Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek” Perhaps a post -capitalist utopia take place in which no character longs for wealth, but here in our society his actors cannot live with this luxury.
Trekkies will be able to tell you that “Star Trek” was not a big hit when the first broadcast from 1966 to 1969. It definitely had a small and passionate fan cluster, and the show was saved at least once a concerted campaign for writing a letter thanks to the cancellation, but it was never a top 10 show in the ratings. “Star Trek” did not become a cultural phenomenon until it was broadcast in repetitions in the mid -1970s. Until then, it was further accessible, new superfans appeared, and “Star Trek” conventions became one thing. Gene Roddenberry appeared in these conventions and began to give his own show with the encouragement of fan and to recognize that he had actually created a utopian text.
The “Star Trek” stars were able to use their limited income from the show in congress appearances because they did not get any money in residuals. 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 license payments for these Reruns of the 1970s. Doohan, in an interview with the Fort Worth Star Telegram from 1979 (Quoted by the Heroes & Icons website) admitted that neither he nor his co -stars received a cent from “Star Trek” reruns after 1971. In 2020 William Shatner said On Twitter he does not receive any license fees for anything “Star Trek” that has to do before 1973.
Those who assume that all television stars were able to live high on the pig, which is based exclusively on residual repetitions, had to remember that many of them were stiffened from the residues due to unfair contracts.
After the early 1970s, no actors got a cent in residuen
Shatner’s Twitter beef mentioned above saw him argue with a bitter fan about his personal wealth. Shatner remembered that the late 1960s were not a rosy time for working actors, since the assumed pattern of the license fees had not become an industry standard. He wrote:
“Everything before 1973 (that contains ‘Star Trek’ original series) does not pay a cent in license fees.
Shatner also spoke about his lack of license fees in the podcast of the transporter Room 3, which was organized by IGN (and organized Reported by the Hollywood reporter) And clear that in those days no actor received residuals in a television series for repetitions after a few years. After all, most people were that no TV show would be broadcast in repetitions for more than a few years. Therefore, no studios have bought to write contracts on license fees for all actors. Nobody could have predicted that “Star Trek” would hit a syndication deal for decades that would literally keep it in the air for decades.
Back in the Fort Worth Star Telegram Interview, Doohan found that the unfair payments for the “Star Trek” pack were a motivating factor for a widespread contractor interference throughout Hollywood. He said: “Our situation was what the screen actors made to change the rules. (…) Now you get for all repetitions.” That, after only three years in the air.
On the SAG’s own websiteIt is written that license fees did not exist before 1960. A successful strike finally brought license fees contracts, but unfortunately retroactive payments were not part of the negotiations, and the studios did not have to pay for license fees to actors in films that were published before 1960.
A short story of residuen
It was in 1960 that Sag finally set up a pension fund. However, the television stars were still stiffened in the next 14 years. “Repetitions” were, as it seems, a new concept or at least a concept that the studios were willing to ignore when it came to paying for their actors. In line with the comments from Doohan and Shatner, SAG 1974 SAG “Together the contract on the dramatic programming of the prime time programs in the big television channels”.
In 1980, the entertainment unions had to kick again when Studios tried to hold license fees for the sale of home videos and to the Pay -TV -like cable. In fact, one could find that most SAG or WGA strikes were holding residuals throughout its history. The longest strike of the Union came in 1988, and it was mainly about how residues were not paid for television programs in international markets. In 2007 and 2008 the unions stepped again after Studios had not paid them any residues for online programs. Every new technology seems to be viewed by Studios as a new means to try to stiff Sag members.
This was certainly true for the 2023 strikesIt was about getting residues from the notorious streaming wars. Thanks to a precedent defined by Netflix, streaming services have never published their spectator numbers and had no urge to pay the actors license fees. The unions were able to negotiate a payment system and also demanded that the studios no longer use ai tech to scan their faces and their pictures for free. The 2023 strikes were the second longest in the history of the organization … at one day.
Fortunately, the occupation of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” benefited from these former strikes and was able to live from residuen. In the case of actor Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher, It was all he had had in years.
