Fun with contracts!

[pdm1974]

It's obvious that DAYS actors don't work over their guarantee now which is why stories/characters are dropped for periods of time. It's also why big events such as weddings, holidays leave out certain characters who should be there.

[JAS0N47]

 

Here's the end of a 13-week cycle (the episodes airing from 9/27/71-12/24/71):

 

At this point, Denise was guaranteed just 20 episodes over this 13 week cycle. But she worked 28. Bill Bell would famously overwork people, regardless of their guarantees. In this cycle, for instance, Ed Mallory was only guaranteed 20 episodes as well, but he worked 41 episodes, more than twice his average guarantee!

 

Mac had the best agent. His guarantee of 40 episodes over 13 weeks was double anyone else in the cast. The rest of the cast was guaranteed 20 episodes over this 13-week cycle, except for Susan Seaforth, who only had a 1-per-week guarantee at the time (13 episodes for 13 weeks).

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

Here's a standard AFTRA contract for "Days" for a U/5 appearance in 1991. At the bottom, it lists the payments for each time the episode is repeated, or aired in other countries:

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by JAS0N47

[JAS0N47]

Here's a contract of Susan Seaforth's for an appearance on GH in 1964:

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

[mikelyons]

 

Thanks for sharing these!

[titan1978]

Thanks for sharing!  The quote from Denise I posted was about her GH contract though, not her DAYS one.  She said in the same interview that she and DAYS were taking a break from negotiating when GH swooped in.  She also said how much she loved the people at DAYS at that time, ABC just made the proverbial offer you can’t refuse.  Really seems like that was a tight cast and production company when Betty and Bill were there.

[Paul Raven]

As regards holding contracts, Allen Fawcett (Kelly EON) stated in a SOD interview he was put on a holding contract by Y&R while they negotiated with an actor. Judging by the time frame, it seems Doug Davidson would have been said actor. Maybe when the show expanded and contracts were renegotiated.

 

Andrea Moar (Carrie AMC) also said she was under contract for months with ANC until a suitable role came up.

 

I'm sure its been years since this happened in daytime.

[vetsoapfan]

 

When Susan Harney replaced Jacqueline Courtney as Alice in 1975, she was immediately placed at number six in the cast crawl. I took it to mean that TPTB intended to keep Alice as an important character, but the way AW chose who to be higher/lower on the list was always a bit weird. In 1974, they credited actors like this:

 

1. Jacqueline Courtney

2. George Reinholt

3. Victoria Wyndham

4. Virginia Dwyer

5. Hugh Marlowe

6. Beverly Penberthy

7. Michael M. Ryan

8. Constance Ford

9. Jordan Charney

10. Susan Sullivan

10. Nicolas Coster

11. Victoria Thompson

12, Irene Dailey

13. David Bailey

14. Dolph Sweet

15. Beverlee McKinsey

16. John Considine

17. Christopher Allport

18. Bobby Doran

19. Mike Hammett

20. Douglass Watson

21. Anne Meacham

22. William Roerick

 

The actors names were not in order of seniority OR in alphabetical order. Heaven only knows what thought processes went into compiling the crawl like that.

 

 

The story was that Breech ended up being flighty and unreliable, and wouldn't always return to the studio on time after going out for lunch. That rained havoc onto the show's schedule and budget.

 

In an interview in 1975, Jacquie Courtney said that when she left Another World, she was given all of Alice's wardrobe. I don't know if it had been part of her contract, or if Paul Rauch had just been an extremely nice and generous person.

 

Oh, wait. LOL!

[vetsoapfan]

 

Emily McLaughlin's (ex-Jessie Brewer, GH) daughter said that after her mother was fired from the show and put on recurring, there were no guarantees of any appearances, but when Jessie did appear, McLaughlin was paid a whopping $3500.00 per episode. That would equate to 12.5 thousand dollars today.  (Still, often many months went by without any sign of Jessie on-screen, so the yearly salary for EM would not have been high.)

 

Former movie star Joan Bennett allegedly had a less exhausting deal with Dark Shadows. She was reported to receive $1000.00 a week too, but for a three-episode per week guarantee.

[Paul Raven]

I recall reading that Rosemary Prinz was had a  guaranteed 3 episode a week contract at $1000 per ep for How To survive a Marriage, which was a record at the time.

 

The next time big salary contracts came up was when Kin Shriner signed on to Texas and Jackie Zeman returned to GH. $300,000 was the salary mentioned for Kin.

 

 

 

[mikelyons]

Whenever you see an actor pop-up on recurring for a few performances a year, a lot of the time the show is helping the actor to they can keep their health insurance. You have to work a minimum number of days to keep the great SAG-AFTRA health insurance, so it can be a win-win for a lot of soaps and actors.

I believe around 2006, Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall were earning about $10,000 per episode with three episode a week guarantees.

One reason Heather Tom is rumored to have quit Y&R was because they wanted to cut her guarantee. I believe Martha Bryne was let go of ATWT because they wanted to cut her pay, which I believe she agreed to, but she wouldn't let them cut her guarantee. 

It's always been said Susan Lucci was the highest paid soap opera performer. I'd be curious to know if that included her pay from AMC or her other deals and business interests. If they kept her big salary on the AMC books, it could have inflated the budget. I'd be curious to see an ABC Daytime soap opera budget. Hell, I'd REALLY be interested to compare budgets from Sony and P&G!

[will81]

Thanks everyone who responded to my posts. There were a few of you. The info is very appreciated. 

[titan1978]

Lucci was supposedly the highest paid ABC soap star at the end of the 1990’s, early 2000’s.  I don’t know what happened once Frons took hold and really started to devalue the shows and the legacy stars.

 

I also remember seeing something about Jackie Zeman returning to the show in like 1982, that she was returning the highest paid actor on GH.

 

 

[Paul Raven]

Another contract ploy used by  was to have primetime appearances included in their contract.

Lucci and Deidre Hall had this.

Larry Bryggman mentioned that in  a meeting with ABC he was told that they could offer primetime guest shots.When he asked for examples he was told Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Mr B was not impressed.

However I believe George Reinholt and Gerald Gordon were 2 actors who requested or were offered such a deal when they were lured to ABC from NBC.

Gordon appeared in a TV Movie 'It Happened at Lakeside Manor' about an ant invasion.

No such luck for George. The contract was of the play or pay variety and so if no such project eventuated, the performer was paid an agreed mount. You have to wonder if anyone at ABC ever intended to fond a primetime role for Reinholt.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Paul Raven

[soapfan770]

Someone mentioned about going recurring as well as GL’s 2005 budget cuts I definitely remember the show offering up some sort of recurring deals with Liz Kiefer and Beth Chamberlain and gave the same option to Van Dorn but he of course jumped ship. I know Chappell stood her ground during her own 2005 negotiations like KZ but didn’t get the backlash Zimmer got.

[John]

In the final years of GL, Zimmer had a 52 week cycle. That meant if GL fired her before the cycle was up, they had to pay her for the rest of that cycle. Zimmer could also quit with ample notice. If she did, GL did not have to pay the remainder of her cycle

Edited February 6, 2021 by John