Buffalo writer-producer and Emmy winner Tom Fontana has a residual check for his six seasons of work on the HBO series “Oz” starting in 1997 framed on the wall where he writes.
“It was for less than the stamp that was on the envelope it was mailed in,” said Fontana. “It was like 27 cents.”
In a recent column about the popularity of the USA Network series “Suits” that now airs on Netflix and has been No. 1 among streaming programs, I wrote I hope the actors and writers are getting fair compensation in residuals associated with the series that ended in 2019.
Fontana explained that wasn’t the case.
“You have to understand the way it’s structured,” Fontana said of residual checks after shows first air.
“When shows first start repeating, the residuals are bigger. Over time they get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. That’s the way it’s always been. What’s different now is that for example, the guy who did ‘Suits,’ which was on USA Network for nine years, it was the No. 1 show on Netflix. And the guy got something like $249.”
Residuals are only one of the issues about the current writers’ and actors’ strikes that I discussed with Fontana in a wide-ranging telephone interview.
A former vice president of the Writer’s Guild of America East and former president of the Writers Guild East Foundation, Fontana is the ideal Buffalonian to give the writers’ point of views on the strikes that have shut down Hollywood production.
Fontana, whose success stories include writing and producing “St. Elsewhere” from 1982 to 1988 and “Homicide: Life on the Street” from 1993 to 1999, tries to walk the picket line in New York City at least twice a week and said the enthusiasm and passion remain strong because the issues are too important to give in.
This is the fifth strike that Fontana has experienced, starting with one in 1981 when he wrote his first script for “St. Elsewhere” and respected the…
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