LOS ANGELES — For five years, John Langley tried and failed to sell a cinema verite-style TV series tracking police officers on patrol. Then came the 1988 Hollywood writers strike.

“That’s when Fox bought ‘Cops,’ because a series with no narrator, no host, no script, no re-enactments sound very good to them at the time,” recalled Langley, who just marked the show’s 700th episode.

The nearly five-month ’88 Writers Guild of America walkout that started in March didn’t unleash a flood of reality, because filming on sitcoms and dramas had largely wrapped and because alternative shows had yet to become a trend.

But the current WGA strike fell smack during production as well as the Age of Reality, putting the brakes on scripted shows and giving networks a quick fix for schedule holes. It remains to be seen how viewers — or the reality genre itself — will withstand the onslaught.

Networks have readied a slate of nearly 40 shows that are stacked up like jetliners over Christmas Eve runways awaiting the go-ahead to land.

Given reality’s popularity, many would have aired strike or not.

But there’s so much more in store, including ABC’s “Dancing” spin-off, “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann” (Jan. 7) and game show “Duel” (Dec. 17), and Fox’s social experiment “When Women Rule the World” (March 3).

Other new shows are hovering, including Fox’s “The Moment of Truth”; ABC’s “Here Come the Newlyweds”; CBS’ “Million Dollar Password” with Regis Philbin; NBC’s comedy game show “Amne$ia” with Dennis Miller, and CW’s “Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants.”

That reality TV is being used as a bandage to try to stop the networks from bleeding viewers is a sharp irony for the union: It has been attempting to organize the producers and editors it argues actually “write” reality shows operating outside the WGA contract.

“Reality is a misnomer,” said Jeff Hermanson, assistant executive director of the WGA, West. “It’s really a euphemism for nonunion television. ... We think networks should be embarrassed to put on shows where people who create them are treated in violation of California labor laws” and receive no benefits or overtime.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates on behalf of the studios, declined to comment Tuesday.

With the guild and studios resuming negotiations Monday for the first time since the strike began, there was a glimmer of hope that the contract dispute, which centers on pay for digital distribution, might be resolved.

But even a deal that comes sooner rather than later would result in a partly truncated season for dramas and comedies, most of which will soon burn through their completed episodes.

That means reality programs could end up the hallmark of 2007-08 season, providing an unprecedented bonanza for those who create it.

While reality buffs may feel they’re in heaven, it’s a hellish scenario for admirers of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “30 Rock” and other scripted shows.

Even producer Mark Cronin (“Flavor of Love,” “The Surreal Life”) is wary of ultimately alienating viewers.

“You could imagine a future that has so much reality that the nation clamors for scripted content because it seems so fresh and new after all the reality content they’ve seen,” he said.

Reality TV is more entrenched than ever, notes Marc Berman, analyst for Media Week Online.

But “if the strike continues with no end in sight, and there’s more and more reality, viewers will get fed up with it,” he predicted.

Langley, who also produces the new series “Jail” for MyNetworkTV, already is disheartened. He argues that while “Cops” was a groundbreaker that brought an arthouse-style documentary program to network TV, most reality shows are simply dressed-up contests.

“You’re going to get a lot of bad reality shows as a consequence of the strike. ... It encourages all kinds of dilution of my franchise,” he said.