The Simpsons, America’s favorite cartoon family, are now entering their 20th season in production, and the voice talent that creates the animation has just signed a new contract with 20th Century Fox for more money per episode.
The top voice talent for the program, including Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson), Yeardley Smith (Lisa Simpson), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders), and Dan Castllaneta (Homer Simpson), had negotiated to receive an estimated $500,000 per episode. Although the group did not get (quite) as big a payday as they were looking for, they eventually settled for a healthy $400,000 per episode, making them collectively the most highly paid voice talent on network television.
The Simpsons, which is now entering its 20th year, has proven to be a financial windfall for everyone involved. After so many years in syndication, and with the recent Simpsons’ Movie, the franchise has become one of the best known and most successful shows of all time.
In fact, the only other prime time American TV program to reach the 20 year mark was the hit Western, “Gunsmoke,” back in the 1960s and 70s.
The new salaries being earned by the voice actors on The Simpsons put them up in the league of many A-list Hollywood actors. But unlike many of those stars, very few people would recognize the real faces of the Simpsons characters.
For example, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the United States who didn’t know who Homer Simpson was — and yet very few people would be able to recognize Dan Castellaneta’s face (the voice of Homer Simpson).
Because of of their relative anonymity, the voice actors on the Simpson’s enjoy a greater degree of privacy than most highly paid Hollywood stars. You’re unlikely to see Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns) or Hank Azaria (Moe) in the National Enquirer.
But even though the cast of the Simpson’s currently have a sweet deal, and are enjoying immense success and popularity portraying the voices of America’s most beloved (and dysfunctional) animated family, the party may not go on forever: the cast is under contract for four more seasons, but the series has yet to be renewed beyond the 2008-2009 season.
Even amazingly successful primetime shows like the Simpsons have to die eventually. Consider the enormous success of the sitcom “Friends.” The show became something of a worldwide phenomenon, and enjoyed high ratings for years. But eventually, the decision was made to pull the plug on “Friends.” And sooner or later, The Simpsons are bound to suffer the same fate.
For the time being though, the cast is enjoying the popularity of the show while they can — and making a VERY good living giving voice to some of the most interesting characters to grace American television screens in a long time.
Well, that’s the kind of payraise many people would settle for ; )
Comment by Claude Gelinas — July 4, 2008 @ 12:03 am