Word: aftra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Nielsen Quaver. Carson's dominance of nighttime television gave him the clout to beat NBC into a big raise after the recent AFTRA strike. Previously, he was getting about $15,000 for doing five times a week what Dean Martin does once for $40,000, and he was paying his own staff, to boot. Johnny's new contract gives him fuller control of the show. NBC now pays the extras and gave Carson a raise to about $20,000 a week, bringing his annual TV income to more than...
...contractual spat was abuilding before the AFTRA strike confused Carson's position (TIME, April 14). While it was true that he objected to NBC's rerunning of his old tapes during the strike, Carson's chief concern was his own future. Some time earlier, he had hired Show Biz Attorney Arnold Grant, to whom he referred on the air half-facetiously as "Louie the Shyster. He used to be prosecuting attorney in the Mafia's kangaroo court." In the demand for a new contract, Grant and Lawyer Louis Nizer reportedly asked for a base salary jump...
...AFTRA strike against the networks ended just an hour or so before the ceremonies began, which heightened interest in the show and helped attract 65 million viewers (by ABC's estimate). But if the folks at home were hoping to see the big stars collect their Oscars, they were disappointed...
...before about the chopped-up, ad-ridden Tonight repeats that NBC runs every Sunday night of the year. At that point, Carson, who was lolling out the strike on the beach at Fort Lauderdale, came up with another and loftier justification of his stand. "I was required to join AFTRA in order to work for the network," he said. "I know of no business except the broadcasting industry in which a performer becomes a scab to himself and his union because of films and videotape...
...meantime, NBC announced publicly that it "looks forward to welcoming Johnny Carson back to work at the end of the AFTRA strike," but was privately negotiating with Comic Bob Newhart as a desperation replacement. All the while, Carson was describing himself as "a free agent," or, as he put it in a beachside, bathing-suit interview with CBS, "an unemployed prince...