UnionWorking Podcast

4 - Theatrical Contract Issues

September 21, 2019 UnionWorking Season 1 Episode 4
UnionWorking Podcast
4 - Theatrical Contract Issues
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

A casual conversation with Jeremy Ratchford about working as a TV, film, and commercial actor on union contracts in the US and Canada.

UW Voices: Kevin E. West, Rob Fitzgerald, Nancy Linari, Bob Stephenson

UW Guests: Jeremy Ratchford

UnionWorking Links:

Guest Link:

Email us at info@unionworking.com
 
 The UnionWorking Podcast is recorded at Culver City Studios
 Executive Producer Jack Levy
 http://podcastsage.com / jack@podcastsage.com / 818-233-0640

UnionWorking.com

Speaker 1:

[inaudible]

Speaker 2:

and we're rolling on a union working podcast at Culver city studios with podcast. Sage Union working is a grassroots organization of film, Television and commercial performers of Sag-aftra.

Speaker 3:

We are dedicated to solutions, ideas and creating a union that works for all of us. So we hope you will enjoy our informative, entertaining and at times a reverend podcast about the challenges facing the modern day union area.

Speaker 4:

Sure. Will you support a membership driven membership up model because we are union people. Hello, quick introduction. I'm Kevin Eus, one of the union working core members. I'm Rob Fitzgerald. Same.

Speaker 2:

I'm Nancy Alinari. I'm new to the union working corps, but I've been at many, many, many meetings and heartily support these guys.[inaudible] on Bob Stevenson, part of the union working core

Speaker 4:

and we're going to be discussing some theatrical contracts on this episode and we are extremely excited to have our dear crazy man friend and celebrity crazy dad. Dude, Mr Jeremy Wrestler Jeremy say hi. Hi. Don't overextend your, I always have trouble with the word celebrity. I know you do, but it's really because in Canada, well, we need to be celebrities. Like, yeah. So weird. I mean, weren't you just in Iceland, like playing a detective with a dog or something? Newfoundland, which I am similar. I still Iceland, the Newfoundland, they're both cold. Brophy's not a big, big thing. I was at a golf tournament the first time I had gone to this game 25. I've been with them for like 15 years now, but uh, it's hockey players in Minnesota and I showed up the next morning for the golf tournament because I couldn't find my liver. I had to read clubs and buy clothes and things because I was not prepared at all. And the people that I was going to be golfing with were already on the second hole by the time I drove out there and they were on the green and one of the guys, Turner goes, Hey, celebrity, get over here. And you somehow think, I don't know this about you. That was my favorite use of the term because that's exactly what it felt like as a celebrity. No, I don't think so. Especially when you're in a tournament. A little hockey players. Cause I'm from Canada. Yeah, that's, there's aren't celebrities, right? Canada hockey players are the celebrities actors. We're the ones that we in the guy I'm playing with the thing. Yeah. Start us off with maybe your favorite three assessments of your contracts in the last five years. Theatrically. It's so difficult. Cause again, I'm, I'm, I, I've been down here for 20 years but I started in Canada and in Canada was the same thing. They go, oh we have the new, a independent producers agreement. And it was always the same thing. It was how gentle are you going to be when you fucked me? Valid point. The one thing that I've never understood in all respect to the actors and stuff, but I've had a philosophy for years that the head of a union, like an acting union, I don't think it should be an actor. I think we should get a hired gun. I think we need another wolf to go in with a den of wolves and fight amongst the wolves and get the best contract for us. Because as actors and entertainers, we're not, uh, trying to find the best way to say this equipped. Yeah. I tend to spiral a bit, but I made a comment when the last Avengers movie made$1 billion. The first weekend I saw your posts, I saw your post. Yeah.