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The last time television writers who were members of the Writers Guild of America decided to picket their employers, it was 1988 and shows like "Star Trek: The Next Generation" had to dip into their vault and pull out some "Star Trek: Phase II" scripts to write.

Nearly 20 years later, there is a lot more scripted television out there, including some older and newer genre favorites, but all of them could be threatened with shortened or even compressed seasons if writers cannot reach an agreement with their studio bosses by the end of October.

"Based upon the public statements of the Writers Guild, it's quite clear these are going to be very contentious negotiations," J. Nicholas Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, recently told the Associated Press. "Their statements are bellicose, so we've got to prepare for the worst."

That could mean as studios present their fall schedules beginning this week, there may be far more reality shows, or even shows who have already started production and planning to have more scripts in the can before the Oct. 31 deadline.

One of the most contentious issues facing studios this time around is how much writers are being paid for work that is distributed on different types of media than just television sets and movie screens. Some of those issues came about last year when some networks like SciFi Channel decided to air "Webisodes" of "Battlestar Galactica" prior to its third season launch, something writers were doing as part of existing contracts and without any additional compensation. The WGA tried to stop those types of Webisodes to be released without proper compensation, and it almost threatened the overall Webisode project for BSG, but the network decided to release those Internet-only snippets anyway.

Some shows expect to have most of their seasons produced ahead of time, producing nearly 20 episodes during a time period when only half a dozen are produced. That could affect other production crew members who aren't writers, because their work will be compacted into a short period of time, and then forced not making anything during the lull where episodes normally would've been produced.

"There's no question in my mind this is no simply about emerging technology, but the perception that the gulds pretty much got screwed in previous negotiations in what were then emerging technologies," said Steven Bochco, who ran a number of television series over the years including "NYPD Blue."

"All the guilds feel strongly that they don't want to be caught in a position that doesn't anticipate rapidly shifting technological advancements that leave them high and dry."

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