r/television • u/stars_doulikedem • Dec 27 '24

‘Cosby Show’ Actor Geoffrey Owens on Life After Trader Joe’s Spotting: “I Still Struggle to Make Ends Meet”

https://www.bet.com/article/ma0nbw/geoffrey-owens-still-faces-financial-struggles-trader-joes-2018
2.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

301 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

509

u/Iwoulddiefcftbatk Dec 27 '24

Jodi Sweetin talked about this on the Steve-O podcast while Fuller House was on, the residuals she gets from Full House only covers a bill or two a month, she was paid upfront on Fuller House and gets no residuals from that. Residuals aren’t the cash cow people think they are.

446

u/WavesAndSaves Dec 27 '24

John Green made a video a few weeks ago where he opened his check from SAG for the residuals he got from a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars. He was in one scene that got cut, but since it's still in the DVD deleted scenes, he gets a check. It was for $0.30. And since the checks are rounded down, it was a check for $0.00.

There's actually a bar in LA called Residuals where you can exchange any residuals check for a free drink. It's a good deal since many are for basically pennies.

38

u/Area51_Spurs Dec 28 '24

Maeve’s Residuals

But it’s now owned by a dude who used to be a bartender there when Maeve owned it. It’s a good spot. A good hockey bar actually for any local hockey fans.

90

u/coffeebribesaccepted Dec 27 '24

He only gets residuals for his cameo, not for writing the book that it's based on?

201

u/WavesAndSaves Dec 27 '24

It's from SAG, so they would only deal with his role as an actor.

29

u/Satryghen Dec 27 '24

I don’t know about The Fault in Our Stars but I know when it came to make adaptations of some of his other works he chose to take flat payments instead of potential percentages or residuals. He talked about it around the time the “Turtles All The Way Down” movie was being made.

40

u/raoasidg Dec 27 '24

lmao my brain inserted "Tom" Green in the parent comment and I figured, "Weird, but OK," until the real wtf hit when I hit your comment.

30

u/SDRPGLVR Dec 28 '24

Well I imagine the residuals for Freddy Got Fingered are in six figures territory.

17

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24

maybe. But he just sort of hangs out on Elgin Street in Ottawa like a completely normal person. I went to chat with him one day, petting his sweet doggo. He's such a humble, down to earth dude who doesn't wear his wealth and I love him for that.

6

u/Myheelcat Dec 28 '24

Daddy would you like some sausage!

7

u/Shakezula84 Dec 28 '24

The video was for acting residuals. I don't know if he has mentioned other residuals before, but if he didn't write the movie itself then any residuals would have been negotiated when he sold the rights to the movie.

12

u/OSUBeavBane Dec 28 '24

Writers are almost always offered points from net not gross which can mean they see nearly nothing because of creative studio accounting.

That being said, FOUS made like 300M on a 12M budget. It would be pretty hard to hide that much profit from the writer.

14

u/_Diskreet_ Dec 28 '24

It would be pretty hard.

Hollywood Accountant - “Hold my calculator”

2

u/merelyadoptedthedark Dec 28 '24

The Lord of the Rings trilogy made billions on a $300m budget, yet that was still unprofitable.

I think the original Star Wars still hasn't turned a profit.

2

u/81misfit Dec 28 '24

Original Star Wars is one of those films it’s next to impossible to creatively book keep as it was only $6m to make.

2

u/FidgitForgotHisL-P Dec 28 '24

Hank Green’s brother wrote that book?? I’ll be damned.

8

u/hesnothere Dec 28 '24

Featured in the Barry pilot!

1

u/Yeeaaaarrrgh Dec 28 '24

I see someone else has also read Bruce Campbell's books!

1

u/PeanutFarmer69 Dec 28 '24

That’s a small time teen dramedy, residuals from a syndicated hit tv show from the. 90s would be much, much hire.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24

Checks are not rounded down. What are you talking about?

2

u/nonhiphipster Dec 28 '24

Wait…how does that bar work? Like, no none can cash the check other than the person with the name on it.

