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Simpsons Actors on Strike
ameoba writes "The next season of The Simpsons is in doubt as the voice talent is on strike due to a pay dispute. Fifteen seasons of some of the greatest prime-time TV around seems worth the money to me. ."
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seeing how fans have help to save Family Guy, even pitched in money to save FarScape (if even for only episode) and even FireFly, might it be possible to "pass the hat around" to give these people who have entertained us so much a little something back?
*gag*
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
OK, there are loads of people out there who can do good impressions of the Simpsons' characters and they threatened to use these last time - is it finally time they'll get rid of everyone and get new talent in there?
;)
I wish I could get this much cash for an hours work but being a male gigolo doesn't pay this well
That's just ridiculous. I'm surprised they don't just get replacements for a fraction of that. I don't know how much longer the Simpsons will keep creaking along, but this seems like a pretty stupid time to go on strike.
Many of the voice actors on "The Simpsons" are members of record of The Church of Scientology international's organization (IAS, International Association of Scientologists).
Could this association have a "unionizing" effect? After all, there aren't any other visible strikes ongoing in the voice actors industry - where's the solidarity?
Or could Scientology be behind the strike? They are ruthlessly money-hungry and push their members to donate evermore through the use of authoritative (command) hypnosis (see The Anderson Report of Victoria Australia). They've used front groups and union-style pressure tactics in the past. (see Reed Slatkin controversy)
There may still be hope for the family guy.
They need to replace the writers. This season as been pretty lackluster. I think it's jumped the shark at this point. Pretty disappointing. I've found myself shutting it off midway through most episodes this season which is sad really.
I don't know if it was just the ads but the recent one for the re-run of Marge writing the romance novel had homer's bare ass fuzzed out. Hope that's not a boobie-gate reaction
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Ad Age says "The Simpsons" in 2003 earns FOX $296,440 per 30-sec ad or typical show will make Fox $3.5M (12 commerical slots 4 network slots). For the year that puts FOX at $77M. Forking over $48M to the voice talent may be a high percentage but FOX is still making a killing on it.
Note: This back-of-the-napkin estimate doesn't include the gravitas that "The Simpsons" gives the network to slot the rest of it's Sunday lineup. Each of the follows shows should really be kicking 50% of their ads back to "The Simpsons" 'cause the lead-in is so huge.
Let's face it, The Simpsons is not what it used to be and I can not see it going anywhere but down in the future. You just can't keep thinking up episode ideas forever. Groening should let the show die on a mid-high note, I mean, it has had a pretty long innings after all.
What I would love to see is a present day alternative to The Simpsons - new town, new characters, new voice actors (that would be willing to work for a 'paltry' salary per episode) As an extra project for Groening, Futurama was/is abosultely great, it's a shame it was a bit too hardcore for the mainstream audience. A new animated show could feature a similar family or maybe focus around something else, like a group of work colleagues or room mates. Retain the trademark animation styles - yellow skin et al - and you have a clean slate to work with. Obviously, it might take a while for people to warm to it, but The Simpsons was not exactly a multi million dollar franchise overnight.
Any budding writers got any ideas for 'The Next Simpsons'?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
Not just because Fox have cancelled series at the drop of a hat, either. They've also got enough Simpsons episodes to keep them in repeats for years. Sky One shows a new episode on average once every two months. Plus, they had no qualms about dealing with the woman who played Maude Simpsons after she made too many demands. Granted, it's unlikely they'd off the characters - The Flanders Show, anyone - but it shows they're not going to put up with nor do they need to put up with these tactics.
There's so much Simpson's vocals recorded that you could make the entire new season just by editing the appropriate vocal parts of the other seasons together. An experienced and talented editor can make it unnoticable.
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You gotta remember that the life of an actor (and especially voice talent) is a little different than a corporate job.
In a corporate job, you usually have a position that lasts for many years - even decades. When work dries up, you can move to another corporate job. You receive benefits - health case, pension, etc.
