Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek” can take place in a post-capitalist utopia in which no character aspires to wealth, but here in our society, its actors cannot live with this luxury.
Trekkies will be able to tell you that “Star Trek” was not a huge success when it was broadcast from 1966 to 1969. He certainly had a small group of passionate fans, and the show was saved from the cancellation at least one times thanks to a concerted letters editorial campaign, but it has never been a type of show in the first 10 in the notes. “Star Trek” would not become a cultural phenomenon until it started to be broadcast in reruns in the mid-1970s. At that time, it was more widely accessible, new superfans emerged and conventions “Star Trek” have become one thing. Gene Roddenberry appeared to these conventions, and he began to relaunch his own show, with encouragement from fans, realizing that he had indeed created a utopian text.
The stars of “Star Trek”, on the other hand, were able to take advantage of their limited income from the program to the appearances of the Convention, because they did not get money in the residues. As unfair as it may seem, the original actors of the series – William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, George Takei, Walter Keonig and James Doohan – have not received any payment of royalties for these reimpaper from the 1970s. Doohan, in an interview from 1979 with The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Cited by the Heroes & Icons website), admitted that neither he nor his co-stars receive a penny from “Star Trek” rebroadcast after 1971. In 2020, William Shatner said On Twitter, he receives no royalty for everything related to “Star Trek” before 1973.
Those who assume that all television stars have been able to live high on pork entirely based on residues for endless reruns must remember that many of them have been stiffened for said residues due to unfair contracts.
No actor has obtained a penny in residues after the early 1970s
The aforementioned Twitter beef of sha, has seen him arguing with a bitter fan of his personal wealth. Shatner recalled that the late 1960s was not a pink moment for the actors who work, because the supposed model of fees of fees had not become an industry standard. He wrote:
“Everything that is before 1973 (which includes the original series of” Star Trek “) does not pay a penny in fees. So please don’t think you appropriate me or I owe you something to look .
Shatner also talked about his lack of fees of fees on the Podcast in the Transporteur 3 room, organized by IGN (and Reported by the Hollywood Reporter), clarifying that at that time, no actor in the television series has obtained residues for reruns after a few years. After all, it was considered that most people assumed that no television program would continue to broadcast in reruns for more than a few years anyway. As such, no studios took the trouble to write contracts based on the actors for the actors. No one could have predicted that “Star Trek” concluded a syndication agreement for several decades which would keep it on the air for literally decades.
Back in the interview with Fort Worth Star Telegram, Doohan noted that unjust payments for the “Star Trek” distribution were a motivation factor in a generalized contract restructuring in all Hollywood. He said that “our situation prompted the Screen Actors Guild to modify the rules. […] Now you are paid for all reruns. “This, after only three years in the air.
On the Sag websiteIt is written that the royalties did not exist before 1960. A successful strike finally put the fees at stake, but unfortunately, retroactive payments were not part of the negotiations, and the studios did not have to pay fees To the actors in the films published before 1960. However, everything done in 1960 and beyond involved residual payments.
A brief history of residues
It was in 1960 that Sag also finally set up a pension fund. During the next 14 years, however, television stars were still stingy. The “reruns” were still, it seems, a new concept, or at least a concept that the studios were ready to ignore when it was a question of paying royalties to their actors. Conforming the comments of Doohan and Shatner, Sag “jointly negotiated the contract covering the dramatic programming in prime time on the main television networks for the first time” in 1974.
In 1980, the entertainment unions had to go back to strike when the studios tried to retain the royalties for sales of home video and for paid television as cable. Indeed, we could see that most of the SAG or WGA strikes were, throughout its history, on the restraint of the residues. The longest strike of the union occurred in 1988, which was largely concerned how the residues of television broadcasts on international markets were not paid. In 2007 and 2008, the unions were again on strike after the studios did not pay them residues for online emissions. It seems that each new technology is considered a new means of the studios to try to raid the members of SAG.
This was certainly true for 2023 strikes, which were trying to obtain residues from the famous streaming wars. The streaming services, thanks to a precedent established from Netflix, have never published their viewers’ numbers and have felt any desire to pay for royalties to the actors. The unions were able to negotiate a payment system and also demanded that the studios stop using AI Tech to scan their faces and use their images for free. The 2023 strikes were the second longer in the history of the organization … One day.
Fortunately, the distribution “Star Trek: The Next Generation” benefited from these previous strikes and was able to experience residues. In the case of actor Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher, It was all he had for years.
