Someone once said that the way to understand the Screen Actors Guild was to note that its membership could be divided into two groups…

1. The crazed militants and…
2. The really crazed militants.

That's a joke but it's not without its truth. In past years, both kinds of crazed militants have managed to find common ground, link arms and behave like a union. In fact, at times it's been a very effective union that did right by its members and also by the entire industry. This year is not one of those times.

Actor Mike Farrell (a sane, smart man) wrote an overview of the problems and a report on a recent board meeting that should give you an idea of the situation.

It's starting to look like this thing will be resolved in our lifetime. The union's new TV-Theatrical Task Force will probably negotiate a deal with the AMPTP that will provide terms a wee bit better than what was previously on the table. This will not be a great contract and actors in the "Membership First" contingent will rightly say it's not good enough. But enough members will think it's time to end this thing and start rebuilding a shattered guild so it can fight again another day…and I'm guessing the offer will pass, though not in a landslide.

The M.F. group was not wrong about where they should go but they were probably wrong about how to get there. In the end, everyone has lost. If they can all manage to be good losers, they may be able to become a union again by the time the next contract has to be negotiated.

One of the many surprises of Election Night was that the Obama-Biden ticket won North Carolina. They didn't win it by much. The McCain-Palin ticket got 2,128,462 votes in that state while the Democratic slate received 2,142,625. By contrast, in 2004, Bush got 56% of the vote to Kerry's 44%, almost the same margin by which Bush beat Gore there in 2000. Before that, Bill Clinton lost the state twice in narrower contests.

So how is it that Barack Obama won this time there? We could probably name many reasons having to do with the economy and the war…and those reasons would all be valid. But I'd like to suggest one other that may have contributed to that 14K vote margin. That reason is Andy Griffith.

Andy Griffith is a sainted figure to some in North Carolina. I don't know if it's still the case — the shows are out on DVD and there could be some oversaturation — but not long ago, The Andy Griffith Show was rerunning eighty thousand times a day in that state. You could tune in at any hour and catch the one were Gomer places Barney under citizen arrest or the one where Aunt Bea entered the pickle-making contest or some other classic. Actors who were on that series, even once or twice, have literally made their retirement incomes by appearing at events in North Carolina to sell autographed photos. That's how revered Mayberry is to the folks down there.

Andy's been a longtime Democrat but the video he did with Ron Howard was one of the few times he's gone public over something like this. A friend of mine in that state says it was big news that may not have swayed any of the die-hards but carried considerable weight with many on the fence. If Sheriff Andy said it was jes' fine to vote for that Barack Obama fella, it was jes' fine. And of course in landing the valuable endorsement of Sheriff Andy Taylor, Obama also got the support of Ben Matlock.

We'll never know how much impact that little video had. I'm not even sure how many people ever saw it or heard about it. But I'll bet it got Obama some votes in that state that he otherwise wouldn't have gotten…maybe even 14,000 of 'em.

This weblog has included frequent mentions of a friend of mine named Frank Buxton…and I still can't quite wrap my brain around the fact that I am friends with the guy who hosted the TV show Discovery when I was ten. Discovery was one of the few truly entertaining "educational" programs ever done…like another, a decade later, called Hot Dog. Frank was also responsible for Hot Dog.

I wasn't sure if Hot Dog was by the same Frank Buxton because there was also the Frank Buxton who wrote, directed and produced shows for Garry Marshall's company like Happy Days and Mork & Mindy. And one of them, I guessed, was the guy who with Woody Allen created the movie, What's Up, Tiger Lily? Since Woody was involved in Hot Dog, I assumed the Frank Buxton who produced that show was also the Frank Buxton from Tiger Lily but then there was also the Frank Buxton who voiced cartoon shows like Batfink and I wasn't sure if that was the Frank Buxton who wrote the definitive book on old radio. (It's called Big Broadcast, 1920-1950: A New, Revised, and Greatly Expanded Edition of Radio's Golden Age, the Complete Reference Work and it's currently out of print but well worth tracking down.)

So I was confused about all these different Frank Buxtons. That's before I found out that they were all the same guy.

