Sunday, October 9, 2011

Homer, Marge, Bart & family to continue - for at least a coupla years

Maybe I don’t have any nostalgia in me, but for the life of me, I can’t understand the fooforah over whether “The Simpsons” would be renewed for another two years. It’s almost as if it was REALLY IMPORTANT.

I realize that for some people the show has acquired some sort of iconic status, but not for me. I remember that many years ago I was VERY impressed to learn that Nancy Cartwright was earning $80 thousand per episode for voicing the Bart character but it was mainly because she was hauling in for one episode what I would take home for two years. Envy? Jealousy? Both?
Turns out now that most of the voice actors have been making $400,000 per episode since 2008. I don’t know how many shows they turn out a year, but it would certainly look after my mortgage payments as well as a new car, a trip around the world and a slice of REALLY good cheesecake. We can only imagine what Matt Groening must be taking home in his net pay cheque!  No problems buying the expensive napkins at Dominion in that household.

One of the major sticking points in the negotiations was that the cast wanted to be included in some of the profits made by the Fox network which broadcasts the show. Fox, on the other hand, wanted the cast to take a 45% reduction in pay. Which would have dropped them down to $220,000 per episode.

Reports say the cast didn’t get into profit-sharing and Fox didn’t get its 45% pay decrease demand but saints-be-praised, there will be a 24th and 25th season of The Simpsons. Yahoo! - I guess.

Personally, I prefer Corner Gas and wish they were still producing new episodes of that, for which the cast earned much, much less than $400,000 per episode.

4 comments:

Government Funded Blogger said...

DOH!!

Wisewebwoman said...

As you well know Veep, apart from the pitifully few public stations, TV is all about pimping products we don't need and obviously those who watch the Simpsons are part of that desirable demographic who Iphone, wash, depilate and beer themselves excessively.
XO
WWW
Teevee-free since 1991.

ViewPoint2010 said...

GFB, very well said. I don't think I could have expressed it better myself! >grin<

ViewPoint2010 said...

WWW, I still have full cable service but find that my attention span is getting shorter and shorter for TV. About the only thing that holds my attention now is the Food Network where I'm learning how to do some new cooking things which recipes never taught me. Other than that, not even Star Trek TNG holds my attention much any longer. >Sigh<