You've seen the credits after every television program- it's usually a long, boring list of people who worked on the show. But why are there so many producer credits? It's all due to strange guild rules that are in force.
The writer's guild dictates that at most two people can be credited with writing a particular script. Hollywood studios, however, typically employ a room full of writers who contribute to every episode. Since only one or two writers can get the credit, the "Written By" credit typically goes to the person or persons who came up with the original story idea. The other writers who contributed to that script can't get a writing credit so they get producer credits for the week. That's why some industry people joke about the uselessness of producer credits.
