Must be hard work to warrant that type of pay.
Here’s a question: Do the producers of The Simpsons work that much harder than the producers of shows like Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond, that they deserve to keep more of the income from the show rather than sharing it with the stars?
That’s the thing about a market economy–it isn’t about how hard you work, but about how much you’re worth to the market. Donald Trump doesn’t work as hard saying “You’re fired!” as migrant workers do pulling potatoes, but capitalism gives more to the Donald than to people in the fields. The actors on The Simpsons are the show. It wouldn’t be earning $1 billion/year without them, and they deserve their share of that money as much as anyone working for Gracie Films does.
Not hard work. More like the lifeblood of Fox. We’ll see who caves first. 
At least we get to be entertained by all of the headlines that talk about how the actors want more “D’oh!”
Reporter: “Would you say that you are looking for more ‘D’oh’?”
Actor: “Um… I guess so.”
Reporter: “Say it!”
Reporter: “Would you say that you are looking for more ‘D’oh’?”
Julie Kavner: “No.”
Reporter: “Don’t you get it? ‘Dough’ and ‘D’oh’? It’s a pun.”
Julie Kavner: “I get it. But that’s not my catchphrase, dumbass.”
Reporter: “LOOK, YOU INSOLENT WENCH! I couldn’t find Dan Castellaneta and I’m on deadline. Couldn’t you just say it so I can write my story?”
They deserve it, IMHO. Voice actors get paid a fraction of what good-looking actors get, and their job is often just as hard.
IMO, the writers of the Simpsons are the show. It never would’ve gotten as far as it did without the writers putting in 19-hour days (according to Al Jean) in the early seasons. Look at the graveyard of animated primetime shows–the voiceover work is always good; it’s the writing that makes the difference. Also, an episode of the Simpsons is in production for 9+ months, compared to probably a few weeks for a show like Friends. As the linked article says, the voice actors work about 10 hours out of those 9 months.
Not that I begrudge the actors their money. AFAIC, they can have as much as they want. But the producers shouldn’t be undervalued.
7 replies and nobody’s chipped in as to how much they think the show sucks now, it should be cancelled, etc? I think that’s a record for the SDMB. Somebody is sure to get up on their soapbox soon and tell us how this is a good thing.
Well, see, there was a thread over in MPSIMS already so the vituperation may have been expended there.
In that thread someone mentioned that the last time the cast struck Fox started casting calls. I’m curious, who would continue to watch if the voice actors were all replaced? I don’t think I would.
You’re right. I posted soon after waking up this morning and couldn’t think of anything witty to say.
And it’s probably a bit of envy on my part too. I work as a contractor for the federal government. There are no raises for good work, no incentive to perform above mediocrity, no compensation for seniority. As opposed to the civil servants I work beside who get regular pay increases for just doing their time. The only time we lowly contractors get raises is when the wage determination decrees a cost of living increase. And that’s usually in fractions of a dollar/hour. There is no room for negotiation, it’s “like it or leave it.” And my skills are so specialized to my specific workplace that I would have to take a pay cut to move elsewhere.
I know, pass the cheese to go along with my whine.
Now I think the Simpsons still put out a good product. I burnt out on Raymond a year or so ago, and I feel the Friends casts deserve no where near what they are earning. Good riddance to that show.
Oops, I missed that post. And MPSIMS is the only other regular section I read aside from Cafe Society. But isn’t Cafe Society the more proper place for the topic? That’s probably why I overlooked it.
$360,000 per episode for a long-running, popular prime-time show? That’s chump change.
The cast of Friends was sucking NBC dry to the tune of one million each, per episode. Toward the end, it was reportedly more like 1.2 million each.
James Gandolfini of [The Sopranos] issued a two million per episode demand to HBO. He wound up settling for about $800,000 per episode.
Seinfeld has nothing on Ray Romano, who’s getting 1.8 million per episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. And that title is a lie. I can’t stand him.
Ray himself doesn’t like the title much, either.
As ‘Wierd Al’ Yankovic says, “Everyone Tolerates Raymond”.
I’m guessing they’ll settle for $200,000 per + greater residuals. Or it’ll end in a hostage bloodbath situation, with “Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Krusty?” becoming the most famous soundbyte ever captured on CNN.
(I certainly hope Marcia Wallace gets a nice chunk for her guest roles. She lost everything she had a few years back and she adds tons to the show.)
Am I the only one who believes that the episodes this season have vastly improved animation?
If so, there is extra money there I am sure of.
Also, am I the only one who believes that older characters are begining to make a comeback? (Snake, Marge’s sisters, Itchy/Scratchy…)
Plus, they have an influx of new characters (like the blacksmith in the last episode)
That means that there will need more voices i.e. more money.
Does this add any weight to the actors side?
What happened? [/hijack]
Me neither. It’s bad enough when, well, I died. If they started changing voices, it’d be a bust. Witness Kermit the Frog.
You do have to remember that they can voice a show in about one working day, don’t have to deal with wardrobe, lighting, makeup, props, facial expressions, moving, or any of those other pesky tasks the guys in front of the camera deal with. It’s a part time job. In fact, it takes so little time that one could actually start up their own one woman show off-broadway right at the start of the TV season with nary a problem. Luckily for her, the show’s closing after 4 weeks so she’ll have lots of time to devote to her strike.
If you work in a year what most people work in a month, there’s only so much money grabbing I can stomach, and I consider myself a heavy duty capitalist type guy.