Voice Actors etc...

From: chance <chance_at_unix.infoserve.net>
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 19:03:32 -0700

Matt Wrote:

>I remember quite a bit of discussion over this on rec.arts.animation. If
>I were Mr. Owens, I'd be rightly p.o.'d. Seems like TurnerCo would have
>Gary under a contract and use him whenever there was a need. Common
>sense says it's cheaper to pay a guy under contract for his services than
>it would be to pay the contract wages AND hire another voice actor. Of
>course, common sense doesn't seem to apply whenever TPS is involved...

They did something that at least makes *business* sense in their dealings
with voice actors. Ep. 24 had the tracks laid down when Tedco ordered
the series halted, but inexplicably they had Barry Gordon and Charlie Adler
et al lay down the tracks for 25 and 26 even though they had no intention
of finishing them. Couldn't figure that one out until someone told me something
about SAG contracts WRT voice-work: Adler and Gordon had a "pay-or-play"
kinda contract for the entire second-season run, and would've been paid whether
or not they laid the tracks. Nice work if you can get it. Dunno what kind of contract
Owens had, but I guess he didn't have much to do once the Kats were grounded,
and letting him go must've looked like an irresistable financial carrot to one of the
TPS bean-counters.

>"Let's see... We'll build something
>as cheap as we possibly can no matter what level of quality & people will
>buy into it anyway because they're stupid." *sigh*

Funny cartoons are cheaper than ac/adv, funny shorts are cheaper than
funny series, so let's do cheap, funny shorts. Well, they got the "cheap" and
"shorts" part right!

  
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"Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed
 antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters,
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 the winter of 1925. Endurance, Fidelity, Intelligence." -- "Balto"
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Received on Wed Apr 10 1996 - 22:38:36 PDT