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How Much Money Did She Make...


I am fascinated to discuss how much money stars make for their work. Sometimes it's a lot more than you'd think, sometimes it's a lot less. Anybody know what she made for stuff like "Search for Tomorrow," "Flamingo Road," "Paper Dolls," "Falcon Crest," her many TV-movies and B-movies, guest spots on "Friends" & "Roseanne," TV ads for Old Navy, her run in the tour of the play "The Graduate," etc.? I think I heard her say once that she worked for "scale" (a minimum level of payment for work that the Screen Actors Guild allows its members) for her cameo in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure." I wonder if she was making in perhaps the $30,000 an episode range for her season of work on "Falcon Crest"; those nighttime soaps were paying well then.

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When Morgan was hired for ;Search for Tomorrow; in 1973, the standard starting soap opera contract was $250.00 an episode. The actor was usually signed for a min. of 104 per year. This means that Morgan's lowest salary would be $26,000.00 a year with a max. of $65,000.00(if she appeared in all 260 yearly episodes).

Since Morgan was with the show for four years, it is safe to assume that was no raise per episode in her standard contact.

Her salary per episode for Flamingo Road was around $10,000 an episode. Barbara Rush and Stella Stevens were making in the $20,000 an episode range for Flamingo Road. Remember this is when making $330,000 to $440,000 an year for a TV series was big money.

Paper Dolls and Falcon Crest paid Morgan around $25,000 an episode.

The payment for being a guest star depends on the series. Aaron Spelling only paid the daily scale of $1,100.00 a day for Love Boat,Fantasty Island, and his other series that relied on name guest stars. Of course, Aaron did get around the standard $5,600 an episode for five days work during the 70's by contracting with some of his favorite actors for seven or ten days instead of the standard five days. Currently, the actors are contracted for seven days.

Depending on the name of the guest star and the show's budget and the show's airing(sweeps) the guest star can command up $50,000 or more. Although, Julia Roberts did "Law and Order" for $7,800.00. She did them for scale.

Morgan's salary for The Graduate was $15,000 a week.
Hope this helps.

Bill




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$2,435,679.43

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She made a million dollars to do The City. She's probably reasonably well off considering she works all the time and is about to launch a skin care line called Fabulous by Morgan Fairchild.

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She was just on TV promoting her new 'Fabulous' skin care line - she looks amazing, and she's incredibly smart. She also mentioned that she likes to re-invent herself every five years to keep working - because it introduces her to a whole new generation of tv/movie viewers who have no idea who she is. And that she does - Morgan manages to get cast in television programs and movies of all genres and audience age ranges. So I am pretty sure she isn't hurting when it comes to her finances!

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Kodak, I am amazed at your knowledge of soap salaries. Just out of curiosity, how did you know what Morgan Fairchild, Stella Stevens, and Barbara Rush made on Flamingo Road? I believe you, I'm just curious how you know that. It actually seemed less than what I would have expected, especially what you say was her salary on Falcon Crest. Those night-time soaps were known to pay well, even though FC had already peaked by the time she joined the show.

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I am good friends with Barbara and Stella. You have to remember this was 1980. Flamingo Road had a cast of veterans and they all agreed to work for a little less to have the best cast. Barbara and Stella should have received around $25,000 per episode as Joan Collins and Linda Evans started with in 1981 with Dynasty.
While MOrgan was hot, she was just really starting out in Prime Time TV. $10,000 per episode was nice money in 1980.

You have to remember when Kate Jackson got $65,000 per episode for Scarecrow and Mrs. King, She became the highest paid Actress on TV. This was 1983. Joan and Linda did not start receiving $85,000 per episode until late in the run of the series.

It is fairly common knowledge that most shows today pay scale which is why on the sweep episodes use big name stars or older big name stars. The budget for the sweep episodes can be padded to get that extra promotion.

$15,000 to $20,000 is pretty standard for touring shows with a name star and a talented cast with no other big names in the cast.

It was covered in TV Guide about Morgan getting $1,000,000 to do the city for a year.

Her Old Navy contract ran for about 10 years was good for about $1,000,000 a year.

$25,000 per episode for FC was very good money in 1985-1986.
In 1970, Rosemary Prinz became the highest paid performer in Daytime TV. Her salary was $1,000 per episode for AMC. In 1974, when Rosemary got ask to star in a new soap, she signed on at $1,000 and she was still the highest paid daytime performer.

You cannot used 2014 standard for 30 years ago.

Barbara Stanwyck was the top Female earner in 1943. Her Total Compensation was $500,000. Charlie Sheen makes that on one episode of his new tv show.

So there is no comparsion. They were well paid for that time.

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