Writer’s Other Role Is Guild Chief--Can He Deliver?

Like his smash television shows that jump breathlessly between scenes, John Wells is caught in the middle of a real-life high-wire act.

In one scene, he’s the powerful multimillionaire producer of “ER,” “The West Wing” and “Third Watch.” Cut to John Wells, working writer and militant union leader, bashing the very studios he’s in business with for shortchanging his fellow scribes.

Amid the chaos, Wells is about to script the lead role in what may prove the biggest drama of his career. The 44-year-old president of the Writers Guild of America in Los Angeles will lead 8,300 TV and film writers next month into difficult contract negotiations with Hollywood studios over a host of financial and creative issues. As producers and writers prepare to face off, the person with the most influence over whether a strike takes place not only works in both camps, he’s a superstar in each.

Never has such a formidable insider taken on Hollywood studios and TV networks in labor talks. Wells sits in the pantheon of television’s elite “show runners,” an exclusive club that includes David E. Kelley, Steven Bochco and Dick Wolf. They all have proven track records overseeing multiple hit shows, the kind needed by today’s giant media conglomerates to feed TV networks, cable channels, foreign markets and fledgling Internet sites.

In Wells, the writers guild has a leader with an insider’s knowledge of TV that, associates say, is unequaled by his peers.

“He’s a very good student of the business,” said NBC West Coast President Scott Sassa. “You’re not going to put anything past him.”

Despite his clout, Wells is inexperienced in leading a labor battle and knows he’s up against global media giants growing more powerful with every merger. The studios’ Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, he concedes, “has always been a hard-nosed negotiating unit” adept at squeezing the union.

“We’re pragmatic. We’re prepared. Nobody’s interested in taking a strike to try and prove we’re tough or that it would be fun,” Wells said.

Much is riding on whether a writers’ strike, combined with a separate potential walkout by film and TV actors, happens next year.

A writers’ strike would devastate the fall TV season in which Wells himself has so much at stake, while an actors’ walkout would halt production. For Southern California, economists estimate that the one-two punch would cost the economy $250 million weekly. The writers contract expires May 1, with actors following two months later.

Top Writers Involved in Guild, Due to Wells

Wells also gives writers a credibility they’ve never enjoyed before. In past strikes, the guild was led by people who hadn’t worked in years and was vulnerable to criticism that its leaders were out of touch. Acting as a magnet, Wells reached out to other top writers to work on guild issues, from Kelley and Bochco to Oscar-winning screenwriter Ron Bass.

“Part of the problem in these negotiations in the past is they look across the table and oftentimes don’t see anybody they really do business with,” Wells said in an interview. “It makes it very difficult now to slough it off as ‘They don’t know what they’re talking about.’ ”

Still, it’s a fine line Wells walks. Because he’s so successful producing, Wells knows a volatile strike leaves him an easy target: As a big-time producer, he’s too close to the companies and his wealth insulates him from the pain of a strike.

“If we do end up in a strike, I’ll definitely take some hits,” he said.

Indeed, neither NBC, where Wells’ shows make up 14% of the network’s prime-time schedule, nor Warner Bros., where he produces, likes the idea that he is leading the charge for writers.

“The company I work for [Warner] feels I have a conflict of interest, and they’re concerned I’m coming down on the side of the writers guild,” Wells said. “Fortunately, I’m in a position where there’s enough success on the shows that I’m doing that there’s not much they can do about it.”

Wells disputes suggestions that he may have a conflict. He argues that, under guild rules, he’s technically not an employer because Warner Bros. hires and pays the people on his shows. Nonetheless, Wells leaves no doubts where he will stand if forced to choose sides.

“Any time somebody says to me, ‘What do you do?’ I always say, ‘I’m a writer,’ ” Wells said. “I don’t even hesitate about it.”

The main issues for TV writers are a significant boost in payments when their work runs on cable TV and in foreign markets. Negotiations are complicated further by technology issues such as how writers will be paid when movies and shows are eventually distributed via the Internet. The guild also wants studios to resolve long-standing creative disputes, including giving writers more access to sets and limiting credits for directors.

Not all writers and producers agree with Wells’ tactics or goals. Wolf, the producer of NBC’s “Law & Order,” sees only two legitimate issues: the cable and foreign residuals. Beyond that, he sees the “creative rights” issues as nebulous and counterproductive.