$1 billion the next weekend. And I just sat to go on and go on. Okay. Yet if I'm an actor and I'm going out for not obviously one of the avenger roles, cause those are cast well before anybody gets a chance. But then they come to me and say we only have scale for you. Well no, but the rate that I've been working at for 30 years is this thing. Yeah, but we only have scale for this party. And you go fuck yourself. You made$1 billion a week. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh Week. You kind of go on another tangent too. I remember Mark Pellington is a director. He was involved in creating the look and feel of cold case and he had a great post at one point when superman meets Batman$250 million. And he said, why don't you give 25 filmmakers 10 million each and have 25 movies cause you're not showing me anything fucking new. And Superman meets Batman. But I cannot tell the difference now between any of the superhero movies. It was in that post. It's like, hey, thanks again for saving the world. People were saying, spoiler alert, let me see what's going to happen. Something bad is going to happen. The world will be in jeopardy and only this group of people can save it and they will. So thank you for saving the world yet again. I mean I loved the old TV series, beauty and the beast with Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton cause you knew what the 45 minute mark, Linda Hamilton would get in trouble. Vincent would sniff the Aaron goal. Fuck pop on a subway underneath the city. Come through the door. Anyway, true lava. I knew the formula, I enjoyed it. I get to do it in weekly to see it. What? I'm sorry, these Avengers, I can't tell the difference anymore. And back before the warehouse you see in front of you what you can't see. But back when it was a temple, I was actually an x men. I was banshee of the x men series about five years before the x men craze took over. But that's again going back to the billion of dollars. I always wonder like if I do really well, I reached back for the next guy on the last three films. One I got paid, it was three weeks work but technically five days. So they paid me for a week. But I'm at their discretion, you know cause they go but it's a week as you're basically we're going to listen. The other three were buck 25 cause it's friend of mine that is using that sag deferral. I you did an ultra low budget contracts for your buddy. Yeah. And I've done three of them. And you kind of go, it's a buck 25 but I'm also working with people that I know that in the future will come back when they make that provided they don't get involved with a group of producers that are, we'll know. We had them for a buck 25 off from a buck 50. You know, it's just like, Eh, that's where you to go on another tangent. One of my favorite, uh, it's a Robert Mitchum story. Mitchum was, uh, working on a film and the producers decided that they didn't need to give the crew coffee and donuts in the morning. So the next day Mitchum was five minutes late. The day of today is 10 minutes late, then he's 15 minutes late. They go to misses and he probably doesn't know that he's 20 minutes late, 25 30. And they go, is there a problem? No, no, no, no. Finally gets up to like 15 minutes late. It's had been everyday, everyday, everyday. And he goes, something's up. What's going on? He goes, oh, I'm sorry. Uh, every morning on my way to work, I stopped for a coffee and donut and the lines just keep getting longer and longer. The next day there was coffee and donuts, damn skippy there. And that's, I think that's the beast that we're dealing with because the people that made$1 billion on the Avengers, they're not shuffling back into a fund that will take 50 million of that and give five filmmakers.

