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Harry Shearer Walks Away From "The Simpsons," and $14 Million
Actor Harry Shearer, perhaps best known as the voice of several characters on The Simpsons, including that of Montgomery Burns, will be leaving the show's cast, according to CNN.
Showrunner Al Jean said Shearer was "offered the same deal as the rest of the cast, but turned it down." ... Shearer is not just walking away from Springfield, but also a large sum of money. The actor was offered a guaranteed $14 million for two years of work, according to someone with direct knowledge of the matter. The proposed deal also allowed for him to do other projects if he wished." That last part, though, seems to be in dispute, and central to Shearer's decision to leave; Shearer tweeted that it's because he "wanted what we've always had: the freedom to do other work."
Uhh...... no. Harry Shearer will always be know first and foremost as Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap.
"On the bass, Derek Smalls, he wrote this"
A couple of things. Although he doesn't look it, other media have reported him as being 71-years old! He might just be slowing down. Other media are also reporting that the contract banned him from doing other things. It seems kind of strange that after 25+ years, the new contract prohibits this whereas the previous ones didn't. And then, didn't Fox originally say that this was the last year of The Simpsons? Harry might have started planning other projects to fill his time. I think he's still doing a weekly PBS show and works on documentaries and comedy releases. But certainly, prohibiting him from doing other projects would have been a sore point for someone as busy as Harry.
fox: if you stay for 2 more years of this 20 year old cultural dead horse we will pay you 14 million dollars.
Shearer: I want to be creative, to exercise my creative talent on other projects besides a few bit part voices.
fox: sure, you can do other projects.
Shearer: like what did you have in mind
fox: what if we added a new simpsons character
Shearer: thats still the simpsons.
Fox...whats your point..
Good people go to bed earlier.
Maybe hire some writers so the show could actually be funny again.
Get a nice few million in the bank...
Make some wise investments...
Live very well off of dividends from your investments...
He probably has way more than 14 million, that is plenty.
He will not regret the choice he made, just regrets that the situation couldn't be better.
The guy clearly has other things on his mind that are way more important.
And lets face it, all of our time is finite, and he has made an ENTIRE CAREER out of the Simpsons.
He may miss out on the 14 million he probably doesn't need.... but He'd regret not attempting to feel fully accomplished as he sees it before it is too late.
It is still on?
If it is, is anyone still paying attention?
#DeleteChrome
Why does it piss you off? He's been doing this for 26 years, maybe for him it's time to do something new. It really pisses me off that people think money is the only motivation. Quit being jealous. Stop comparing your life to other peoples and you'll be happier for it.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
after what like 26 years I think maybe he has the right to do something different. To be honest the Simpsons jumped the shark a long time ago.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
He's 71 years old, and has worked on the show for 25 years. I'm sure he has more money than he can spend, and maybe he just wants to do something a little different with the remainder of his life and career. Hasn't there been enough Simpsons?.
I hate to shamelessly plug, but Harry Shearer was recently on WTF with Marc Maron - I think it gives a lot of insight into the guy and his career and all that good stuff..
Not his entire career. Not even close (especially since it started in 1953).
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm073...
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Do they need to? after 70 years of episodes, i'm sure they have every single sample of his voice they'd need to make another 70 years of episodes.
Yeah, and to me, it's actually funny again. It nose-dived around 9/11 if you ask me - like a lot of other shows that seemed to hold back a bit in the aftermath.
Too bad Harry's leaving. I think he added a lot to the show.
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
LOL
That pretty much sums up every single actor, celebrity or athlete :D
It's just how misplaced the values in the US really are.
If you cured Cancer tomorrow, you would win a million dollar Nobel Prize. Hooray !
Yet, be able to cry on cue or throw a ball and you'll never have financial issues ever again.
Now, of the two, which are more important ? :|
I gotta agree with you though. It's rather morale-killing to the 99% when someone is even able to make that kind of money doing something
so trivial while the rest slave away doing the daily grind somewhere for a tiny fraction of that. Seriously . . . $14 MILLION for two years of talking.
