Negotiators for the WGA have unanimously recommended the Writer’s Guild of America accept the latest proposal worked out via informal discussions between the entertainment writers’ union and Hollywood producers represented by the AMPTP. A general membership meeting to inform writers of the details of the deal was held Saturday, and on Sunday union leaders held a press conference recommending the Guild accept the deal and calling for a full membership vote and a quick end to the strike, now entering its fourth month.

Details of the deal proposed for acceptance are now starting to emerge and while it’s not every single thing the writers wanted, it is quite similar to the deal accepted by the Directors Guild of America in negotiations with the AMPTP a few weeks ago. While the full membership vote will take two or three weeks to complete, it is expected that writers will return to work sometime early this week, potentially as soon as Wednesday.

“This is the best deal this guild has bargained for in 30 years,” said Patric Verrone, leader of the WGA’s West Coast branch. “If they (producers) get paid, we get paid. This contract makes that a reality.”

The tentative contract secures writers a share of the burgeoning digital-media market, Verrone said during the press confernece, including compensation for Internet-delivered TV shows and movies. In fact, in that respect, the WGA deal is an improvement of the DGA deal. The DGA deal calls for directors to get paid a flat fee on Internet broadcasts for all three years of the agreement. The WGA deal potentially improves on that by accepting a flat fee for the first two years of the agreement, but allowing for a percentage payment to be made in the third year of the deal.

Like the DGA’s labor agreement, the WGA’s pact would run for three years, guaranteeing labor peace until only the 2010-2011 season. However, since this was the WGA’s first strike in 20 years, it is hoped that future contracts will build off the gains made in this deal, and future contracts can be negotiated without a production-halting strike.

Before any Hollywood analysts start booting up the budget software to amortize the cost of the strike, however, it should be pointed out that the Screen Actors Guild also have a labor agreement expiring in June and they have not even sat down with the AMPTP yet; if negotiations go south and SAG goes on strike, too, Hollywood labor peace could be short-lived.

What some are hoping will become the last major picket line of the strike – though that’s far from certain at this point – has the WGA targeting Disney/ABC on Thursday. But I wouldn’t invest in the marketing pens just yet.

While strike weariness is setting in on several fronts, the simple facts are that no one really knows what the draft proposal between the WGA and AMPTP contains just yet. So the Fox president can tell Super Bowl pals the strike’s over all he wants, but no one hoping for more episodes of House this year should get their hopes up just yet.

The picket line at Disney/ABC is a major event, and if it becomes the “last gasp” of the strike, I’m sure everyone will be happy about it. But until a deal is actually reached and writers start, well… writing again… it’s a bit premature.

Ease yourself into your home theater chairs before reading this, but TV Guide.com is reporting there is a possibility – just a slim one at the moment – that the WGA Writer’s Strike could end this week. According to the site’s Ask Ausiello, at least two sources have said a deal is in place and could be announced as early as Thursday, while another source is pooh-poohing that idea.

Let’s hope two sources outweigh one; however, if a deal is reached soon and production resumes, networks may place only their top-rated shows back into full production, while allowing others (such as the much-loved-by-me-personally Pushing Daisies) to put off a return to air until next fall, giving the crew time to stockpile scripts and episodes well in advance.

Of course, the X-factor in all this is the Screen Actors Guild; their deal expires in June and SAG has been waiting for the WGA and DGA to settle first before beginning their own negotiations with AMPTP. If the writers settle, SAG could use the WGA and DGA contracts as a template to a quickly-resolved extension and no strike; however, there is still the possibility that actors could either join unsettled writers on the picket line, or create one of their own if they don’t like the DGA and WGA deals, which could potentially send Hollywood into another tailspin/work stoppage this summer.

Only time will tell the tale.

TV Guide.com is predicting, based on talks on strike lines with striking writers, that the WGA Strike could be over in time for the Oscars, which are scheduled to air on February 24. That’s about four weeks away.

While a bold prediction, there is evidence both in favor of, and against, such a resolution, so no one should start ordering the imprinted promotional products for the Oscars just yet. In favor of an impending resolution are many bits of evidence. Individual studios keep striking transitional agreements with writers, to get them back to work early, every day; last week, Marvel, Lionsgate and RKO became the latest to announce individual agreements.

Also, the WGA-AMPTP negotiations, which resumed last week, are still on with no new breakdowns to muddle up the works. Technically, the atmosphere is ripe for a settlement and a tentative labor agreement could be reached any day, though it would take about a week after such an announcement for the WGA to put any such agreement to a membership vote and collect the results.

