Discuss Contract Vs. Recuring Status

[John]

For example what do you guys think would happen if shows allowed more actors to be recuring or as Kim Zimmer suggets in her TV Legends interview for the actor to be able to opt out. How zimmer explained it was that a show signs you to a 4 year contract and right know the shows can fire you every 13 weeks, Zimmer suggests that actors should be allowed to leave if they want as well. Maybe not every 13 weeks but she suggested if there is a four year contract then after the first year an actor can opt out but they have to give the show as much notice as the show wanted.

[JackPeyton]

So basically, it would be a 1 year contract.

The contracts benefit the shows, not the actors. Is it unfair? Perhaps. But it is the way it is and really, why shouldnt it benefit the show?

Recurring done right is great for both parties, look at Tracey Bregman on Y&R. Shes a prime example of it working well, and the point that really shes on more and featured more and has lasted longer than many of her costars.

I think that shows need way, way less contract people though.

[Khan]

I think shows need to do away with episode guarantees and just give the actors "flat" contracts for X amount of years at such-and-such salary per year. When writers have to write according to episode guarantees, believe me, it shows.

[antmunoz]

Harding Lemay wrote about how he had to stagger Rachel, Iris and Mac on AW throughout the week based on the various actors' deals.

Beth Chamberlin on GL is another who did better off-contract. She was a major character for the last few years after the backburnering following the Lorelei mess.

[John]

Yeah I agree maybe saying actor x has a four year contract and during the first year will make this amount and this in the 2nd, 3rd & 4th year would work better than having episode guarantees. I still think the 13 week/26 week cycles where u can be released so still exist though. Im just saying should the actor be able to exit a contract early as long as they give notice to the show. The show would decide and put in said contract how much notice would need to be given.

For example, if u had a 3 year deal but it wasnt working for the actor & they wanted out & If the show had a policy that it could be requested but you must give a 4 months notice, so we can figure out how to write the exit story.

[DaytimeFan]

That's how the British soaps do it. It's a "flat" salary with no episode guarantee, though the higher paid actors usually get used more often, bang for their buck as it were. In fact, such contracts DO exist in American daytime. Suzanne Rogers has had a "flat" contract for many, many years.

[John]

Kim Zimmer had the same at GL . She had a contract that said if they fired her at anytime they had to pay her whole salary for that year and that she could leave anytime as well, as she gave proper notice to P&G. She said P&G set how much notice KZ had to give.

[DaytimeFan]

Kim Zimmer's contract was not a flat contract. She had an episode guarantee. She had a clause in regards to being fired and quitting.

Suzanne Rogers does not have an episode guarantee. Whether she works once a year or 60 episodes a year, she makes the same salary.

[Gray Bunny]

I think it's about mutual respect. If there's an understanding between show and actor, it can work out perfectly to be recurring. Beth Chamberlin, Jordan Clarke, Ron Raines, Liz Kiefer were all recurring at one point. Some still had big story, some had story that came and went. Days has John Aniston. Y&R has Tracey Bregman, etc. etc.

It's when a show is trying to short-change and screw actors over that it blows up in their face, like when GL would only put Marj Dusay on recurring in 1998, and she jumped ship and got a contract at AMC. Then it happened again in 2005 with Jerry ver Dorn, and he jumped ship and got a contract at OLTL.

[Mitch]

Agreed with the flat contract...wonder why GL didnt go this route near the end or when they saw the budget going down the toliet. Alternative is actors going on and off contract as the storylines changed..when the actor had down time they are on recurring and maybe three to six months later they go back on contract. Would loved it if they had let Zimmer, Goldin, Ehlers do that and let them do something outside for a couple of months recharge their batteries, let us get over their characters being shoved down our throats and still keep the actors around acting as support for others until their time rolls around again.

[DaytimeFan]

That wouldn't work because ultimately people want security and benefits. Recurring actors aren't given health insurance. When Suzanne Rogers was fired in 2003 during the Salem Serial Killer Fiasco, John Clarke told Ken Corday that he would go off contract and work recurring if it could keep Suzanne on contract so that she would have health insurance. Corday didn't go that route, as we know Clarke quit soon after.

A flat contract is the answer because it would allow the writers to use the characters and relax them when they wanted to. The actor won't be angry because they're still getting paid and their families still have health insurance.

Actors jump for contracts because of the security.

[Gray Bunny]

We probably could've enjoyed John Clarke in the role for a few years longer had that disastrous serial killer storyline never happened. And we wouldn't have had to ensure John Engel's oafish baffoon version of Mickey and his ridiculous marriage to Bonnie. I just can't see John Clarke's Mickey putting up with such a white-trash no-class idiot.

[John]

Loving the flat contract idea. The shows need to do this.

[Eric83]

I thought he was going to quit regardless and volunteered to be killed off instead of Maggie?

[Khan]

Was this before or after he cleaned Drake Hogestyn's clock?