Sorry to hear of the passing of Del Reisman, a fine writer-producer whose credits included The Twilight Zone, Rawhide, Bracken's World, The Lieutenant, The Untouchables, Little House on the Prairie, The Streets of San Francisco, Kung Fu, Lou Grant and so many others. If you watched TV between about 1960 and 1983, you probably enjoyed a lot of Del Reisman scripts. Del was active in the leadership of the Writers Guild of America West, which is where I got to know him and serve with him on committees, and he was President of the WGA from 1991 to 1993. He was a calming voice of sanity through some rough times.
I love the Guild but in my days of service, I often found it dysfunctional in ways that come to mind when I watch the news these days. With only occasional exceptions, Writers worship the principle of Free Speech and will bend over backwards to see that no one's is infringed. At times, this has led to the idea that every member (there are 20,000) must have the opportunity to bitch and rant and scream to their heart's content. With a membership that far exceeds the number of available jobs, you also have a lot of folks in the WGA who aren't getting the careers they want or believe they deserve…and some of those people have a tendency to blame their union for that.
On several occasions, I watched in awe as Del quietly dealt politely with such complainers and put out fires. It wasn't part of any paying job but he believed in the Guild and he believed in the "brotherhood" (and sisterhood) of Writers and he brought great — I'm going to use the word again — sanity to situations that were in dire need of that elusive commodity. I respect the hell out of anyone who serves the WGA and I especially respected the wisdom and volunteeerism of Del Reisman. And he was a damn good writer, too. Here's the WGA obit.