Unscripted Lives

The strike has probably cost Leight more than most WGA members. Despite the walkout, he's still responsible for paying the rent on offices used by his writers. He's also paying the salaries of "3 1/2 people" on his staff whose livelihoods were cut off. "I will never be covered for the money I'm losing on this strike," he says. The bill, he figures, is already approaching six figures.

How does he feel about that? Leight shrugs, then grimaces a little. Showrunners "make a good living" -- he won't disclose his compensation -- "so I'm in a group of people who should be complaining the least."

Since walking out, Leight has tried polishing up a script for a play (his last stage piece, "Side Man," won the Tony Award for best play in 1999). But progress has been unsteady. "You're distracted and anxious," he says. "I've been working on the show for six years, so when you stop doing it all of a sudden, it's hard to downshift."

He adds: "I think I'm testier at home. I imagine I'm not the only one who would say that."

On the other hand, he is at home, something he couldn't say when dealing with the round-the-clock headaches of a TV series. One unexpected benefit of the strike is having more time with his daughter, who turns a year old next month. Says Leight: "I've seen her more in the past week than I did in the previous 30."

The Survivor

Bill Scheft, 51, can't help feeling a little guilty. While many of his friends are walking a picket line, Scheft is working again, cranking out gags for David Letterman's "Late Show."

Scheft returned to work on New Year's Day, after Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, struck a deal with the WGA.

"My assumption all along was you don't go back to work until the strike is over," says Scheft, who's written for Letterman for 15 years. The show's writers "had no intention of writing a word" during the strike.

Now, he says, "I feel survivor's guilt. There are still 11,000 people out of work."

Not that he's upset with Letterman. He hails the agreement between Worldwide Pants and the WGA, saying that it gives the writers the residuals that the studios have refused to pay.

"Every time a new technology has come out, the studios have told us: 'It's very frightening. It's from Neptune! It's radioactive. We have to wait and see,' " he says.

Scheft says he and his fellow writers have tried to contribute what they can to those still on strike. They picket regularly. They donate money to a strike fund. They also buy pizza and coffee and doughnuts for the other picketers.