If you're a fan of David Letterman, you'll probably be happy to hear that The Late Show is the first TV production to have its writing staff return to work amidst the prolonged writers strike. Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, struck a deal with the Writers Guild last week, agreeing to all the terms and conditions that the WGA is fighting the studios over.

The WGA is calling this a huge victory—if their terms are good enough for Letterman, than the AMPTP really is being unreasonable by refusing to agree to the WGA's proposal. The WGA says this should be a turning point in their fight because the more companies they make individual deals with, the more they'll prove that their proposal is reasonable.

I'm sorry, but this logic just doesn't follow. Don't get me wrong—I think it's great that The Late Show's writers are getting the deal the Guild is fighting for. Worldwide Pants couldn't produce Letterman's show without their writers, so they're willing to pay. But that's not a victory for the WGA. It's just good economics—capitalism at work, supply and demand, so on and so forth.

But when production companies pull off this kind of stuff, they're undermining the need for the Guild—not helping its cause. The union is supposed to be fighting for all writers. Individual deals only prove that writers and teams of writers can get what they want without it being written in stone in the Guild's contract. If every production company in town made these same deals, it really isn't a win for the WGA—just a win for the writers.

Now, I'm fine with that—I'm not a big fan of guilds and unions and the like. In Hollywood, the guilds make it considerably more difficult for independents like myself to produce quality product. The guild minimums are set at rates studios can afford, making it prohibitively expensive for the little guys to compete. And of course the guild members (whether they be writers, actors, or directors) are bound by those rules so even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to work for less. I've worked with many actors who struggle with when to join the Screen Actors Guild—they can't get roles in bigger films without joining the guild, but if they join they won't be able to find as much consistent work since they can't take jobs on many non-union productions. It ends up being an annoying catch-22 for many.

But back to Worldwide Pants. What's perhaps most interesting about this new deal is how meaningless it really is. Most of what the WGA is fighting for has to do with getting residuals off of episodes replayed on the web or sold on DVD. But a quick glance at CBS's website will reveal that The Late Show isn't one of the dozen or so shows that the network broadcasts online. And when's the last time you saw a season of David Letterman being sold on DVD at Best Buy? So, what did Worldwide Pants really agree to? A bunch of terms that have little to no impact on their particular show? Smart move for Letterman and co., but I'm not too clear how that's really a victory for the WGA...