Strike TV is getting closer to its close-up.

The website devoted to showcasing original works from Hollywood union-repped folks is planning a private beta launch starting Monday. If you're curious, go sign up for updates and info about the venture at www.strike.tv and they'll be sending out log on and password info soon.

The plan is to let a 1,000 or so people into the site to help break it in and work out the bugs before they mount a full-blown launch. Until then, clips and trailers for some of the Strike TV fodder already produced can be found on this Strike TV blog.

The significant progress made in the DGA's tentative contract agreement with the majors stands as a hopeful sign that labor peace may soon be at hand. And it's also provides perfect examples of what's gone wrong to date in the fitful negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the WGA. The lack of communication between the studios and the scribes has been devastating to the creative community, below-the-liners included, and a failure of leadership on both sides of the picket lines.

The DGA rightfully touted on Thursday its victory in achieving big gains in residuals for electronic sell-through (aka paid downloads) based on a percentage of distributor's gross, not the despised producer's gross homevideo formula that took 80% of the distributor's revenue off the table, leaving 20% for the scribes and helmers to take a slim percentage of (1.5% or 1.8%, for sales after $1 million) as a residual. It's understood that the AMPTP wanted to base the deal on some definition "producer's gross" in the deal but the DGA held firm, on the rationale that it's too easy for the majors to move money around to make the producer's gross a lot punier than the distributor's haul.

The WGA pushed hard in its approach to the studios for a distributor's gross formula, but it was a non-starter, the AMPTP reps repeatedly told the WGA. How come? Because, according to execs from the AMPTP member congloms, they quite weren't sure what the WGA meant by the D- and G-words. AMPTP reps raised the specter of the WGA demanding a cut of advertising revenue from new media exhibition platforms (ABC.com, NBC.com, etc.) if they were owned by the same company that distribbed the program to the Internet (as is more often than not the case in post fin-syn Hollywood).

So why didn't the companies just ask for clarity? Why didn't they demand a simple, declarative sentence, a la the DGA's snappy "Distributor's gross is the amount received by the entity responsible for distributing the film or television program on the Internet." AMPTP says they did; WGA says it was the majors who refused to define their understanding of distributor's versus producer's gross. I can't imagine a first grade teacher accepting such a "did too/did not" explanation for why the entire class flunked the math test.

An astute friend who has been through more than one showbiz strike made the observation this evening that in the history of Hollywood labor negotiations, there's never been a situation quite like today, where the membership of DGA, WGA and SAG have as much information about the nitty-gritty details of a contract agreement at the same time as guild leaders. Membership of all three guilds were able to form their opinions in real time along with their respective leaders in the era of insta-communications, websites, blogs and email alerts. Guild leaders don't even have the time to put their spin on it. The devil is in the details, indeed.

This just in: "Lost" is coming back to ABC's sked sooner rather than later, even if it won't be in the straight 16-consecutive-week thrill ride we'd hoped for before the strike blues hit. It's bound for a new night, taking over "Grey's Anatomy's" Thursday 9 p.m. slot as of Jan. 31. (Click here for the rundown on ABC's midseason-because-there's-a-strike-sked from Variety's Michael Schneider.)

That's going to make things tough for fans of NBC's "The Office," but I suppose that's what DVRs are for, and sadly, it doesn't look like there's going to be any new "Office" visits for a while, at least not by the time "Lost" bows for what's believed to be an eight- or nine-episode run of segs completed by the time the scribes walked on Nov. 5.

New ABC drama "Eli Stone" gets a big boost by debuting the same night as "Lost" in the 10 p.m. slot.
"Eli Stone," starring Jonny Lee Miller (pictured right) as a young corporate lawyer who suddenly starts hearing things and  seeing things, which leads him to believe he's a prophet. Overall the show has a fantasy-light, kinda feel-good touch that may be right in tandem with "Lost." Goodness knows, ABC's had no luck pairing "Lost" with dark-and-brooding dramas, so maybe a 90-degree turn is the way to go. Tip for TV insiders: Note how Miller's Eli Stone character channels some of the mannerisms and speaking patterns of UTA's Dan Erlij (who is a friend of On the Air's) who reps series co-creator/exec producer Marc Guggenheim. Very charming.

In the meantime, as the warm up for full-blown "Lost" fun, check out the "Lost: Missing Pieces" minisodes. They're ultra-cool, full of interesting plot points and intriguing backstory bits, and they're WGA, DGA and SAG approved under deals with the guilds that were cut a long time ago.

Why, oh why, do I have to work?!

