Pencils Up? TBD.

It's Sunday morning and here's a strike update.

The WGA membership meetings yesterday on both coasts were well attended and an outline of the deal terms was presented and questions answered by the negotiating committee. There will be a vote soon across the WGA to accept or reject the deal. Nikki Finke notes that if the membership votes to take this deal, picketing will end and writers may be back to work as early as this Wednesday.

Mr. Moore has not made any new post on his blog, though Battlestar Galactica writers Mark Verheiden and Jane Espenson seem satisfied. EUREKA writer Charlie Craig has noticed that cable writers get a worse deal than network ones. More links on the strike here from Mo Ryan this morning, including the opinions of several other writer/bloggers.

United Hollywood posted this thoughtful debate, Pro and Con about the streaming window terms. Though I certainly want the writers to get everything they can from this deal, I have to say the PRO arguement here is much stronger. Let's just look at BSG for one moment as an example - more than half the fans I know of this show, caught up with at least S1, if not S2, via long-window access (ie, seeing it many months, even years, after that first broadcast window ended). Let's not even talk about people I know who admire Joss Whedon shows - there seems to be an entire new GENERATION of Joss fandom that has developed around the DVD releases. The CON standpoint, which uses "appointment" TV shows like LOST as their main evidence, doesn't seem valid for the majority of film and TV. Most people I know catch up with things after the first airing (or with films, after opening weekend), once they've heard enough positive word of mouth amongst their friends, trusted critics, etc.