SHORT TAKES : Barty Ordered to Pay TV Writer

BURBANK — Actor Billy Barty was ordered to pay $428 to a television show writer who claimed that he wasn’t paid for creating several comedy sketches.

Burbank Municipal Court Commissioner Dennis H. Shanklin on Monday granted the award to Warren Taylor for sketches he wrote for “Short Ribbs,” which aired last year on KDOC-TV in Anaheim and is no longer in production.

Taylor had already been paid $800 for his work on the show, including a satirical skit that featured Barty as a crooked judge.

In a similar small-claims dispute two months ago, Barty was ordered to pay $1,300 to William Winckler, another writer on the show that featured midgets and dwarfs.

Taylor, Winckler and a third writer, Len Udes, told Shanklin that they were guaranteed $100 for every script they wrote, even if they collaborated on sketches for the show.

Barty, who has starred in such films as “Rumpelstiltskin” and “Willow” argued that the writers didn’t identify which scripts they authored and said it was impossible to determine who should be paid.