I'm told that David Milch is holding one of his discourses on writing today and tomorrow at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. Having attended one of his seminars on scribing years ago, I can tell you it is a journey to the center of a mind that functions in ways us mere mortals can barely grasp. And I can only imagine where his brain is at in these post-"John from Cincinnati," strike-angsty times.

Thursday's 2:15-4 p.m. sesh is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis. I'm told these events were fairly impromptu affairs that grew out of a discussion Milch and others had at WGA's HQ just a few days ago. I'm told it will be videotaped for the WGA library so us working stiffs can catch up with it at some point.

(Pictured above: David Milch on the set of "John from Cincinnati" with co-star Ed O'Neill)

Let's hope there's real movement this week in the talks between the Writers Guild of America and the majors -- for the good of the biz in general and for the sake of "Brothers and Sisters" in particular.

This show has been growing on me all season, and it did again Sunday night, with a little help from a nicely written guest shot for the ever-charming Lyle Lovett (pictured left). "Brothers and Sisters" is the poster-child for shows that are too promising -- creatively and commercially -- to lose their momentum because of the Big Distraction of the strike.

I'm not the only one who thinks so -- "Brothers and Sisters" ratings have been solid all season on the back of 9 p.m. companion "Desperate Housewives." Most recent seg drew 12.5 million viewers and 4.8 rating/11 share in adults 18-49, and even more impressive in femme demos, including women 18-34 (5.6/15) and women 18-49 (6.7/16).

Another potent weapon ABC has in the wings is midseason drama "Eli Stone," from "Brothers and Sisters" alums Marc Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti and Ken Olin. Pilot for skein starring Jonny Lee Miller (pictured right) as a lawyer who suddenly becomes convinced he's a prophet is quite compelling, but it's doubtful ABC will invest in the launch of the show while the writers' room is still empty.

The real value of a good script in this town hinges not on the eloquence of the prose or the cleverness of the plot but in its execution from page to screen. Nobody understands this Hollywood truism better than television showrunners; it’s the challenge they tackle with every week.

As such, it comes as no surprise that these multitasking members of Writers Guild of America should have played such a pivotal role in the first and second acts of the scribe strike of ’07. The determination of a wide swath of showrunners shut the biz down, for all intents and purposes, in a hurry in the first 72 hours after the strike began on Nov. 5. And by many accounts, it was the growing restlessness of many of the same showrunners last week that prodded both the studios and the guild off of their rhetorical high horses to agree to resume formal negotiations on Monday.

“The showrunners were the tip of the spear in this fight,” said a top tenpercenter who’s been piped into the backchannel discussions among scribes, CEOs and top agency partners during the past fortnight of discontent.

(Pictured above: "Grey's Anatomy" star Sandra Oh marches with "Grey's" showrunner Shonda Rhimes, to Oh's right, and "Back to You" co-creator/exec producer Steve Levitan, on Rhimes' right, during WGA's Tuesday march and rally on Hollywood Boulevard. Below, the march at its peak covered three blocks. Pics by Matthew Simmons/WireImage)

This just in from the home office at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan. This is why we've always loved David Letterman. From his spokesman Steve Rubenstein:

“Next week's tapings of 'The Late Show' and 'The Late Late Show' have been cancelled and we will continue to make a week-by-week determination about future tapings. However, it is important to Dave that our staff members have some degree of support during this uncertain time. Therefore, Worldwide Pants, which independently produces both shows, will continue to pay the non-writing staff of the shows – fully compensating lower-salaried employees, and providing a substantial portion of salaries for those at the higher end -- at least through the end of the year.  Of course, we all want to get back to work as soon as possible, and it remains our hope that both sides in this dispute will make progress toward that end. In the meantime, we will continue monitoring this situation closely as we make decisions regarding our future production schedule.”

The word that comes to mind to describe the mood among the scribes on the picket lines during the past week is: resolute.

Over and over, the attitude expressed on the lines was one of calm, cool determination to stick it out for a "fair deal." Despite the early predictions that the Writers Guild of America membership would be split along income-strata lines, there is no doubt that writers of all stripes, of all levels of experience and success are fired up by the feeling that the major congloms have been hosing them for years.

The WGA leadership has expertly built on that foundation of pent-up ire to help scribes gird for the strike that many rightly predicted was inevitable. On Friday (Nov. 9) at the mega-rally of at least 4,000 guild members and industry supporters held outside the Fox Plaza building in Century City, guild leaders and guest speakers including the Rev. Jesse Jackson very clearly drew a line between the WGA strike -- disparaged by some as a rich union's attempt to paint itself as blue-collar -- and the growing income disparity that has cleaved the nation into the super-haves, the haven't enoughs, the have-nots and the have nothings during the past 40 years.