( I won't even insult the working class by calling it " work " )
I won't make $14 MILLION in my lifetime. In fact, at my current rate of pay, it would take me 175 YEARS to make it.
( For the record, those making minimum wage would need 928 YEARS to make it )
And the 1% wonder why we hate them so f*cking much.
Excellent.
I mean, Homer has been in a coma since the house blew from Bart messing with the thermostat. Everything since has just been Homer's dream sequences.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
What I am more worried about, is he will spend time on his stupid Radio Program on NPR.
The radio Program is based on the following.
How Bad the Olympics are.
How Bad Nuclear Energy is.
How Bad the catholic church is.
A few public apologies.
A bunch of people who start their sentence with So...
How Bad, Really Bad, horrible, evil and worse then the Devil the Army Corps of Engineers are.
Then a song or two that is slightly amusing.
He use to bash the Bush administration for everything they did. However he couldn't do that any more.
In short, he thinks he is funny and insightful, but it is just Liberal Dribble without actual good context.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
for 14mil they can get 100 people to replace him... in about 30seconds
Except that he's a talented voice actor and not a software engineer.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Don't hate the player, hate the game. Pay is a function of supply and demand for talent.
Medical research is done by teams- no one person is going to "cure cancer" by force of sheer intellect. If such a thing were to happen and that person had reasonably good business sense, that person would easily become the wealthiest person who ever lived. What actually happens in the real world is that hundreds of researchers, who are actually mostly pretty fungible, perform years of grunt work to come up with a drug that marginally increases survival rates. The company keeps most of the profits because the company is what organized and bankrolled the effort in the first place.
In entertainment, the phenomenon of one-person brands means supply is necessarily limited. Only one person on earth can be Mr. Burns, and a lot of people want to see Mr. Burns. So if you want Mr. Burns on your show, you had better pay that person a lot of money. By contrast, there are hundreds of thousands of medical researchers, who are all willing to work for low six-figures or less. They, in turn, make a lot more than fry cooks, a job which just about any reasonably healthy human can perform with minimal training.
Oh right. Because voice-over requires so much "smart"s. And talent?
Yes, it does. It doesn't matter what luck you get, being able to 'be' a character requires talent. If you don't believe me why don't you get on a microphone and do a passable impression of Mr. Burns reading a scene from Hamlet. There might be 14 million in it for you!
That we even pay such stupid amounts of money for such stupid "work" is itself retarded. We are a fucked up society.
Actually what society is showing is that they value uniqueness. That isn't fucked up at all. In fact, that can work to your benefit... if you actually try.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I won't make $14 MILLION in my lifetime. In fact, at my current rate of pay, it would take me 175 YEARS to make it.
And the 1% wonder why we hate them so f*cking much.
You make $14*10^6/175 = $80,000 per year.
Minimum wage in much of america averages about $8 per hour. Source: http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx
$8/hour * 40 hours per week * 50 weeks per year is $16,000 per year. What do you do that is worth so much more than people who make minimum wage? I hope you understand how much they hate you.
I will take your complaints seriously when you get your employer to pay you less. But they can't pay you little enough to avoid overpaying you based on the world-wide average. Only when you make less than prevailing wages in the less developed parts of the planet will people stop hating you.
He's been doing this for 26 years
Think about that for a moment, folks. That's a QUARTER of a fucking CENTURY. Many Slashdotters weren't even born then, and for most of the rest, it's still been more than half of their lifetime.
And he's still not officially gone until they make the first episode with either A) none of his characters or B) a replacement voice.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Finally they can finish work on Saucy Jack.
. .
He was on The Simpsons? I always thought he was the radio DJ on Wayne's World. Handsome Dan!
Voice actors read from a script.
Voice actors convey a character to your ears via lines from a script. If you don't believe me then go watch some fan films.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Would you prefer he go off the deep end into scientology like the actress who does bart's voice?
Don't forget that Harry Shearer does the Mr Burns/Smithers scenes in a single take, while performing both voices. Along with the other dozen or more voices he does for the show.
