Oscar Writer Quits in Support of Strike

The creator of television’s classic “MASH” comedy series added a dramatic touch to the 12-day-old Writers Guild of America strike Friday when he capped the guild’s otherwise low-key first demonstration with the announcement that he was quitting as writer and co-producer of the upcoming Academy Awards TV show.

Larry Gelbart, best known as the executive producer and occasional writer/director of “MASH,” surprised both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and his fellow 3,000 guild members who had gathered at CBS Television City for two hours of picketing Friday morning.

“It’s just the right thing to do at this time,” said Gelbart, who had been permitted to work on the Oscar show during the strike.

“I came out to the picket line and talked to fellow members of the guild and heard from them directly how they were affected. . . . I can’t ignore that. They were saying: ‘Please don’t make an exception of yourself. We are a guild, we are a union, and don’t step outside of that.’ ”

Despite Gelbart’s action, the first two-hour demonstration by writers carrying their signs around CBS’ Fairfax District headquarters was a far cry from striking Detroit auto workers or Kentucky coal miners.

Wearing Gucci silk, cashmere pullovers, designer sweat suits, T-shirts and satin jackets, several writers bore the logos of their TV shows on their backs: “You Asked for It,” “Night Court” and “General Hospital” among them.

Some walked their terriers, sheep dogs and St. Bernards. Some pushed baby strollers. The discussions mixed strike politics with plots, pilots and Palm Springs as they meandered, two by two, in a huge clockwise circle around the square city block at Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard that is occupied by Television City.

Before Gelbart publicly disclosed his decision, his fellow writers on the picket line were both vociferous and vehement over the waiver he had obtained to write for the Oscar show.

“Where’s the Larry Gelbart Waiver Table?” asked one bitter writer. “I want to sign up.”

Gelbart had been granted the waiver by both the 7,100-member guild and the Alliance for Motion Picture and Television Producers to write and co-produce the annual Oscar presentations program. The alliance is the bargaining agent for the studios, independent producers and networks, including ABC Television, which is producing the March 25 Oscar show.

Gelbart said he hoped his decision to quit the annual awards gala would not damage its quality, but warned that only “about half” of the Oscar script was done.

Academy President Gene Allen was surprised but said he hoped Gelbart’s decision would have minimal impact. He said that the show’s producers will meet over the weekend to discuss alternatives.

“We are going to put on a good show,” Allen said. “What it takes to get there, I don’t know.”

While Gelbart stole the limelight, everyone from actor/writer/director Joe Bologna to a trench-coated Nicholas Meyer shared it during the morning’s much-televised picketing.

Oscar-winning screenwriters were able to pause at 11:30 a.m. for a quick photo opportunity. Waldo (“Midnight Cowboy”) Salt, Frank (“Dog Day Afternoon”) Pierson, Frank (“Father Goose”) Tarloff, Julius (“Casablanca”) Epstein, I.A.L. (“The Apartment”) Diamond and Sidney (“The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer”) Sheldon all set their picket signs aside while the flashbulbs captured their group portrait.

Other guild members manned the line in modified spartan style.

“We had to vow not to whine,” said a staff writer for Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

“When is this going to be over ?” whined her companion. “I’m hungry !”

For two hours they marched, pausing briefly to do stand-up interviews with one of the dozen television news crews.

A trio of enterprising strikers set up a makeshift boutique at one entrance to the CBS parking lot, selling silk strike T-shirts--available in both slate blue and sunshine yellow--at $7 apiece.

The mementoes of “Strike ‘85” (some veterans wore 1981 WGA strike T-shirts to Friday’s outing) were manufactured by Studio Sportswear Service of Van Nuys and were “going like hot cakes,” according to one saleswoman. She said all proceeds were going to the WGA.

“Look at the size of this turnout, including those who are not in agreement with the strike,” said guild member Tom Szollosi. “The message seems to be: ‘If we’re going to have a strike, then let’s have a strike.’ ”

But there was grumbling too, especially about the manner in which guild leaders handled the contract ratification vote at last Monday’s frenetic general membership meeting at the Hollywood Palladium. During that four-hour session, most of the 2,500 members who came to vote cast their ballots early and left.

Later in the evening, when only about 300 members remained, the guild voted to suspend the vote count for a full week. Another meeting, at which members are being invited to change their votes if they wish, will be held Monday night.

“I can’t understand the legality of it,” one picketing writer complained, adding with some sarcasm: “Mondale should have stopped the (1984 presidential) election with one state left.”

Rank-and-file writers appeared to be at odds with guild leadership over the lack of a full explanation of what the complicated contract proposal actually contains.

According to guild spokesman Mickey Freeman, the producers’ alliance proposed a massive new contract, containing about 250 separate proposals. One of the key proposals hinges on writers’ future shares of videocassette sales and rentals.

By noon, enthusiasm on the picket line had waned.

“The first one’s fun,” one graying guild member counseled a younger colleague shortly before the day’s demonstration broke. “After that, they get boring.”

Shortly after noon, everyone headed home to take lunch.