Just because actors star in reruns doesn’t mean they’re cashing big checks.
Two actors from classic shows have been in the headlines in recent days because of their respective money woes. Geoffrey Owens, who played Bill Cosby’s son-in-law in “The Cosby Show,” was photographed bagging groceries at a New Jersey Trader Joe’s, and Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann in “Gilligan’s Island,” asked her fans for financial assistance because of medical bills and investment losses.
Fans and critics took to social media in both of these instances wondering how this could happen, considering they starred on major sitcoms. But just because actors appear in reruns or are still close to the hearts of fans around the world doesn’t mean they’re rolling in residuals. Television actors get these royalty checks whenever the shows they appeared in are shown on TV. Not all actors are entitled to these paychecks and, even when they do get a cut, it doesn’t always amount to much.
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Wells was once rumored to be the only ‘Gilligan’s Island’ castaway to get royalty checks, but she has since said that’s not true. In an interview with Forbes magazine in 2016, the actress said it was a misconception that the cast members must all be wealthy. “We didn’t really get a dime,” she said. The show’s creator and producer, Sherwood Schwartz, who died in 2011, made up to $90 million on the reruns, she added.
However, Schwartz’s daughter Hope Juber disputes that estimate and says the $90 million estimate an urban myth. “While he, and my family were certainly comfortable, that kind of wild estimate is ridiculous and surprising,” she wrote in an email to MarketWatch. She said her father made his own deal with the studio just like the cast members, but not for that kind of money. “If there is $90 million, it must be buried in a chest on the island somewhere because we’ve never seen it,” she added.
Similarly, high-profile actors who are entitled to residuals in more recent shows likely won’t get as much as many fans may think. Rapper Drake, who played a basketball player in the mid-2000s teen television show “Degrassi,” posted an image of his residuals paycheck on Instagram FB, +0.70% last year. It was $8.25. Mayim Bialik, who stars in “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS CBS, -1.53% but received a net pay of one cent for her guest appearance in “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” according to a post on her Instagram account.
Residuals are based on how much time the actor spent on production and where it’s shown, according to the Screen Actors Guild. When TV shows are syndicated, actors can expect their paychecks four months after air date. For basic cable, it’s usually quarterly. Of course, not all actors make such small change. The six main cast members of “Friends” were still reportedly making around $20 million a year in residuals, and Charlie Sheen, who starred in “Two and a Half Men,” makes approximately $613,000 each month from residuals.
Owens, who has since quit his job at Trader Joe’s, said the loss of “The Cosby Show” residuals was a factor in taking a job at the grocery store. Reruns of the 1980s sitcom stopped in 2014 after Bill Cosby was accused of sexual assault. (Cosby was found guilty on three counts of sexual assault earlier this year.) His former co-star Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played Cosby’s son Theo, said pulling the show from syndication was “literally taking money out of my pocket.”
The unwanted attention Owens got after the Trader Joe’s photo went viral turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Many actors and celebrities took to Twitter TWTR, +0.16% to defend the actor, and producer Tyler Perry offered the former “Cosby” star a job. Owens was cast in Perry’s series “The Haves and the Have Nots,” which broadcasts on the OWN network. He will appear in several episodes and, in years to come, he can likely look forward to residuals from that.
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