make enough money a year to pay their health insurance. They can't make their $20, some thousand dollar minimum to have health insurance. They don't make enough money in a year. That's the majority of the membership. That's who we all I mean I, I, I, gratefully I'm 62. I paid my dues on Broadway.
Speaker 3:Another interesting example that I thought of was even in a Broadway show my last two Broadway shows you don't make any money for the first six months of your commitment. You agree to sign on at a really low rate so that the show's affordable and they can get it on its feet, and then it's not till, if you stick around for a year, that your salary starts to increase incrementally. That I and I'm saying this very simply I didn't save any money the first six months. I only was able to pay for my costs expenses with a, with a family with two children and still paying for my house in Los Angeles while I was living in New York doing the show. It was six months in before I actually was putting money in savings and, and if the show had closed, I would have invested that time creatively on that show and it would have only covered. I wouldn't have had anything to show for it, I'd start back at Ground Zero. So that's even a part of the system, even in theater.
Speaker 3:And that was the show that ultimately, gratefully, I won the Tony Orford. This is Billy Elliott and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The last two shows it's a you as an artist. You go all right, I'll, I'll take a risk with you because it is a risk, but once, once things start paying off, everybody deserves their fair share. It's just understood. It's how things have been done. It's it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 2:I looked at some of the things you sent me about where things stand in the negotiation and the incredible amount of detail, from hairdressers to someone that comes on site, on location, I think, if I'm using the right term, and they're both a stand in and a double whether a dancer sinks, lip, syncs, songs or not, how they should be paid. I, frankly, was astonished with on the studio side of it or the producer side of it, just things that just seemed eminently reasonable and the answer was rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected. And I'm wondering is this a lot different than, like the strike in 07? Now you were just getting going back in 07, or you were. You were well into career by that time.
Speaker 3:In 07, I was gratefully doing a Broadway show or finishing up Actually, no, no, actually I was between shows and I was here in LA, but literally no income and with two children to feed and a mortgage and a you know, a car to make payments on. And there was no work in Los Angeles and I literally had to go. After gratefully enjoying the year and a half I did Dirty, rotten Scoundrels in New York but saying my wife and I, lying awake at night couldn't sleep because we're worrying about finance and I'm going I may have to put my hand in the ring for a, for another Broadway show, because theater is under a different union, so I can work as a stage actor, just just to make you know, ends meet. And so it did. It did have an effect, but I can remember that I was grateful that I was, but when exactly? I know I'm not remember. I'm not personally hanging on to a hardship other than I forgot that there was a strike going on in 2007 that really made it.
Speaker 2:When I observe this strike and look, being a Detroit guy, we've seen strikes right. They come and go and we generally know where the battle lines are being drawn. So, using the car industry as a great example, of course you know I'm sitting here in the cradle of organized labor and the car companies needed the labor because they couldn't put out a product no product, no revenue, no revenue, no profit, no profit, no shareholder growth and so forth. And I'm wondering, in the situation that exists today in Los Angeles and Hollywood, is part of the reluctance on the part of the studios to settle or to negotiate better, just because there's so much content out there, that there's lots of data that says there's just too much being produced, that there's not enough people to watch all the stuff that's coming out? And are they kind of saying that we're sitting on enough content? We're going to choke the union?
Speaker 3:Well, that, oh, that's definitely one of their considerations and the reality is, you know, the streaming they throw. They also threw so much money like bidding wars on content. Everybody just wanted to. They all wanted everything so they could have stuff for their subscribers and actually a lot of stuff. Just, you know, a lot of money got wasted in that process. But, yeah, right now they're sitting, horrible as it is.
Speaker 3:In addition to the one film that's doing very well, I worked on two other independent features last summer and I'm thinking, and I've been having dialogue with the producers, I've been this is your time, this is actually. This is like ideal and it is they've. One of the films has already been snatched up for distribution because you know the streamers are looking for, because no one else is producing stuff. It was like you know, I may end up, not you know, my TV gig may be done If the strike goes long enough and I'll be, I'll be unemployed, but at least that movie that I made in, you know, last summer we'll have, we'll have a life, because right now there's a need for that content.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because of the strike, we're not at liberty to say anything about the show, the movie that's out there, but you've got a box office hit out there that I think going to be looked at as a pivotal work of the era and I'm under a non strike situation. The producers would want you on the talk shows and the entertainment shows and being interviewed about the picture and about your role in the picture and about working on the 30 other major stars who are much bigger than I am.
