The Group Portrait: 'SNL' Goes on Strike

The issue is serious. The mood is festive.

- Matthew Schneier

ON A RECENT Wednesday, live from New York, it was the Writers Guild of America strike. Following the breakdown of contract negotiations with the major Hollywood studios and streamers, a picket line had formed outside Netflix's 888 Broadway headquarters some thousand people strong, among them writers of late-night TV, streaming sitcoms, and, in a thick clump, the writers of Saturday Night Live and their friends. These being writers, the placards and chants were a little more clever than usual. DON'T UBER WRITING, one read. DON'T PISS ON MY LEG AND TELL ME IT'S STREAMING, read another. Were Netflix execs cowed into skipping their Sweetgree