# Highest-paid working characters on a sitcom? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433 "2015-04-11T15:10:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/61 "2015-04-12T17:24:07Z")
Believe it or not, but I actually know a string theory physics professor for a large state university, albeit not a technical university. He both teaches and does research that is supported with grants. I haven’t asked him what he makes, but from the house he rents, and the fact that he couldn’t afford to buy a new car when his died, I gather he’s not swimming in the dough. Of course, as a tenured professor, he has a kick ass retirement plan, including great health care. FWIW. I also know 2 medical salesman, one man and one woman. The man, who peddles some sort of a heart device is actually present during surgeries (in case the surgeon has questions or difficulties with the device), makes in the $700s. The woman, who has an engineering degree, sells stents. I don’t know how much she makes but she’s the sole breadwinner for her family and they live down the road from the late Steve Jobs in Palo Alto, CA. I’d guess she’s making at least $300. So, yes, I certainly believe a pharma salesperson can make $300k. However. It takes a while for any salesman to build a client base and it’d be very, very doubtful that any salesman could earn that much money that quickly. Penny is in her first year of sales, and she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/62 "2015-04-12T17:47:50Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Believe it or not, but I actually know a string theory physics professor for a large state university, albeit not a technical university. He both teaches and does research that is supported with grants. I haven’t asked him what he makes, but from the house he rents, and the fact that he couldn’t afford to buy a new car when his died, I gather he’s not swimming in the dough. I work at a fairly large university, and since we are a state school all of our salary information is publicly available. I just checked and the head of the Physics department makes about $128k a year, but everyone else makes under $90k. The median salary is a little over $65k and the lowest paid faculty in tenure-track positions (but who don’t yet have tenure) make under $60k. That said, while I’m not a regular _TBBT_ watcher, it was never my impression that any of the guys were tenure-track faculty. Has that actually been stated on the show? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/63 "2015-04-12T17:58:06Z")
The guys on The Big Bang Theory hold non-tenured positions. There was an episode in which they competed for a tenure-track opening (due to the death of a tenured professor). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/64 "2015-04-12T19:00:35Z")
The premise for [Cool Million](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068060/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) is that Jefferson Keyes is a private eye who charges a million dollars a case. In a 26-episode season, that would be $26 million a year. Sadly, the show only ran five episodes, so we have to say $5 million. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/65 "2015-04-12T20:53:01Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > It wasn’t a _huge_ chain; he had seven locations. I remember this from the episode where his rival, Blue Sky Cleaners, wanted to buy him out. They pointed out that they had twenty-three locations and he had only seven. > > Holy shit, my brain is velcro for useless garbage. It’s been 30 years since I saw that episode, and I saw it once. :smack: You do recall the money George made pimping out Florence and Weezie, don’t you? And, certainly you can’t forget honkey neighbor, Willis, and George profiting from some pretty high market value rough-trade, right? Dry cleaning was just a front to cleanse the real money. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/66 "2015-04-12T21:49:15Z")
> [@Purd\_Werfect](#): > > Tim Taylor from Home Improvement. A successful TV show host marketing for a large hardware company. Successful? True, it was still on the air. However, Tim himself once thanked the audience for making Tool Time “Michigan’s fourth-highest-rated cable tool show”. I am not sure a mediocre ranking that niche market is all that lucrative. > **[Home Improvement](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/HomeImprovement)** > > MOAR POWER! \*grunt\* Home Improvement is an American sitcom starring Tim Allen as Tim Taylor and his family, consisting of his wife Jill and their three sons Brad, Randy, and Mark, who reside in the Detroit suburbsnote a closeup of Brad's … ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/67 "2015-04-13T11:32:26Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > You do recall the money George made pimping out Florence and Weezie, don’t you? And, certainly you can’t forget honkey neighbor, Willis, and George profiting from some pretty high market value rough-trade, right? Dry cleaning was just a front to cleanse the real money. Man, stuff really flew over my head when I was nine, didn’t it? :o 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/68 "2015-04-13T11:55:56Z")
Going to Britcoms, the Grace Brothers were pretty well off on Are You Being Served? And on Keeping Up Appearances, Bruce and Violet had a Mercedes, sauna, and room for a pony. I don’t know how much Major Nelson made on I Dream of Jeannie, but it may have been astronomical. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/69 "2015-04-13T12:43:51Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Man, stuff really flew over my head when I was nine, didn’t it? :o 😃 Yes, obviously. But nothing got past me; I was a very clever child. You got the memo that Mr. Ed was a zebra and Gentle Ben was a raccoon with acromegaly, right? And, do you really think they can train porpoises to pop out of the water on command like Flipper did? No, Flipper was really the penis of a blue whale with eyeballs drawn on it. They had the whale trained to lay on his back just under the ocean surface and think happy thoughts. You remember how Flipper used to shake and squirt out of his “blowhole” whenever Bud patted him on the head? It all makes sense now, doesn’t it! ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/70 "2015-04-13T16:05:52Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The guys on The Big Bang Theory hold non-tenured positions. There was an episode in which they competed for a tenure-track opening (due to the death of a tenured professor). An episode clearly written by someone who had no idea how tenure works. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/71 "2015-04-13T16:06:08Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The income and wealth issues on _House_ were as maddeningly erratic as some of the other “adjust it to suit the script” parameters. > > It seems very unlikely that the highly-respected head of oncology would make less than $250-300k; a superstar anchor physician like House should be making from that to $500k or more. But they went from throwing money around like confetti to being semi-broke or fussing over a $2,000 cost of something regularly. I think it was mentioned in the show that House was working for lower than average wages for somebody in his position. Most hospitals wouldn’t hire him because of his personality. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/72 "2015-04-13T16:13:08Z")
