Ultimate Dallas Website

[Laurie!]

Apparently, VP asked for financial parity with Patrick in 1987 and was only willing to re-sign for one year while Lorimar wanted two ....
Lets not forget that they entitled the episode "The Mummy's Revenge" when Pam disappears... Well, the mummy was Pam... so what does that say about the behind-the-scenes politics?

That's why it's such kismet, that Victoria and Suzanne (Patrick's screen wives), both went on to amass fortunes beyond Duffy's wildest dreams. Suzanne was also labelled a trouble maker and was let go from Three's Company for daring to ask for parity with Ritter. Although, kismet takes away credit for Victoria and Suzanne so perhaps it was justice and their brains.

I'm not trying to make Patrick out to be a bad guy. I'm sure he's swell. I just think that for someone who supposedly thinks before he speaks, he just needs to step back and shut up sometimes. My only point in bringing him up in the first place was a comparison to how he's never been seen as difficult...but mostly because he's a man and a butt kisser....neither of which, "Veep" is.

Larry took off, fled the country when he made contract demands and is seen as brilliant. Victoria shuts down production for part of a day due to her conviction not to use a homophobic, derogatory slur and she's a bitch. So is it solely politics or sexism??

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

That's why it's such kismet, that Victoria and Suzanne (Patrick's screen wives), both went on to amass fortunes beyond Duffy's wildest dreams. Suzanne was also labelled a trouble maker and was let go from Three's Company for daring to ask for parity with Ritter. Although, kismet takes away credit for Victoria and Suzanne so perhaps it was justice and their brains.

Somers' story is a lie, and a lie she's told for 40 years, which is why Ritter and Joyce Dewitt didn't speak to her for decades. She was never asking for financial parity with John Ritter, though Suzanne was happy to have the press and the public think so, knowing that's what they would infer when she crinkled her nose and coquettishly asserted that, "I just wanted what the boys were getting," making her salary demand sound like an act of feminism.

But "the boys" she was really referring to, Carroll O'Connor and Alan Alda, who were both getting six figures weekly for their classic sitcoms which, by 1980, had already been on the air for nearly a decade. In contrast, THREE'S COMPANY had only been on the air for three years, and Somers was asking for more than 100K per episode and 10% of the profits -- far more than Ritter was getting. (Sure, Larry Hagman had secured a 100K salary over the summer, and DALLAS had only been on the air for two years, but that was the season of "Who Shot JR?", a global phenomenon).

Today, of course, it's all different: actors get a quarter million by the second year of a hit show, despite much smaller audiences than back in the day (as Joan Collins has bitterly, but correctly, pointed out).

Victoria would never have been so dumb nor tin-eared as Suzanne.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I think Victoria and Suzanne both deserved as much money as their male counterparts for their contributions to their respective shows. Did VP deserve MORE than LH? No, but I think a case can be made that Suzanne did deserve more than John at one point.

 

[Laurie!]

Did VP deserve MORE than LH? No, but I think a case can be made that Suzanne did deserve more than John at one point.

That's based on her role that Lorimar execs kept her at though. Her, Barbara and Linda were always kept a few ladder rungs down from the male leads. Thus, why Linda had such a hard time being able to direct...cause then the other women would want to.

If Victoria had been given an equal role with Larry, I think she definitely would have deserved equal pay. She was everywhere in the 80's.

As a child, I was eye level to the magazine racks and it was rare for her not to be on at least one cover. She was always sought for talk show appearances, etc. She drove the ratings of DALLAS every bit as much as Larry did back then. Almost every male I knew, watched for Victoria too.

So if..say when Patrick left...had the powers allowed Pam to go toe-to-toe with JR, the way Victoria was capable of doing by that point, the show wouldn't have skipped a beat in the ratings.

Instead, we got a de-fanged Pam who needed Mark's help with decisions....and Victoria forced to take the only things she had control of, into her own hands. That was how many swimsuits, etc she would appear in per season. They weren't going to pay her less than even PD and continue to profit from her body. She was a bit of a trailblazer for women in that regard and I applaud her for that. Thus why she's forever branded the trouble maker though.

 

[Angela Channing]

I think the Dallas cast should have been treated the same as the Seinfeld cast were many years later and all the main players should have been paid the same. Even when a show has a main protagonist such as JR Ewing or Jerry Seinfeld, the success of the show ultimately relies on several main cast members so there could have been a strong argument for Victoria, Patrick, Ken and Linda to be paid the same as Larry Hagman.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Victoria, Patrick, Ken and Linda to be paid the same as Larry Hagman.

Im not sure on that one, in 1980 Larry was the TV star of the year and he was the outstanding and biggest star on Dallas and I think he should have been paid more than his co stars as it was his pulling power and the role he played that was compelling and compulsive that got so many people into Dallas. At that time he also seemed to be in twice as many scenes as his co stars

 

[Angela Channing]

Im not sure on that one, in 1980 Larry was the TV star of the year and he was the outstanding and biggest star on Dallas and I think he should have been paid more than his co stars as it was his pulling power and the role he played that was compelling and compulsive that got so many people into Dallas. At that time he also seemed to be in twice as many scenes as his co stars

If I go back to the Seinfeld comparison, Jerry Seinfeld had his name on the show, he was in more scenes than anyone else but the network realised the show's success wasn't just down to him but to the collective contribution of all the main cast members.

The trouble when you start differential levels of pay is that it can cause resentment amongst cast members who are paid less than others.

The cast we paid by the episode not by the amount of dialogue they had so if someone had more scenes that's down to the writers but shouldn't impact on how much someone is paid per episode.