Simpsons' Actors Strike Ends
After a month-long strike that threatened to shorten the number of episodes for next season, the voice actors for The Simpsons agreed to new contracts that, according to sources, will double their pay from $125,000 to $250,000 an episode. Not as much as they were looking for -- and they also gave up on their demand for a share of the profits -- but still a lot of dough. (It took a lot of willpower to avoid the "D'oh"/dough pun there.)
While $250,000 sounds like a ton of money, keep in mind that the cast of Friends made $1 million an episode (and The Simpsons has had a longer run). Are voice actors as vital (and worth as much) as live-action actors? What about the writers? A great part of The Simpsons success has been due to consistently good writing over the years -- where would the actors be without the writers? Or the animators for that matter?