Bob Hartley (Psychiatrist) , Jerry Robinson (Orthodontist) and Howard Borden (Navigator) probably were making pretty good money. Emily Hartley was a teacher (later a Principal). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/73 "2015-04-13T16:40:08Z")
People overestimate greatly how much a typical college prof makes. There are some people at some top schools that make a lot of money. But the bulk make very middle class wages, at best. And it’s gotten worse. Colleges now focus on hiring part-time adjunct people for peanuts. Certain people in the media love to hype the salaries the few well-off profs make for political reasons. The _TBBT_ nerds do probably make enough to live okay on. But they’re not well off by any means. And Howard not having a PhD isn’t going to change things much. He could easily be making more than the others. When I was interviewing for my first job when finishing up my PhD, one of my offers was from a well-known college in LA. It was the worst of my offers and the housing prices meant it was going to be difficult to find decent housing. So it wasn’t in the running. I had a relative who as not just a prof but an assistant dean as well at a college near Pasadena. He could only afford to live in a house that was owned by the college which gave him a break on rent. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/74 "2015-04-13T17:13:27Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Bob Hartley (Psychiatrist) , Jerry Robinson (Orthodontist) and Howard Borden (Navigator) probably were making pretty good money. Emily Hartley was a teacher (later a Principal). It may or may not make a difference to his pay, but Bob was a psychologist, not a psychiatrist. That is, he had a Ph.D. in Psychology, but was not an M.D. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/75 "2015-04-16T15:33:23Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Another show that occurred to me is the awesome, under-appreciated _Better Off Ted_. > > There are five main characters in the show, and it seems to me that at least four of them are probably making comfortably into the six-figure range. > > The main character Ted (Jay Harrington) is senior vice-president of Research and Development, and must be on at least $200K. > > Veronica (Portia De Rossi) is Ted’s boss, and at a company like Veridian Dynamics, that would surely be at least $300-400K, plus bonuses and stock options. > > The two research scientists, Lem and Phil (Malcolm Barrett and Jonathan Slavin) would, given their apparent value to the company, probably be on over $100K, especially given the salaries we’ve already talked about for scientists with PhDs. > > The only one likely to be on a sub-six-figure income would have been Linda (Andrea Anders), a product tester who worked in a cubicle farm. Just wanna say that this post is the closest to actually making the parameters of the OP since it stated once (and then again) that the ENTIRE CAST OF CHARACTERS makes money, not just one dude ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/76 "2015-04-16T16:36:24Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Just wanna say that this post is the closest to actually making the parameters of the OP since it stated once (and then again) that the ENTIRE CAST OF CHARACTERS makes money, not just one dude Not only that, _Better Off Ted_ was a show that I loved all to pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/77 "2015-04-17T03:57:49Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > The premise for [Cool Million](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068060/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) is that Jefferson Keyes is a private eye who charges a million dollars a case. In a 26-episode season, that would be $26 million a year. Sadly, the show only ran five episodes, so we have to say $5 million. I thought about _Cool Million_ and discarded it. –Not a sitcom; it was part of _Wednesday Mystery Movie_. –In rotation with _Banacek_ and (I think) _Madigan_ (and they replaced it with _Hec Ramsey_), so in an ideal season it would have had eight episodes a year. –Five episodes, but the plot of one of them was that the check bounced and he did some burglary to recoup maybe half of his commission. Here’s a contender: [Arnie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065274/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). A loading dock worker (Herschel Bernardi) gets whimsically promoted into senior management, and the other main character, Hamilton Majors III (Roger Bowen), is a crazy millionaire CEO. ---
**Author:** ![Teach-me-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a4c791/32.png) [@Teach-me-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach-me-not)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/78 "2015-04-17T04:16:07Z")
My _Seinfeld_’s rusty, but what about George Costanza as the Assistant to the Traveling Secretary for the NY Yankees? I can’t ballpark his income, but be seemed to live comfortably. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/79 "2015-04-17T12:13:26Z")
Keeping with the original theme of the OP - how about **Scrubs**? By the end of the run the main cast should have been pulling down pretty good salaries. And the head MDs should have been loaded. The nursing staff probably pulls the average down quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433/80 "2015-04-17T13:24:11Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > It’s not clear how much Jay on Modern Family makes. He owns a successful business, has the lifestyle of a well off man, but occasionally grumbles about the costs of everything. I’m guessing his income is in the low 6 figures for salary but he has some substantial wealth also based on the value of his business. If anyone ever starts a counterpart to this thread the same actor has a shot at being the lowest paid working character, as Al Bundy in Married With Children. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-paid-working-characters-on-a-sitcom/717433.md?page=3)