LOS ANGELES, June 13 -- The TV actor who has spent two seasons on the call sheet and decides he has earned a directing credit is one of Hollywood's quieter career patterns, the kind nobody complains about until everybody is out of work. On Friday the Directors Guild of America made the complaint formal. The union's new four-year contract with the studios includes language that limits the number of episodes those actors, and other so-called affiliated hires, can direct, a structural protection for the career directors the union exists to defend.

The provision is the signature item in a deal struck Tuesday between the DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, with the full terms released Friday, Variety reported. The...