Speaker 3:But yeah, all of that is it doesn't exist, because that will. The talk shows are done. No writers, no talk shows, and and they were about to premiere in in New York and then the actors had to actually pushed the premiere up an hour so they could at least do their red carpet, and then they were done and none of us. It's. It's really strange, you really feel, because you know, I'm an actor, I love talking about myself. That's why I was so intimidated to say, oh my gosh, I have to really think about smart things today, like I have to really understand this big economic issue.
Speaker 2:You got to dig back to that physics background and I'm thinking you know you'd be a good host on jeopardy. Except that that's not being shown anymore because of the strike. I am the Alec, who's a wonderful host. I just love it because she's so smart and so nice, a qualified scientist in her own right. She's like hey, I'm not going to the strikes over, but you'd be a good pair with her.
Speaker 3:You guys are both smart and you know well known actor Thank you, I play smart, well, you play smart, I play smart we don't we all try that great?
Speaker 2:Okay, we all try. Remember, I came from the same roots as you did and ended up with a very successful company and making meetings in Wall Street. They never knew that I had never gone to the Ivy League. Maybe my accent gave me away and stuff, but I I learned to moderate my speech and all like you're saying you're a good actor yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a lot of its theater. You know a lot of it is theater and your story telling and backed up with a lot of numbers. But a lot of times we'd get 20 minutes from what's the market, what's the competition, what's your edge, what are your finances. And then you got the hooks and you were done and that was supposed to sell stock for you, which I think we did.
Speaker 3:A Love average job this, what you don't know, we didn't discuss. I'm in the closet right now and this is where actually you're in a physical closet right now.
Speaker 3:This is dry cleaning plastic right here. This is where actors really do all their work, because I will self tape self. Self tape means either recording for voiceover work or I put a green screen behind me or this blue screen and I work in the bedroom when the no one's in the house and put myself I audition myself. Now it's been a product since COVID. It existed pre COVID, but with COVID and and and right now also, the producers are saving ridiculous amounts of money by not having to pay for a brick-and-mortar location to hold casting sessions, because everybody now puts themself on tape.
Speaker 3:But this is the all I always say. A good actor knows how to audition and sell himself and do it in the Literally the three minutes that they have the attention span for to decide whether you're the guy and that's. Uh, that's really what actors do. I'm not the actor who you know gets the phone call and they say you know, hey, we got a big, you know studio picture role for you. That that the picture that will not be mentioned was a job which was a byproduct of of me putting myself on tape.
Speaker 2:So there's like a strata of actors that they like I'm just going to make up a one name, like a tom cruiser, a george cloney or someone like that. They get a call and say we want you for this picture. Those guys don't have to audition.
Speaker 3:They guarantee seats, butts in the seats. They are a moneymaker, that's that's what they do. And also you can google and look the majority, a vast majority of those top percenters, are donating millions of dollars to the support fund right now to help cover the costs for all the you know below the line people who are struggling because of this strike. They've all like dozens of million dollar donors, uh, for the cause. So it's. It's not like you know. They're even just sitting back and going oh, this isn't my problem, they're, they're also. I can remember a year I mean 20 000 dollars After making more as a stage actor and doing commercials. And my agent said in new york I was in new york, he goes. You know, there are families with six people living in a tenement apartment in new york city who get by on 20 000 dollars a year. And I wasn't complaining, I just went wow, this was a that's a slow year. Thank goodness for waiting jobs and catering jobs, but it's, that's that's who the strike is for.
Speaker 2:I know there was a rally recently downtown los angeles teamsters and the Hotel workers were supporting the ups drivers around strike and that the writer's guild showed up to support yes and screen actors go too. Oh, did they? Okay, great, and I have my theory about why they wanted to support. What's your cut on this? Why that level of support? Why would they care.
Speaker 3:Well, because we all know that the biggest problem is the. The big companies don't want to Give way, they don't want to share any profits, they don't have to. So and it's also right, isn't that what it's? So you need to, you need solidarity, you need, you need all the rest of the community. You're. Hopefully you can put eyes on it. I got texts today From people I know who are fans, who are going. Hey, is the strike still on? And I'm thinking oh.
Speaker 3:You know, for for actors, you know it's like that's not a good thing.
Speaker 2:We, you know the world needs to know that this is still an ongoing issue and it's going to probably Continue for six months easily before we get in talking about how this might get resolved, here's the parallel I see if you're a ups driver, the greatest threat to your livelihood Is a self-driving truck, and it's coming. And if you're in the entertainment industry, the technology that's coming is AI artificial intelligence. And why? Why is AI such an important factor today in these negotiations? I know that is a real pivotal point.
Speaker 3:Well, it's, it already exists and, and, um, there are, there are still there.
