The Shows Will Go On

But first the unions have to get their actors together

Any movie or TV writer could have fashioned a conclusion that was more cheerful, or at least clearer. In fact, the apparent end of the two-month-long actors' strike last week left about as many unanswered questions as the average episode of Dallas. After a marathon session, negotiators for the unions and the producers reached an agreement, but no one was certain when production would resume, or indeed if the 60,000 performers involved would ratify the contract at all. There were a few forced handshakes, but, as Industry Spokesman Philip Myers wryly phrased it, "there was no dancing on the tables."

The biggest issue--how much the actors would receive from pay TV and from sales of video cassettes and video discs--remained the chief irritant to union dissidents. The contract guarantees actors 4.5% of gross revenues after the sale of 100,000 cassettes or discs, and 4.5% after each pay-TV outlet has shown a film or program for ten days. But many of the actors believe that they should get their piece of the profit from the first sale of the cassettes and discs and from a first showing on pay TV. There was less contention over other parts of the package: a 32.5% increase over three years in the minimum pay for actors, which would rise from the present $225 a day to $298, and various improvements in fringe benefits. Said Union Negotiator Sanford Wolff: "I think that the economic aspects of the deal are sufficient and that the membership will and should approve the contract."

That amiable curmudgeon Ed Asner, also known as Lou Grant, looked over the agreement and politely disagreed. "I think it stinks," he said. "The results weren't even an approximation of our demands." Dismissing the terms for pay TV, he added: "I don't think any actor will get an appreciable amount of money out of it." Asner may have a point: many pay networks typically show a film no more than ten times a year, which would leave the actors with 4.5% of nothing. Some of his colleagues are as unhappy as he is, but may vote to ratify anyway. The strike, which began July 21, is the longest the actors have ever undertaken and has already cost many of them a good part of their yearly income.

Since much of the voting is done by mail and the results may not be known for two or three weeks, the union leadership may allow the actors to go back to work immediately. If that happens, production of TV series could resume as early as this week, and viewers could get to see the new shows by the end of October or beginning of November. A musicians' strike, which has yet to be settled, will hold up work only if the actors refuse to cross the picket line. Film production may have to wait, and movie producers, who have big budgets to worry about, may not let the cameras roll again until the contract is finally approved.

Already the networks are arguing about when the season will officially start. ABC and CBS say it should not begin until the new shows air. Long-suffering NBC says it actually began Sept. 15, the usual date in past years and the night, incidentally, when the first episode of Shogun was shown. Shogun's slashing samurai sword decapitated the opposition for five nights, and if that week is counted, NBC will have a jump on the other two networks, which just might cause NBC President Fred Silverman to yell "Banzai!"

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