'Happy Days' Actors Prep Lawsuit Against CBS Over Merchandising

[johnmiic]

"According to CNN, the actors claim CBS has cut them out of money they are owed for products such as T-shirts, comic books, dolls and DVDs."

Dolls could refer to only one thing.


'Happy Days' Actors Prep Lawsuit Against CBS Over Merchandising Revenues

[SeattleEd]

So does this mean CTVT dolls will be pulled and become highly collectible?

[EMCE Hammer]

It could mean three things.......Mego, Exclusive Premiere, or CTVT.

[Cosmicman]

Heck, even the Happy Day's actors need to eat. They gotta earn a buck or something these days. Not like the movie industry is falling over themselves to hire the great acting talents of Marion Ross or Erin Moran.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Marion Ross still plays everyone's mother, even to this day. I've lost track of the shows where she has guested as "the" mother. She was in the Scooby-Doo TV movie "Curse of the Lake Monster" along with Ted McGinley.

Chris

[samurainoir]

I'm honestly thinking they are overestimating their cuts as millions if they are talking about the past few years of revival merchandise. It certainly wouldn't be the CTVT dolls that would account for the bulk of that.

Depending on how the profits are accounted for the slot machine, they might have something, but then again it might just be a large flat licensing fee rather than a cut of the casino's take from the machines. You never know with this kind of thing.

You do have to have sympathy for the struggling working actors, particurly those who's time has long since faded. At least Fonzie and Richie have gone on to huge careers as director and producer. It looks like even Chachi has opted out of the lawsuit... at least he has Charles in Charge residuals and didn't he have a reality show a few years back?

[johnmiic]

Last 2 appearances I saw Marion Ross in was as a maid in How to Make an American Quilt w/Shirley McClain and as a guy's old flame in Grey's Anatomy. She still looks a lot like Mrs. C. Winkler and Baio still occasionally act. Both played lawyers in Arrested Development.

I would guess the reference to "dolls" applies to CTVT only. Happy Days was an ABC TV show in its heyday and may have been owned by Paramount like Star Trek. I think the reference to CBS is the home video division. MEGO was long gone and even Exclusive Premiere was out of the picture when CBS got the rights. How long has CBS held the rights to the show? CTVT was making dolls since the early to mid 2000's.

[deputypowell]

...what caused this sudden interest in $$$.

See Below: Posted twice by accident.

[deputypowell]

...what caused this sudden interest in $$$.

I think my picture on a slot machines in Las Vegas would make me ask where is it all going.

These guys are not rich (exclude Ron Howard and Henry Winkler) but are just like us...trying to keep their heads above water in these tough times.

It mentions one of them just lost a home when they tried to refinance a bank loan. Sounds like anyone we know?

[Mikey]

Classic actors are always suing for royalties nowadays

Jack Klugman just won a Quincy lawsuit against NBC only a few years ago.

[Brad]

Dumb question time. I know my memory is not the best but didn't Happy Days air on ABC? If so then why are they suing CBS?

[Mikey]

Dumb question time. I know my memory is not the best but didn't Happy Days air on ABC? If so then why are they suing CBS?

Maybe CBS bought them

Just like CBS now owns Star Trek -- even though it originally aired on NBC

[thunderbolt]

Guessing Columbia Pictures may have been the producing studio?

[thunderbolt]

looked it up, CBS bought Paramount Television which earlier had acquired Desilu. That explains the ownership of Trek and Happy Days.

[Brad]

looked it up, CBS bought Paramount Television which earlier had acquired Desilu. That explains the ownership of Trek and Happy Days.

Thanks for the info. Now it makes sense to me. It's hard to keep up with which huge corporation buys whom.


A bit off subject but Desi Arnaz was a brilliant man and IMO doesn't get near the respect he deserves for what he accomplished.


From Wikipedia, this tells the story better then I can but this is what I mean;

With Ball, he founded Desilu Productions. At that time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the largest markets were in New York, the rest of the country received only kinescope images. Karl Freund, Arnaz's cameraman, developed the multiple-camera setup production style using adjacent sets that became the standard for all subsequent situation comedies to this day. The use of film enabled every station around the country to broadcast high-quality images of the show. Arnaz was told that it would be impossible to allow an audience onto a sound stage, but he worked with Freund to design a set that would accommodate an audience, allow filming, and also adhere to fire and safety codes.

Network executives considered the use of film an unnecessary extravagance. Arnaz convinced them to allow Desilu to cover all additional costs associated with the filming process, under the stipulation that Desilu owned and controlled all rights to the film. Arnaz's unprecedented arrangement is widely considered to be one of the shrewdest deals in television history. As a result of his foresight, Desilu reaped the profits from all reruns of the series.


Now at the time TV was still fairly new and I would guess that nobody had any idea of re-running a show. I always wondered if Desi had that concept in the back of his mind when he made that deal.