Speaker 3:There were, until the strike opportunities for you could, um, an agent could submit an actor to be scanned and, like they said, we're going to hire you, we're going to pay you a thousand bucks and then, and we're going to have you do all these different behaviors and then you sign off and we get to take that and archive it and use it for creating artificial. You know characters and the problem is that you know that it's a one-time deal, there's no, and they're going to own you and your likeness and whatever it is you do. And right now you know there's there's nothing stopping. I suppose there's nothing stopping the, the studios, from just scanning content of work that they already own. You know, I mean, we're going to go, we're just going to have our computers look at these films. These are great performances. We'd like something like this and that can't happen because it's it's it's somebody's work that's now being Repurposed, remarketed for this, for something that's going to make that actor obsolete. So just out of survival great.
Speaker 2:Think about obsolete. Think about this why would you need a meryl street, a marlin brando, when you can just create them at whatever age you need them to be? You could just make tomorrow's movie stars, because look, if the artificial intelligence is coming to writing, it's coming into set design, it's coming into the camera moves. Why not just create the stars? And here's the big thing. Well, the audience in that future even care. Will it be normalized, will it be Accepted or maybe even preferred? And there goes. One of the most human things we can do is impart stories through acting. Am I over? It was weird for me to ask a question of an actor. Am I being overly dramatic about what that technology change could mean?
Speaker 3:No, and what you put so eloquently is it's we. We don't yet know whether humanity will go. Oh, this is fine, this is, I'm being entertained and it works, so this is good enough. Or how do we campaign to show how vitally important it is that the living, breathing storyteller is the key to leaning forward in your seat as an audience member? So Christopher Nolan doesn't use digital. He doesn't do any CGI because he believes that when you see digital imaging, you already know that it's not real, like some part of the viewer knows that it's digital. It's not that they haven't figured out how to make it so realistic and so things are safe. And he likes keeping everything, he likes to create things analog on film because he believes it has a more visceral impact on the viewer.
Speaker 3:I'm wondering, eventually, will the technology get so good? And that is the fear, and of course it's like. But when we go back, you were asking about that like UAW when automation came into play, isn't the question? So, as the manufacturer, we actually save money with a robot, and does the quality of the product not suffer, right? Are you getting the same quality with automation that you would have gotten with a human being? And if that the answer is yes, then it makes sense to start automating and it's like but, as a person who depended on that livelihood, they're going. This is what I do. How can you just erase me for a problem? And that's what we're facing? I mean, that's what we're facing.
Speaker 2:Indeed. And if someone might say, well, we're always going to have the stage, but then I wonder, will people be as entertained going to see a live show? Just, you know, my passion for the Purple Rose Theater is because I think life theater is really important. We need to develop writers and artists and actors and people that do set design and learn how to direct and tell stories with real people. But if the Purple Rose Theater ticket is $35ish which is a bargain, by the way, you don't have to pay to park in Chelsea quick plug there, but you can go to a movie theater and watch a full-length feature film for $11. And it's all CGI and all artificial intelligence, and as it gets better and better, it'll be hard to tell the difference between a real analog shot and that artificially created. Will people still crave that real experience?
Speaker 3:I don't know. But the other thing is it's also gonna stop going to the theater. Everybody's gonna be doing it in their own house. You know no one. People are binging now in their underwear, you know, in their bed. Nobody's. People aren't going to the theater for even for film anymore, because they're becoming. Covid taught everyone that they can stay at home, and that's another huge concern.
Speaker 2:And I think another part of that phenomena and I've only I've been seeing it on the few times that I do go to the theater for a movie but also that are people that are streaming TikTok while in the theater. It seems to be kind of defeating the purpose, oh yeah, of going to the theater.
Speaker 3:Right, or people are. You know there used to be a time it's back to actors protecting their livelihood, before cameras were on phones. If I was in a Broadway show and you saw a little red light in the audience, there were a dozen ushers that that sicked on that individual and confiscated that video camera because actors are not being compensated and there's a whole black market for Broadway shows that are on VHS or beta. And that was back, you know, in the 80s and you know when was that? 70s, 80s, 80s and? But now you know everybody, anybody can videotape. You know if we can make a movie with their phone and you go to any live event anymore and everyone's doing this, from a sporting event to a concert to theater, everyone's got their. I had. I have friends sending me stills of me in the movie theater this summer and I'm like going, who are you taking? What are you taking? What's happening? People don't. People are forgetting how to just that. There's value in just owning that experience for yourself. Why?
