Writers Guild of America, West elects Chris Keyser as president
Chris Keyser, co-creator of the Fox television series “Party of Five,” defeated the better-known Patric Verrone in the closely watched presidential contest for the Writers Guild of America, West.
“I want to congratulate Patric in what I thought was an excellent race, and I look forward to getting started,” Keyser said Friday.
Keyser, 51, campaigned as a moderate alternative to the more strident Verrone and had garnered the backing of a majority of the union’s high-profile members, including outgoing President John Wells, J.J. Abrams, Susannah Grant and Shawn Ryan, executive producer of the TV series “The Shield.”
Verrone, who advocated restoring the guild’s tradition of activism and criticized Keyser’s more conciliatory approach to negotiations, retained some of his own big-name supporters, including Matthew Weiner, executive producer of the AMC TV show “Mad Men.” But the animation writer who has worked on such shows as “Futurama” and “The Simpsons” had lost the backing of others who had previously been his allies, such as veteran screenwriter Robert King.
Although Verrone, also 51, garnered strong support among former strike captains and rank-and-file members, Keyser and his supporters viewed the former guild leader as a polarizing figure who had frayed relationships with other unions, had mounted an ineffective campaign to organize workers in the reality TV sector and was overly confrontational in his stance with employers.
Keyser said he would place more emphasis on enforcing the guild’s contracts, addressing such problems as writers’ not being paid on time or having to write scripts for free. Another priority would be helping writers find more opportunities in new media or in directing and producing their own material at a time when jobs are increasingly scarce.
“We need to be engaged in a kind of ward politics where we take care of things on a practical level,” he said in a recent interview with The Times. “The residual benefit is that writers who feel they’ve been taken care of are more likely to be engaged.”
Keyser has written for movies and TV. He has worked as a freelancer and executive producer on such shows as “Party of Five,” which ran on Fox for six years, and the acclaimed “Lone Star,” which was canceled after eight days.
The Harvard Law School graduate had a relatively low profile inside the guild until the election. He was elected to the board in 2010 and has served for several years as a trustee of the union’s pension and health plan.
Also Friday, members the Writers Guild of America, East reelected President Michael Winship, who ran unopposed.
