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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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
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.
. .
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
...and if not, does it make a sound?
Not without Shearer.