Amazingly, I haven't fully described the length and breadth of this man's accomplishments and expertise. He covers a few more of them — and offers video clips of many — over on his new website. When you click your way over to www.frankbuxton.com, as you will if you have a lick of sense, make sure you catch them all, especially his appearance on The Tonight Show with that Carson guy and the clips from Discovery and Hot Dog.

I know a lot of brilliant people. Frank is about eight of them. Go visit his site and see why I'm so impressed.

There are Republican Senators on my TV screen explaining that building new power plants and housing projects will not create jobs but giving huge bonuses to CEOs will.

Concluding my diary from yesterday…

A few minutes before Noon, we're dismissed for lunch and told to report back at 1:30. As we file out, a video extols the glories of many nearby eateries…and I'd been thinking of hiking down to the Grand Central Market, where wondrous foodsellers abound. But it's semi-rainy and it takes forever to get an elevator down, which means it'll take forever-and-a-half to get an elevator back up to the 11th floor. It also dawns on me that if I come back early, I can probably claim one of the few seats where I can work on my laptop. So I decide to just duck down to the in-house cafeteria, come back up and begin writing.

On the way out of the waiting room, I bend over to pick up something and hear the sound of trouser-fabric tearing. This is not a good sound to hear, especially out in public.

A hasty sprint to a Men's Room stall later, I check and discover that I have somehow — don't ask me how, I have no idea — engineered a seven-inch tear in the front of my jeans. It starts just to the left of the fly about halfway down and continues on into my inseam. I figure that if I hold my laptop case in the proper position, no one will notice it. Later, I discover that depending on how I sit in any chair, I am subject to some interesting breezes.

In the cafeteria, I eat a very good hot turkey sandwich and some very bad mashed potatoes. How is it, I wonder, that there are bad mashed potatoes in this world? It's not like this is a complicated recipe. I'm not sure if they're instant or not…but if they're not, they should be. The basic Betty Crocker mix yields a better result.

And now it's 1:15 and I'm back at the same little desk in Room 302, waiting to hear if I have to report somewhere. The place is packed — barely enough chairs for the number of bodies. The Van Nuys courthouse, where Scott and I had our little mini-con, offered a room that looked like a shabby bus terminal but it was a lot more comfy than this one.

The potential jurors seem like a nice mix of Angelenos, weighted a bit heavy on minorities, especially Hispanic and Asian. It's hard to guess what all these people do for a living but I'd guess more blue collar than white collar and not a lot in managerial positions. One gent — the one who was using this workspace before he was called to a courtroom and I commandeered the desk — was obviously a lawyer or the next best thing. He spent his whole time here on his laptop and cellphone, talking about depositions and filing paperwork with some judge. What are the odds another attorney will want this man on a jury he has to convince?

As I eye the others in the room, I ask myself, "If I were on trial for a murder I hadn't committed, would I worry if these people would be the ones passing judgment?" There are a few I'd insist my lawyers exclude but all in all, they look like a smart crowd. Then again, I think the first O.J. jury came out of this room.

We wait. And wait. And wait some more. Two more long trials are announced and on these, we have the option of opting out. This time, most people do, perhaps because the folks who could serve on a long case are still elsewhere in the building, being considered for that 90-day one. There are also two more trials where we can't demur, where we have to go to the courtroom and be considered for service…but as ever, my name is not called.

So I sit here, alternately working on this and on an article that's due, congratulating myself on the wisdom of bringing the laptop and getting back from lunch early enough to grab this little desk. Every so often, I shift in the chair and feel something that reminds me I'm now wearing split-crotch jeans. No one calls my name.

Around 4:15, they announce that there are no more trials so we'll be dismissed. Our names will be called and as they are, we're to yell "Here!" to prove we haven't snuck out prematurely, then we're to come up, turn in our badges and receive a certificate that we've completed our service. I wait and wait as perhaps 200 people are called…until my name is finally heard, about three from the end. I head up and out, keeping my laptop case strategically in front of me. The paper I receive will excuse me if I am summoned again for jury duty within the next year.

All done. There's a long uphill hike to where I parked, made more awkward by the need to walk with my computer held over my zipper, but that's all that stands between me and the resumption of life. I march with several of my fellow jurors, none of whom got anywhere near a jury box, either. A lady who lives out in Marina Del Rey tells me this is the fifth time she's served in eight years and her experience has been like mine. She never gets called, either.

