A U.S. television series shooting in Vancouver and a budding catering business have been left high and dry by the walkout of Writers Guild of America union members on Monday.

Bionic Woman crews were shooting one of the last scenes for an episode in Vancouver on Sunday.
(CBC)

Production of The Bionic Woman can't continue without writers, although most movies that have a script already written and are under production in Vancouver can keep the cameras rolling, said Peter Leitch, president of North Shore Studios, Vancouver's leading film studio complex.

"It's unlikely any of the ongoing series [are] going to have scripts stockpiled; usually they are trying to catch up. It's going to be problematic for television, especially," Leitch said.

More than 20,000 British Columbians work in the film and television industry, which the B.C. government says contributed more than $1.2 billion to the B.C. economy last year — 80 per cent of which was from American productions.

The industry feeds not only employees of big studios, film crews and actors, but people like Marion Dobson and her daughter, Amanda. This June, they bought two catering trucks and started their own company, Season's Fine Food.

"It's scary, you know, especially starting out brand new, that you're not going to be able to get work," said Dobson, who was cooking lunches Monday on one of the sets not affected by the strike.

But there could be an upside to the strike for Canadian productions, said Arvi Liimatainen, a producer for Intelligence, a Vancouver-based television crime drama airing on the CBC.

Amanda Dobson and her mother, Marion, are worried about the effect a writers strike will have on their new catering business.
(CBC)

Writers for Canadian shows belong to a different union and domestic shows could get increased exposure if American TV series and sitcoms are forced to take a hiatus, Liimatainen said.

"The demise of American programming on Canadian television might contribute to the rise of Canadian programming on Canadian television," he said.

Members of the Writers Guild of America, whose contract expired Oct. 31, were on strike from New York to Los Angeles on Monday. Writers and producers are locked in a battle over revenues from programs that end up online and on DVDs.

The writers' last strike, in 1988, lasted 22 weeks, costing the industry in North America an estimated $500 million.