It's business as usual tonight on primetime television, despite the ill-timed writers' strike, and that's especially good news for fans of House. Long-running TV series grow and change over the years, and this one, which stumbled a bit creatively early last season after two brilliant years, is enjoying a creative resurgence. The writers' strike, if it lasts -- early indications are it will -- will catch up to House by mid-January, when new scripts finally run out. For now, however, the prognosis looks good. The show's fan base (three million viewers in Canada alone, 1.7 million of them in the hip 18-49 crowd) can expect a run of fresh, new episodes this month and next.

While some series started shooting earlier than usual last summer, few are expected to have more than a half-dozen new episodes taped before a strike begins. That has caused studios to order more reality shows, because those shows do not employ union writers. Some networks have also ordered early production of pilots for new series for the fall of 2008, in case a strike interferes with planning for next season. While some writer-producers say they believe they could perform one job function without the other, others say they cannot.

“If there’s a strike, I do neither,” said Matt Olmstead, the writer-producer who is the show runner for Fox’s “Prison Break.” “I walk out.” ...

“I will work as a producer for as long as we have stuff to produce,” Mr. Shore said. “I won’t be working as a writer. That means we won’t have any new scripts coming along. As I see it, should there be a strike, we won’t have any choice but to shut down shortly after.”