About 60 people stood behind police barricades outside of ABC Studios carrying picket signs on a cloudy January day last month. The crowd kept the noise to chatter.

It seems for the first time, the Writers Guild of America was without words.

You don’t know the names of the writers who have been on strike since November 2007, but you might recognize their faces from awards shows. About two weeks ago on Jan. 16, the Guild was striking over their dispute for more residuals from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but reports indicate informal talks between the two groups are going extremely well.

Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess have been working together as executive producers and writers on projects like ‘Northern Exposure’ and ‘The Sopranos’ since 1988. They had a development deal in place with CBS. But all that changed when the WGA began striking in early November 2007 in an attempt to get more residuals from DVD sales and a cut of the burgeoning Internet market.

‘Part of the deal is you write a script for a certain amount of money. Every time they use that script you get money from it,’ Green explained.

Her voice was barely audible over the honks coming from supportive motorists, but it’s bitter tone was evident. The staff of ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ ‘ who had returned to work after the WGA and Letterman’s production company Worldwide Pants successfully made a deal ‘ supplied the striking writers with pizza.

‘No one seems to have trouble understanding songwriters and composers, every time their song is played, pennies roll into their pocket. No one seems to correlate these two arts,’ Green said. ‘They’d [corporate bosses] love to do without us.’

Susanna Styron, a freelance writer whose work includes the teleplay for ‘In from the Night,’ said the strike isn’t just affecting the writers. She said she has a project in the works, ready for preproduction, but contracts can’t be signed because of the writer’s strike, leaving the production crew out of a job, too.

The AMPTP estimated that the WGA and other production crew workers have lost over $342.8 million in wages.

Other industry professionals have indicated that over $1 billion has been lost if you include actors and executives.

‘The writers are striking because the corporations that own the studios are incredibly greedy,’ Styron said.

But to those who simply miss new episodes of ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ the reasons for the strike may escape them .

According to the WGA, ABC and its parent company Disney makes $1.5 billion off of Internet downloads and viewings; writers receive no cut of that. As a result, the writers are looking to change their contract with the AMPTP to include higher residuals on DVD sales, residuals from ‘new media,’ content written for or just distributed via the internet, and how writers of animated and reality programs fall under WGA contracts.

Burgess said residuals are a necessity for all entertainment professionals.

‘The actors, the writers, they need these residuals, because everybody is not a multimillion dollar screenwriter or producer,’ he said. ‘These pay the bills.’

Picket lines and rallies have been sprouting up in Los Angeles and New York City since November, and writers show no signs of letting up.

Actors like John Leguizamo, Vincent D’Onofrio and Kristen Wiig joined writers on the picket line on Jan. 16. The Screen Actors Guild has made their support of the striking writers known by constantly joining in rallies and not crossing picket lines, including not attending the Golden Globes ceremony which was canceled as a result of the strike.

Because of the strike, reality shows like ‘American Gladiators’ and ‘Crowned’ have hit the airwaves.

While most students are likely going to just sit back and ride the impending wave of new reality TV and reruns, there are some, like Melissa Donohue, who are taking the strike a little harder.

‘I have a lot more boring nights, that’s for sure,’ Donohue, the sophomore computer science major said. ‘It’s delayed the return of some of my favorite shows’Battlestar Galactica’ and ‘Lost’ ‘ and ended the season prematurely for others, like ‘Heroes.’

‘I live for TV,’ she said. ‘I spent over $3,000 on TV series on DVDs this summer.’

While she may be without some of her favorite shows, Donohue said she fully supports the writers ‘ a feeling that many fans share. Fan campaigns have been springing up since the strike with the web site fans4writers.org leading the charge.

‘It’s their work that is being reproduced, they should get a cut of the earnings, it’s only fair,’ Donohue said. ‘Without them there is no television.’