Look, the decline in quality over at The Simpsons (for what, a decade+ now?) is a long, tired topic, but there’s no doubt the show has become an institution. Considering I don’t feel like any void in FOX programming left by cancelling The Simpsons would suddenly be filled with something better, it’s always worth a “that’s neat” to hear about the latest record the show has broken on its course to being the longest-running Sit-com ever. That might all come crashing down to a sudden and graceless ending though, as money disputes are threatening to kill the show for good.
It boils down to this: Fox wants to cut budgets for all shows, and in The Simpsons case this means demanding a 45% pay-cut from the principle cast of the show, which would knock their salaries down from about $8m a year to $4m a year. The voice actors however, are looking to drop their salaries by about 30% and carve out a very small (infinitesimally small, I’d imagine) chunk of the licensing money the show makes. The actors have always been left out of that revenue stream while the studio has made billions. All of this is to say the actors are rich as hell, but are still netting a relatively small sum from the monolithic amounts of cash the show makes. Meaning billions. With a B.
The problem is that Fox doesn’t see the actors as an integral part of the show, and seem perfectly happy to replace actors or shut the whole thing down and coast on the hundreds and hundreds of episodes they’ve already made. Frankly, this sounds very much like a situation where the actors fold or the show dies. I can’t say which is more likely though. Either way, Fox wins. They own an episode library and, more importantly, character images that will money for decades no matter what. This isn’t an AMC Walking Dead/Mad Men scenario at all.
When’s the last time Disney made a Mickey Mouse cartoon that anybody actually watched..? And does anyone get upset when Mickey’s voice is a little different? And how powerful is that brand still?
Hey actors…
"You're fucked..."
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Source | Daily Beast (Thanks to Brian Henne!)
11 comments
Let it die!
I’m not on the “It’s been going downhill since season X…” bandwagon, but I’ve often wondered if Fox brought back Family Guy to make the Simpsons seem like a better show. Or at least one for people over 14.
The Simpsons have been nigh unwatchable for many years now, and I can’t remember the last time I watched a new episode. If this is how it ends, so be it. Futurama, however needs to live on and on and on and on. That show is consistently good and should be Matt Groening’s legacy.
I watched almost every episode last year, for the first time in a long time, and have to admit there were some great episodes. Sure there were still a few outright clunkers, but when every episode of Family Guy is a clunker, that should count for something. I’d be willing to bet that most people that talk about the “decline” of the show haven’t watched it since they made Homer the focus of the show almost a decade ago, which, admittedly was a low point for the series. I had no desire at all to watch the movie, and to my surprise, it was pretty fucking funny.
That first paragraph actually sums up my feelings pretty well. I’d be happy for the show to keep going, even though I haven’t watched in years.
Renn Brown, I do not think just Anybody, can give…Voice to the Simpsons characters! While, any actor can be replaces, the audience will not necessarily still watch the show, if some or all the characters suddenly sound different.
I shudder to think what the Simpsons version of Fake Fred Flintstone would sound like.
I shudder to think what the Simpsons equivalent of Fake Fred Flintstone would sound like.
Has there ever been an animated series though where you can actually name AND recognize the entire voice cast? I mean, it’s normal now to load a cartoon with big names, but The Simpsons made these people, and they’re as synonymous with show as the characters they portray. To replace them, rather than just end the show, would be a crime, though it does make me wonder if the “The Simpsons hasn’t been any good X amount of years” crowd would become the “Fuck you for changing the voices on the show that we’ve always, always loved” bandwagon.
I would think they’d say, “Fuck you for changing the voice actors. You already ran the show into the ground for the past X years. Why not just end it, finally?”
I think it’s clearly declined, and Futurama is a vastly superior show, but I’d have no problem with it continuing. There’s far worse things on TV than the Simpsons, and they’re way past the point where they could end it before a substantial decline in quality. So why not just keep it rolling?
And a kick in the shin is better than a kick in the nuts, but they’re both still unpleasant to sit through. Just because there’s worse things on TV doesn’t mean this drawn out one-joke series needs to continue. Jesus just let it die already.
8 million a year is a…STAGGERING number. Also keep in mind it’s not a whole year worth of work please, nor are they solely responsible for the success of the show. Without a writers’ room what exactly is the cast contributing? Where is the outrage over the writers not receiving the same compensation? Yes Fox is turning a huge profit from the thing, but honestly if the Simpsons had crashed and burned, would it be the actors on the hook for production costs? Of course not. Fox (loathe them all you want, and believe me I do) has taken all the risk from day one, has put up all the cash, all of the investment in time and development, recognized the marketing potential, dealt with the selling of the show, not the actors, and that means Fox gets the lions’ share of whatever this show produces. The cast is getting more than fair compensation for the labor provided, while the entity injecting capital is getting more – that’s the way capitalism works kids, the way it’s supposed to work at its best actually. For, what, is it 13 episodes a year now (been a long time since I watched this show), $8mil a year translates to the actors are being paid $615k PER EPISODE to record for a couple of days a week. With their proposed pay cut of 30%, that’s still $430k per episode. Or if you look at Fox’s demand it works out to $400k per episode. Seriously? With the country BACK in a financial crisis, this is what they are going to complain about? What a goddamn sense of entitlement. We aren’t talking about not putting food on their tables, or not being able to send their kids to college. Or asking them to work in dangerous situation. That’s a mansion a week they can afford at the reduced salary (particularly if they shop smart and pick up a nice one recently foreclosed on from one of the thousands and thousands of americans currently out of work) to show up for a couple of days and record in their jammies if they want. If honestly that’s not enough then fuck ’em.
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