Speaker 5:

So I'm just curious for the group in some of these contracts going back and forth from Canada or here since cold case, have you dealt with the things that these three wanna come in on with advanced payment or residuals and the options exclusivity of how long we get held because we just made this deal with Netflix and they were trying to address some of it, but the deal is basically based on 2017 have you dealt with any of that that annoys you chatting with your agent?

Speaker 4:

Case in point, but I had done three films for a buck 50. Uh, and then I did another week's work on a Ben Affleck movie. So it's like they've got Ben Affleck's, so you've got to take it in the shorts kind of thing. It's not Ben Affleck's fault, but you know, good Kudos to you for doing it. Yeah. That kind of goes like the pay disparity thing is crazy cause in TV you're seeing it so much now where a guest star gets paid, this is as much as you can get. And then everyone else is like way to say you guys are making a hundred thousand a week. But I'm, I'm doing all the heavy lifting for two weeks. I don't know, back on cold case, they have top show. And I pitched them an idea with don Rickles involved and they said that they wouldn't go above show for Don Rickles. And I said okay, I would if I give him my pay for the episode. Did you really? Yeah. Well yeah it could have been huge. I was gonna write it, you know, it was in the whole deal. We got close to it but then in the end they went with, I didn't house writer was the last season and we never went back. But I had a wonderful idea for Rickles but they wouldn't go above show for Don Rickles. That's crazy. That's interesting cause you kind of touched on about having somebody who is a like Robert Mitchum. Yeah. Say something. Yeah, I've heard Brad Pitt do that. Yep. And I know that Peter Coyote and a letter to the union to other actors, actually it was two the movie stars saying you guys need to be the ones who are stepping up. You're making$10 million and you've got a guy who who's making scale. He goes, you guys are the ones, you are the voices that need to step up. It's just like when you did our celebrity support for commercials, we needed you for voice. We needed John Ham. We needed Allison Janney and on and on and on. George Lopez, because you guys are the ones that move the needle a little bit. Cause when they see your face they realize, okay, we better do something. We don't want to upset these people and I can try it. I need, it needs to become more prevalent of who will stand up and go, you know why you got to take care of the people that are making me look good. I think this is almost like a bigger problem in North America there they're trying to nickel and dime everyone down to their last penny. But they don't realize that if you do not have that middle class going to the movies, your movies aren't gonna make any money. If you don't have a middle class going out for dinner, they're not going to be going to a restaurant. The middle-class, they put the money back in the economy and he get rid of unions. You don't have the middle class. Yeah, don't, but that's the scariest part. That whole right to work states, Santa Fe, they gave them this thing and say, if you give it to everyone else, why are we always the ones on the short stick? Yeah. So if you go to Santa Fe, they'll give you a public buildings. They'll give you access to the prison, they'll do that. So why don't you then give the actors free room and board so that the, the studio doesn't have to w why is it, this is the term that drives me crazy. Local hire, local Nikolai old. Just have you as a local hire. And I remember one point I stood up against the machine. There was a producer in Canada, the first film, first film I did, I got paid$1,500 for three weeks work as the title role. That was my second audition. It's a horror film that's just beyond the pale. But this guy worked his way up and now is doing, it was studio 54 and it was three days in Toronto, three days in New York. I was living here now and I auditioned. They said, we want to hire you as a local hire. And I was like, ah, fuck. I don't live in Toronto. I don't live in New York. So which 1:00 AM I the local hire in? And at the same time I got an offer for twice as much money for an episodic thing beyond reality or okay. It was a Canadian one off kind of series. And I went with that and we called them back and said, we've accepted this at the deal. And they went, oh no, no, no. You don't have to be a local hire. Then it's like, you know what? Go Fuck Yourself. Yeah, there you go. The money in hand because you guys were trying to fuck me again and then I did another film where it was same producer. It was angels, so it's the got Jennifer Lopez and they say, could you be a local hire? And it was like, hmm, okay, I'll stay at my brothers. They would fly me up, but it was just, it's like, I don't know why it was the cost of room and board. Well, it figures out they wanted me there for three weeks. A good things came of it. But then I discovered that they spent more on Lopez, his shoes than they did on what they paid me 100% I ended up almost being her partner in the movie because the guy playing her partner was 45 minutes late to set every time he was at and they had, they just kept going in coffee problem. It was him trying to get women into his dressing room and then he goes on the view saying, oh, how about much? He's in love with his wife. All kinds in this fucking business. Nancy, you got a favorite of a, what's we're going through what? She said that it's a problem in North America. There's a lot of money. They just don't want people having in the bottle in the middle to have any of it. So it's not like we arguing the fairness of it, the equity of it, the importance, the value of us is tough. When they have the money, they simply don't want anyone else to have it. I think everyone thinks that when they hear you're in this business that they think that you make the money. George Clooney makes[inaudible] best friend, but he can't touch Clooney's contract Clooney controls because he's him now. But when you're starting out, who knows? But this guy said that his whole thing was he designed a contract so he could fire you for no reason. It's like I can't opt out of a contract. I couldn't say after five years. You know what guys? Cause they would slam me, slander me and say no, this guy wants this and he's an asshole. If they go, you know what, we're not going to honor your contract. And there's nothing like it. The last year of cold case, four of us have to take a six episode cut to keep going and I had signed a contract that said x amount of money for x amount of episodes. So here it is big CBS couldn't honor the contract that I signed with them and I got to take it in the short, I don't want to be in six episodes this year. They would've gone, you're in breach. Fuck you. You have to take into me, you have to do, he wants the job, right. I guess if you're going to do it. And then it's like what's, that was the year that our show where we were deemed too expensive and the problem with cold case was that we had original music, so they never knew how, they didn't know how the DVD sales would happen. Sort of like Wk RP. We had original music and they couldn't pay, I mean the musicians to get together and say let's have a fun that saves the rest of the musicians and throw whatever percentage into that. But so there was going to be no DVD sales, which they said made us too expensive. Moonves tickle and the$58 million bonus that year and they bumped a sheen on the three angry men or two and a half, a million bucks and up to 2 million. The lasted for six weeks. Bikers, blood imploded. Moonves had a lot of people he was having to pay on the side anyway, but you look at friends to take the timeframe of friends. Cold case, right? Beginning of series. Beginning of series. Yeah, to where we are today and that kind of tracks. You look at friends, the hole. We walked out million dollars per, you look at the six episodes, go screw yourself that you did at the end of that series, which was incredibly successful series and then the[inaudible] and they were saying not enough more junior, just as a little side. James Whitmore Jr was on Baa, Baa black sheep. They had a 49 share,

