TV Talk: IATSE local votes to authorize a strike; ‘Muppets Haunted Mansion’ entertains on Disney+

On Monday, IATSE, the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees that represents behind-the-scenes workers in the entertainment industry, announced its membership overwhelmingly voted to approve a strike authorization.

Per Variety, the vote passed nationally with 98.7% support and 90 percent turnout. In Pittsburgh, studio mechanics Local 489, which has 500 members, outdid the national with 99.5% of those who cast ballots voting to authorize a strike, according to local president Mamie Stein, a set dresser currently working on Netflix’s “Rustin.”

She got the call about the local vote count Monday morning while standing at the foot of the steps to the Lincoln Memorial “where all the great protests have happened” as “Rustin” prepares to shoot scenes this week in Washington, D.C., before returning to Pittsburgh to shoot the bulk of the movie about gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. George C. Wolfe, who directed “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” for Netflix in Pittsburgh, directs “Rustin” with “Ma Rainey’s” cast member Colman Domingo as the title character. Chris Rock will portray one-time NAACP leader Roy Wilkins; Glynn Turman, who was also in “Ma Rainey’s,’ will play March on Washington co-organizer A. Philip Randolph and Audra McDonald (“The Good Fight”) portrays Ella Baker, per The Hollywood Reporter. The script for “Rustin” was written by Wolfe and Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”).

“Look at the vote count,” Stein said in a phone interview Monday evening. “We have had a very rough year.”

After a half year’s shutdown due to covid-19, production resumed in the fall of 2020 with money-and-time-consuming covid safety protocols in place.

A strike would shut down many TV shows filming nationally, as well as local production of “Rustin,” Amazon’s “A League of Their Own” and IMDb TV’s “Sprung.”

IATSE is fighting for multiple improvements in a new contract, including “humane working hours,” Stein said. “Our longest-worked people are working 16+ hours with no meal break, where they go the whole day and get a sandwich shoved in their pocket.”

Many stories of overworked crew members have been popping up on the @ia_stories Instagram page and last week website DListed.com reported one of the posts (and the responses to it) called out “A League of Their Own” star/executive producer Abbi Jacobson for posting her support of IATSE while the “League” crew is overworked with more than 17-hour days.

IATSE is also seeking longer “turnaround time,” the amount of time crew get to be away from a production.

“From the time you get in your car [to leave a production] to when you have to be back in the parking lot again, for a number of our people, it’s three hours,” Stein said. “You can’t thrive on that. It’s dangerous to us and dangerous to other people on the road.

“It’s general, across-the-board [that crew members fall asleep at the wheel and have accidents]. It’s not an abnormal thing with our people, with PAs,” Stein said (IATSE does not represent production assistants).

The strike authorization vote doesn’t mean a strike will definitely happen. It’s seen first as a tool to get the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers – which represents the studios that produce movies and TV shows – back to the bargaining table. IATSE and AMPTP leaders are expected to talk in a Zoom call Tuesday.

“The AMPTP remains committed to reaching an agreement that will keep the industry working,” the group said in a statement to Variety. “We deeply value our IATSE crew members and are committed to working with them to avoid shutting down the industry at such a pivotal time, particularly since the industry is still recovering from the economic fallout from the covid-19 pandemic. A deal can be made at the bargaining table, but it will require both parties working together in good faith with a willingness to compromise and to explore new solutions to resolve the open issues.”

Those issues are getting worse with the possibility of a strike, Stein said. “They’re putting the pedal to the metal to get productions in the can [and complete]. I’ve heard from my colleagues across the country that some are working straight through the weekend. They seem to be in a panic to get things done.”

‘Muppets Haunted Mansion’

A significant improvement over 2020’s low-budget, only occasionally funny “Muppets Now,” the one-hour, musical “Muppets Haunted Mansion,” streaming Friday on Disney+ offers cross-interest appeal to fans of the Muppets and of the Disney theme parks’ Haunted Mansion ride.

Although Muppets star Kermit the Frog appears in this new special, he’s not the focus, which is just as well since Kermit’s voice still sounds un-Kermit-like ever since Disney fired Jim Henson protégé Steve Whitmire in favor of Matt Vogel. The focus instead is on Gonzo and Pepe the King Prawn as they explore a Muppetized version of Disney’s ride complete with celebrity guest stars (the late Ed Asner, Will Arnett, Yvette Nicole Brown, Darren Criss, Taraji P. Henson, Pat Sajak).

Written with an exacting knowledge of the ride by Bill Baretta, Kelly Younger and director Kirk Thatcher, “Muppet Haunted Mansion” is the first Disney+ Muppets show to do right by the Muppets.

Kept/canceled/revived

Paramount+ ordered two additional seasons of “The Real World: Homecoming” with the first to be a reunion of the Los Angeles (1993) cast.

Disney Channel ordered a fifth season of “Raven’s Home.”

Showtime renewed “BMF” for season two.

Apple TV+ canceled “Mr. Corman” after one season.

Cable’s OWN will revive canceled CBS courtroom drama “All Rise,” ordering a 20-episode third season.

Channel surfing

Joseph Cannon, the son of Pittsburgh broadcaster Ellis Cannon, a Woodland Hills High grad and current acting major at Point Park University, guest stars on “Law Order: SVU” (9 p.m. Oct. 7, NBC) as the neighbor of an assault victim. … Digital subchannel Decades has moved to Channel 61.1 over the air with HSN now on 61.6. … Listen to the Pittsburgh Pop podcast on Trib Extra and via iTunes where Tim Benz and I talk pop culture, including the Pittsburgh angle, weekly. This week’s topics: “The Sopranos” prequel movie “The Many Saints of Newark,” Apple TV+’s “The Problem with Jon Stewart” and the advent of the five-person weather staff at WTAE-TV.