"If they gave us everything that we're asking for, and then they went and did the same deal with the DGA and SAG, they would still be giving all of us less than each of their CEOs makes in a year," WGA West prexy Patric Verrone asserted to a receptive crowd on Friday.

(Can't absolutely vouch for Verrone's math, but we've all seen the studies on CEO pay gone wild and the widening gulf between the salaries of top execs and lowest-paid workers at many corporations.)  A picket sign in the crowd featured an unflattering picture of News Corp. prexy Peter Chernin, with "$34 million last year" scrawled underneath.

Seth MacFarlane, a wunderkind who scored his first multimillion payday before he was 30 with a hit animated Fox series "Family Guy," was a savvy choice by the guild to address the rally. His is a voice representing both the future of the guild and the promise that the biz holds to make (very lucky) people fabulously wealthy on the strength of a great idea. MacFarlane (pictured below) made a point of urging his fellow high-earners to keep paying their freshly laid off assistants for as long as possible. And he urged "the press" to get the message out to the general public that WGA members are, in the main, members of the five-figure annual income middle class, not the six-, seven-, eight-figure and above ultra-elite.

"Writers in this guild are not millionaires," MacFarlane stressed. "The royalties we're fighting for will make a big difference to them."

(Above pic snapped by Michelle Sobrino-Stearns/Variety)

Yikes, awkward timing for the season finale of "Weeds." Showtime skein's third-season closer involves our favorite gated-community suburbanites fleeing from a raging wildfire. Episode titled "Go" is set to air Nov. 19.

Showtime took pains to note in its listing release issued Wednesday that the segs were shot over the summer, and in no way is the show trying to grandstand on the real-life tragedy that hit so many in Southern California just a few days ago. In fairness to the show, wildfires are  a fact of life in this state, so it's a natural plot point. But now that "Weeds" maven Jenji Kohan and the rest of her scribe team are on strike, show's probably hard-pressed to tweak even a line or two if there's one that hits too close to the recent headlines.

I have to confess to being way behind on my "Weeds" viewing this season, but the season finale synopsis sounds intriguing enough to make me fire up the DVR this weekend and reconnect with our friends in Agrestic. I have to find out why Kevin Nealon's character appears to be getting romantic with his banjo.

(Pictured left, Mary-Louise Parker and Alexander Gould. Pictured right, Kevin Nealon.)

Multihyphenate Marshall Herskovitz has a thoughtful op-ed in today's Los Angeles Times looking at -- what else? -- WGA strike issues and how so many of the issues on the table are intertwined with the death 11 years ago of the FCC's financial interest and syndication rule. He also gets in a noticeable plug for his new online skein "quarterlife," which once tried to find life as an old-fashioned show on ABC.

(In the spirit of unabashed self-promotion, chapter one of a certain new book about the life of two now-defunct networks has a whole lotta info about fin-syn and its legacy, not that I'm plugging "Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN" or anything...)

As Herskovitz submits about the post-fin-syn world of network TV:

The most profound change resulting from that ruling is the way networks go about the business of creating programming. Networks today exert a level of creative control unprecedented in the history of the medium. The stories my friends tell me would make me laugh if the situation weren't so self-defeating. Network executives routinely tell producers to change the color of the walls on sets; routinely decide on the proper wardrobe for actors; routinely have "tone" meetings with directors on upcoming pilots; routinely give notes on every page of a script. (When we did "thirtysomething" in the late '80s, we never received network notes.) And by the way, they have every right to do these things. As owners, they have a responsibility to satisfy themselves that their product is competitive and successful.

Sadly, editing chores kept me in the office this a.m. For comprehensive coverage from Variety's Josef Adalian and Michael Schneider of the rally that brought out a who's-who of showrunners, check out Variety's Scribe Vibe strike blog.

Our cause is worth the fight. That's the message top showrunners plan to send to the nets and studios this morning (Wednesday) with a Very Special Episode of picketing outside of ABC's HQ in Burbank.

A strong turnout of high-powered types is expected to gather along West Alameda Avenue in an effort to demonstrate loud and clear that TV's ultimate multitaskers have thrown down their pencils and every other tool they use to deliver their segs under normal circumstances.

I've no doubt there'll be fists of fury in the air, lots of clever placards, quippy chanting and shouting into bullhorns. Showrunners have rallied with a surprising degree of solidarity around the belief that the contract talks with invariably be spurred along that much faster if production comes to a grinding halt this week.

