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The Simpsons could get cancelled...

mmntech

mmntech

Lifer
Money might finally kill our favourite family. FOX is trying to cut the payroll for some of it's top shows. They want the Simpsons voice cast to take a 45% pay cut. The cast has already agreed to 30% but the network execs are saying it's not enough.

Basically, FOX is saying they'll shut down the show if the actors don't agree to their demands. Keep in mind they currently make $8 million a season. Not exactly chump change. But, the show is still very profitable and makes huge profits for the network.

I suppose reality TV's low production costs have spoiled everyone.
http://www.canada.com/entertainment/story.html?id=5506017
 
shit should have been canceled long, long ago.

that said, I am assuming the Fox lineup has a ton of other useless shit that could be cut.
 
Yeah the simpsons haven't been great since about season 12 or so. They do hit sometimes still and crack me up but I certainly don't watch it every week or anything.
 
the simpsons has been up for cancellation for like ten years. needed it for about 15.
 
i've always wondered exactly how much work goes into voice over for tv shows and movies, as far as the actors go. i would think that for an episode of the simpsons, it would literally take the people like a day's worth of work to get the actual recordings done.

i know they have walk throughs though at tables and what not, from seeing some behind the scenes of family guy. it was actually pretty hilarious to see seth mcfarlene talking to himself in a conversation between stewie brian and peter.

but again i know nothing of the process.
 
I guess you'd have to know the actual numbers to know who is in the stronger position. Voice-over actors like the ones on the Simpsons make stunning amounts of money for what seems like little work, but the show needs them and if the show is still highly profitable I think it's only fair they get their fair share. Taking a 30% pay cut seems more than reasonable to me considering that the show continues to generate respectable ratings and it's so central to the entire identity of Fox TV. For what it's worth, I readily concede the show has been stronger in the past, but I continue to really enjoy it - the premiere this year was great.
 
Hope they can go out on their own terms. Would be a shame for a great show like The Simpsons to be axed because of some budget disagreement.
 
I Saw OJ said:
Hope they can go out on their own terms. Would be a shame for a great show like The Simpsons to be axed because of some budget disagreement.
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Don't see it happening. If the Simpsons are still generating a greater return than another show in their slot would, why the heck would fox drop them regardless of what they are paid?
 
Can't they just hire voice impersonators? There are plenty of people that can do good Homer or Bart impersonations and would love to get $10K per episode. I don't think the actors own the voices.
 
GagHalfrunt said:
Can't they just hire voice impersonators? There are plenty of people that can do good Homer or Bart impersonations and would love to get $10K per episode. I don't think the actors own the voices.
Click to expand...

America's next voice impersonator: The Simpsons Edition.

Apply now!
 
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GagHalfrunt said:
Can't they just hire voice impersonators? There are plenty of people that can do good Homer or Bart impersonations and would love to get $10K per episode. I don't think the actors own the voices.
Click to expand...

I would hope (and I bet it's true) that Groening and the other producers of the show wouldn't go for that. They, not Fox, still own the rights to the show and what to do with it.
 
Don Vito Corleone said:
I would hope (and I bet it's true) that Groening and the other producers of the show wouldn't go for that. They, not Fox, still own the rights to the show and what to do with it.
Click to expand...

And they, not Fox, understand that if the Simpsons gets canceled their cash cow dries up while if they pare the payroll to keep it on TV they can keep raking in the dough. Paying a voiceover person $400,000 per episode for an hours worth of work per week is ridiculous. When running a business you ask two questions when setting a salary for an employee: What is the value of the work being done and what would it cost to get someone equally competent to do the same job?

Are you saying that Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith are worth nearly $10 million dollars a year? Do you think that they can't be replaced with somebody making 1/10th that amount? Do you think that the show will be different with Julie Kavner doing Marge's voice as opposed to somebody that sounds exactly like Julie Kavner doing Marge's voice? 99% of Simpsons fans couldn't pick Kavner out of a police lineup and would never notice if she was replaced. So what is her actual value to the show and what makes her worth that sort of money?
 
venkman said:
Don't see it happening. If the Simpsons are still generating a greater return than another show in their slot would, why the heck would fox drop them regardless of what they are paid?
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RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank raises that intriguing question in a report today based on some back-of-the-envelope calculations. He says Fox has been hamstrung by a 17-year-old deal that limits syndication to local TV stations. “At the time, cable was a relatively insignificant contributor to major off-network syndication revenues; but over the ensuing years, cable grew to be as big an opportunity as (if not bigger than) local broadcast,” Bank says. But if the show is canceled, then the restriction evaporates and Fox can offer reruns to additional markets — especially cable or an online service such as Netflix. Bank figures Fox can score $1.5M for each of 506 episodes. That delivers $750M and with a cash flow (EBIT) margin of 60%, and a tax rate of 35% it adds 10 cents in earnings for each News Corp share. 20th Century Fox TV wants to keep The Simpsons going but is playing hardball, saying that it “cannot produce future seasons under its current financial model.” The cast offered to take a 30% pay cut, but Fox wants 45%. Meanwhile, COO Chase Carey has said that the company is thinking about the possibility of launching a Simpsons cable channel. “We haven’t drawn up any plans for a Simpsons Channel. But there are a lot of Simpsons fans out there. … It’s a real opportunity for us to do something truly unique,” Carey told analysts last month.
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http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/would-the-simpsons-be-worth-more-dead-or-alive/
 
GagHalfrunt said:
Can't they just hire voice impersonators? There are plenty of people that can do good Homer or Bart impersonations and would love to get $10K per episode. I don't think the actors own the voices.
Click to expand...
There are three actors on the show (Dan Castallaneta, Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria) who are responsible for roughly 90% of all the male voices in the show. You might be able to find someone who can do a good Homer Simpson, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who can do every single voice that Dan Castallaneta does. Those $10k checks are going to start to pile up when you're spreading them around dozens of different voice actors as opposed to a few.
 
All voice actors do a bunch of the voices, and barring subtle differences in voices, they'll have to hire a bunch more people to do the rest.

They've all done the show for 20 years, so raises and whatnot have accumulated. For a 20 episode season, $8 million doesn't sound unreasonable given the salaries that go around the industry. And seeing that they've been around for 20 years, chances are that the main cast are all friends and chummy, so if one person goes, they all go.

Tell me that they'll be able to find exact copies for voices of each and every voice actor... You know, the ones that have done the same voice for 20 years straight and have their tones tattooed into almost everyone's memory.
 
I don't think replacement is an option at this point.

Fox can only win in this situation.
 
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