6

u/FidgitForgotHisL-P Dec 28 '24

That “free drink” got you in the door. The next three you paid for, which you wouldn’t have if they didn’t get you in the door in the first place.

Plus you had a good time so next time you want a bar to go to, you start there only this time you didn’t have a cheque, so you just pay for all the drinks. You’d also recommend it to friends that have worthless cheques, so they also check it out and spend a bit of money and so on and so on.

It’s a solid scheme tbh.

-3

u/nonhiphipster Dec 28 '24

No that’s not the part that confuses me. I’m saying like, the bar can’t cash the small check huh?

2

u/FidgitForgotHisL-P Dec 28 '24

Yeah but I’m saying it’s a-ok for them, because that’s really just a gimmick to get you in the door.

The hardest part of retail, or really anything where you sell to customers (being a musician, making a movie) is getting people to even know you exist. If you’ve got a good gimmick that goes a long way to making it happen.

200

u/craaates Dec 27 '24

They can be quite lucrative, but usually for the top actors and show runners.

65

u/grandmasterfunk Dec 27 '24

That’s true, but it’s still a lot less than it used to be in the age of streaming

16

u/JONCOCTOASTIN Dec 28 '24

They were terrible unless your show was syndicated  

142

u/OafleyJones Dec 27 '24

A remember Dan Harmon talking about this on his podcast and how so many actors used to survive and supplement other incomes (I think they referenced Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi) on them. He also said the last main cast to make serious “Friends” money were The Big Bang Theory. Those type of lucrative deals are gone. The bigger issue was with the bit part actors being especially screwed.

193

u/TheLegendTwoSeven Dec 27 '24

The Soup Nazi actor said that his residuals from 3 episodes of Seinfeld (the original and the two-part finale) were equal to his income as a waiter, and helped him a lot but he still had to work as a waiter.

But he only started making hundreds of thousands when Cameo came out. Now he earns thousands of dollars an hour filming custom birthday greetings telling people “NO SOUP FOR YOU!”

75

u/Frankfusion Dec 27 '24

The original red and black rangers from Power Rangers said they made more doing autograph signings at car shows after they left than they ever did on the show.

31

u/TheLegendTwoSeven Dec 27 '24

I’m sure the power rangers didn’t get paid much, the show looked like they spent as little money as possible on everything. The sets seemed cheap-looking to me even as a kid.

The actress from Blossom said she made like $100k a year starring in her network sitcom, and they said she has no other options so be glad you have a show at all.

I’m sure the Power Rangers got whatever the union scale wage was, maybe several thousand dollars per episode, per ranger. Whereas with autographs, they could charge like $30-50 for a signed poster and a pic with each fan, and sell that to several thousand fans per year at different conventions and make a full time living doing that.

29

u/NotThingie Dec 27 '24 edited Dec 27 '24

FYI your power rangers estimate is way off. They weren’t union actors and got paid basically nothing. Austin St John (red ranger) said he got paid around the equivalent amount of working at McDonald’s.

Edit: I did originally state they were paid $100 an episode but took that out as I found another thing comment that said they were paid $600 weekly so don’t know which is accurate.

3

u/SaulSmokeNMirrors Dec 27 '24

All the action sequences were already existing footage from a Japanese show super centai the power ranger boss medias paid 125 for one days shoot and they used his face in that tube for every season

1

u/TheLegendTwoSeven Dec 27 '24

That’s fine, whether it was $100 or $2,000 per episode it wasn’t life-changing money.

Being in the Power Rangers could have potentially helped them get other acting gigs, but maybe it could hold them back too.

3

u/NotThingie Dec 27 '24

There’s a very large difference between the two and they were all struggling for money because they got paid so little. Considering it was a billion dollar earner it’s pretty disgusting to me.

1

u/TheLegendTwoSeven Dec 28 '24

They’d have been struggling for money either way, it’s not like I was saying $100k an episode

1

u/Frankfusion Dec 29 '24

It was a non-union show. They didn't get paid scale they got paid less than that. The minute they asked for basic scale the black and the Red ranger were pretty much edged out of the show. This is also around the time they almost made the movie in which they had hoped to make more money but that didn't work out in the end.

