As week two of the Writers Guild of America strike came to a close, spirits remained high among TV and film writers on picket lines in Hollywood and New York -- even as they acknowledged that their fight for Internet payments might drag into 2008.

With the holiday season approaching and no new talks planned between writers and producers, the work stoppage is guaranteed to last at least two months, barring an unexpected development. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers represents the studios.

In the worst-case scenario, the strike wipes out the 2007-'08 season and is joined by the Screen Actors Guild, whose contract with the studios expires in June. If this sobering realization has dampened spirits on the picket lines, the writers aren't showing it.

Writers' solidarity

"I think everyone feels we have to be doing this," said Sarah Fain, one half of the writing team behind the ABC series "Women's Murder Club." "We're optimistic we can get the AMPTP back to the table and hopefully get a fair deal."

Her writing partner on the show, Elizabeth Craft, volunteered for one of the early-bird pickets that started this week in West Los Angeles. By arriving at 6 a.m., the writers hope to effectively cut off supplies to the studios, at least those delivered by Teamsters.

Spokesmen for AMPTP were eerily silent this week, as they were most of last week. Patrick Goldstein, who writes the "Big Picture" column for the Los Angeles Times, reported Wednesday that he couldn't get any studio head to speak on the record.

Meanwhile, every writer with a blog was getting the message out and underscoring the determination of the 12,000-member WGA.

"There's a much greater sense of solidarity in this strike," said Ken Levine, a veteran writer whose credits include "MASH" and "Cheers." His blog is one of the go-to sites for anyone wanting color from the front lines. The veteran of several writers strikes compared the current situation to 1988, when a fractious guild slogged through a painful five-month work stoppage that didn't have a happy ending.

"In the '88 strike, the film people were saying, 'Why should we strike for TV residuals?' and the TV people were saying, 'Why should we be striking for features?' " said Levine. "This time it's something that both sides agree is important."

That's because movie and television writers alike are convinced the Internet is fast becoming the way people entertain themselves. The guild is asking for a residual of 2.5% on the profits of new media distribution. Currently, they get nothing for downloads, except those that are paid for, such as iTunes purchases. And those residuals are based on what WGA president Patric Verrone called "the hated DVD formula," of 0.2%.

Guild leadership has been savvy with the news media. It organized Friday rallies in which strikers picket en masse. The first week's mass rally outside the Fox studios attracted 4,000 writers and seemingly as many news trucks. This week's mass rally was at NBC's Burbank studios.

Informing via Internet

The Internet may not be a great way for writers to get paid, but it's proving to be a lifeline as they work the picket lines. It offers 24/7 updates and their own network to broadcast their message to the public. Hardly a day passes when a fresh YouTube video a Writers Guild member created doesn't go viral. On Monday, it was a clip of recent interviews with studio chieftains bragging about how much Internet revenue they were making.

The Internet seems to be helping keep writers on message and in line. On Wednesday, Variety reported that several soap opera writers were planning to cross the picket lines. Within hours, Broadcasting & Cable posted an update on its Web site: The writers had changed their minds.

Ugh...they need to settle this pronto. It saddens me greatly that my favorite show is being cut short. I don't know what to do with myself when I don't have a new episode coming up to look forward to. We all need to get together, contact the producers and tell them we'll write for them to keep the show going, lol. This is awful.

getting over this quickly would have been the best for everyone, and not only for this show.

now what will really tick me off is if they release season 2 as an 11 ep dvd.

Travis: 'Not Good'

you can say that again, im gutted

if the strike ends excactly after season finale....
im gonna kill everyone in sight!

Hey Guys

I've just watched another youtube clip about the WGA strike and a writer of heroes confirmed the sad truth: They have stopped producing episodes, after episode 11.

Watch the quote for yourself (it's at about 1 Minute 30 sec):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCqBqs_UZs8


Hope they start negotiations at Nov 26th.

Greetings.

If anyone, you should kill the producers first

Figured that much...

I am with Triton Yeah we need to go Jessica on the Lazy a$$ producers who won't negociate with the writers not eachother....

OMG...why like this