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Big Bang Actors To Earn $1M Per Episode
Cludge (981852) writes with a snippet from the BBC: "And rich they will be: With The Big Bang Theory commissioned until 2017, the show's three biggest names, Jim Parsons (Sheldon), Johnny Galecki (Leonard) and Kaley Cuoco (Penny) are guaranteed to earn $72m (£42.6m) each over the next three seasons. Unsurprisingly, the cost of producing the sitcom has spiraled." I wonder what that works out per line?
considering Miami Vice was pulling these kinds of numbers in the '80s. Granted, it was only for one actor, but still.
The argument against is that BBT is, essentially, Nerd Blackface.
The argument for BBT is that the material and situations are relateable, especially with the mainstreaming of geek culture (Dr. Who, BSG, Marvel films).
Meh. It's funny. I watch. I read the vanity card at the end. I think they're all good actors - at least within the scope of the show.
Why should the producers be making all the money?
Although it would be nice if the writers got paid as well.
They've made quite clear that Sheldon is paid well by the university, and that he's got piles of un-cashed checks laying around.
Only Penny is ever in need of cash.
Seinfeld was in the $600,000 to $1,000,000 range (depending on the actor) back in the late 90's
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Given that a 21 minute show is something like 90 seconds of laughtrack, they aren't getting a great deal for their buck. :)
I hate being underpaid as much as anyone!
No.6
for what they do. VASTLY overpaid.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That money a bunch of fake scientists received is fit for annual endowment of a decent university!
I heard about this yesterday on the radio
"People have so many choices on TV now, so no one's asking for you to marry us. You can enjoy our show without a weekly appointment."
And that, my friends, and part of the reason people keep turning on to watch it.
morcego
I've stopped watching the show around season 3 or 4 when they started recycling the jokes
When a show hits that point, it's so bloated, that any tiny little slip is going to mean it's just cancelled. I can't wait.
Yes, yes, I know I'll get flamed for this, but this is stupid. Capitalism really sucks when there are billions of starving people around the world, and some simple acting gets someone a million per episode. Really. That kind of money should be spent on ridding the world of hunger, killing capitalistic for-profit medicine, and generally making the world a better place.
More and more, I really do find Holloywood repugnant. How can you live like a prince and then champion the cause of people so far below your lifestyle? Why not take the money you earn and make the world a better place. How many bedrooms do you need? You can only be in one room at a time. How many stupid, rich cars do you need, you narcissistic, ruinous people?
I really do dislike capitalism more and more...
no TV actors have EVER been paid that much b4!
/. news because the show portrays "nerds" and nerds in this sites tag line?
Is this considered
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
They're still earning less than the actors on Friends earned at the end. If I remember correctly, they were each earning g $2 million per episode.
And good for them.
After all... it's a show about and for people and culture who promote file sharing. Sorry, piracy.
Checking Piratebay it is obvious that it is heavily shared, with thousands of seeds.
Why isn't this show being canceled due to everyone involved with making of it dying from starvation?
I was told that sharing... sorry, pirating of video directly hurts people who make these shows.
I demand that someone does something about it!
Like... take them all behind the shed and shoot them in the head.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I heard the whole cast of Friends each made $1 million per episode, and that was over 10 years ago.
They've made quite clear that Sheldon is paid well by the university, and that he's got piles of un-cashed checks laying around.
Only Penny is ever in need of cash.
Why the HELL doesn't Sheldon just set up autodeposit?!?
charlie sheen?
Given that the show is going into season 8, I wouldn't be too surprised if it went downhill from here, like it usually happens to long running sitcoms. It's not like money will reflect the quality of acting.
Sheldon: Oh dear Penny. I'm afraid you have no idea about the value of Exxon mobile and their worth to society.
Penny: Whatever, Max Factor.
You never know. He might have and those are just pay stubs. It all could just be a colossal misunderstanding on this part.
A fictional character can be as much of a dufus as the rest of us.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Works out to $2 million per joke.
I mean, what has this gotta do with /. ??