She doesn't think it's Luck of the Draw. She thinks some higher power has just decided that folks like us will never be on a jury. I tell her I'm convinced that even if I was picked to be questioned, one attorney or the other would bump me. "That's what I mean," she says. "Some higher force has decided you'll never get seated on a jury so there's no point calling your name."

I ask, "Couldn't this higher force prevent me from getting picked for jury duty in the first place?"

She says, "Higher forces can't do everything. By the way, why are you walking like that?"

Interesting Muppet facts.

I won't be posting this 'til I get home but right now, it's 11 AM and I'm in Room 302 on the 11th floor of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in picturesque Downtown Los Angeles. That's right: Mark has jury duty.

The summons said I had to be here at 7:45 AM which for a night person like I am sounds like greater punishment than is likely to be handed out in any courtroom in this building today. Fortunately, I discovered that if one takes an online orientation course, one can report a little later. Last night, I watched the videos and answered questions…and as my reward, I got to be here at 9:30. So I drove down in a light rain, parked where they tell you to park and hiked several blocks to this imposing structure. The route between the lot and here is quite long and by some distortion of science that otherwise exists only in M.C. Escher prints, it's uphill in both directions.

I am here under the assumption that I will not get on a jury…not that I will try not to, but it's hereditary. My father had jury duty many times. Never got on. My mother was once an extra playing a juror on L.A. Law…and remind me to tell you that story some day. She had an interesting encounter with Jimmy Smits. But the folks who pick real jurors wouldn't cast her. The last time I had jury duty, I sat there all day talking comics with one of my best friends, Scott Shaw!, who by coincidence had jury duty the same day I did. I didn't even get called to go off to a courtroom and be considered for an actual jury.

I got here on time…and don't think that's easy. The hard part was fighting my way onto an elevator amidst a horde of people who didn't seem to understand that when a car full of people arrives, you have to wait until they get off before you can get on. I finally boarded a car thanks to a lawyer (I guess he was a lawyer) who was directing traffic while he negotiated a plea bargain for some client on his cell phone.

One disadvantage of reporting late was that all the good seats in the jury waiting room were taken before I arrived. This included the dozen-or-so seats where I could have had a little table on which to use the laptop I hauled here along with me. Some were occupied by folks who had not brought laptops or work to do and who didn't seem to notice (or maybe care) that some of us had. I was about to go over to one and propose a seat swap but before I could, someone else with a laptop did and got rebuffed. And rather rudely at that. So I had to wait until a number of folks were called away to courtrooms before I could pounce on my present workspace.

The way this works is that we sit here and every so often, they call out names picked at random and those folks report to other locales in the building where they will be interrogated on their suitability and availability to serve for the particular trial. If they don't get selected, they come back here and their names are put back in the pool. The first such pick was for a trial which we could refuse because it will last an estimated ninety days.

When the lady who calls the names said that, there was a loud "Whoa" from the room and it sounded like everyone would be declining. But a surprising, perhaps encouraging number of folks said yes, they'd be willing to serve on a jury that lasted that long. These people have either a stirring sense of civic duty or an employer who pays full wages when you're on a jury. I have neither so I'd have declined if they'd called my name which, of course, they didn't. Two more groups of prospective jurors have since been called and my name was not among those the lady mispronounced.

So what do I do instead? Well, now that I have a little desk space, I can sit here and work and write stuff for the blog. It's 11:16.

For reasons I shall explain when I return, I may be gone from this weblog for a day or two. Nothing serious. In fact, it may turn out to be kind of funny. Anyway, I'll be back soon and I'll try to get (reasonably) caught up on e-mail when I do.

Congrats to my pal Larry DiTillio, who received the Morgan Cox Award last evening at the Writers Guild's gala award ceremony. The Morgan Cox Award is given for tireless, vital volunteer work for the guild and I can't think of anyone who's done more of that than Larry. Whoever made this choice knew what they were doing.

From now on, every time a stranger around me is doing something really stupid and annoying, I'm going to immediately shake their hand. This way, I can be sure it's not Howie Mandel.