Tsar Chasm

Report: 'Simpsons' stars in work stoppage
Actors involved in contract talks



LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The actors who provide the voices for the cartoon characters on the long-running TV show "The Simpsons" have stopped work in a bid to force a settlement of lengthy contract renewal talks, Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.

The Hollywood trade paper said the six actors have not shown up for two script readings in the past few weeks, holding up production on the hit satire's upcoming 16th season.

It quoted insiders as saying each cast member is asking for about $360,000 an episode, or $8 million for a 22-episode season. Each member currently earns $125,000 an episode. The highest-paid star in TV is Ray Romano, who reportedly earns between $1.7 million and $2 million per episode of his Emmy-winning series "Everybody Loves Raymond."

The three-year contracts for Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu, Comic Book Guy), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and others), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Julie Kavner (Marge) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart) expired several months ago, and their representatives have been negotiating new ones to no avail, Daily Variety said.

The last "Simpsons" work dispute was in 1998, at a time when the actors were making $30,000 per episode. The show's producer, Twentieth Century Fox TV, hired casting directors in five cities to replace most of them before both sides worked out a new deal and resumed production.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/0...eut/index.html

I don't see the issue here. Pay these people, Fox.

Ted The Bug

April Fools

Chew

Whether it's April Fools or not, can anybody imagine all new voices in the 16th season? I'm sure it wouldn't be on the air for long.

crankyman

dee 'oh.

mmconhea

The issue is that the voice talent works less than 10 hours a week. Nancy Cartwright said it herself in her book- the cast is so good, they get it all in one take and go home and spend the rest of the week spending the cash they earn. It's the greatest job int he world."

How much time do the animators in Korea earn I wonder.

Groucho

We aren't rich enough, dammit!

Rogue588

Perhaps they should hold out for better scripts..?

Chew

That hasn't stopped the cast of Friends the last few years..........

das Monkey

Assuming this is true (seems likely), I wouldn't pay them. There's nothing significantly different with the show and its following between now and 3 years ago, and they're demanding nearly triple their salary in the 16th season? That's a bit unreasonable no matter how talented they are. It would seem that Fox has most of the leverage here anyway. Hell, they could have some serious fun producing some eps without the major voices.

das

BDLOU

Does anyone know if the voice cast is making anything for the DVD releases? That may be why they are asking for triple the salary. They want their unofficial cut of that money.

Seantn

This isn't an April Fool's Joke. I remember when this happened a few years ago with the Contract Negotiations. They were close to re-casting the roles.

JUST CANCEL THE SHOW, FOX! It ran out of steam years ago. It's runnin' on freakin' fumes.

BlackCapTen

They should get a little raise with their new contracts. Going from 125k to 360k per episode seems like a steep friggin' raise. Negotiating tactic I assume.

I don't think the show is signed beyond the 16th season. I could be wrong.

This season has been the best of recent years, at least for my humor/enjoyability.

the aftermath

Maybe it's the writers who are holding out for money, and until then are just writing pure crap.

Seantn

Aftermath, if that's the case, then they've been holding out since the 98-99 season...

bboisvert

I think they definitely deserve a percentage of DVD sales... but a raise of that level for a show that has entered its twilight years is not reasonable.

Jackskeleton

tell that to friends cast members. they are the reason you watch. Since writers are always getting the bum deal, that issue will be up with the WGA goes up for talks soon for residuals.

If this is actually true, then they should get the pay. No reason not to do it. 16 years deserves a nice raise regardless of how many hours they work a week. TV actors work what? 6 months out of the year and still get paid the big bucks. Why? because this is a big business. pay the folks what they want 125,000 an episode is a major under payment compared to what other big name show celebs make.

as for the folks in korea who are drawing the show.. guess what, they outsource for a reason. those folks are below the line and should get paid accordingly. Then again I haven't cared for the simpsons at all this season so they could call it quits now and I wouldn't mind.

UAIOE

The cast of "Friends" were overpaid and if the voice actors on "The Simpsons" get this raise they will be too.

Hold out for raises when your show is hot, not when its on its way out.

Y2K Falcon

The difference is where Friends is, week in and week out, on the tv ratings vs. The Simpsons. Season to date, Friends is #4. Simpsons is.... Not on the top 20 (only fox shows on top 20 are Idol and Obnoxious Fiance).

http://www.zap2it.com/television/news/ratings/season/



They should just hire Marshall away from Alias for a week. He can take the sounds the voice actors made in previous episodes, and write a program that uses the phonemes to create speech electronically.

bboisvert

Schwimmer had a great quote about this once. He pointed out that his paycheck makes headlines. However, the amount of $$$$ that the show brings to the network, Warner, etc. doesn't even warrant a footnote. They are most definitely *not* overpaid. If they were, the Powers That Be would have not agreed to the salary and simply cancelled the show. It isn't charity, it was a business decision.

Just my 2 pennies...

Draven

I read in another article that Fox rakes in $1 BILLION in revenue a year due to Simpsons advertising, syndication and merchandising.

The cast deserves a measly $8 million a year for that.

Oh, and just because they can do it in one take doesn't mean they should be paid less. "You are too good at your job! No raise for you!"

MJKTool

Greedy bastards.

Jackskeleton

No kidding. Considering the majority of the cast does more than one character voice should be a factor as well. It's not like you can simply recast the voice as it has a lot of attachments to other sub characters. The main difference? you see schwimmer, you don't see Castellaneta.

Considering how much fox makes from the simpsons and considering the history of how the simpsons saved fox's ass.. give them the raise already.

MJKTool

They did get a raise apparently, an almost $100,000 per episode raise!

Call me crazy but thats a pretty hefty thank you from Fox right there Jack

JasonF

I remember 3 years ago when they were talking about recasting the voices, a DJ here in Chicago (Steve Dahl) auditioned for some of the roles with his sidekick. They did some of their voices on the radio and they sucked.

Deftones

I say give it to them. Why shouldn't they? Consider it as a reward for being apart of the most successful animated series of all time.