Great Chayefsky’s ghost!

Variety is reporting a tentative deal has been reached in the writers’ strike; the whole thing could be over tomorrow, which means that the talk shows will have their full complement of writers back at their desks by Monday, and the Oscars will go on as planned.

There have been rumblings of a rapprochement for a few days now — Michael Cieply’s New York Times piece took a particularly detailed at the behind-the-scenes maneuvering — but everyone’s been talking about February 15th as the make-or-break date to save the current TV season and the Oscars, so this early resolution is a pleasant surprise.

I mean, the Academy Awards is a billion-eyeball extravaganza, and a huge cash cow for Hollywood; there was no way the strike wasn’t going to be resolved in time for that, or at least far enough along in negotiations for a waiver. But again, now we don’t have to spend the next week hearing the various guild reps moaning about the urgency of going back to the table.

So that’s nice.