As Talks Continue, Writers’ Optimism Over Contract Wanes

Writers girded themselves Wednesday night for the possibility of accepting a new union contract whose most attractive mark would be this: not having to give up a paycheck.

Andy Robin, 32, purchased a home six months ago. A former writer on “Seinfeld,” he, like other writers, cited the slowdown in the economy as hardly putting him in the mood for a walkout.

“I’m at a point where I have painters and cabinetmakers coming in and out of my house every day,” Robin said. “. . . Everything is theoretical and abstract until you get a mortgage.”

Others, such as Larry Gelbart, whose career spans TV, movies and the stage, didn’t harbor much hope for these talks to begin with. Gelbart, a veteran of previous strikes by the Writers Guild of America, said that in the last 10 years he’s seen guild leaders “lose their negotiating chops” while the entertainment business underwent fundamental changes, with emerging technologies and corporate mergers happening around the industry’s TV and film writers, not with them. Reached Wednesday night, Gelbart was succinct.

“We can’t hope to get back to where we should be,” he said. “We’re in an iron lung, and they hold the plug.”

He was talking about gains the WGA was seeking in cable and overseas residuals, as well as compensation when writers’ work is distributed via DVD and home video sales or over the Internet. Those were among the issues on the table, set against a backdrop of writers willing to walk out but hesitant about a world already growing cold.

“When the talks started, the economy was fairly strong, and then it did a back flip on us,” said screenwriter Cheryl Edwards, whose credits include “Save the Last Dance.” The guild “did take that into consideration in trying to stay at the bargaining table.”

As negotiations continued Wednesday, it was difficult to gauge any growing sense of impatience at the negotiating process or militancy toward the studios. In the void created by a news blackout, imposed when the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers resumed negotiations April 17, many were approaching an impending resolution with little to go on.

On Wednesday, writers on “The Simpsons’ did what writers on “The Simpsons” always do--sit around in a room and procrastinate as much as humanly possible.

“We’ve spent a lot of time talking about what will happen” in the negotiations, said Tim Long, a writer on the Fox series, one of the few TV shows currently in production. “It’s always most interesting to discuss doomsday scenarios. But there’s just a real vacuum of information.”

In place of real information, writers found themselves asking anyone and everyone for clues as to the direction of talks--their agents, fellow writers, and producers who presumably are sitting on the other side of the labor fence.

David Black, in New York Wednesday night, felt even further removed from the talks.

“In some ways, just because we’re so far from the hurly-burly, it’s like people during World War II reading the evening papers about the battles. The gunfire is too distant to be heard but we know it’s going to have an effect on us,” said Black, a co-executive producer of A&E;’s drama “100 Centre Street,” which is produced in New York.

Back in Los Angeles, most writers reasserted what the union has expressed all along: that the gains they are requesting, including a modest bump in residual payments when writers’ work appears on cable television and overseas, are hardly outlandish. Given this, few questioned the tactics of WGA negotiators--or the insistence that writers themselves be kept out of the loop for now.

“The feeling is that, if anything remotely resembling a reasonable offer is made, everyone would” accept it, said Bruce Eric Kaplan, a writer on the forthcoming HBO series “Six Feet Under.” Kaplan pointed to the writers’ request that the Fox television network pay residuals at the same rate as the competing broadcast networks.

Others wondered whether a multiplicity of issues ultimately undermined negotiations.

For TV writers, cable residuals have the most immediate economic effect, given that many prime-time dramas and sitcoms will live on in perpetuity on the increasing number of cable networks looking for programming. Screenwriters, meanwhile, have reason to want a bigger piece of the pie from videocassette and DVD sales of their movies. Also of importance to screenwriters: so-called creative rights issues, such as allowing access to writers on movie sets and the routine awarding of “A film by” credits to first-time directors.

Still, writers sought to stride a delicate line, maintaining on the one hand that the studios can afford a reported 3% increase in the writers’ minimum pay scale but on the other hand fearing the ramifications of a protracted walkout.

“I’m pleased that we seem to be coming to an agreement. I felt all along that it was possible. It wasn’t like our demands were so outrageous,” said Valerie Woods, a staff writer on “Any Day Now,” a drama on cable’s Lifetime network.

As a former writer on “Seinfeld,” Robin is someone who has written for a series that is sure to be sold into syndication many times over. Thus, Robin was naturally concerned about what increase in cable and overseas residuals the WGA could get. But as for less tangible markets, including the Internet, Robin said: “The Internet stuff doesn’t really hold water for me. I don’t really care about setting up frameworks right now, because I just think it’s embryonic.”

Gelbart, for his part, said he understood that the WGA couldn’t expect to see all of its demands met. But he sounded about as enthusiastic as other writers when he said: “Any gains of course will be welcome, and any hardships avoided will be welcome as well.”

Times staff writers Greg Braxton, Lorenza Munoz, Meg James and Elizabeth Jensen contributed to this report.