Voice-Only Actors Settle 5-Week Strike

Actors who do the talking for “The Smurfs,” “Cabbage Patch Kids” and more than two dozen other animated television shows have settled their five-week strike against four producers, the Screen Actors Guild said Thursday.

SAG spokesman Mark Locher said negotiators finally reached agreement about 3 a.m. on a new three-year pact giving the actors a 10% pay raise, generally shorter recording sessions and a 10% bonus when required to do three main characters in one session.

Also, Locher said, most recording sessions will be shortened from eight hours to four hours.

Although the strike came during what Locher called the prime production period for the fall season, he said, “I think with some hard work, we’re going to catch up.”

A spokesman for the Walt Disney Co., one of the four producers, said that under the new contract work sessions, or “calls,” will be four hours long, with certain exceptions. These will include calls for the first show of any new series, song-and-dialogue sessions and specials.

The Disney spokesman said actors will be required to perform “pickups” of muffed or flawed lines on an unlimited basis without additional compensation.

300 Walked Out

About a third of about 300 actors who walked out June 15 went back to work earlier this month when Hanna-Barbera, the largest Hollywood animation studio, settled for what SAG said were about the same terms.

Thursday’s settlement was with Disney, Marvel Productions, DIC Enterprises and Filmation. The SAG board voted to suspend the strike as soon as the producers sign the contract, probably today. The members are expected to return to work Monday and ratify the contract later.

The previous contract, under which actors got a base salary of $361 a day doing three main character voices in an eight-hour session, expired June 30, 1986. It was extended for nearly a year during negotiations.

Vocal Chord Strains

The guild initially sought a full day’s pay for each main character voice and a four-hour workday because of the strain on vocal chords.

Locher said the television animation contract had not changed basically in 20 years and that actors were anxious to bring themselves into line with TV industry recording standards for singers, announcers and others who generally have four-hour sessions.

“Under the old contract,” he said, “animation voice performers were required to perform up to three voices in sessions up to eight hours long. That’s a lot of hard work and strain on the voice.”