Writers With Power

Patrick Goldstein’s piece about the supremacy of the writer in television as opposed to his/her screen counterpart contains a glaring omission that invalidates his thesis (“Happiest Medium for Writers? TV,” Oct. 23). Every writer Goldstein cited is a writer-producer, whose control over his material and show derives from the “producer” end of the hyphen. The freelance, unhyphenated television writer is just as much on the bottom of the power ladder, and just as much subject as the freelance screenwriter to being rewritten by other writers, producers, directors, actors, production assistants and hairdressers.

Talk to any freelance writer in television or the movies, Patrick, and you will hear the same stories. It’s the reason I, like all the others, grabbed the chance to become a writer-producer.

IRVING STANTON ELMAN

Pacific Palisades