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Simpsons Pay Dispute Settled
ackthpt writes "Simpsons voice actors were receiving $125,000 per episode and considering how wildly profitable the show is for FOX, in syndication and merchandising, the actors felt they should get a bigger piece of the pie. The strike is settled with a 4 year contract for the actors, though FOX is mum about further details, so the show will go on. For a bit more on this see this article on BBC News or The Gate."
I heard the ad for this week's episode and thought that the voices - especially lisa's - sounded off. But, they must have already dubbed that episode, right? Or was Fox just trying to show that they were willing to use other actors by starting with a substitution in the commercial?
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Good for them.
Not that I have any problem with sucking Fox's coffers dry, but why the hell do these people think that 125 K an episode isn't enough? Hell, if I was the star of one of the most successful TV shows of all time and pulling in more than most people make a year each week, I think I'd just be thankful that my life had worked out so well.
To think that these voice actors would consider destroying a brilliant show which they had benefited so much from because they couldn't live on 125 K a week just makes me sick. The Simpsons could easily be considered a work of art, and I always think the destruction of art for greed is sad. All I know is whatever respect I had for what work they're doing just dropped about 50x.
It seems to me that it's highly improbable that the Simpsons will continue 5 more years. Many of the series fans indicate that the newest seasons' writing tends to be watered down. I'll admit that I liked the writing better around seasons 3-7. I think Fox wants to hold onto the franchise until it is no longer profitable or until they make the movie.
The amazing part of it is that FOX executive management decided to forgo $25 million in their own personal salary to keep the show going:
"The Simpsons is so important to the health of FOX, that it was obvious that we'd have to find the money to keep the network going. We'd either have to export animation overseas, or take a paycut. We felt it was best for our viewers, shareholders, and America to take a paycut".
Wow!
All this shows for this season are long done. Some of the finished ones will not show until next season. There is usually a 8-11 month lead time on the show's production. Audio is usually recorded 8-11 months before the show is completely animated unless they need to loop new dialog in. That is why they covered their mouths on the superbowl episode "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" and no so that they could reuse it the next year.
The Simpson's money-making machine is an interesting study in how the content industry has re-alligned.
- 20th Century Fox is the production studio.
- The show's new episodes have been purchased by the Fox Network. (Fox was the first US TV network to share common ownership with a movie/TV production studio. The The ABC-Disney Merger, the CBS-Viacom Merger, and the creation of the United Paramount Network and The Warner Bros. Network all came later.)
- The show's syndicated episodes from prior seasons are distributed by 20th Cenutry Fox. (Networks used to be forbidden to participate in the syndication market. During that time, off-network reruns needed to be packaged by a seperate syndication company, or distributed by the production company. This rule was striken before this rule applied to Fox.)
- In most major markets, the show's syndicated reruns are puchased by the Fox Station Group. (In recent years, the laws have changed to allow there to be more such network-owned stations than before because fo a raising of the station ownership limits for a single company.)
- In many places, the syndicated reruns air during the 7:00 hour. (This would have been blocked by Prime Time Access Rule, but the rule never applied to Fox and was striken rather than modifed to include Fox as a network.)
In short... several of the steps in The Simpsons money-making machine would have been illegal in the 1970s. I'm not saying that The Simpsons wouldn't have existed under those rules, but the show would be a whole lot less profitable, and the profits would land in more hands than just the bottom line at News Corp.
So the writers, animators, technicians and other staff will also be getting equivalent raises... right? Or are the actors just extortionists, knowing that they're hard to replace?
I'm timing myself at about 7 syllables per second, speaking about as quickly as the Simpsons characters do when on a roll.
So $125,000 / 7 / (3.5*60) comes to about $85 per syllable.
Having them read this post would cost me about 168 syllables * $85 is $14,280.
... is that no-one is saying "Yay! More Simpsons episodes!! Gee golly, I'm sure glad about that, why, that show just keeps on pushing the envelope, it's a miracle they've been around this long and STILL haven't jumped the shark! It sure is better than all those cancelled shows like Family Guy or Futurama and stuff like that.."
.. Worst .. Raise .. Ever ..
Nope, none of that here..
I guess the voice actors asked for a raise realising that whatever they get now is going to be their pension..
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
I happen to still like the show, even the new episodes.
:("
Dont get me wrong, they arnt as good as the earlier seasons, but there have been some REALLY funny episodes lately. Most notably the Henry the 8th one, where lisa tries to grow a penis.
"HRnnnn hrnnn HRNnnn!!... I cant
no
$125,000 an episode
What, 23ish episodes per season
Let's estimate and say Federal tax + state tax + social security + medicaid tax is around 50-55% (Someone feel free to correct me)
Now we're talking $68K per episode, or around a million and a half dollars a year. Another poster mentioned that there are four main voice actors. This is chump change for the studio.
Contrast that to how much Fox makes on a season of the Simpsons and it does seem awfully unfair.
Shows like Friends, ER and NYPD Blue have started a trend of producing only 16-18 episodes a year of hit shows
Every season of ER has 22 episodes (except the first which had 26 including the pilot) and the only season of Friends with less than 24 episodes is the last one which has 20. NYPD Blue has always had 22 episodes per season the only exceptions being season 8 with 20, and season 9 with 23.
You really should check your facts before posting, oh sorry I forgot this was /.
Oh and yes I know some of the friends eps are two parts, but they air as two seperate episodes so get counted as 2.
Maybe what you are thinking of is the way networks instead of running a new episode per week spread them out throughout the year and fill the gaps with re-runs. This is a very annoying practice which greatly frustrates fans trying to follow storylines from episode to episode. Tricky to do when you have to wait through a 6 week sceduling break for your next fix.
He supposedly made $18 million in 1997, and made the Forbes list of the top 40 richest entertainers.
To think that these voice actors would consider destroying a brilliant show which they had benefited so much from because they couldn't live on 125 K a week just makes me sick
/. article: Unless I hear about 18-hour days, back-breaking labor, or time spent away from family and loved ones, I don't think their pay is justified.
I totally agree! Whatever happened to the value of your work being determined by your education, training, and the hours you put in?
Most doctors deserve to make a whole lot of money because of their schooling and the immense number of hours they put in every week. Programmers should too, because of their knowledge. A lot of managers I know put in insane hours also! After adjusting for cost of living, shouldn't this be how it is?
I said this in the previous
- rabs