'Simpsons' Stars Strike for More D'oh - Report

[Wickerman]

capitalistic swine! :)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=762&e=1&u=/nm/20040401/en_nm/leisure_simpsons_dc

LOS ANGELES (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 (news), who reportedly earns between $1.7 million and $2 million per episode of his Emmy-winning series "Everybody Loves Raymond."

snip--

[Barrett808]

April Fools?

Hopefully...

[maxpower]

1. No

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[treepig]

2. well, as the wealthy mr. burns says

i'd give it all up for just a little bit more.

anyhow, looks like this is what homer (no regrets i'm sure) will be up to for awhile:

[sam sarrha]

3. That is about $360,000 a show... they are the show..pay them Minimum/no OT

Those people are not hacks... they and the writers made the show.., not the F'n CEO who gets the bonus for all their good work.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Remember when the actress who played Flanders' wife

asked for a little more? They killed her character. Harsh.

Relatively speaking - that is, relative to Hollywood - voice actors don't get compensated nearly enough.

[Wickerman]

6. agreed - I have no problem

with their demands. If, ultimately this helps voice actors get better pay and more cred, then all the better. Yeardley Smith deserves big dollars. She is hilarious, she is Fox - recall Herman's Head?

[pagerbear]

7. Yeardley Smith has a one-woman show off Broadway

Any NYC DU-ers want to go see it with me?

[Sandpiper]

5. They deserve every penny

I'm just afraid that this might be the excuse that Rupert needs to pull the plug on a show that he hates.

I hope not.

[trogdor]

8. Or offshore the voicing gig.

I'm sure they can find somebody in Bombay who can say, "d'oh!"

[Toucano]

9. I support the actors, too.

Sadly, though, their stance comes when the show is kind of faltering. They may have an uphill battle.

[BiggJawn]

10. I'l do Smithers and Mr. Burns for $60,000 an episode...

and you can't tell it's not Harry Shearer.

Shit, 10 episodes and I wouldn't have to work my day job again until I was almost 70!

Hell, they already make in ONE episode what I make in 3 YEARS....

[Columbia]

11. I hope

That they are helping get the writers/animators/misc. production staff pay raises too.

[Runcible Spoon]

12. I support whatever it takes to keep the Simpsons on Faux

if those talentless hacks on "Friends" can earn 1 mil per episode, there is no reason the Simpsons team shouldn't get fairly compensated. That show is one of the US's most important cultural expressions.

[tinrobot]

13. $50,000 an hour...

When they were on Actors Studio, they pretty much admitted that it takes less than a day to record an episode.

This means they're asking for something on the order of $50,000 per hour.

[Boat Guy]

14. $50,000 an hour

If all they were required to do was just the V.O. work, that would still be a bargain, but of course, there's a lot more to it than that.

FAUX makes tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year on "The Simpsons", what with commercial buy-ins, foreign distribution rights, licenced product merchandising, you name it. Why SHOULDN'T the people actually responsible for making the show such a success share in some of the gravy?

Fer cryin' out loud, Ray Romano gets something like $1.5 - $1.7 mm per episode -- that's about equal to what the principals on "The Simpsons" are asking in total!

[peekaloo]

15. mmmmmmmm....bigger piece of the pie....*slobber*