Speaker 2:You know it's like that's that's scary to me and, just like most weddings now, they say hey, we've got a photographer and a videographer, put your phone down, and everybody but one or two people Aunt Nancy or Uncle Billy just don't do it because they have to have it on their phone. But, greg, as far as this strike goes, two questions because they may have the same answer. And one is when do people start really noticing that this strike has gone on and are the issues resolvable?
Speaker 3:I think it's going to end up being a PR issue because even our leadership did not say cancel your streaming subscriptions, because one of the thoughts is you need millions of people to cancel the subscription for it to hit. You know the companies in the pocketbook. You know 10,000 people aren't going to make a difference and several of the companies, interestingly, we're showing losses. This second quarter I think it's going to back to. It has to be what's right and what's fair and, unfortunately, what's profitable is leading these because I can.
Speaker 3:Even with my TV job when Les Muneves was still head of CBS and all of his officers down the road at CBS, they all came from creative places, they all came up through the ranks, they were all artists on some level and found their place in, you know, the higher upper echelons and they but they all have a love and a passion for the artist and as the source material and what an artist does, because that was their life and they understand that.
Speaker 3:And these big corporations now that are running all the entertainment stuff it's even at CBS, it's being counters now the artistic soul is dying and if it's not profitable it makes no sense to us and I'm kind of grateful where I am in my career because when the TV film thing starts to, if it all does, implode, I can possibly go back to the stage as something, but I'm also 62. And you know, it's like kindness doesn't play a card anymore. Doing the right thing is gone. You know, fairness, there's a stat that shows you know 0.00 some percent of each individual company's profits is what's being asked for in their billions of dollars profit each year and they're just not willing to start giving that up.
Speaker 2:Another parallel with the auto industry. It used to be. There were car guys. Car guys populated every executive corner and then, really, starting with Chrysler and I won't name the fellow that was the finance guy they started looking at everything through a financial lens and the cars became crap. Nobody got excited about them. It's the same type of slippery slope that potentially we could get on here in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 3:And it will, it will, it's happening. It's just you know, insidious and slow and terrifying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and look, a lot of streaming companies are losing money and, as an investor, you know I keep an eye on that and there's some that I've invested in, some that I've gotten in, gotten out of there will be a shakeout. They're not all going to survive. It comes down to I'll be the financial nerd for a moment a thing called an addressable market. How big is the addressable market? You know so. How much content can your average household consume, multiplied by how many households are our worldwide? There's your addressable market. And then how much market share can you capture for that?
Speaker 2:And the numbers clearly show some are going to make it and some are not going to make it. But that doesn't mean that the individual properties, the movies and the television programs and the like, aren't going to be profitable in their own right, in the aggregate that a particular producer, even one that's completely vertically integrated. They may not make it as an enterprise, but some of their products are actually gonna be pretty darn good properties. Right, you'll see libraries of content being sold more, even more so than we've seen today. Sure, it's on its way. It's happened, it happens in every other industry and it'll come down to three or four powerhouses, like it does in every other industry, and then it'll be supplanted by some new technology that the existing people will try to stifle and they will enlist the government try to keep other competitors out and as long as we don't complete our march towards censorship will probably be okay and figure out a way around that.
Speaker 3:I love your optimism and I like to believe the same. It just can be brutal.
Speaker 2:Greg, this has been a great conversation. Are there any thoughts that you want to leave with the listeners, the viewers and the readers of the common bridge?
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, you know I always worry that people just kind of look at headlines, that humanity doesn't yet know how to deal with information as quickly as it comes. So I would encourage, for anyone who wants to know why they should care about the strikes that are going on is that it's really easy because I'm not into big words myself To go ahead and click something and take the two and a half to five minutes to read something to better understand what the issues are, as opposed to just looking at the headlines and going you know the have all are whining again, because it's really not about that. It's a, it's a universal Issue that we all deal with on some level and nobody wants to be their livelihood, their craft, their, the way they sustain their family. No one wants to be eliminated and it's about survival and kindness and fairness. So so take the time to read the articles. You'll be grateful that you did, because you'll have a better understanding and a bit more empathy, I think.
Speaker 2:I concur in film, theater, television program. It's part of our culture, defines who we are. It lets us discuss things and I'm, course, a hearty endorser of getting beyond the headlines. Also, this program is about and with our guest star of stage, film and television, greg Jabara. This is your host. Rich help signing off on the common bridge.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us on the common bridge. Subscribe to the common bridge on substack dot com or use their substack app, where you can find more interviews, columns, videos and nonpartisan discussions of the day. Just search for the common bridge. You can also find the common bridge on mission control radio on your radio garden app.