Of course, there's been scoffs in many quarters about how some of the most successful folks in showbiz have suddenly gotten in touch with their inner blue-collar worker (and their scruffiest pair of jeans) to walk the picket lines that they drive to in Mercedes and BMWs from digs in Brentwood and Bel-Air.

But for others, the very fact that writers who are well off enough already to shrug their shoulders at a few pennies worth of residual hikes only proves that the picketing is more than money, (though it is surely about money). For the high-earners on the picket lines, it's about fairness, respect and recognition, something many feel they've had none of since the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers came to the table in July with a residuals revamp proposal that was instantly seen as an "attack" on the decades-old compensation formulas that keep film and TV scribes afloat between gigs.

Of all the strong convictions expressed by the hundreds of Writers Guild members who took to the streets on Monday, none was more pervasive among the strikers than the certainty that the television business as we know it today will soon be a distant memory.

Many scribes are convinced that soon all television program distribution, or at least the reruns that generate the stuff of mortgage and car payments for WGA members, are going the way of the Web. The advent of buy-to-own downloads, web streaming of full-length segs and DVD box sets by season will combine to put the knife in the kind of mammoth syndication deals that for decades have yielded the biggest windfalls for studios and profit participants.

The CEOs of the struck studios and networks undoubtedly share those fears/concerns -- on that point at least they can all agree. Warner Bros. did well with old-fashioned syndie sales to local broadcast stations of CBS' "Two and a Half Men," but is it the last one? How long will cablers keep paying $1 million-plus for rerun rights to an hourlong series that can be readily accessed on an on-demand basis?

"The media is changing. The way our product is getting out is changing," said writer David Fury as he stood outside the 20th Century Fox lot on Pico Boulevard holding up one end of a large homemade paper banner reading "Writers 4 a Fair Contract." Fury, who also gamely leaned into the street with a sign urging drivers to "Honk 4 Writers" (and they did, through the gamut of Toyotas, Mercedes, BMWs, Lexuses, Prius, Hondas, etc.), said the fire this time stems from a desire to protect themselves in the future.

The hangover of the much-reviled formula writers agreed to in the mid-1980s on homevid compensation hovers like smog in Riverside on a windy day in L.A. over every move the scribes and studios try to make on new media. In the view of writers who took roles in Monday's picket street theater, the biggest problem is that the studios have refused to make any moves on the matter.

"The younger writers -- the kids who are now in college -- are not protected" for the new media world order, said Fury, whose credits include "24," "Lost" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."If we don't do it now, a lot of writers are going to wonder why we let them down."

And so it begins, the shutdown scenario no one wanted to see. Sunday's marathon talks between writers and producers couldn't move the sides close enough together to prevent the pickets from going up all over town and key sites in Gotham (click here for the WGA's list of L.A. picket sites).

No new talks are on the horizon, as Variety's Dave McNary reports, but here's to hoping that will change soon. The local weather report forecasts a cooling trend during the next few days for the L.A. area, but we all know the temperature is going to rise several degrees as those pickets hit the street at 9 a.m. Of course, the big question now is how the Teamsters-repped showbiz workers react to pickets, and how showrunners and the multihyphenates a la "The Office" writer-thesps respond to a professional dilemma, as Variety's Josef Adalian and Michael Schneider report.

For a flavor of how workaday scribes are feeling during this season of discontent, check out United Hollywood, a blog maintained by several WGA members. And check Variety.com all day for updates.

Godspeed to John Wells and all of those who have been engaging in shuttle diplomacy during the past 48 hours in the effort to bring about a cease fire agreement between the WGA and the producers.

I sensed a shift in sentiment in the room Saturday night at Hollywood's Cabana Club during the ironically-timed 300th seg celebration of the Wells-produced "ER" -- a shining example of the kind of high-end scripted TV that is at risk in the WGA-Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers contract talks. (I confess to wondering if I wasn't being hopelessly Pollyanna-ish with my post-party post below, but I also felt it couldn't hurt to put some hopeful vibrations out there.)

If Wells, given his background and experience, is the one who can get the sides to build a bridge, or even some temporary scaffolding, to prevent the pickets from going up all over town on Monday, he really will be "the Eisenhower of all showrunners," as Warner Bros. TV boss Peter Roth intro'd him on Saturday night. Fingers crossed...

It was a celebration of a mighty impressive achievement -- "ER's" 300th seg -- but the talk of the party thrown by Warner Bros. Television Saturday night at the Cabana Club in Hollywood was all about what may transpire on Sunday and Monday.