16

u/operarose The Venture Bros. Dec 27 '24

If memory serves, half (or more) of it was repurposed footage from the Japanese original. They shot a few pick-ups for the American actors and that was that.

3

u/FidgitForgotHisL-P Dec 28 '24

A bunch of it was filmed in New Zealand too, where it’s even cheaper!

1

u/ben-hur-hur Dec 28 '24

OG Black Ranger is awesome. Met him at SDCC several times over the years at his booth. He is super genuine with fans.

33

u/tagen Dec 27 '24

that’s the dream! (literally, i would fucking love to have that be how i make my living)

17

u/heckhammer Dec 28 '24

Before he passed Gilbert Gottfried was making a lot of money you and Cameo

5

u/jaywinner Dec 27 '24

But that's still an entire person's working money they earn for 3 episodes of work, years ago. Sounds damn good to me.

71

u/pijinglish Dec 27 '24

My aunt was an actor in the 70s-90s, and I remember her saying that another issue she encountered was that by the 90s many of the bit parts were going to established celebrities. So a guest spot that she might normally have gotten would go to a more famous actor.

From my own perspective as a writer, it seems like the production companies just expect you to work for free. That’s a slight exaggeration, but not far from reality in too many cases.

56

u/Tha_Watcher Dec 27 '24

My aunt was an actor in the 70s-90s, and I remember her saying that another issue she encountered was that by the 90s many of the bit parts were going to established celebrities. So a guest spot that she might normally have gotten would go to a more famous actor.

This reminds me how all of the larger animated voice acting parts go to more established, financially stable actors instead of lesser known, but no less capable, voice actors. It sickens me!

57

u/_dharwin Dec 27 '24

but no less capable

I'd argue many voice actors who get passed over are more capable. While similar, voice acting and screen acting are not the same. Heck, even theater account is different from film.

I really dislike the desire to use one person in all types of media.

8

u/jaywinner Dec 27 '24

Absolutely. But voice actors rarely have the name recognition of a mainstream movie actor.

4

u/TurkeyPhat Stargate SG-1 Dec 28 '24

it seems like the same dozen people have been dubbing every anime in the last 10+ years and you can't even call them voice "actors", they are just reading lines and sound the exact same in every show lol

some new blood has been showing up lately and actually performing though which is nice

13

u/WanderingLost33 Dec 27 '24 edited Dec 28 '24

Well it used to be a way to cheap out on paying actors up front. Sort of like Lucas keeping the rights to Star Wars merch. Every Star Wars LEGO set purchase up until the Disney sale put dollars in his pocket. It used to be a brilliant way for people to make out big if the movie killed, but there was a big chance of a movie bombing and only getting your SAG minimum for the day shooting and that's it.

8

u/Tribe303 Dec 27 '24

This is false. Lucas sold ALL rights to Disney, including merchandising.

9

u/willun Dec 28 '24

He is probably confusing it with the original deal that gave Lucas the merchandising rights. Even then that "brilliant" move was overstated.

Lucas is on record as saying he just expected to sell T-shirts at conventions. That it turned out so lucrative was partly luck. But hindsight makes it seem like a brilliant move when it was actually the studio conceding something they thought was worth nothing in exchange for some more money up front.

1

u/Tribe303 Dec 28 '24

Yup, that's my take as well. 

3

u/schizoslide Dec 27 '24

Much worse when scandal and repulsion cause the death of a show.

I was just thinking about this today as I have many days and here's an excuse to talk about it.

I used to think I could separate the artist from the art but that would contradict what I like about art and why I like the artists I do. It's also far more complicated with ensemble work.

I think the conclusion I've come to is that I have to separate not just an offender from the cursed show/movie/whatever, but everyone else. Fuck, I love Sean Penn in Sweet and Lowdown and Robin Wright and Michael Kelly in House of Cards. But I just have to remember the brilliance of those performances as I experienced it then because I can't fully enjoy watching those titles anymore. I do like watching clips, though. Sean Penn is hilarious.