I don't get the controversy. I like the show. It makes me laugh. I don't care what the actors get paid. It's none of my business. I think the comparisons to "black face" are in error. Poking fun at people because of their behavior is not the same as poking fun at people because of their skin color. It's just a sitcom. They come and go. It hasn't jumped the shark yet (not for me, anyway). When it does I'll probably stop watching. And if CBS should cancel it tomorrow, I won't care. My life does not revolve around characters on a tv show, nor does it revolve around the actors and writers. They're getting $1million per show... yawn.
Proverbs 21:19
they fuck it up in the forth or fifth season, once Penny fucked Rajesh, it all went to hell. I ended up having the first three seasons in DVD and then stopped watching the show.
P.S.: Why is this on /.?
Incredible! Think how much the writers will be making, seeing as their talent is the real reason for the show's success.
Nerd Blackface.. I read that as NeckBeardFace....
Which is why networks love reality shows.
Both of these characters are the only good thing of this show, mainly because they are so hopeless and shit at everything.
The rest are boring.
The show still went massively downhill so quickly.
It went from geeky show to nu-nerd show that appeals to the morons on Facebook that think they are a nerd because they have an iPod / iPhone wrapped around their neck with an earphone lead in their mouth. Such a nerd! LOL!
Fuck.
And the show really isn't that funny.
Penny has nice tits though.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
BBT is very nearly the only thing on tv that isn't totally worthless. Sturgeon's Law ("90 percent of *everything* is crap") especially applies to Hollywood.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
n/t
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Not real though.
Sheldon doesn't trust banks because he believes that ATM machines will be the first wave of the robot uprising.
Entertainers get paid according to the market value of the entertainment they provide. Full stop. Personally I'm happier seeing them get it for making me laugh than to see someone make more than that kicking a football / hitting a golf ball / swinging a tennis racket (etc). Top footballers (soccer...) earn silly money, and I'm sure it's the same with American football, baseball, basketball etc...
If people stopped paying to watch them, stopped spending a fortune on the satellite and cable packages, the rewards would come down. That they don't is simply market forces. I don't begrudge them personally, but it makes me a bit sad that the world values their skills so highly.
Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
Only Penny is ever in need of cash.
OMG, so that's why they named her Penny, rather than something like Trillian.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Why the HELL doesn't Sheldon just set up autodeposit?!?
Maybe all those uncashed checks are $ 2.56 each, from Dr. Knuth.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
It doesn't seem fair that businesspeople are vilified for being ludicrously overpaid, but actors (and sportspeople) get away with it.
Santa isn't real, but I still like to open presents.
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
I play hockey with a bunch of high IQ programmers and scientists. We drink beer after in the parking lot and talk about women, technology, and too much about Marvel Comic movies. Those are the intelligent people I hang around with. Sure, I also know flabby, ugly, borderline Asperger's nerds. But why are the only smart people we see in the media modeled on them?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Big Bank Theory
Table-ized A.I.
Don't uncashed cheques expire after 6 months? Sounds like a way to lose a lot of money.
The difference - to me anyway - is that fake tits look good under clothes but when you unwrap them they look wrong, move wrong - and most important of all - feel wrong. It's like getting a beautifully wrapped present with a cheap toy inside. Disappointing.
This.
Checks last forever on television...
I don't understand all that hate toward their new contract. CBS are making millions because of this show, why shouldn't they have a fair share of the pie? They deserve that money way more than CBS Shareholders, they are the ones who make the show!
So .... they caught up to the Friends actors/actresses?
Still won't watch the show...
A show that poorly illustrates true geeks, with jokes that aren't even half funny. Real life intelligent people don't generally go around going, "Hey, look at me - I'm talking to much because I'm smart".
Why these D-Actors make more money than an engineer is absurd. They offer the world nothing useful, just entertainment for the braindead and/or the tasteless.
What is this world coming to? The show is not even funny, and the latest seasons are probably the worst yet.
I remember when friends and seinfeld actors where making that much, but atleast their shows had some value, and the actors had something that resembles acting ability.
Checks, to the best of my knowledge, never expire. A bank may choose not to honor a postdated check or an old check, but to the best of my knowledge, there is no law which says banks have to honor anything regarding the date on the check.