“My position is people should shut up, stop talking . . . and saber-rattling, get in a room and start negotiating. A measure of rationality has to be brought to this,” Wolf said.

Wolf also worries that a potential strike would damage broadcasters and would ultimately be self-defeating for writers, inspiring networks to order more low-cost, unscripted programming such as game shows to offset financial losses.

Former Roadie’s Break Came on ‘China Beach’

The son of an Episcopal priest and a schoolteacher, Wells grew up in Denver, starting his career in theater at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He once worked as a roadie for such acts as Elton John and The Eagles, moving to New York to work as a stagehand off Broadway before leaving for Los Angeles to attend USC’s Film School. Wells spent time as a carpenter and produced plays while struggling to sell scripts. His early credits included the forgettable TV series “Shell Game,” and helping produce the critically panned film “Nice Girls Don’t Explode.”

Wells’ break came in 1988 as a writer for the Peabody Award-winning Vietnam drama “China Beach,” working his way up from writer to an executive producer. In 1992, Wells developed for Warner Bros. a pilot called “Polish Hill” that brought stinging allegations from writer David Simon and director Barry Levinson that parts were lifted from a Simon book that later became the basis for NBC’s “Homicide: Life on the Street.” Warner Bros. insisted the claim was frivolous, but it agreed to minor revisions to settle.

Wells later teamed with author Michael Crichton and director Steven Spielberg in 1994 to launch the NBC emergency room drama “ER.” The show remains television’s most-watched program, on its way to capturing the top ratings spot for the fourth time in seven seasons. “ER” also made Wells rich. Forbes once estimated his annual income at $35 million.

Wells’ most recent hit, “The West Wing,” which he developed with writer Aaron Sorkin, has blossomed into a popular Emmy-winning hit for NBC. Even “Third Watch,” a series about paramedics and firefighters that struggled initially, has solidified its status this season after undergoing a creative revamp. His only recent failure was the NBC show “Trinity” in 1998.

Guarded about his privacy, Wells and his wife, Marilyn, a psychotherapist, live in Los Feliz with their 3-year-old daughter, Rachel. His younger brother Llewellyn works as a producer on “The West Wing.”

Wells, who sports a goatee as well as a stud in his left earlobe, is well liked by fellow writers. He’s been known to shower those on his shows with extravagant presents such as trips to Paris.

“Like a lot of people who are confident in their abilities, John is not a screamer. He is smart, methodical, precise, organized and strong,” said writer Gary Ross.

In addition to the three prime-time series, Wells is developing a fourth show for CBS and writes 10 episodic scripts a year--all while serving as guild president. Until recently, he worked quietly as a lucrative “script doctor” for movie directors. He also has numerous film projects in development.

“He gives new meaning to multi-tasking,” said Warner Bros. Television President Peter Roth.

As a manager and writer, Wells has a keen sense of promoting his shows and fiercely protects them. He also is loath to divulge even the smallest bits of information about the future plots of his programs.

Wells has sparred with NBC’s promotion department over divulging too much--as well as misleading viewers--in on-air ads created for the show. When former “ER” star George Clooney made a surprise return appearance on the show in May to reunite with the departing Julianna Margulies on her final episode, Wells kept the crew to a minimum and promised the crew substantial bonuses if Clooney’s appearance didn’t leak out. He kept the scene out of the script, then stored the footage in his refrigerator before inserting it into the episode the night before it aired.

Ironically, it was a Wells complaint about the guild that lured him into its leadership. Guild officials liked a letter he wrote during a 22-week strike in 1988 in which Wells argued that loose standards allowed the union to be dominated by nonworking writers.

With Talks Looming, Studios United on ‘No’

Wells heads into the talks in the wake of a rebellion two years ago by writers who believed that the guild has been too cozy with the studios. That set a more confrontational tone to the upcoming talks with studios that Wells readily concedes are “all united on ‘no.’ ”

Nonetheless, Wells said he owed it to fellow writers in going toe-to-toe with studios over issues that simmered too long after the guild’s painful 1988 strike.

“No one believes it’s in the best interest of the industry to have a strike,” Wells said. “The economic impact on the city as a whole and on the industry is something we take very seriously.

“That said, there are issues that really should have been addressed seven or eight years ago that now have been put off for 12.”