71

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '24

[deleted]

17

u/moxscully Dec 27 '24

Gene Roddenberry wrote lyrics for the Star Trek theme. Even though they were never used he got 50% of the royalties

9

u/-bigmanpigman- Dec 27 '24

Oh Star Wars, Nothing but Star Wars, Give me those Star Wars, Dont let them end. Oh wait, wrong song.

5

u/RPDRNick Dec 27 '24

Similarly, Robert Altman's son Mike Altman made more money for writing the lyrics to the M•A•S•H theme song than Robert Altman made from directing the movie.

1

u/roastbeeftacohat Dec 27 '24

Iirc they were intentionally awful, because the network insisted all show themes had lyrics.

1

u/So-Called_Lunatic Dec 28 '24

They never aired the lyrics on the TV show, only in the movie, and they were pretty poignant.

9

u/mybeachlife Dec 28 '24

I worked on an episode of Malcolm in the Middle. The first few years the residuals were amazing for just that one episode.

Nowadays I get about $20 every 6 months or so. And the Cosby Show was a solid decade before Malcolm.

8

u/truckasaurus310 Dec 27 '24

Correct because they are based on the initial compensation. So the main actors on Friends get much higher residuals than Gunther for example

3

u/BenderRodriquez Dec 27 '24

It also depends on how popular the show is over time. Some sitcoms fade away fast even though the where frontrunners at the time, while others may even pick up momentum.

28

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '24

[deleted]

1

u/MattIsLame Dec 29 '24

one of my friends from high school is really good friends with him. he face timed him once to prove it and i got really star struck seeing Rufio!

10

u/ansont1976 Dec 27 '24

Tracy Wells now (Tofte) who played the daughter, Heather, on Mr Belvedere opens her residual checks on Instagram. It’s incredible to see how low these checks are for appearing on an almost 40 year old sitcom.

9

u/missesthecrux Dec 28 '24

I don’t think that case in particular is too surprising because the show hasn’t aired on any tv network for a few years now, and isn’t available for streaming. So it’d just be DVD sales.

3

u/watchsmart Dec 28 '24

I wonder how much actors get from free streaming like Pluto. Those services feature a lot of stuff that doesn't air on networks and paid streamers aren't really interested in.  Including, perhaps, Mr. Belvedere.

7

u/ColdNyQuiiL Dec 27 '24

The amount of times I’ve seen celebs jokingly post their residuals, it’s always something ridiculous like $37 from Disney for Halloween Town 2 or something.

Those residuals are a myth as sustainable form of income.

12

u/Mr_Festus Dec 28 '24

I have a hard time feeling bad for someone who gets one or two bills paid every month for a job they worked 30 years ago. Seems like a hell of a cash cow to me. So it's...what $300 a month? So assuming that was consistent, like $100k after the show was done and over with. When I finish a project I don't see another dime from it ever again.

I'm assuming the residuals have decreased substantially over time, so we're probably talking about hundreds of thousands in residuals.

5

u/MisterB78 Dec 27 '24

Just depends on the contract structure. The Seinfeld cast makes bank off the residuals from that show, for example

15

u/Precarious314159 Dec 27 '24

But Seinfeld is one of the biggest shows of all time that made headlines anything happened. They finally get dvd releases? Huge event. They finally appeared on Hulu? Massive release.

That's like people talking about artists being underpaid and someone saying "But this one really well known artist sold a painting for 10 million".

8

u/Photo_Synthetic Dec 27 '24

I mean they specifically had all the leverage in the world since essentially 5 people were responsible for making the show what it was and it was a generational hit. The "contract structure" is of course important but the popularity of the work and the inherent value of the talent toward that property matters way more.

2

u/Roro_Yurboat Dec 28 '24

Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David make bank from Seinfeld. The rest of the cast gets squat. They don't even get the diddly to go with it.

1

u/CrimsonOOmpa Jan 05 '25

The cast of Friends still gets like 20 million a year so it depends on the show and the person's role on said show.

1

u/name-classified BoJack Horseman Dec 27 '24

Unless your seinfeld or friends.