So here’s the real schedule: the Oscars would need to see a green light from the WGA no later than a week in advance. That pushes the deadline out to February 17. But that would have to be the day the membership of the WGA votes in favor of an agreement, since announcing a tentative settlement wouldn’t end the strike. So that means the latest a tentative agreement can be reached for the strike to end and the Oscars to go forward would be February 10, just under two weeks from now.

At least one writer interviewed on the picket line by TV Guide has admitted that if the strike remains unsettled to the point that the Oscars must be sidelined in the way the Golden Globes were, it would almost guarantee that the strike could drag on well into summer, perhaps as long as another year.

Scary thought. Let’s hope they work out a tentative agreement soon!

An old friend has returned to television, still as tone-deaf as ever. That’s right, American Idol is back on the air and since it’s a reality show that doesn’t use writers, we can at least look forward to a full season of that!

Even in a fully programmed season, American Idol is a ratings winner. Everyone watches it. The music industry watches; Hollywood watches; I’m sure folks like Gene Simmons, Billy Joel and Elton John watches; I’ll bet event George W. Bush and Nancy Pelosi watches; and you can bet Raymond Weil watches.

With so many favorite shows ending so soon, it’s nice to have a full season of a show like Idol to look forward to.

The WGA is trying to strike individual deals with studios since Hollywood producers aren’t willing to come to the table and negotiate; now studios are striking back by canceling contracts with a large number of writer-producers who are no longer producing any writing. The writer’s strike is getting ugly, especially in light of the fact that the Director’s Guild of America only needed five days at the negotiating table to strike a deal with producers.

Perhaps the problem is that writers and studios/producers need to rediscover why they loved each other in the first place. What we need is a revival of the old Love Boat series, allowing the WGA and Hollywood power brokers to rekindle that old spark. Failing the real Love Boat, perhaps a series of Carnival Cruises would do.

The 2007-08 WGA writer’s strike has officially become a migraine-inducing problem. While both the producers and the writers are part of the problem, the main losers in the whole fracas has expanded from production and tech crew and is now affecting audiences.

Sure, the networks are scrambling to pull together enough reality shows and short-run seasons of shows yet to debut to fool everyone into thinking things are OK for another couple months, but that won’t last much beyond January or February. After that, an awful lot of people are either going to be addicted to things like Iron Chef America and Mythbusters, or they’re gonna be up in arms and ready to tongue-lash both writers and producers.

Truth is, whenever this is settled, it won’t be much different than what the writers are asking for right now; so why not stop the posturing, sign a deal, and be done with it now? The rest of America will be considerably less grumpy in the coming months in the bargain.

Right between movies and TV stands the new electronic media market, from cell phones to wireless devices to PCs and MP3 players, including iPods. All of them have made decent splashes as new markets for TV shows, movies and other entertainment content to be displayed and sold to the public.

Now, I’ve never understood the appeal of paying Apple $1.99 per episode of The Office when you can watch it for free on an HDTV screen in much larger size and far superior 1080p resolution, but to each their own; the point is, there’s money to be made there and the big networks are already raking it in.

That’s what makes Hollywood producers’ arguments ring a bit hallow when they claim that new media is largely untested and they don’t want to set a share for the writers until the revenue numbers clear up a bit. Considering such additional royalties would be paid on a percentage basis, I just don’t see where it can’t be determined.

After all, whether the figure is four percent, six percent or some other percentage, it’s not a hard-and-fast dollar figure; just like producers, writers would only be getting a slice of whatever revenue pie exists, not a slice of sales that haven’t been made quite yet.

The producers need to get serious and start offering writers a real stake in the future of the entertainment industry, before a large portion of the audience decides to stay away even after the strike is over.

Perhaps one way to solve the differences between Hollywood producers and WGA writers is to put them all into a better mood; maybe the best way to do this would be a change of scenery. I’d like to suggest setting both sides up in hotels in Las Vegas; negotiate by day, do the nightlife by night.

They always say that whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? Well, maybe that mentality could lead to both sides giving in a little until they meet somewhere in the middle and get a deal done.

In the meantime, networks are laying off hundreds of staffers each time they shut down a show, and all of these innocent tech crew workers are finding themselves unemployed and without any guarantee of getting their jobs back when the strike is over. Those are the real victims of this WGA-Hollywood Producers conflict.

