Then -- and now

Carl Gottlieb, writer-producer, is on the WGA negotiating committee. As a writer-producer in 1988, his first loyalty was to the writers.

Perhaps the main reason for the strike of 1988 was that “both sides, the Writers Guild and AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) underestimated the resolve of the other side,” Gottlieb said. Because the writers had to accept “an unpleasant formula” for residuals in 1985, guild officers spent two years meeting privately with members to educate them on the problem.

“When negotiations appeared to be headed for an impasse,” he said, “we had a completely educated membership who voted overwhelmingly for a strike.”

For Gottlieb, the economic consequences were immediate: Universal sent him a telegram suspending his contract as a TV producer and writer. “The amount of money lost by both sides was never replaced,” he said. “It was horrible, which is why strikes are compared to war. Nobody wins a war.”

By the time the contract was settled and ratified by the members, he said, the guild had won 50 or 60 improvements, and the alliance prevailed in one or two issues.

However, the strike hastened the erosion of network TV’s audiences to cable and home video. “Partially as a result of the strike and other events of the time, networks’ share of the audience went from 90% to 65%. It never improved and it’s been eroding ever since. People went to cable and reality programming,” he said.

“It was the end of TV as we knew it.”