Speaker 6:

49 share, 49% of the televisions, what his show was on. We're watching BAA, Baa, black sheep and the networks said not enough. Hi. It's Jack Levy, producer of the union working podcast and partner at podcast sage as an awarded audio producer who's contributed to some of the finest feature films, television shows, video games, and records produced. I had been inundated with requests by peers and major studios alike to produce and manage podcast production, and I'd be delighted to do the same for you. Have an idea for a podcast and don't know where to start or who to call. Look no further. Have a scripted podcast, investigative, or documentary interview show, Solo cast game show, talk show, or literally any other project. Give me a call at(818) 233-0640 that's(818) 233-0640 or email me at Jack at podcast, sage.com we have world-class studios here in Culver City and can work remote on location, literally anywhere, and have the broadband experience to help with everything from concept development to recording and editing, staffing and writers. And of course music. Call me at(818) 233-0640 or shoot me an email at Jackett podcast, sage.com mention union working and get a 10% discount. Hell, I'll make it 15

Speaker 5:

and now back to union work and that's where we're at. Bob and I are both on the alter. It's on the negotiating committee, so there's certain things we can and can't say in this conversation, but we all saw the Netflix deal, you know the looping and the dubbing and they're bringing down some of the exclusivity situations. But I'm still, you know, I haven't gone and flown some place based on the travel and I haven't gone and been relocated for what they give you 10 grand.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. What's the deal with that? The location fees. Let's see. I relocated, we edited try and fucking move. Oh my God, he can. Your friend has gone through that. A friend of mine who is the director, he had a limited series back in New York. This here in Valley village or right me, he got 7,500 to be there for six months. I'm not, I'm talking about 7,500 for six months trying to get somewhere in New York to live. So here's was the big thing from the big courier. You've got to be executive producer. It did mean any extra money. It was just the title and he knows it, man. He talks about it, he goes, you know, we're getting in this short.

Speaker 4:

Well, and again I have the added perspective of being from Canada and the people that came up there with the Almighty dollar. So when the Canadian dollar was sometimes 60 70 cents, they would get for a million, get 1,000,003 and then they wouldn't have to pay Canadian actress residuals and all that stuff. But even I did a series of their blue murder and it was 13 episodes a year for three years. But I met, I would be up there for five months. I had to keep my place in Los Angeles. I had to pay for short term accommodations up there the last year of the show. And I think I was making a$7,000 an episode Canadian. So[inaudible] show, bro. I made and I was top of show, you're the star if that works out to be a a hundred thousand dollars. When I did the math, there was 22 agents and managers. I spent 30 just on rents and stuff like that. When it came back home, the dollar was 60 cents on the dollar. I was coming back with less than 10$15,000 after five months work and the last year of that show, this is kind of like the, this is the Hollywood story, but um, the last year the show, I actually had to break into my RSP in Canada to pay the taxes because I was underwater. I wasn't making enough money, paying everything. I had to pay and then they wanted to go fourth year, my contract was three. They wanted to go fourth year they called up and they said, we want to go on another year. There's just one. You'd have to take a pay cut.[inaudible]. No, I said it was, that call came two hours after I got the call saying you just booked the Bruckheimer pilot called the untitled something that ended up being cold case. So I had to call them back and say, guys, I can't come back. My contract is up with you. And I just think God[inaudible] stay with my aunt. It wouldn't be free this. He told me this. Then they moved to Charlotte and things are doing well in Charlotte and I had someone tell me like a bunch of actors you get together and like rent a place in Charlotte or Atlanta. Like you're in fucking college. Yeah, we all can live[inaudible] kids now. I got three boys. I'm trying to grow into gentleman and I can't be, you know like okay guys, let's hop on the freighter late at night and go across town. I don't, and yet at that moment you are for the whole Union for 160,000 people, you are literally basically in the top 2% 2.3 or 4% of our entire profession and you got to say no. This success story and this is what you're not making. It's emblematic of how Labor and management is not just in our business and that's why we're union workings because that happens across the board all over this country. I was thinking about this too, the old coal mines, you worked in the coal mine and you got your pay, but you had to buy your toothbrush, your food from the company store and they took it off your pay. And I sit there going, oh, it hasn't changed. It's sort of like it's the plantation owners. They do everything. When do you think it did change though? In our business always like this. I read the easy rider, easy rider, raging bull or easy[inaudible] writers and raging bull, something like that. And it was like, I love the fact like Lucas offered his crew points on star wars and they went, fuck you, this thing sucks. Which is funny.[inaudible] his celebrities or stars in it. Back end of it once it was successful. Yeah. Can I read that? But the crew, he offered the crew and they said they didn't want it cause they thought it was all crap, which is so funny. And he still thinks that that movie is only 50% of what he wanted. But the third or fourth one was 90% it's like buddy, go back to, and again I maybe I risk sounding socialists, but if the movie does well, we all do well. If we're all working at a reduced rate then if it does kick in, what do they said that uh, Forrest Gump still, it was a highest grossing movie at its time and still couldn't pay the writer cause funky math. What's that dog with thing, right? Where you're like, it's like, yeah man, we're all in together. This is art. We're going to do this. But like the guy at the top is getting kabillion dollars. Well we're not all in this together. Right. You know, we're not linking anything. Cause I, and I the, I don't know if you guys have seen small town crime. That was the last one I did. And it's Ashman and Nelms and Michelle Lang, they're kind of a team of three and we shot this movie for two point$2 million. If you watch it, you will not believe that we could do that with what we had. But we did. And they are kind of the future and they are in that world of if they're doing well, we're all doing well. Yeah. So we all worked really hard, but we've got a great product as a result. But then here in lies the rub, we got a two point$2 million movie that is fantastic. John Hawks, Octavia Spencer, Anthony Anderson, like we had everybody coming out. We got bought by Sabaan and they did a true independent. They shot it, they fought for it, they fought for their edit, they got it went to the festival. You were top five according to New York Times and north by northwest or South by South Easter, east by west coast southwest. Well, we got three extra showings or two extra showings as a real big hit. Subhan came in the power rangers phenomena. They bought us and shelled us all we opened. We were in fourth year to two theaters in Austin, one in Colorado, the one in those fields and another one in Brooklyn. Wow. Six theaters for our big[inaudible] great movie. I'd done not because I'm in it, but it's a good adult popcorn movie and nothing. What got the buzz then was the Tonya movie, which I still think is phenomenal. Our take, oh with Allison Janney. Yeah, but the story itself, it's like it's just, it's just that, uh,

Speaker 5:

so as I'm shelving your movie and really opening it with such a tiny release is that so they can sell it later to a streaming platform. Why, why not buy it and not as part of one of the things about an official, how they define where they start on our residuals has to do with what's considered to be an official release. So they can do six screens first run and it immediately alters what our downstream residuals become.

Speaker 4:

Isn't that what they did with the writers? Cause they had, if you're on the network, first run is this second run is down here, but they would do the second run on their CW network, which isn't as I first got down and off platform, I was one of the antenna bowls for Jack in the box as you should be as I should be. I think I was up for that too when I got residual broken down by the networks and I didn't get flocks doesn't have to pay as much. Oh yeah. Now you're talking about back in the day when Fox wasn't technically a network,

Speaker 5:

five network shows and the residuals were way different on the first run domestically and they've just taken that model and they've tweaked it over 20 years and made it worse.