When you write a check, you are supposed to have the money in the account and keep it there until it is cashed regardless of the date on the check. You can usually be held responsible for honoring the check regardless of the date printed.
Gee 1 million per episode where do I sign up? I can act nerdy. I certainly look the part. Wanna hire me for Big Bang? I can be Raj's new love interest.
Unless you believe you have a realistic chance of "unwrapping" Kaley Cuoco's tits, I'm not sure there's any distinction to be made...
having relatives swear the writers copied me down to the very computer used puts a bad taste in my mouth. I refuse to watch this show as if the relatives ever find out that I have, I'd hear no end to how the show reflects my in every nuance. Safe to say no way that this is "stuff that matters"
He has no range whatsoever. Did you see him on SNL this past season? Horrible. Only January Jones has less range.
It's not funny since it turned into 'hey look how weird sheldon is!'.
It had potential before that.
Now. Not.
You are using the wrong measure.
The cast of BBT are not being paid that much because they are good at acting.
They are being paid that much because collectively, they enable the BBT show to continue being produced, which show generates substantial amounts of income for their corporate overlords through advertising, merchandising, syndication and whatnot.
The "hundreds of thousands" of other better actors you allude to sadly do not have this earning potential and hence, do not have this kind of paycheck.
Quality of acting is irrelevant.
... said the guy who's never touched a tit - real or fake - in his life.
And he would be right about that. First they came after my card and ate it too. I didn't care because I used online banking. Then they came after my bank statements. I didn't care because wasteful printing is wasteful. Then they came after my account and there was not paper trail to defend me.
I expect the following script change to take place.
"Penny... Penny... Penny... " will be replaced with "Porsche... Porsche... Porsche..."
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
Back in the 90s I was working in San Francisco, at 4th and Folsom. Don Johnson and Cheech Marin's show Nash Bridge filmed in SF, often under the freeway near my office, and sometimes on one of the streets near us. They'd block things off and film episodes, and the clerk for my department had the hots for him, so she'd have to go watch out the window if they were close enough.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Why is this on here?
The article states that even before the cast wages are included production costs are more than that of Doctor Who.
HOW!?
Either BBC is yet again showing what it can do on a shoestring budget, or Hollywood TV has over inflated production costs.
feel wrong.
who's never touched a tit - real or fake - in his life.
Son, you fail it. GP is spot on.
Sure stereotypes are ever present in our culture. People like to take it to the extreme often, but using the same joke over and over doesn't work. Also humor is different for everybody, if they are getting paid a million dollars a show there is probably some crazy reason unrelated to the actual content provided. I mean... Rifftrax and MST3K are a lot funnier than big bang theory, and yet they don't get the same amount of money? Unfortunately I'll have to be cynical here and point out that people with lots of money want to promote the big bang theory, regardless of the actual humor. It's a classic runaway scheme right now, once something gets too popular people will sink in lots of money into it... For better or for worse. Usually for worse. Obviously this resonates poorly with people who call themselves nerds because typically we've been the least popular. It's somewhat akin to the strange feeling of everybody suddenly liking the Lord of the Rings without reading the books... No doubt, there is more awkwardness to come. But if the show at least encourages people to focus on getting off this rock and space exploration, I'm all for it.
are the laughing people getting paid?
They've made quite clear that Sheldon is paid well by the university, and that he's got piles of un-cashed checks laying around.
Only Penny is ever in need of cash.
They're not consistent about the earnings but at no stage is Sheldon "paid well". He just hoards his cash. It's made clear on numerous occasions that the reason he has a room mate is he can't afford the rent on his own.
In some states, checks expire after 6 months, at which time the cash and name of the person issued must be turned over to the state. At that point, they are considered 'abandoned', and the state keeps a record of who it belongs to. The state publishes those names in newspapers, and now on web sites. I have received money myself from finding my name in a newspaper and contacting the state, it was a check I either never cashed or possibly never received.