Here's a fun fact: There are union rules about how many characters one can do for a show. I don't know what the actual limit is but it's something like this: You get paid for every three characters you play.
This came about because some voice actors have the diversity to play so many roles they could practically voice it themselves. You'll notice in the Star Trek Animated series that James Doohan played a shit-ton of roles on it. The idea was to level the playing field a bit by not making it cost effective to use only one-man-bands.
I don't think that's why Shearer was earning that much money, though. I think it's because he's behind so many distinct characters that his departure will leave a notable absence in the show. Well... that and that particular show still generates a shit-ton of revenue for Fox. Right now they're opening up a Springfield attraction at Universal Studios so you can go to Moe's Tavern. Lots of money changed hands to make that happen. There's still plenty of love for that show.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
By which you're referring to "Le Show" which covers items in the news and his very well researched documentary "The Big Uneasy" which shows how the Army Corps of Engineers made Hurricane Katrina far worse than it would have been and evades responsibility throughout. Speaking of showing, Shearer backs up his points by quoting and interviewing experts in the relevant fields of discussion and by quoting published hypocrisy from those in power. That's far more backing for his points than I see you giving your views which purport to know what he thinks. In short, you apparently don't think he's funny or insightful but "without actual good context" for anyone to see your views as anything but a name-calling accusation.
Digital Citizen
I think maybe he has the right to do something different.
Given what has been said on the various sites, that's not it.
Reading his tweets, it looks like he is rejecting it because either just him or probably the rest of the cast is getting the typical "we own your soul" style of corporate contract. ("I wanted what we've always had: the freedom to do other work.") Maybe he's just standing up for himself, or maybe he is trying to make a stand for everyone on the team. That isn't publicly discussed.
Sadly that demand is increasingly common from corporate overlords in most jobs. Anything you do outside of work becomes owned by the company. Even if that thing is unrelated to the company's actual work, they want to claim the right to profit from anything and everything that you do at any time.
Seeing as he is 71 years old and has many side ventures, I can completely understand how such a contract would be unacceptable, and since he's financially well-off, he can afford to be somewhat of an activist for the others on the show.
As written in TFA, Shearer has created and stared in another series, is doing stage work, and has his own NPR show. They're offering $14M, but several sources are claiming (and others contradicting but still mentioning) that comes with a handcuff about continuing all his other side projects, or that others in the team have those handcuffs but they were offering to release just him.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
With 573 episodes to pull from and even more studio tape they have sufficient material to clone his voice. All they need is some other anonymous slob to read through all the hours of old material which they can do for a lot less than 14 million dollars. The question is will they?
In case you have forgotten, someone executed a similar plan at least once before resulting in one of the highest rated season premiere on the comedy central network...
Will they try it? Probably not, but it's not unheard of...
...and if not, does it make a sound?
Not without Shearer.
Or are they just going to use voice clips of him saying "Excellent..." every now and again and recycle him?
Give the character a stroke and they can cobble clips together with an explanation of why they sound weird.
And I would rather it goes to the actor than the executives at Fox. At least he actually *is* creating the show not just profiting from the creativity and labors of artists.
$14m is nothing compared to what Murdoch is pulling in for owning the Simpsons. It's the same problem in sports, people complain about how much the athletes are making while the owners and league executives get a pass. If it's going to be highly profitable then yeah the players should get rewarded too.
I agree the wages are absurd, but the fact is that Fox make an obscene amount of money out of The Simpsons, and it's only fair that a healthy chunk of that dosh goes to the people involved in actually making the programme.
It's the same with the football Premier League here in the UK. We have players that are paid £250,000 every week for several hours work (at most), and most people find that abhorrent. But that fact is that millions of people either pay the extortionate ticket prices, or pay Sky £50 a month in order to watch what these players are doing. All that money has to go somewhere, and it's only fair that a healthy chunk goes to the people actually playing the game that the public are will to collectively pay so much money to watch.
Whatever doesn't go to the people directly involved in the content ends up with someone even less deserving.
Of course, the people earning these massive sums could donate a large percentage of it to charity without even noticing. Feel free to blame them for not doing that :o)