Any gathering of TV industry insiders would have been abuzz with talk of the writers strike called for 12: 01 a.m. Monday and the Hail Mary meeting set for Sunday between the scribes and producers. But with "ER" in particular, it had to be the dominant theme given "ER" exec producer John Wells' background as a former WGA West prexy, one who skillfully helped avert a Defcon 4 scenario in 2001 when contract talks got heated (though not nearly as scalding as they are this time around).

In his brief remarks saluting the show and the people who make it, Warner Bros. TV prexy Peter Roth called Wells "the Eisenhower of all showrunners," and his use of a militaristic comparison was not lost on the crowd, unconscious as it may have been on Roth's part. NBC U Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman was more pointed, saying that Wells was going "fix all of it" in relation to the strike.

During his turn at the mike, Wells didn't use the S-word (except to sheepishly scoff at Ben's remark), but he did note that he'd done the math, and in the 14 seasons since "ER" dawned, skein has produced some 24,682 pages of scripts.

Neal Baer, a WGA negotiating committee member and an "ER" alum (who now shepherds NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" and does the work of angels as a licensed physician in his spare time), was on hand and inundated by "what's gonna happen?" queries. It was intriguing to see Baer and Wells and former "ER" showrunner Lydia Woodward huddled in a heavy-duty discussion toward the end of the evening.

As befitting the spirit of "ER," there was a define touch of optimism to all the strike talk among partygoers. The fact that a meeting was called for Sunday on Friday afternoon, hours after the WGA formally announced its plan to walk out on Monday, was widely dissected and discussed as a flicker of hope. There was also a feeling among the card-carrying types in the room that after Friday's strike announcement, some of the CEOs were starting to get more personally engaged and realize the serious-as-a-heart-attack-ness of the threat at hand.

Maybe, just maybe, there'll be enough of a give-and-take on Sunday for the scribes to hold their fire, even if it's 12- or 24 hour increments. Or in "ER" parlance, let's hope Sunday's meet turns out to be the final act of a two-parter, packed with guest stars and exotic location shoots, with a cliffhanger in the middle...and an uplifting ending by 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

Best quote to come from today's 1:30 p.m. newser at the Writers Guild HQ:

“We have 48 hours. What we really want to do isn’t to strike. What we want to do is negotiate. There still is time.” -- WGA Negotiating Committee head John Bowman.

The atmosphere at the guild's HQ was tight-lipped and fairly grim. This was not a coffee-and-pastry kind of affair.

There wasn't much rhetorical grandstanding by guild brass, and both WGA West prexy Patric Verrone and his WGA East counterpart Michael Winship seemed earnest in expressing that they are more than willing to go back to the bargaining table, so long as the producers ease up on the stance that the home video residual formula be applied to the new media realm as well -- at least "electronic sell-through," or digital downloads, of existing films and TV programs.

“There is still time and a deal to be made before this strike begins. We urge the studios and the networks to come back and bargain fairly,” Winship said.

During the wait for the newser to begin, there was some clucking among the journos and camera folks that the WGA had already gone to the trouble of getting a camera-ready screen backdrop reading "Writers Guild of America Contract 2007."

But after hearing them out, I'm convinced that none of the guild leadership wanted it to get that far -- despite the many accusations to the contrary. When asked whether there was any peacemaker who might step forward to avert this disaster, Verrone sounded firm in his resolve that "what we are seeking is fair," but not damn-the-torpedos defiant, either.

“No one was able to prevent us coming to this moment. There is still a chance that someone or someones will and that’s what we look forward to,” Verrone said.

For updates throughout the weekend, check out Variety.com and the United Hollywood blog maintained by numerous WGA members.

Among the many immediate concerns for WGA members on this dark Friday is what to do with those scripts they've been furiously writing up until the Pencils Down moment arrives. The WGA is asking scribes to turn in copies of their eleventh-hour scripts to the guild so that they can see where the pages stand at the time they were turned in -- and compare them to produced work down the road should things get that far. Studios, of course, are wigging out about this WGA strike rule, and some of them have even dispatched formal letters to scribes under contract expressly stating that they'll be in breach of their agreements contracts if they ship their scripts to the guild.

So what's a working writer to do? I'm told by a veteran talent rep who has vivid memories of the Five Months War of 1988 that scribes would be well-advised to turn in their scripts to their commissioning bodies, and then head to the post office to drop a copy in the mail to themselves, and then stick that package unopened in a drawer. That way they'll have a postmark time stamp to prove, should guild brass inquire later, when they stopped working on it and what shape the script was in when it was turned in.