Several years ago, I worked for a company in Maine that routinely had it's payroll audited by the state to make sure they were turning the funds over. There was a guy that worked on the shop floor that routinely did not cash his paycheck, the company was constantly reissuing him checks because they expired.
I don't know what happens if someone cashes a check that's been turned over to the state. I assume that when those funds are turned over, the check has a stop put on it. So while a bank might still initially accept it for deposit, it might be rejected by the issuing bank and cause all kinds of grief.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
And the show really isn't that funny.
Penny has nice tits though.
Another reply from the 'I'm a nerd who lives in my mom's basement' crowd. Show ring a little too true for your tastes?? Do you really think coffee means coffee?? Have no social life?? Look forward to your trips to the comic book store???
Or is it just a little too much over your head that you don't get the jokes.
I personally find it hilarious, even though I suffer from sometimes feeling like parts of my life are being made fun of. I once told a girl who asked me back to her apartment for coffee that I prefer tea, and proceeded to go home. That stings a little bit whenever I see the episode about the guys not knowing that coffee doesn't always mean coffee.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
BBT is a network prime time comedy that targets the tastes of the 80% in the 18-40 bracket. This is how the actors can command salaries of millions. The geeky lead characters don't threaten most egos even though they are successful or have zany adventures by way of mild cultural stereotyping. Other "geekier" viewers may find themselves liking the characters if they self-identify with some or all of them. But the characters represented can't possibly be real geeks not because the writers don't understand them, but because the writers have to tune that up or down situationally to ensure they're relatable to the audience without making a portion of them feel diminished for longer than the length of a few targeted jokes or a key narrative arc. Otherwise the show would not be able to retain that broad, advertising-reachable demo.
That being said... why do the writers feel this is necesary for the show to be successful? That, plus the laugh track, and an over-reliance on referential humor; this makes me not hold the show in high esteem, although I do not begrudge their success.
It's why I prefer (and recommend) Community over it; it's written by a similarly geek-friendly writing team, but the characters are more consistent and sympathetic, the writing dumbed down less often, no laugh track, and a focus on situational humor and satire, with very little in the way of referential humor. They tend to go one level deeper, familiarity with geek and pop culture provides parallels to events or situations in the show that foreshadow or enhance the humor.
And then Dan Harmon helped give us Rick and Morty. It kicks Futurama up three notches, with a blow straight to the balls.
I can totally imagine Sheldon and Leonard having this exact conversation.
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying. - Woody Allen
Not unless the show is set in the past. He stopped sending those out quite a while ago.
Racist US humor wasn't directed at people with dark skin, in general, or even at all people of African origin. It specifically maligned the public conception of the culture of the descendants of former US slaves. The cause is not that their skin is dark, the cause is that dehumanization is necessary to justify the history of their treatment.
Normal, abnormal - there is "no such thing" as "normal" or "abnormal" - all people are "normal" by their own measure of normality.
It's when people lose "hope" that they feel it's time to cut the strings on this existence.
Parents who lose hope for their children's future often will end their child's existence because they truly believe it's the right thing to do (even though we'd most likely disagree, to them it is correct).
People who lose hope feel that "nothing" will ever be right again, that "nothing" can fix their problem, that "nothing" good will ever happen.
Hope is an important thing, without it, most people lose the will to exist.
Because he doesn't trust people to touch his stuff- including banks to touch his money (and after 2007, who can blame him?)
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Eh my wife has fakes. They look perfectly real in and out of clothing. As far as feel?I don't even remember what real tits feel like any more
After she got her Oscar, Helen Hunt was making $1 million per episode in "Mad About You". Paul Reiser had a clause in his contract that his salary would match Hunt's, so he got $1 million as well. The main stars of "Friends" and "Seinfeld" were supposed to be making in the $1 million per episode range at the end of their series, plus generous fees for syndication. The five or six main voice actors in "The Simpsons" are supposed be making close to $1 million per episode.
They're not just rich. They're Richie Rich rich.
Leonard = Ross
Penny = Rachel
Howard = Chandler
Bernadette = Monica
Sheldon = Joey
Amy = Phoebe
Raj = Smellycat
In Soviet Russia, dot slashes YOU!