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Strike looms as networks stockpile

How much for your principles? That's what the networks have begun asking the people in charge of TV's hottest shows.

TV Barn has learned that in recent days, network executives have discreetly approached the executive producers of at least two highly-rated sitcoms and asked them if they wouldn't mind producing a half-dozen or so extra episodes for the 2000-01 season. The reason? The Writers Guild of America, the union representing TV's script writers, is gearing up for a strike next May. The writers' stoppage, which would be the first since 1988, is expected to shut down production of TV shows for months, jeopardizing the launch of the 2001 fall schedule.

So the deal being offered, according to sources at two of TV's highest-rated comedies, is this: The producers crank out 30 or more scripts instead of the usual season order of 22 to 25 scripts. They get a big fat bonus and the networks get fresh programming, ready to plug in next fall in case the writers are still on strike.

The conversations were informal and preliminary. But the fact they are happening at all has led to action at the Writers Guild. Its president, John Wells, the executive producer of "ER" and "The West Wing," sent out a letter last week advising members of the situation and urging them to turn the networks down. (The Writers Guild spokesperson who confirmed the letter Tuesday, said she did not know if Wells' letter went out to all members or only show-runners.)

A producer at one top-rated situation comedy agreed with Wells.

"Why give the networks a bigger stick to hit writers over the head with?" the producer told TV Barn this weekend. "The more scripts and episodes they have in the bank, the longer they can withstand a strike, which then defeats the purpose of a strike, doesn't it?"

Officially the union, which represents 11,000 writers, continues to hope for a settlement with the studios that employ them. Talks have not begun in earnest, but many of the issues under discussion will be sticky. They include higher fees from Fox, UPN, WB and cable networks; and issues of payment for having writers' works distributed overseas, on DVDs and over the Internet.

Privately, the rank-and-file seem resigned to a strike, especially as the current commercial actors' strike drags into its fifth month with no end in sight. The general mood is reflected in a recent publication from the Writers Guild that advises members to "bank every penny you can" and avoid luxury purchases so they will have enough money to "ride the storm out."

As for the networks, it's clear that the current craze in "reality" shows isn't simply a reaction to "Survivor" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." In the event of a strike, reality shows would allow the networks to go ahead with a fall season next year. Reality shows don't require Hollywood script writers. Nor do they need actors — their agreement with the networks runs out in July, 2001. And because reality shows are far cheaper to make than ones with scripts and actors, the networks could kiss off several million disappointed viewers and still make money.

But could they afford the shock to their reputations? For years TV critics have been instructed by network executives that what separates broadcasters from mere cable is their investment in high-quality, high-cost comedies and drama programs. Reality shows are fine in the summer, but build a fall schedule around them and the broadcast advantage disappears. Then again, considering how many cable networks the big broadcasters now own, the distinction may not be that important anymore.

At any rate: Viewers, you have been warned.

A "Space: 1999" homecoming

by John Zipperer

Rarely is popular perception so accurate as when it comes to questions science fiction fans ask their heroes at SF conventions. Yes, people really begin questions with, "In episode 'Such and Such,' in the scene where you and Leonard Nimoy were stranded on the ship ... " It's proof that fans have incredibly strong memories — or at least well-worn videotapes of old episodes. I don't think people will ask such questions of the 'Seinfeld' cast 20 years hence. But for well-loved but short-lived SF series such as "Space: 1999" from the mid-1970s, it's a different story. And a recent rare appearance by one of the series' stars at a sci-fi convention was too good to pass up.

Catherine Schell, who portrayed a shapeshifting alien named Maya during the second and last season of "Space: 1999," ducked into Manhattan's MainMission 2000 this past weekend. She comported herself with the grace that only a European actress seems to muster when confronted with hundreds of adoring Americans. She signed autographs, helped auction "Space: 1999" materials for the convention's two designated charities (Gay Men's Health Crisis and the National Parkinson Foundation), and answered many audience questions about the series and her other acting work.

