"Desperate" Times In Hollywood

Writers Strike To Halt Production Of "Desperate Housewives" And Other Top TV Shows

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Nov. 6, 2007

(CBS/AP)  A producer of the hit ABC show "Desperate Housewives" says the show will stop production because it has run out of scripts due to the writers strike.

Alexandra Cunningham says filming of the show's 10th episode of the season will finish on Wednesday.

She says ABC will run out of new episodes to air before Christmas.

Meanwhile, production has stopped on at least six sitcoms filmed before live audiences because of the Hollywood writers strike.

"Back to You," starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, will not return from a planned hiatus on Wednesday. said Chris Alexander, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox Television.

Star Julia Louis-Dreyfus said production has also stopped on her CBS show, "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

In addition, the sitcoms "Til Death," which airs on Fox, and "Rules of Engagement," "Two and a Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory," all on CBS, will also end filming, according to people familiar with production of the shows who were not authorized to be quoted and requested anonymity.

It was not immediately clear how many of the shows might already be finished.

Network officials referred calls to companies producing each show.

The first strike by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way with pickets on both coasts after last-minute negotiations on Sunday failed to produce a deal on payments to writers from shows offered on the Internet.

Right now, the writers get nothing and they want 2.5 percent of the profits, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. The studios and producers are offering far less, claiming the technology is too new and their profits too slim.

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Photos: On The Picket Line

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No new negotiations were scheduled.

Pickets returned to studios in Los Angeles and New York as the strike by the Writers Guild of America entered its second day

In Toluca Lake, Calif., near Warner Bros. studio, writers converged on a house that serves as a location shoot for "Desperate Housewives."

"We write the story-a, Eva Longoria," about 30 strikers chanted, referring to one star of the hit ABC show.

"It is a very serious business," said Larry Wilmore, a writer on "The Daily Show," explaining the protesters were marching "so we can get back to being funny."

Shooting continued inside the house despite the protests, said Chandler Hayes, a spokesman for ABC.

The protesters were joined by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

"I'm really here because I'm a union member," said Louis-Dreyfus, a member of the Screen Actors Guild whose husband is a member of the writers guild.

"If we prevent them from working today, that's a small victory," she said.

In New York, strikers picketed outside Silver Cup Studios in Queens, the site of shooting for "30 Rock" and "Gossip Girls."

The strike began Monday after last-minute negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed to produce a deal.

"People seem pretty upbeat and determined for now," reported CBS Radio correspondent Claudia Peschiutta from the picket line outside the Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank on the strike's first day.

2"The question is, how will people feel if this strike drags on as long as the last one strike went on for in 1988? That one lasted for more than five months, and it would be difficult for some of these writers to be without a paycheck for that amount of time."

The walkout immediately sent late-night comedy shows going into reruns.

It will not immediately have an impact on production of movies or most prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and many TV shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.

Nick Counter, chief negotiator for the producers union, said he expected a long standoff.

"We're hunkered down for a long one," he said Monday. "From our standpoint, we made every good faith effort to negotiate a deal, and they went on strike. At some point, conversations will take place. But not now."

Writers said the next move was up to the studios.

"My hope is that it won't be too long," said John Bowman, chief negotiator for the writers.

Some producers were torn about trying to keep filming finished scripts.

Tim Kring, a producer and writer of the NBC hit "Heroes," said he had to revise the ending of the show's 11th episode on the chance that it might be the last one to air this season.

"Fortunately we were able to hustle back," Kring said from a picket line in an effort to shut down the show. "The audience won't be left in a lurch."

While scripted shows suffer from the strike, reality shows could flourish because they don't use union writers, despite an aggressive attempt by the writers guild to organize the staffers on the programs.

Viewers could also check out more entertainment on the Internet, ranging from user-generated fare on YouTube to professionally produced shows such as "Quarterlife."

Writers have not gone on strike since 1988, when the walkout lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million.

By Gary Gentile
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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