Old Nickelodeon Tv Shows

How does the Screen Actors Guild spell relief.? R-E-S-I-D-U-A-L-S for reruns of old commercials.

Mrs. Butterworth, the maple syrup lady, is missing. So is Bucky Beaver, the Maypo kid, the Ginsu knife guy, the Dippity Do gal, the Teaberry Gum shuffers and Charlie the Tuna.

Early television commercials have been resurrected on cable TV for their kitschy entertainment value. But the actors weren't getting paid residuals -- until now.

The Screen Actors Guild, or SAG, is searching for scores of character actors who quipped, crooned and tangoed for television advertising in the last 40 years. According to SAG, a commercial is a commercial, even four decades later. The ads in question were done under SAG contracts, and the AFL-CIO wants its people paid.

"We negotiate the agreement, then enforce it to maintain the integrity of the contract " says Katherine Moore, a spokeswoman for SAG, which represents 90,000 film actors. "This new use has emerged, which is why the guild has become involved. This use never could have been anticipated when these commercials were first made."

Last April, the Nickelodeon network, a cable channel watched by 21 million viewers, debuted TV Land, a program intended to exploit babyboomer feelings of nostalgia. Why not combine beloved vintage television shows with equally beloved vintage commercials? The channel paired Mr. Ed, The Phil Silvers Show and 20 others with classic sales pitches. Who can forget Mr. Whipple squeezing the Charmin or the woman who screamed, "Mother please, I'd rather do it myself!" for Anacin?

"We view the commercials as programming, not advertising" Land President Rich Kronin. "Some of the products or companies are defunct -- we've got ads for Edsels and Braniff Airlines. We don't make any income from them."

But SAG issued an all-points bulletin. "While programs may be aired at any time, commercials have maximum-use periods," it declared in a printed alert mailed to its membership. "All of these commercials are beyond their maximum period of use. Consequently, permission must be obtained for any new use'"

SAG has suggested to TV Land that each performer be paid a minimum of $610 every six months the commercial runs and notes that the cable channel "is not a SAG signatory," which means it has not signed an agreement to abide by the union's rules.

"We want to cooperate with the union, we want to be fair," says Kronin. Lawyers on both sides have been talking for months. We never expected to get anything for free."

The cable channel hired a film-archives group in Los Angeles to help find an odd cast of characters, including the elderly Russians who appeared in a Dannon yogurt ad and the actor who squawked on behalf of the Gillette blue parrot. Some have been found, mostly stars who got a boost early in their careers by appearing in commercials, including Jodie Foster, Flip Wilson, Don Adams, Stevie Wonder, Jack Palance and Farrah Fawcett.

This is the second time this year SAG has taken producers to task for overlooking payments. In May, union went after the Walt Disney conglomerate because it failed to pay former Mouseketeers for all the re-releases of The Mickey Mouse Club. The rallying cry, according to one actor, went "M-I-C -- see you in court! K-E-Y -- Why? Because you cheated us! " The union is asking for $100 million in compensation.

COPYRIGHT 1997 News World Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

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