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December 2, 2008 10:38:22 AM CST

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Networks Race to Catch Up

Posted Feb 15, 08 4:25 PM CST in Arts & Living,  Business 

(Newser) – With the TV writers back at work, the networks are scrambling to put together some semblance of a fall season, the LA Times reports. Pilot scripts and casting calls are weeks behind where they'd normally be, and studios are trying to determine which already-in-hand scripts to produce. "I feel a little bit like we're all Rip Van Winkle or Snow White," says one producer.

"Everybody's scrambling," said one writer who's working on pilots for CBS and the CW. "The basic sense is that we've got a week or two to get our scripts in, or else they'll automatically be written off." Networks have to rush not only to get a production schedule in place but to make their all-important spring pitches to advertisers.

Source Los Angeles Times

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Writer Corey Reed, second from right, speaks as he sits with fellow writers Craig Sweeny, left, Moira Kirkland and Diane Ademu-John as they get back to work after the writers strike, at Raleigh Studios...   (Associated Press)
Writers on the TV show "Medium" sit in the writers room on the first day back to work after the strike at Raleigh Studios Manhattan Beach, in Manhattan Beach, Wednesday Feb. 13, 2008. ( AP Photo/Ann Johansson)   (Associated Press)
Writers Guild of America member Bradford Winters makes a telephone call in his New York office as he goes back to work on a new NBC television series "The Philanthropist," Wednesday Feb. 13, 2008. Members...   (Associated Press)
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