EDITORIAL:

Hooray for Hollywood!

Just think, new episodes of “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Office,” “30 Rock” and “CSI” are on the horizon if the two-month-old writers strike ends this weekend as sources suggest.

And with it, most importantly, an entire regional economy including those whose livelihoods depend on writing or the shows that are written, will begin coming out of economic doldrums at a time when doldrums make up much of the business and economic news.

We’ve had hope before — at the beginning of December, there was a glimmer of it, but it was quickly dashed when the two sides could not get past issues that have so separated them: Internet and DVD residuals. So for weeks afterward they would be sticking points.

They were melancholy weeks for those of us who consume the fruits of writers’ talent — us TV junkies, whose lives are a little happier when new episodes of “Saturday Night Live” and “Scrubs” are a part of them.

Reruns can only get you so far.

But now there’s real hope that a vast TV ghost town, blanketed by the strike, will be rejuvenated soon, and with it the lives of so many who were truly affected by being out of a job will move forward.

We hear there’s real hope that the folks we’ve seen picketing for weeks outside local studios can get back to work and get on with their lives. And we want to encourage a resolution.

They’ve lost way too much already — $256.7 million in lost wages for writers as of Feb. 3, with direct and indirect wage losses totaling about $1.96 billion.

Hopefully, the resolution reached will make those losses worthwhile for writers, who put a lot on the line over the last two months.

And with them, Burbank, too, has had a lot at stake.

With an economy that depends on its 30,000 media-related workers, Burbank has been right at the epicenter of this strike, taking a big blow to its job force and economy.

Along with the reruns came the lack of work for agents, managers, catering companies, janitors, makeup artists, cooks and eateries, many of whom work and live in Burbank.

With a deal, they too can begin putting their lives back together.

We have our fingers crossed that the strike will end by next week, and that we won’t have to hear about a canceled Academy Awards show, or a prolonged stalemate that could stretch into April.

We can lament all we want about lost TV shows, but in the end, more striking means more people’s futures will continue their uncertain path.

It’s time to pull for a solid deal, so that an uncertain path will become more certain for the people whose livelihoods make us all feel a little better.