Happy days have turned crappy days for the cast of the hit 70′s-80′s sitcom Happy Days because they have decided to sue CBS for unpaid royalties that they claim are due them from merchandising from the show. In a new suit brought against the studio by Anson Williams (Potsie), Erin Moran (Joanie), Don Most (Ralph [...]
Happy days have turned crappy days for the cast of the hit 70′s-80′s sitcom Happy Days because they have decided to sue CBS for unpaid royalties that they claim are due them from merchandising from the show. In a new suit brought against the studio by Anson Williams (Potsie), Erin Moran (Joanie), Don Most (Ralph Malph), Marion Ross (Marion Cunningham) and the estate of the late Tom Bosley (Howard Cunningham), the Happy Days cast claim they are owed monies from merchandising revenues due to them under the terms of their contracts. Read on for the sad details about this Happy Days lawsuit.
“Happy Days,” one of the most popular shows in television history, faces an unhappy legacy nearly four decades after it first went on the air. Four cast members, and the estate of Tom Bosley, who died last October, claim CBS (CBS, Fortune 500), which owns the show, has not paid them for merchandising revenues they are owed under their contracts. The show, which originally aired from 1974 to 1984, “represented to the public what the best of America has to offer,” said Anson Williams, who played Potsie. “The friendships, the opportunities, the warmth. Unfortunately, now ‘Happy Days’ also represents the worst of America — of what major companies are trying to get from it, trying to use it for, and forgetting the family it created.” In exclusive interviews with CNN, the cast members — Williams, Don Most, Marion Ross and Erin Moran — all claim they have been cut out of the merchandising bonanza the show has spawned. Those products includes comic books, t-shirts, scrapbooks, trading cards, games, lunch boxes, dolls, toy cars, magnets, greeting cards and DVDs where their images appear on the box covers. When the actors learned their images were also put on “Happy Days,” slot machines, they said they began wondering where all the money ended up. “When these slot machines came out, it was like Barnum and Bailey came to town,” Williams said. “We were bombarded with, oh look at these pictures, they’d be all over the country.” Under the actors’ contracts, they were supposed to be paid 5% from the net proceeds of merchandising if their sole image were used, and 2 1/2% if they were in a group. The studio could deduct 50% off the top as a “handling fee.” “It takes a lot to make me angry because so often my expectations are so low,” Ross said. “But the other day someone came up to me and said, ‘You must be cleaning up on those casinos.’ And I said, ‘Well, what are you talking about?’ And he said, ‘If you get five Marions, you get the jackpot.”‘ Attorney Jon Pfeiffer represents the actors in their case against CBS, which owns the show. He filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. “The issue is the five cast members of ‘Happy Days’ were not paid for the royalties for their name and likeness,” Pfeiffer told CNN. “That being the use of their picture, use of their name in slot machines, in games, in greeting cards, in t-shirts, anything where you saw a ‘Happy Days’ face of a character, they were not paid for that.” Ron Howard, who played Richie Cunningham, and Henry Winkler, who played the Fonz, are not part of the lawsuit. Howard, through his publicist, declined to comment. Representatives for Winkler have not returned CNN’s calls.
Man … this sucks. Stories like this are just … so crappy. I find it very hard to believe that it was an oversight on CBS‘s part to use the image likeness of these castmembers and then fail to compensate them for their use. I can’t even being to imagine what kind of money is being made from these Happy Days slot machines … let alone the countless Happy Days merchandise items that have been produced over the years. Of course, there are always 2 sides to a story and I’m certain CBS has their own explanation for what is going on … but when you think about the wholesome, “family values” nature of a show like Happy Days and then find out that the actors who starred in a show like that may be getting bilked out of money due them … it’s just really sad. I hope that this mess gets sorted out. I really, really hate the image of these Happy Days actors fighting in court for money. Talk about your un-Happy Days, indeed :(
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