Monday, June 02, 2008

New Simpsons Deal

Finally.

And there is a collective sigh of relief from the artists who've suffered through a lengthy hiatus from their jobs at Film Roman ...

"The Simpsons" cast has sealed a four-year deal that hands it more "D'oh" and solidifies the animated hit's 20th season.

Production on the show has been delayed for several months as voice actors and 20th Century Fox TV hammered out a deal (Daily Variety, May 20). New pact bumps the stars' salaries up to about $400,000 an episode; the thesps previously made somewhere in the mid-$300,000 range ...

This long-gestating agreement has been in the process of becoming for weeks if not months. The artistic staff has been told over the last four weeks: "The actors are back in the fold this week." But for weeks it didn't happen.

In fact, Simpsons directors were set to come into a high-level meeting last week, but the meeting was scrubbed. Apparently execs wanted to cross all the ts and dot the other appropriate letters before giving out any updates that weren't, you know, finalized.

Staffers have speculated how many new shows will be produced for the coming season, since there are, I'm told, several being held over from Season #19. If they're indeed going to produce another twenty, that's good news for a crew that's been gnawing its fingernails over a possible new season for freaking months.

So hurry back to work, folks, and hurry back to work soon.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great news! Another four years of fun. It's diddly-doodly

Larry Levine said...

I'm very happy for the artistic staff--you guys are the TRUE STARS of The Simpsons in my book!

Anonymous said...

Actually, the star has always been the writing. Until a few years ago, when it started going south.

Anonymous said...

the stars are the artists. always have been, always will be. no matter how much matt insists he doesn't really draw. they deserve 400K per episode.

as for starz - they are anything but.

Anonymous said...

I'd be curious to see a test of who is the "star" of the show. How about an entire episode without visuals, just a black screen and the voice talent. Or maybe just show the writers sitting in a room reading the script.

LampshadeMan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LampshadeMan said...

Arguing whether the artists or the writers are the "stars" of the show is like arguing where the engine or the wheels get a car from point A to B. It's not a valid question.

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