The escalating fees networks are paying for hit shows and the ballooning salaries of actors are causing a ripple effect throughout the television industry.
And now it would appear that actors want to be paid a lot whether they actually appear in a program or not. According to reports emanating from Hollywood, some of the Simpsons are threatening to hold out for big pay increases.Well, not the cartoon characters themselves. They're pretty much slaves to whoever animates them.
But the people who provide the characters' voices are looking to get rich quick. If the reports in a recent edition of the trade publication Variety are true, those voice actors may soon be among the highest paid performers working in network television.
Cast members currently struggle along on about $35,000 an episode. Which isn't bad, considering that they only work two half-days per episode.
(And considering they don't have to worry about makeup or wardrobe or even memorizing their lines - they can just come in as grungy as the want, stand in a sound booth and read their parts off the script.)
But, according to Variety, some of those actors are demanding raises that will bring them as much as $100,000 per episode - which, of course, works out to $100,000 a day for two half-days of work.
And you thought "Friends" cast members were getting a little pushy when they demanded $100,00 an episode. At least they work five days a week - which works out to a mere $20,000 a day. And they have to memorize their lines.
Reportedly, the "Simpsons" holdouts include Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Harry Shearer (who does a variety of characters, including Principal Skinner, Moe and Police Chief Wiggum) and Hank Azaria (who does a variety of characters, including Mr. Burns, Smithers and Ned Flanders).
According to Variety, both Julie Kavner (Marge) and Yeardly Smith (Lisa) are still under contract.
Gee, the producers must be glad that baby Maggie Simpson is still non-verbal. (With the exception of that one word Elizabeth Taylor voiced for Maggie back in 1992.)
I'm of two minds about this situation - and others like it.
On the one hand, using whatever leverage you have to extort . . . er, uh, win higher wages from your employers is a time-honored American tradition. If these actors can get that kind of money, then more power to them.
The fact is that Fox (which produces, broadcasts and syndicates the show) has made a fortune off "The Simpsons." And if some of that fortune goes the way of the voice actors, great.
On the other hand, the voice actors are only repeating the lines that are written by others. Which is not meant to minimize the actors' contribution, any more than it is meant to minimize the work of the animators.
But the heart and soul of this show (and just about any other) is the writing. If the actors had to come up with their own lines, they'd be working a lot longer than one day a week - and they wouldn't have their jobs for long because, undoubtedly, the show would quickly fail.
Then there's the fact that all of these figures are so entirely out of whack they seem like they're coming from some other planet. Even at the sum of $35,000 per episode, these actors make more for one day's work than a lot of people make in a year. They make more for two days work than the majority of Americans make in a year.
In other words, it's hard to feel sorry for someone who's hauling in that kind of money.
As Homer would so eloquently put it, "D'Oh!"