Strategies for Survival Had an Early Start

Hollywood said it was ready for a directors’ strike, at least for the short term.

Despite threats that “a total work stoppage” would result following a walkout by the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood’s television and film producers months ago anticipated a possible strike and began preparing accordingly.

Renewed TV series production began months early in order to produce new episodes before the June 30 union contract expiration, and finished made-for-TV movies are likely to be used to pad the fall season if new series production is delayed, producers and network officials say. Most current feature film production hustled to a close this week.

News programs, daytime soaps and game shows plan to muddle through with non-DGA managers or non-union free-lance directors at the helm. Some news departments and independent producers have set up training programs for staffers planning to step in.

But producers agree there is no way to prepare for a long-term strike.

One producer who asked not to be named said the networks had unofficially agreed not to take any action on series production for four weeks from the contract expiration date. After that, however, he said producers may feel pressure to hire scab directors rather than see the networks cancel or cut back on orders for new series.

Daytime serials and news programs would feel the pinch almost immediately. While some games were said to have as much as eight weeks of shows taped and ready for airing, others, including newer shows such as “Classic Concentration,” have few shows in the can.

“Directors of game shows are very special; you’re dealing with unexpected events,” said Jerry Chester, executive vice president of Mark Goodson Productions, which produces “The Price Is Right,” “Card Sharks” and “Super Password.” “It’s like covering sporting events, it’s winging it as you go along.”

According to network spokesmen, soaps made in-house will continue in production. Decisions about independently produced serials will be made on a case-by-case basis.

American Federation of TV and Radio Artists President Frank Maxwell--a regular cast member on “General Hospital”--says production might carry on during a directors’ strike, but quality will suffer, as he believes it did during the 1985 writers’ strike.

“That was like, well, I wish I hadn’t been there,” Maxwell said. “The scripts did deteriorate some.”

Although actors are bound by their contracts to work during a directors’ strike, the Screen Actors Guild has said its members will be disciplined if they accept any directing jobs. And guild spokesman Mark Locher predicts “there will be turmoil on the set” during TV production if non-union labor is present.

Said AFTRA’s Maxwell: “We will do what we are paid to do, which is act. But that’s it.”

Barney Rosenzweig, executive producer of Orion’s “Cagney & Lacey,” says he will abide by whatever decision Orion makes on shutting down production. But, Rosenzweig added: “Personally, I have gone on record with Orion that I would be willing to continue working (during a strike). ‘Cagney & Lacey’ has no episodes in the can for fall, and I don’t want to see the show canceled by default.

“I also don’t see the DGA as a bastion of the American union movement,” Rosenzweig continued. “It is an elitist corps that has in general been unsympathetic to women’s concerns and the concerns of minorities. I’m not in sympathy with their demands.

“The Directors Guild of America has crossed every picket line in this community. I think it is the height of hubris that they come to these various unions asking for their support.”