Black Lightning on the CW

[The Darknight Detective]

I believe that over the last decade or so the average contract length forgeries regulars is 6 years with an option for a 7th.

Back in the 70's to 90's it was 3 to 5 years. Think about how many great and popular shows only last 3 years. BATMAN, Wonder Woman, Giligans Aisle. Think about others that had massive cast changes every few years, like Mash. Started out with Frank, Henry, and Trapper. Then we had Winchester, Potter, and TJ.

Look how many shows from that era that we watched in rerun form that were only around two years: The Munsters, The Addams Family, and F Troop come to mind. How many two-year shows from this century have anywhere near the cultural impact the three I mentioned had?

[beatboks]

Look how many shows from that era that we watched in rerun form that were only around two years: The Munsters, The Addams Family, and F Troop come to mind. How many two-year shows from this century have anywhere near the cultural impact the three I mentioned had?

Go back even further and the honeymooners. Only 1 season rerun for another decade and a half

[The Darknight Detective]

Go back even further and the honeymooners. Only 1 season rerun for another decade and a half

Good point (in the NYC area, I'm not sure if it ever has left the airwaves in over 60 years), though the sketches still appeared on Jackie Gleason programs during the '50s and '60s. In fact, one of the first things I remember watching on our TV was a musical Honeymooner episode from '68.

[80sbaby]

Okay, just for giggles I googled "what is a standard contract for an actor in a tv show", because now I'm honestly curious. I found this:

https://www.legalmatch.com/law-libra...contracts.html



There's a lot more there. It's actually kind of interesting, for legalese.

That being said, I'm sure there comes a time when the star gets enough stroke to dictate when they wrap things up. Jim Parsons made the decision to end Big Bang Theory. Stephen Amell was ready to wrap things up after Season 6, and Berlanti and Guggenheim convinced him to do 1 and a half more seasons so they could do Elseworlds and Crisis.

That was interesting! Thanks for looking it up.

[AnakinFlair]

Funny you mention specifically TNG, and Buffy.

Stewart signed his contract for TNG fully expecting the show to fail and not last past a season.

Sarah Michelle Gellar threatened to quit in season 5 when Whedon was negotiating for a bigger budget and WB wouldnt put up the money he wanted but UPN did. She didn't want to change networks.

Considering the number of characters who left those shows or cycled out from time to time they also didn't have long committed contracts for the majority of the cast.

Sasha Yar, Pulaski, Wesley, Beverley.they weren't there all the way thru. A few dozen other regulars to boot.

And yet, for both of those shows, either the entire, or most, of the main cast stayed until the end. In the case of SMG, I'm sure there was a renegotiation of her contract.

TNG, though, was different. Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar, was unhappy with her character and where she was going, and thus asked for and was granted her release. As for the others- if I remember correctly, I think they fired Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher) and replaced her with Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski). Then, for whatever reason, the let Diana go at the end of season two and brought back Gates. In those cases, that was the producers decisions. As for Wesley, I can't remember if Will Wheaton asked to be let go, or if the writers just didn't have anything else for the character. Either sounds plausible. But other than that, the core 6 (Picard, Riker, Geordi, Worf, Data, Troi) were there for all seven seasons, and when Beverly returned, it became the Core 7. And all of those characters also appeared in all of the TNG movies, even Worf who had no reason to be there after First Contact.

[Hypestyle]

if ms. McClain's character doesnt get killed, that will be fine by me.
leave room for returning for a TV movie.