Marching in picket lines has replaced life as a writer for a group of University alumni who are members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Since Nov. 5, the WGA has been on strike in protest of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ (AMPTP) policies on writers’ residuals.

“It used to be if you wrote an episode of a TV show, and five months after it aired, it would run again, and you would receive a residual check,” recalled Ed Decter ’79, a writer/producer/director whose work includes “There’s Something About Mary.” “Now, the episode appears on TV and you can download it for free off of abc.com, for example, and the writer gets no residual. Before viewers watch online, they see an ad, and the companies get money, but the writers don’t…this is really about the future of making a living as a writer.”

The amount set for DVD residuals is another concern for writers. According to Ed Lee ’95, who has worked for “The Drew Carey Show” and “Class of 3000,” a writer currently receives four cents for the sale of a DVD.

“This was an amount that was calculated in the early 1980’s when it cost several dollars to produce a VHS or Betamax cassette, and the profit margin for the studios was much slimmer,” Lee explained. “Today, it costs only 60 cents to produce a DVD, and the profits from DVD sales are exponentially higher. Yet the writer still gets only four cents per DVD. We have asked the studios for an increase to eight cents per DVD sale, but the studios refuse to budge on this issue.”

“Ugly Betty” Co-Executive Producer Henry Alonso Myers ’95 shared his sentiments about the strike via cell phone while picketing on Thursday.

“It’s a weird system, but it’s also been a pretty fair system,” Myers said. “We’re very fortunate to work in Hollywood where everyone gets a share at least in a small way, but I think the guys we’re up against that want to use the Internet which is the future….We’re asking if they are making money on us, we want some of it, just to maintain our middle class lifestyle. I mean, most WGA writers make $60,000 or less, which doesn’t go far in L.A.”

Founding Partner of Endeavor Talent Agency in L.A. Rick Rosen P ’08 thinks that the entertainment business has become a less healthy business. As an agent, he represents Decter and other writers and is therefore on the side of the Guild, but said that he understands both sides of the issue.

“I understand the writers’ desire to get a fair share of new media revenues and I understand the studios’ reluctance to pay a lot of money when they’re losing money on most TV shows and movies,” Rosen said. “I think there is a compromise to be had.”

Rosen expressed that right now, he doesn’t have much to do.

“We can’t make deals for writers because they can’t write. Things aren’t in production. Networks and studios aren’t buying new materials. I’m just trying to work in helping to settle the strike because we do business with both sides. They need to find some common ground,” Rosen said.

Each of the 12,000 members of the WGA is required to help the strike effort for twenty hours each week, which for most has amounted to picketing for four hours each day. Myers has been positioned outside of his former place of employment, an independent studio rented by ABC.

“My fellow writers and I hold picket signs to remind anyone that goes inside that they’re crossing picket line,” he said. “I spend a lot of time in the sun talking about the issues with other writers. The people crossing picket line…a lot of them are our friends, but actors have no strike clause in their contracts so can’t join us but they can come out and support us. Picketing is putting a public face on the strike. We’re out of work because we’re waiting for a fair deal. Sometimes I bring my son out on the picket line with me—I get to see him that way, which is nice, but it’s also a reminder that writers have families. We’re human beings. We’re getting vilified in the press. We’re not rich people.”

Decter also participated in the WGA strikes of 1981 and 1988, and expressed that this time is the most unified he’s ever seen the 12,000 members of the WGA.

“The spirit on the picket lines is excellent,” Decter said. “Not one person who’s protesting wants to be on strike, which is different than in 1988, when the Guild was split down the middle.”

Myers noted that writers aren’t the only group to feel the effects of the strike.

“TV shows will go dark in a few weeks,” Myers said. “There are more than 100 shows not running right now. There will be 62 thousand people not working in L.A., which includes Guild members and those in IATSE [The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees]. This is not to mention other places that support the studios, like florists, restaurants, and dry cleaners. Someone said that it’s the equivalent of an economic earthquake hitting this town.”

Viewers have already felt the consequences of the WGA’s actions. Fans of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and “The Colbert Report” have been watching reruns for the past ten days.

“An unfortunate thing about ’The Daily Show’ and ’Colbert Report’ airing repeats is that they have become such an important part of the political process for young people,” Lee said. “It would be awful to enter the election primary season or even the run-up to the general Presidential Election without the satirical coverage those shows provide.”

Lee remarked that networks will air more game shows and reality shows, which are not covered under the WGA’s jurisdiction.

“So get ready for a whole lot more shows featuring people dancing with C-list celebrities, eating animal genitalia, or playing ’Pick a Suitcase,’” he said.

Decter believes that television viewers will see the effects in about four weeks, and movie-goers will feel them after the summer, when there aren’t any scripts to use.

The picket lines are only one aspect of the WGA strike. “Cold Case” writer Kate Purdy ’01 has been heavily involved in the efforts. Not only is she is a Strike Captain at Warner Brothers Studio Gate 7, but she also helped set up a blog called unitedhollywood.com.

“[Unitedhollywood.com] was created by a committee of strike captains to get our perspective out to the world—a difficult job when the giant conglomerates you’re battling own the airwaves, and the newspapers,” Purdy said. “But, they don’t own the Internet. Not yet.”

Among the content on the blog is an informative video entitled “Why We Fight,” an informational clip explaining the issues at hand that has already been disseminated widely online.

Purdy thinks this strike will be one of the first to be won or lost on the Internet.

“I encourage everyone to read up about it, and then get out there and post, write, respond, comment, and make viral videos,” she said. “Your voice about this labor movement has more resonance than you could ever imagine. The AMPTP (the corporate conglomerates) actually keep track of every positive and negative comment.”

Neither Decter nor Lee sees an imminent end to the strike.

“I see this ending bitterly and not so soon,” Decter said. “We’re up against really big companies, and entertainment divisions are only a small portion of those companies. They’re trying to beat us down, and we’ll have to take the least amount they have to offer.”

Decter has heard rumors that the studios won’t come back to negotiate until after New Year’s Day, which “will ruin a lot of Thanksgivings and Christmases.”

“This is going to be a long one,” Lee noted. “It breaks our hearts that many assistants and below-the-line employees in the industry have been laid off or will soon be laid off as a result of television and film productions shutting down.”

In the end, Lee linked these recent events to the University.

“Having gone to Wesleyan has definitely given me a leg up in protesting,” Lee said. “Wesleyan alumni in the entertainment industry have always been extremely loyal and supportive of each other. This has never been more apparent than now. In the past two weeks, I’ve picketed with Wesleyan alumni/WGA members spanning three decades of Wesleyan Film, and it’s comforting to know we’ve got each other’s backs.”