This is why most television series never run more than 7 years: escalating costs for the stars. From Reuters:
D’oh! Homer Simpson and the rest of the mustard-colored citizens of Springfield are on strike.
The actors who do the talking for Homer, Bart and the rest of the cartoon stars of the long-running Fox television show “The Simpsons” are keeping their mouths shut until producers pay them more money, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
The show’s six principal voice actors, whose contracts expired several months ago, have refused to show up for script readings during the past few weeks, delaying production on the upcoming 16th season of the animated series, the source said.
… the source confirmed a report in Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety that each of the six cast members was demanding a salary of $360,000 per episode, or nearly $8 million for a 22-episode season. Each actor currently is paid $125,000 per episode, the source said.
While that might seem like a modest sum for a program that has been a signature show for Fox and a linchpin of its Sunday schedule for years, the source said the voice actors essentially work the equivalent of one day per episode.
On the other hand, producers have to wonder whether they could ever replace the familiar voices who utter such popular catch phrases as Homer’s anguished exclamation “D’oh!” or Bart’s “Ay, caramba.”
I won’t take a stand on either side of this issue. It seems like a lot of money for relatively little work; yet those voice actors are so good at what they do… hmm.
You might remember that this was an issue in the past, and the voice talent won a new contract. You might notice that Fox never cuts the Simpsons credits until after the voices are listed. That was evidently part of the previous settlement.