Perhaps the hardest thing for SF actors to do is establish the idea in their fans' minds that the actors do have professional careers apart from the SF series or film that first attracted the fans. Schell, whose non-"Space" work includes "Return of the Pink Panther," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," and "Doctor Who," says she also once had a shot at being in the work of Federico Fellini. Her agents told her Fellini was waiting to interview her at a hotel. "I knew he liked strange people, and I'm far too straight. So I had to do something to myself." She borrowed odd shoes and redid her hair and makeup. "I looked very odd; I actually looked a bit like a tart. I went to the hotel for the meeting. Now, at this hotel, there were ladies of the evening in the lobby, and they probably thought I was one of them." Told to wait for Fellini, she sat and smoked — setting a plant alight in the process, but otherwise nothing happened; Fellini was at his office, not the hotel, so the two of them never met. "I didn't get the part," she says. "And I tried so hard!"

Another part she didn't get would have been a ticket to a lifetime of SF conventions: Captain Janeway on "Star Trek: Voyager." She confirmed that her agent had sent in her resume, but nothing came of that. "Obviously, I didn't get the part," she laughs.

Acting in a science-fiction series like "Space: 1999" had its own challenges, with special effects, monsters, human-to-alien transformations, and whatnot. Schell says she got along with second-season producer Fred Freiberger, who has a negative reputation among many fans for his presence during the final seasons of "Space" and the original "Star Trek" series. "It is a very civilized place, in England," she says. "No one brings guns to work." Whether Freiberger's reputation is deserved or not is up to others to decide (though even "Trek" scribe David Gerrold, who has had some well-publicized complaints about the producer, now says he at least understands some of the pressures Freiberger was under, being brought in to save troubled TV series). But Schell did mention that she found it fruitless to bring her concerns to the producer about certain directions of the series, in particular the trend in presenting aliens as hairy apelike monsters.

But she had to beg off when asked for specifics on individual episodes, remembering one only after prolonged prompting from the audience established that it included location shooting, a rare occurrence for that stage-bound series. (And her memory of that was largely limited to the fact that the entire cast was ill during the filming, thanks to a drought and a heat wave in England at the time.) But as for her favorite episode, she protested, "I don't know them anymore!"

Here's a "Space: 1999" fan site. And here's another.

Zippy's Sci-Fi Loft continues ...

Pick to click

Robert Hughes returns to his native land in "Australia: Beyond the Fatal Shore," a tour de force featuring the Time magazine art critic at his pungent and perceptive best. The six-hour PBS miniseries airs 9 p.m. tonight through Thursday (check local listings).

While filming this series for the BBC last year, Hughes was in a near-fatal car accident. It left him leaning on a cane for support, but also made him feel greater urgency for telling the stories of his boyhood and of what has happened to the country he left behind 35 years ago.

Tonight's first hour sets an eclectic tone for the series, with its shagadelic soundtrack and a visual montage clearly meant to provoke. We see Old Sydney, which Hughes describes as "the only theme park in the world devoted to punishment and repression," and watch a parson flogging the unrepentant with a lash (fake blood and all). In the next moment, Hughes and the head of Australian's fast-growing adult film industry are in a field, watching two discreetly pixellated "actors" humping away for the cameras.

I can't say I fully trust the opinions of someone who thinks the Moral Majority still speaks for people of faith. But nearly every word out of Hughes' mouth is interesting. And with its broad, multidisciplinary approach and breakneck pacing, "Beyond the Fatal Shore" has an ambition rarely seen even among PBS shows.

On this date...

in 1980, anchor Dan Rather refuses to pay his cab fare, so the CBS network agrees to pony up twelve dollars and fifty-five cents.

November 11: in 1952, In Los Angeles, inventors Wayne Johnson and John Mullin demonstrate "Crosby Video," the first magnetic-tape video recorder. The machine uses an eight thousand foot reel of one-inch tape to record 16 minutes of black and white video.

November 12: in 1977, NBC begins running "The Godfather Saga — Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television," a nine-hour, four-night event consisting of Godfather's I and II reedited in linear form with added footage. A similar project, "The Godfather 1902-1959: The Complete Epic" is released four years later on videocassette, but with different "bonus" footage. -- Tom Heald

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