Ready to get back to work at Silvercup Studios

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

NEW YORK -- Among those eagerly awaiting the end of the strike is the staff at Silvercup Studios in Queens, where “30 Rock,” “Gossip Girl,” “Cashmere Mafia” and “New Amsterdam” were shooting before the labor stoppage.

“We’re anxious to have them come back and get to work,” said Alan Suna, the facility’s chief executive.

Throughout the strike, the massive studio complex sought to backfill its empty stages with commercial shoots but still had to contend with unused space.

“We’ve cleaned and painted and spruced up a variety of things that we otherwise don’t have an opportunity to do until a hiatus,” Suna said. “If they called us right now and said they’d be here in five minutes, we’d be ready for them.”

Ramping production back up will take some doing, however. Silvercup allowed the shows to keep their main sets up, but they had to break down their swing sets before they left.

“There are a lot of things they had to take apart, and sets got jumbled together,” Suna said. “They’re going to have to come in and move things around.”

The Silvercup chief said the financial toll of the strike on the studio “wasn’t pretty,” but he said he was proud that he did not lay off a single person or cut back any hours for his staff.

The industry as a whole did not fare as well, he added.

“Are we going to have a pilot season like we had last year? Absolutely not,” Suna said. “The collateral damage through the entire service industry has been enormous. It’s hard. I heard of one or two crew people who lost their homes because they couldn’t make the payments.”

-- Matea Gold