The talent drain could leave a lot of shows worse off for the experience once a settlement is reached and everyone does go back to work.

Late last week, the WGA walked away from strike negotiations with Hollywood TV and film producers after the WGA noted what they felt was a lack of serious effort to reach a resolution.

In addition to the financial considerations previously made public, it appears writers and producers are still far apart on several other “below the surface” issues. This includes the WGA wanting control over reality-programming scriptwriters, which would prevent networks from turning to “unscripted” reality shows in future strikes, in order to fill programming schedules. The also asked for the same sort of control over animated programming. This could prove a tough hurdle for both sides, as the WGA has clear interest in gaining control over these types of programming, while producers seem unlikely to make such concessions as it would make any future strikes much tougher on the industry.

With these issues and more creating ripples between the two sides, it’s not likely that writers and producers will be exchanging diamond rings and walking down the “new labor agreement” aisle any time soon. Get ready for a longer, dragged out conflict before both sides work this one, folks; and get ready for tons of reality programming, game shows and, yes, reruns.

One of the benefits of the 2007 WGA Writers Strike is that some shows that may have had the cancellation axe fall on them prematurely have at least had more of a chance to find an audience. However, such opportunities don’t always reap the expected benefits of series survival.

Witness NBC’s fascinating SciFi Lite drama, Journeyman. Part newspaper drama, part Quantum Leap, the show chronicles the family-disrupting adventures of Dan, a San Francisco report, who suddenly finds himself leaping backward in time to help out people in crisis.

The NBC drama found its niche and a unique identity apart from its Quantum Leap-style premise by closely tying time-traveler Dan’s personal life in the present with the lives of those he helps out in the past, an element that Quantum Leap never utilized.

Now, word has come down from on high that NBC will burn off the final two episodes of the network’s initial 13-episode commitment during the week of December 17, with the 12th episode airing on its traditional Monday timeslot, and the 13th episode airing two nights later, on Wednesday.

It marks what looks like an ignominious end to a promising drama that, personally, I’ve enjoyed since its debut as a satisfying capper to Chuck and Heroes. Although a sharp upswing in ratings could still spur the network to order the “back nine” episodes of Journeyman, such an 11th-hour save appears, at this point, unlikely.

As a writer, I can only imagine the creative frustration this must lead to behind the scenes; story elements have been introduced that clearly indicate a long-range plan by the series creators for the direction of these characters; now, it appears many of those tales will never be told. The makeup mirrors have gone dark and it appears the show is a wash.

The writer’s strike appears not to be an influence in the network’s decision; both Chuck and another freshman NBC drama, Life, received full-season orders last week.

Currently, I’m not making enough from my writing career to browse ads for condos for sale with any realistic expectation that I could ever afford one. So if anyone wants to see the 2007 WGA strike end successfully for writers, it’s me.

However, like so many strikes these days, it seems the unions that kick up the most dust are also those whose employees enjoy some of the better-paying careers in America. Pro athletes, actors, writers and the like all have unions decrying the plight of millionaires who want to be billionaires. It’s hardly the “blue-collar” scam that unions started out being.

Sure, you have to land on your feet amidst a sea of aspiring talent to really call yourself a working writer, but once you’re in that elite academy, it’s not a bad gig if you can get it. Most staff writers on the average scripted drama or sitcom brings home a salary in the low six figures. Get “producer” added to the job title and it can close in on at least a cool $250,000, even for a neophyte with writes tripe, but at least it’s five-act-structure tripe.

Find some success and land your own show where you’re executive producer and, bang, you’re in for a lot more than that thanks to lucrative network/producer agreements.

That’s why it’s heartening to see producers with writer roots, like 30 Rock’s Tina Fey, joining the picket lines. Sure, if the strike resolution favors better terms for writers, she’ll be among the first to benefit, but at least she hasn’t forgotten her writer beginnings.

With my various reviews, blogging and other writing projects, I probably make a tenth of one percent of what an executive producer makes for plotting out a 22-episode season, writing a couple scripts and letting other writers do the rest of the real writing work. It’s good money for now, but it’s too bad the WGA overlooks the real money-poor writing careers in favor of Hollywood screenwriters, TV writers and news writers. There are some blue collar bloggers out here who wouldn’t mind a big, huge raise… but we can’t afford the luxury of a strike, nor is WGA remotely interested in us.

Oh well.