(Strike Photos)
NEW YORK -- Warner Bros. Television Group president Bruce Rosenblum started his keynote speech here Friday at the Future of TV conference in lower Manhattan by saying he'd been planning to tell a joke about a priest, a rabbi and a television executive.
“Unfortunately our writers went on strike before they could write a punchline,” he said.
Later, Rosenblum gave a more serious take on the situation when asked about the strike: "I don’t think anybody in the television industry is happy about it. It impacts a lot of innocent people, who aren’t a part of the dispute."
Continued Rosenblum: "You’ll see a lot of assistants laid off. We’re hopeful it will be resolved very quickly."
He said the studio for the time being will continue to produce episodes for the scripts it has in house, adding, "I’ve never seen as much reality being geared up as I have in the last few weeks."
For the 2007-08 season, the Warner Bros. Television Group is supplying more than 30 series to broadcast and cable networks, including Nip/Tuck, The Closer, Chuck, ER, Cold Case, Without a Trace and Two and a Half Men.