In the world of acting, the job is a lot more, um, chaotic. You can go without work for many years, and the years where you do work, you might make very little - certainly not enough to live on without taking a job as a waiter or something.
If and when you do make it big, that can last from 2 months to a couple years tops. If you're super lucky, you might get a gig that pays well for 10 years - but that's very very rare.
During those good times, you have to make enough to cover all the bad times. Plus, stuff like pensions and insurance is often something you have to cover yourself.
Are they earning a lot of money? Yep. But they SHOULD be able to ask for more money. This is America, not the Middle East.
nah...simpsons comes off as pretty lacking these days sad, i loved it around seasons 3-8 but alas, family guys and southpark have proven much more robust
...how much _profit_ does a popular show like this generate for a network? (not counting syndication or merchandising - just first run shows and repeats on the network) Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions? Or is it one of those "lets take a loss on this show, and make more moola off a less popular show"
Someone here mentioned that if all the actors were paid what they are asking for, its to the tune of ~$48 mil. Is that enough to hurt Fox or are they just tightwads?
I thought this way too. Until my son became a recording engineer and spent an afternoon with the phone lady recording numbers. They spent 2 hours on 2 numbers. The numbers had to be the right volume, right pitch, right inflection, and the correct number of miliseconds in order for the information system to sound right.
Most voice talent earn their money. The Simpsons cast are more than adequately paid and as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the show is starting to fail. Its a bad time to get demanding. Its also a bad time for fans. Usually the arc of a show is failing and the first clear sign is when the talent makes these kind of demands. They know their show is sinking and they are trying to scoop it up with both hands while they can.
Time to switch animation addiction to "This Just In".
"He's got people trying to out-Rupert him all the way down the line and their public disrespect for talent is pretty palpable. I mean, there was a Fox execuitve - name available on request - who said to The New Yorker 'We can get people off any high school campus in the country to do these voices'".
Seems like its been on the cards for some time.
Plays violent online games as: Nerfherder76
The linked article is to google news, and that the first link on there is to this article on /. ?
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"Simpsons Actors on Strike
Slashdot - 1 hour ago
ameoba writes "The next season of The Simpsons is in doubt as the voice talent is on strike due to a pay dispute. Fifteen seasons
Many people have posted that the Simpsons made Fox gazillions per year, so it's only fair that they get a share of the pie. That the Simpsons essentially saved Fox and that they were (at least partially) responsible for that. But also consider that Fox and the Simpsons are what made them stars in the first place. If the other posters are right, they would have made at least $10M in the last five years. If they didn't make too many stupid decisions, they can retire anytime they like. Where would they have been without Fox and the Simpsons?
Like other folks have stated, FOX is the one making out like a bandit more so than the actors. Early on, the Simpsons voice talent could have been replaced easily. Now even if the replacement sounds the same, it's bad publicity in a beloved series that's towards the end of its lifetime. Sure FOX may save money, but it would also reduce its value quite a bit. And it could also reduce its syndication value. FOX is better off negotiating with the actors.
Our founding fathers removed the guys in charge. Be American. Vote incumbents out.
Maybe we're missing something here. It has always been the case that voice actors are paid less then other actors. Except for non-speaking parts, or hand models, etc. I think this is enforced by the Screen Actors Guild. If Fox pays the Simpsons voice actors more, would they, and perhaps the entire industry, be forced to pay regular actors even more? Yeah, I'd rather watch a Simpsons rerun than a first run of Friends anyday. But I think factors beyond my interests have set pay scales.
Fox should take a lesson from the X-Files on this one. While I liked all 7 seasons, there was something missing when they tried to replace Duchovny's Fox Mulder. I'm glad they didn't go on to an eighth season.
To me, the 'something' missing when Mulder left WAS the X-Files. No Mulder, no X-Files. Had there been an 8th season, I wouldn't have watched that either.