No not the Simpsons!!
Posted on May 20th, 2008 by Hot Momma
Variety is reporting Fox’s schedule next fall might be missing it’s longest running animated series, The Simpsons. The Simpsons were slated to take its normal Sunday night timeslot next season, however there are delay’s going on in production.
The problem is the voice talent responsible for the Simpsons characters have not agreed to a new deal on their expiring contracts. Doh!!!!
While talks are in progress and a new deal will hopefully be worked out soon, production has already been on hold for months. The current delay means the show’s 20th season will only have 20 episodes instead of the usual 22.
And if a deal isn’t reached soon, the number of episodes will continue to drop for next season.
The key cast members — Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Julie Kavner (Marge), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Hank Azaria (Moe) and Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns) — are believed to make around $360,000 an episode.At 22 episodes a year, that’s almost $8,000,000 per season, per actor!!!
The new deal could raise the salaries to around $500,000 an episode, including several bonuses. To put things in perspective just four years ago, production was stopped when cast members didn’t show up for two table reads, as the actors were looking to increase their salaries from $125,000 an episode. Back in 1998, the cast was making $30,000 per episode when they started to ask for a large raise, and 20th Century tried to play hardball and went as far as hiring casting directors in five cities to find potential replacements if a deal wasn’t made. So the cast has had some hefty raises over the years.
The voice actors, insist they are only asking for a small portion of The Simpsons empire, which is actually worth several billions of dollars. However, with ratings down, the show isn’t bringing in the same kind of revenues it once did. Still, the voice talent will likely get their pay increase even as the show becomes less of a cash cow. We just hope it’s done in time for everyone to enjoy a full season of The Simpsons.
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