73 Producers Sign Contracts to Bring Some Writers Back

Striking members of the Writers Guild of America overwhelmingly approved contracts covering 73 independent production companies, it was announced Friday, paving the way for several hundred of the 9,000 union members to return to work immediately on such programs as “The Tonight Show,” “ALF” and “The Cosby Show.”

But the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers remained staunch in its opposition to key provisions in the new contracts Friday, downplaying the significance of Thursday night’s ratification meetings in New York and Hollywood.

“The way we look at it is very simple,” said alliance spokesman Herb Steinberg. “Putting 73 writers back to work out of 9,000 is hardly a chink in anybody’s armor. We want to put 4,000 writers back to work. This (ratification of the independent contracts) is like putting a Band-Aid on a ruptured aorta.”

Actually, guild officials said, the true number of writers that will return to work is between 200 and 400.

Heavy Approval

The joint Hollywood and New York meetings drew 2,016 voting members of the guild. They approved the contracts by an 86% margin, according to WGA spokeswoman Cheryl Rhoden. The contracts that were approved have identical terms.

Mona Mangan, executive director of the guild’s East Coast branch in New York, called the independent contracts approved by guild members “fair and equitable.

The basic contract “does not force writers to accept rollbacks in the residual areas for one-hour shows, it provides a better formula for foreign residuals and it brings improvements in creative rights,” she said in a prepared statement.

Disagreement on those three points--foreign residuals, one-hour residuals and creative rights--sparked the March 7 walkout.

Mangan said she hoped the alliance “will now see the light. With so many competitors to the alliance companies agreeing to a fair contract and resuming production, it’s time for the AMPTP to also come to reasonable terms, so the entire industry can return to work.”

12-Week Standoff

Several of the non-AMPTP companies that signed contracts produce their programs for airing on the three major television networks. ABC, CBS and NBC are represented by the alliance along with the major studios and large independent production companies. Combined, the studios and networks in the alliance are responsible for turning out more than 80% of Hollywood’s films and television programs.

For 12 weeks, the guild and the alliance have been in a standoff, chiefly over the issue of residual payments on the syndication of one-hour TV dramas. But, according to Steinberg, none of the 73 companies that signed with the guild are currently producing one-hour dramas.

“Not only did they make a deal for less than 1% of their members, two of these contracts were signed by companies representing ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’ and ‘The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd’--both canceled shows,” said Steinberg. “This is all like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland.”

But independent producers who signed the contracts disagree.

“The only thing that matters to me is that it ends the strike for the people that work for my company,” said Michael Landon, president of Michael Landon Productions, which produces his syndicated “Highway to Heaven” program. “They have been innocent victims and now they can all get back to work.”

“We will be able to begin production as scheduled on July 11,” said Tom Patchett, executive producer of Alien Productions’ “ALF,” which employs six staff writers and several free-lancers. “The strike has chopped our pre-production and script preparation time in half, but we feel we can still produce shows to get them on the air whenever NBC wants them.”

Johnny Carson, who has been writing his own material for the last two weeks, was expected to put a dozen writers back to work on “The Tonight Show” immediately and the Carsey-Werner Co., which produces “The Cosby Show” and “A Different World,” is also expected to rehire a large contingent of guild members, according to guild sources.

More than any other issue, the method for calculating writers’ residuals for one-hour syndicated shows has been the prime cause of the stalemate. Producers want a formula based on cash flow that could reduce residuals, contending that one-hour programs are out of vogue and just don’t sell the way they once did. Writers maintain that the proposed formula could boost producers’ profits at the expense of guild members, who could stand to lose millions of dollars in future residual payments.

Steinberg said the strike has gone on so long that guild members are no longer the only ones who are being hurt. The alliance maintains that at least 1,800 non-guild members have been laid off since the strike began and that the entertainment industry has lost more than $15 million. In addition, Steinberg said, the guild work stoppage could affect other unions.

“If they continue this attitude of ignoring the basic issues, there’s going to be no work for the (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) when their contract comes up,” said Steinberg.

The producers alliance contract with the stage employees expires July 31 and the union’s leadership has expressed a desire not to strike. The more than 24,000 members in the union’s Hollywood local handle much of the non-creative off-stage work at the studios.

Talks between guild and alliance negotiators resume Tuesday with federal mediator Leonard Farrell.

Times staff writers Victor Valle and Steve Weinstein in Los Angeles and Jay Sharbutt in New York contributed to this article.