Fox Threatens Simpsons Cast: Take Pay Cut or Die!

[shrekfan246]

"Hey Harry, those negotiators from FOX are here."

"RELEASE THE HOUNDS!"

Coupled with your avatar, I pictured a sly, evil "Exxxcellent." instead of "RELEASE THE HOUNDS!"

OT: Eh, I don't really have an opinion. If they make $8 million each, then they could use a pay-cut. Maybe not 45%, but still. And if they don't fold, and Fox doesn't fold, I wouldn't be surprised if Comedy Central purchased the rights to the show or whatever. For what it's worth, I think they should simply give it a final farewell in the form of a meaningful series finale, because there are very few shows that deserve to be simply axed with bad blood between everyone involved, especially after 23 seasons.

 

[The Random One]

"The series is as creatively vibrant as ever, which is why we can no longer afford to pay actors what we have paid them for the last twenty-something years."

Smooth, Fox.

 

[AxelxGabriel]

Whatever your opinion of the Simpsons episodes now are, the fact is that means there must have been good Simpsons episodes you like. That's why they seriously deserve a portion of the profits from syndication as well. Even if the show gets cancelled, they're damn good VA's.

 

[Leg End]

Jesus H. Christ. Quit your bitching and take the paycut. Give that pay to a middle class citizen and they can probably squeeze many years worth of healthy living out of that. FFS.

Tell that to this guy:
Not dem. :<

OT: Fox, the mofoing juggernaut of broadcasting, can't afford to pay people.
Smack me, I must be dreaming. XD

 

[DAAANtheMAAAN]

This is an odd concept for me. The Simpsons got their series when I was two years old. Until my twenties, not a Sunday went by without seeing the new episode or getting excited at the teasers for the celebrity cameos in the upcoming episodes. I had the T-shirts, I had the video games, I had the toys, I was in love with the show. To this day, I still am, and I truly appreciate the humor that I didn't understand in my childhood.

That being said, it might be time to let it go. The show is still pretty funny, but it has long since past it's prime. The show's best writers have moved on, and all good things must inevitably come to an end.
Whether or not this dispute ends the show, I won't mind either way. The actors are certainly entitled to a good pay for their work. Without them the show wouldn't have lasted 3 years, much less 23...

 

[Averant]

Fox can't support a 23rd season without paying the cast 45 percent less.

Twenty three seasons.

I think that dead horse over there is trying to tell you something, Fox.

 

[Bob_Dobb]

They will all end up like Maude Flanders.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I'm surprised it wasn't canned sooner, honestly.

...What am I saying? I live in a world where Jersey Shore, South Park, and Family Guy are allowed to persist. Of course The Simpsons would have lasted this long.

Oh wells.

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

I'd say it's more likely that Fox will higher new actors and continue the show rather than actually getting rid of it.

 

[mjc0961]

$8 million a year for voicing some characters? They are absolutely overpaid. Even if Fox is trying to fuck them over, you're telling me that a little over $4 million a year isn't enough? Come the fuck on.

Personally I say cancel it. If both sides want to both be such spoiled brats, end the damn show and let them all get nothing.

 

[drosalion]

so they're getting around $400,000 an episode. A 45% cut would lower their takings for an episode to just above $200,000. To be honest, they're earning a hell of a lot for voice work. 20 minutes of voice work an episode

$200,000 an episode is actually pretty low for a tv cast thats been on the air this long. That's less then the guy who plays house, or tina fey, or steve carell when he was on the office and A LOT less then charlie sheen or jerry sienfield when they were on.

And they are in there more then 20 minutes, as they each voice an average of 4 characters.


If you voiced 4 of the most memorable tv characters ever and had been doing so for the past 20 years, how much should you expect to make?

^ this, agree completely

 

[Erana]

Yes, the people who are actually contributing to the creation of this show are being greedy for trying to hang onto a miniscule portion of the massive revenue their work has created it.
What selfish bastards! They should really stop being so cruel to the Fox Billionaires!


People here would be throwing a fit if it was Notch who was getting only pennies on the dollar for Minecraft and handing the majority of the profits to Fox.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Major live action TV series often pay the primary actors a million dollars an episode. Now these episodes are twice as long, and I realize voice acting is somewhat less demanding, but $400k per episode for the Simpson cast seems spot on to me.

It is a lot of money, but then Fox makes a lot of money off of this. It's like complaining about the outrageous salaries of sports stars - the amount they're paid is obscene, but then advertizes are paying obscene amounts to fund the league and shouldn't the athletes get a large cut of that? If they don't it's just going to go to the businessmen at the top.

I think Fox is likely to lose their cash cow if they push this. Several of the voice actors have complained about the steady degradation of the show's quality and it's only a nice paycheck that keeps this going. If Fox is asking for severe cuts I think the cast is likely to let this die. I haven't watched Simpsons in years so I don't have any problem with this.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

Jesus H. Christ. Quit your bitching and take the paycut. Give that pay to a middle class citizen and they can probably squeeze many years worth of healthy living out of that. FFS.

Exactly. I'm thinking I'll come away from my Royal Marines service with £50,000 piled salary once taxed. Bringing it to about 80 grand American (I want to move to America) and that's enough for me to make a start building the life I want, if I can settle to a nice writing career.

So, after four years of risking my life god knows where, I'll have saved up (assuming I make no extravagant purchases.) a 114th of their salary. Kind of a kick in the nuts if I put it like that, but it's all I need for what I want to do.

Edit: hit a seven on my calculator. A hundredth (shut up, it's late) of their salary.

First off, congratulations on your completed service! Much respect to you and thank you!

Second, to both of you, I agree wholeheartedly. That is a lot of cash for doing voice-over work on a cartoon show, to be blunt, and it sure doesn't help anyone when a certain, small percentile are paid so extravagantly for "entertainment." Talented or not, it's a lot of money and making half of that is still a lot of money. Taking the cut still leaves them to do better than plenty of individuals.

To be fair, surely that pay cut is to fund more garbage from Fox. This is Fox, we know what to expect...

But to be even more fair, imagine all of the good if the Fox Ceos took a paycut? As bad as we see it regarding absurd actor pay, the higher ups in corporations make that look like a pittance, and that is especially worrisome.

 

[SilverUchiha]

I see all the facebook comments about how people want another Seth McFarlane show and I sincerely hope they are being sarcastic because two of his three shows are terrible and one is highly overrated with only brief moments of actually good humor every happening.

I suspect Simpsons has run its course finally. It will be sad to see it leave, but all good things must come to an end or just stagnate for eternity. Funny since House MD is done after this year and it was pretty bad last couple of seasons. What is Fox going to replace their biggest hitters with next?

 

[Dorian6]

Perhaps if they didn't pay so many people to say that democrats are nazi socialists who want to give free healthcare to gay illegal muslim immigrants, they'd have more money to pay their actors.


Yeah, I'm not buying Fox's story at all. Are we honestly expected to believe that they don't have the money to pay the actors on their biggest property? I'm not sure what their angle is here, but they've got to be lying.

 

[gyroscopeboy]

Jesus, no wonder Hank Azaria doesn't do many films anymore..he gets paid $8 million a year to sit in a chair and speak!