Speaker 4:

So up in Toronto I was the voice of Bananas Gorilla in Richard. Scary and there was a great thing that they did. The people that did it, they didn't have to be a residuals cause we were Canadian artists and there's no residuals up there for certain things, for a lot of things. But the company that produced it kept the merchandising rights. But gave the show to PBS, which meant by giving it to them, there was no money in that exchange. So we don't get anything, even though that was handed over to them or around the same time, McDonald's wanted to do a special run with the figures and wanted us for our voices. And Bananas. Gorilla was one of the favorite little Q bananas. He was a crazy little guy. So McDonald's called up and they said, we have scale, and this was back when scale was I think 320 bucks or something. And it's for a short run selling the figurines that I'm the voice of. And we said, well no, it's a short run. Make a triple 900 bucks and you're McDonald's. And they went[inaudible] and my agent at the time said, then I suggest you take 8 billion served off your sign twin. And that's what it took saying, fuck you. But then what they will do, I mean they ended up using us, but it was sort of like the Simpson's thing when all of a sudden someone explained that to me to saying also the Simpsons guys go, hey, we're the voice and they go, how many in this room have a spot on impression of a show like the Simpsons that they know? Then they go, oh, we'll just hire this guy wants to get a leg up in the business. Yeah, we're always on the short end of the stick yet. This is I, I was listening to Jack Black on the Graham Norton show and it was really kind of cute and he was talking about, he was going to the premier of Kung Fu Panda in Japan and Norton looked at him and said, you're going to Japan. He said, it's Kung Fu pants, so it's not you, it's a cartoon figure. It's in Japan, so it's not your voice. It's the Japanese guy that does your voice for Japanese audience. So why did they want you there? It's like, well he goes, cause I need it. This is like they needed a bonafide said liberty or something. It was very tongue and cheek about it. But therein lies the rub when it's Jack Black or someone like, I love when the Angelina Jolie was the voice of the tiger and that it had one line for Jackie Chandler grunted when you go, we got Jackie Chan's butter on the billboard. That's where all a specific to that level too. Like one of my favorite movies is the Robinhood animated and it's got all the great voices. Well now one of my biggest beefs, I think it was the dawn of celebrity in, in the movies of animation things, they're their voices. They're more recognizable for their celebrity, not for their characterizations. And the fact that, and I mean no disrespect to will be Goldberg, but she's the antithesis of what I thought I hired. You know what sounds like, you know what I mean? Like I wanted to be in that board and we go, no, no disrespect. She's so slow and laid back. Maybe a slot like, and I go and I mean, no disrespect, I'm talking about when the voice renders. Yeah. Whereas I've always seen hyenas as the devil's Bellboy, like Dennis leary gay. You get that. Okay. That's right. She was the voice of Hyena and I kind of went[inaudible] but they also, then they have[inaudible] and then again for the people like I used to do very well. I was the voice of Ford trucks, ray ban. I won awards all over like London, Chicago, La, New York. Labatt's beer up in Canada. Your celebrity. But no overnight. Guess what happened? All of a sudden my competition went from me and a group of people that had voices to Tommy Lee Jones, Gene Hackman, Jeff Bridges, Sylvester Stallone and a, um, the knife thrower, the medic seven. Oh, uh, James Coburn. Covert Coburn. Yeah. And all of a sudden, you know, I always kind of said like, they must've been sitting around that room saying, who do we got for this? Well, we could have James Colbert, who's the guy who makes seven. Yeah. Or Gene Hackman. You know, the guy or a Jeremy Roderick. Who's that local kid? Fuck him.[inaudible]

Speaker 7:

before we go. Cause I, we gotta get this out for this close cause this is just something that I have to know. Cause I know you've worked in Newfoundland and my wife's from there. Yeah. So there's this show now I've seen Russell Crowe on it and there's a famous actor, I can't think of his name right off hand. Older gentleman who's been on it. Have you? Cause maybe I haven't seen it yet. Been on the Republic of Doyle.

Speaker 4:

No. Why not? As a, all the yelling, lots of yelling has the Canadian, I've been watching Shit's creek there march. But I probably have to be a local higher ed. It's, well actually the, the short did Newfoundland Rec.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. Oh you gotta. You gotta do the, the guy who drove you,

