The Simpsons-The Movie

[Ravi]

They can't write good episodes most of the time these days, so I'm not looking forward to the movie.

[Pubrick]

They can't write good episodes most of the time these days, so I'm not looking forward to the movie.

yeah but they're not using the current writers for the movie, they are apparently bringing back old school writers in the hopes of sum original spark. refer to page 3 of this thread.

[modage]

i dont like that article because it implies that the simpsons will end oneday and that can never happen.

[MacGuffin]

i dont like that article because it implies that the simpsons will end oneday and that can never happen.

Will Fox Silence "The Simpsons"?
Source: E! Online

No more d'oh?!

That may be the fate for the voice actors of The Simpsons and for fans of the long-running animated sitcom if the most recent contract dispute between the show's actors and Simpsons network Fox continues to simmer.

Six actors who provide the voices for dozens of Simpsons characters--Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu and Comic Book Guy), Nancy Cartwright (Bart and Nelson), Dan Castellaneta (Homer and Krusty), Julie Kavner (Marge), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and Smithers) and Yeardley Smith (Lisa)--are asking the network for more d'oh, er, dough. Currently, the stars make $125,000 per episode, and they're looking for the powers that be to nearly triple that figure, to $360,000 per episode or almost $8 million a year for a 22-episode season.

Their other demand: profit participation, which is especially lucrative considering The Simpsons' potential merchandising, syndication and DVD profits.

Mmm...DVD profits.

The group, which has banded together in the past to hit their bosses up for salary increases, kicked off the current brouhaha when they recently failed to show up for table readings for the show's 16th season. Six episodes for the 2004-05 season, set to kick off post-baseball in November, are in the can, but the actors haven't gone to the office for tapings in a month.

Fox's response so far: no more dough. And, with negotiations still at an impasse earlier this week, Fox announced it would be forced to shorten the episode order for next season--which would definitely give fans a cow.

According to Yeardley Smith's agent, John Kelly, however, Fox's refusal to play ball with the actors is not just about money but is tantamount to a lack of acknowledgement of the actors' contributions to the wildly successful franchise. Fox claims the figure is high, but the actors' reps have estimated that Springfieldian saga has earned Fox and the show's executive producers more than $2.5 billion since it debuted in 1989.

"The issue is twofold," Kelly told the New York Times. "The personalities that the audience identifies with for each of these characters don't come from the drawings but from the personalities of the characters, which are provided by the actors. The second thing is there are 40-some regular characters on the show. They're all voiced by these six actors."

Says David Weber, attorney for Hank Azaria: "In contrast to numerous other successful shows, [none of the syndication and other ancillary profits] is being distributed to the actors. There's no back-end position at all.

"[And] the upfront fees have not been significantly raised as a recognition of past contributions to the financial success of the show," Weber told the Times. "What we're really asking for is what's customary in the television business for actors on successful shows. We're not getting it."

Fox's reasons for wanting to avoid the money and profit-sharing renegotiations...Duh, dough.

"We can't saddle the show with costs that make it uneconomical to produce," an unnamed Fox exec told the Times.

TV execs have also pointed out that animated shows are usually produced with a fixed budget in mind and that messing with that formula could endanger the future of the genre on the tube.

And, though The Simpsons actors' reps argue that their clients should receive the same level of compensations that actors on live-action hits like Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond enjoy, the argument against that comparison is that actors on live-action shows work full time on their series, and often, because of time commitments, to the exclusion of outside projects. The Simpsons voice talent, on the other hand, typically works two half days for each episode.

Mmm...half days.

Fans of the show, of course, just want the show to continue, and ultimately, despite the feet-dragging on the contract issue, so does Fox.

The Simpsons, the longest-running animated series in TV history, has averaged 11.5 million viewers this season. And, though that marks a drop of almost 2 million viewers from last season's average, it's still enough to make the series the cornerstone of Fox's Sunday-night lineup.

Still, with the May upfront season right around the corner--that's when the networks announce their schedules for next fall and begin to sell advertising time--the network will have to make a decision on the show's status and the voice actors' status on the show fairly soon. Fox is scheduled to present its fall schedule on May 20.

The last time the six actors went on strike for a salary increase, Fox hired a casting agent to audition replacements.

But the talented group proved to be irreplaceable: No suitable subs were found, and eventually the actors and Fox worked out a new contract.

Let's hope such an okily-dokily ending is in store this time around.

[ono]

I see both sides here.  Really, when you break it down, how fair is it that these actors get paid what amounts to tens of thousands of dollars an hour?  Then again, they are the essence of the show, without them there is no show, so they definitely deserve their share of the benefits of success.

WIGGUM: Now say "d'oh."
HOMER (sadly): D'oh...

[modage]

The last time the six actors went on strike for a salary increase, Fox hired a casting agent to audition replacements.

wow, so THIS is the evil that men do.  that is disgusting.

[cron]

I see both sides here.  Really, when you break it down, how fair is it that these actors get paid what amounts to tens of thousands of dollars an hour?  Then again, they are the essence of the show, without them there is no show, so they definitely deserve their share of the benefits of success.

WIGGUM: Now say "d'oh."
HOMER (sadly): D'oh...

Fernando was telling me the other day that the people who dub the voices of the characters in Spanish earn  around 30 dollars per episode...

[Ravi]

Fernando was telling me the other day that the people who dub the voices of the characters in Spanish earn  around 30 dollars per episode...

And they have to also make the Simpsons t-shirts.