The strike has put my friend Javi in a tough situation.  He was in the midst of producing his pilot THE MIDDLEMAN, a dream-come-true for him, when the strike was called. Now he is in a moral quandry:

i can’t be legally penalized by the guild for doing my duties as a
producer: but the guild would certainly prefer it if the walkout was
complete – if people like myself struck not only as writers but also as
producers…because if the paralyzing effect of the strike is felt
swiftly and across the board, the producers might be more motivated to
settle quickly.

so here i am, given the opportunity to see
through to completion the production of a nine year-old dream into a
pilot…a dream i self-financed as a comic book, seen through to three
volumes and fought to get to this place, into a reality…

…and
on the other hand, there’s a labor union of which i am a member,
mounting picket lines i am required to honor, running a justified
strike against a predatory media cabal that has no qualms about taking
from creators as much as they can possibly get (while laughably
pleading poverty when their entire raison d’etre is to monetize the
work of people such as myself) asking me to walk away completely.

I wouldn’t want to be in his position. It seems like an awfully cruel twist-of-fate for him.

A YouTube video compiles interviews with Rupert Murdoch, Bob Iger, Sumner Redstone, Les Moonves and others crowing about the huge profits they have already made — and WILL make — from TV shows streamed on the Internet, iTunes, etc. (Thanks to Craig Mazin for the heads-up!)

Back when the WGA struck in 1988, I was a starry-eyed newcomer in television, fresh off having my first couple of freelance scripts produced. Walking the picket line each day was a chance to meet my TV writer idols and enjoy a master class in TV writing.

Nearly twenty years later, I’m pleased to report that it hasn’t changed.

Today I got to CBS Radford at 5:45 am and walked the picket line with legendary writer/producer William Blinn.

We share two social connections…when he started out in TV, his writing partner was Michael Gleason, my mentor…and he produced the TV series  "Our House" with the late Ernie Wallengren, who was one of my closest friends. So I’d heard a lot about Blinn over the years from Micheal and Ernie and, of course, was well aware of his successful career in television.

The congenial Blinn and I spent the whole time talking about TV and, for three hours this morning, I was the happiest writer in Hollywood. He shared anecdotes about his early days writing for "Bonanza," "Maverick," "Gunsmoke," and "Laramie"… about writing the epic miniseries "Roots"…about writing & producing everything from "Starsky & Hutch" to little-known shows like "Lazarus Syndrome" and "Heaven Help Us"… and about working with actors like Wilford Brimley, Broderick Crawford, Michael Landon, Lee Marvin and Lou Gossett Jr.  I was almost sorry when our shift ended, though my aching feet where screaming for a rest.

As far as celeb sights go, KING OF QUEENS star Kevin James showed up on the line for about twenty minutes, bought everyone Egg McMuffins and skee-daddled, but we appreciated the support and the vittles.

I had a late breakfast and caught up with the Los Angeles Times, where I was pleasantly surprised to see a very pro-WGA column from Patrick Goldstein, who noted that:

When Tom Freston was fired from Viacom in 2006 he received $60 million
in severance pay, more than all of the DVD residuals paid to WGA
members that year.

[…]So why are studios playing such hardball? They say they can’t divvy up
online revenue until they have a better idea of how much money is
generated. Of course, when video came along, the studios persuaded
writers to take a tiny cut of the profits, so as not to kill an
emerging technology. But once they were accumulating windfall profits,
did they ever revisit that deal? Not on your life.

And yesterday, the LA Times profiled a soap opera writer living in Sacramento who stands to lose everything if the strike drags on much longer. Perhaps the print media is beginning to finally see our side of the story.

My jet lag is paying off. I was up at 4 am, wide awake, so I will be on the picket like at CBS at 6 a.m. with my daughter. I am bringing my Blackberry, so maybe I will post here from the front-lines, so-to-speak.

It has been interesting viewing the strike from across the Atlantic. For the last week, I have been keeping up on things from Munich by reading the International Herald-Tribune, USA Today, and whatever British newspapers I’ve stumbled across. The contrast between how the British press is covering the walk-out and our U.S. news media is, well, striking.

The British press, which has no pretense of objectivity, appears to be solidly behind the writers. More than one article portrayed our demands as  reasonable and the AMPTP’s reaction as greedy and bewildering.

But the U.S. press, which does pride itself on objectivity, seems to be siding with the networks and studios. Virtually article mentions how highly paid some screenwriters are, or  makes some  snide aside about strikers arriving in their BMWs and Mercedes or going from the picket lines to their Malibu beach homes. An article in the Herald Tribune even portrayed striking writers as espresso-sipping dandies wearing "arty sunglasses" and colorful scarves. It’s obvious that more than a few print journalists suffer from an inferiority complex and are  jealous of screenwriters.

On top of that, trade publications like Variety and newspapers like the Los Angeles Times depend heavily on studio and network advertising revenue, so it’s hardly a surprise that screenwriters aren’t getting a fair shake. L.A. is an industry town, and it isn’t screenwriters who are keeping the lights on at the Hollywood Reporter.

I did get a kick out of the article in Variety a week or so back, where their editors whined that the WGA refused to be baited by each and every negative comment from the AMPTP. They warned that we were going to be "swift-boated" if we didn’t respond whenever one of their so-called reporters, who don’t know how to write without being spoon-fed a press release, asked for a statement from the Guild. I’m proud that our leaders are, for the most part, taking the high road when it comes to responding to the baiting or in characterizing the state of negotiations.

What has also been interesting to me is the feedback I have been getting from German writers, producers, studio execs and network execs regarding the strike. Much to my surprise, they all seemed to be solidly behind the writers. Why was I surprised? Because writers there don’t have a guild or a union and don’t enjoy the protections, creative writers, standard pay, and other benefits that come from having a strictly-enforced, Minimum Basic Agreement. They also don’t have the  financial benefit of residuals (unless they work for the state-owned networks, where they do get some rerun money).  I kind of expected them to resent us. But even more surprising to me was the supportive comments I heard from studio execs, most of whom provide shows to the networks on a work-for-hire basis and don’t share in any of the revenues. Considering how immensely popular U.S. shows are in Europe, the execs were shocked that writers are only getting a barely measureable percentage of the windfall profits.

Me, too.

I got home last night. I will be walking the picket line tomorrow.