Speaker 4:

you got to do that boy. Hey Jeremy out over there. I didn't realize it was CBC. I can go on forever. But um, as you said, time was by John Peters and Peter Guber. Yeah. The guys didn't test themselves like leeches to things and, and were barn for sets and just, you know, he's Barbara Streisand's hairdresser. It's sort of like Donald Trump's caddy is now one of his fucking advisors. It's like you just can't, I can't figure it out. Those guys, they want it to be attached and that's another part of our business. They're, they're like the, what are the little things that stick on Barnacles Bar Tomorrows remoras they just nice rustic on the bottom. We can Fitzy so they were always doing that and it people hated them but you had to buy them off. You had that cause they case in point. Peters and Gruber's heard about a show in Canada called the beachcombers. Beachcombers ran for 28 years beachcombers at the height of its success at the height of his, because Michael J. Fox wanted to get on it and they said we can, it was a CBC production, the Canadian broadcast like the BBC but for Canada, a Wayne Gretzky, we are all weaned on the show. Ran For 28 years, couldn't it? Ryan rental tell makes it a point in his contracts. He always some hope mentions in his contract negotiated where they're going to shoot something in Vancouver. It's like he can't do it unless they promised to relaunch the beachcombers. Like it's all, it's all fine. But they hear about the show that ran for 28 years and they go, oh, we've got to get here. We got gotta, we got to get a barnacle around rise carver, the remora her Mara. Thank you. I was gonna say it's a monkey, but uh, they call up Canada. They're like, tell us about the show. It doesn't, what? What's the show? What's this concept? What's this universal concept that can get us on a Gig for 28 years? Well, it's about a, a man and a young boy and they drive around in a boat along the shore of British Columbia looking for errand logs, homing the beach and getting the logs and dragging them back to the lumber place. And then they meet at Molly's wharf cafe where they discuss the log abuse. Yeah. You don't know what blind do I lose a sock in the dryer. And there was a mean guy, a relic who had a really cool boat, but this thing ran for 28 years and they were like, okay, okay. And then they found out it was government funded cause it was the CBC, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. So it was getting money from the government. But I just love the fact that these guys thought we've got it made. We're going to get a[inaudible] and the same thing to show a Newfoundland is rex rex. I haven't seen that. What's it on? Is it on that flexible watch? I know it's a Scandinavian show. It's wrong for like 700,000 years because hit the premise is it's a cop solving crime with his German shepherd partner and I ski racks. But I guess I guess they've gone through four cops and like seven dogs put them up. Cause it's like, well the dog die. But we've got another German shepherd detective like the show ran for 40 years or something. I all didn't care. I was like, let's bring it to life from Newfoundland. I say between a republic of Doyle and rex, there's gotta be a travel advisory for our Newfoundland and St John's. Right? I mean there's crime there every week, every week. It's like the dog, like I'm driving again with my driver to the airport and ahead of us is a car. It's got Nova Scotian license plates and this Guy Kinda goes fucking Nova Scotia and it was like they're side by each on the Opry. Like they have more in common than they do with 99% of the world. But it's still like that fucking idiot from the west coast. Before we wrap up, first of all, Jeremy, thank you very much.

Speaker 6:

Oh Man. Amazing. We always want to make sure that we remind our audience that we would not be doing this if it were not for uh, Mr. Jack Levy and a podcast sage. So thank you very much. Thank you to the studio downtown Culver City Studios. That was awesome. Thanks. You guys can find us@unionworking.com obviously, and I'm Kevin West and the other folks in the room from union working are Bob Stevenson, Rob Fitzgerald and culinary. Jeremy, thanks very much for being here, man. We appreciate you gotta have your back. God, I want to hear every story in that guy's voice. Alright, be sure and listen to this guys. Thanks. Make sure to download the next episode. I'd like to thank blue microphones. There. Mikes are fantastic and their headphones killer. The gator case company. Your equipment can travel in style, protect your investment. Presonus I just love their studio. Live series, the Road Corporation, the film maker kits, ambisonic, microphone and recorders. All Rock and of course tascam. The model 24 has been amazing. Need music for a podcast, television project, film, audio book, or any other production need. I suggest you call my friends at spirit production music. You can find them and listen to their music at spirit production. music.com representing over 50 music libraries and over 200,000 tracks. Spirit production. Music has all the music. You'll need staff to help and prices. You'll love email them through their website or give them a call today at(818) 508-2040 that's(818) 508-2040 ask for my Buddy Ryan. He'll personally help you find the right music for your project. Spirit production, music.com check them out. You'll be thrilled.

Speaker 8:

[inaudible].

Intros
Jeremy's opinion on contracts & plots
It's a problem everywhere
Relocation fees
Stories about voice work
Tales from Newfoundland
Closing remarks