DAILY DIRT: The shows may be gone, but the paychecks remain … for most, but not all

Jerry Seinfeld has a net worth of just under $1 billion. It’s easy to see why … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 451 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Have you ever felt sorry for some of the actors and actresses you see when flipping through the channels and coming across one of your favorite programs from yesteryear?

“It’s a shame (so-and-so) hasn’t been able to land a spot on another show.”

Or …

“How do out of work actors and actresses make ends meet?”

Here are answers to both of those ponderings:

1. Don’t lose any sleep over it. For the most part, they’ll be just fine.

2. Don’t lose any sleep over it. For the most part, they’ll be just fine.

But there are also cases of actors and actresses having been victimized by bad contracts and/or bad legal advice. Here are some cases of both — those who have and continue to make plenty of money from rerun residuals (despite, for the most part, having not worked regularly for years), and those who have not been so fortunate:

• Ray Romano, “Everybody Loves Raymond”: The show ended in 2005, but Ray is still earning $18 million a year.
• George Clooney, “ER”: The program has not been on since 2009, but Clooney annually receives $13 million just the same.
• Jerry Seinfeld, “Seinfeld”: Would you believe he has received about $110 million a year since the series ended in 1998?
• Jim Parsons, “Big Bang Theory”: Jim cashes $10 million worth of checks each year.
• David Schwimmer, “Friends”: David and his friends each pocket about $20 million a year.
• Tim Allen, “Home Improvement”: This hilarious show went into syndication after its 1999 ending. Allen gets about $18 million a year.

While most of the major stars in these kind of shows seem to have happy endings, here are a few of the stars who probably wish they could do some renegotiating:

• David Caruso, “CSI Miami”: The show went off the air in 2012. Caruso gets about $100,000 a year.
• Maureen McCormick, “Brady Bunch”: Those Brady Bunch kids, or at least most of them, get absolutely nothing from royalty monies.
• Fred Savage, “The Wonder Years”: The show ended in 1993, Savage has not received one penny from reruns or other residuals.
• Michael J. Fox, “Family Ties”: Absolutely nothing. Hard to believe, but true.

Most of the above information was gleaned from en.12up.com.

2. ESPN’s Desmond Howard is the kind of football analyst who gives everyone else in that line of work a bad name.

Howard, a former wide receiver at Michigan, doesn’t even try to camouflage his disdain for Ohio State. And that’s his right and privilege, but when it affects the job he is being paid to do is when it becomes a problem.

I will use myself as an example. When I am away from the keyboard, I openly express my adoration for the mighty Ohio State Buckeyes and have no problem explaining how much I despise Michigan. At the keyboard, I treat Michigan with the respect it deserves. It’s an outstanding program, too.

How bad is Howard? In his preseason college football playoff predictions, he picked Texas A&M (currently 3-7) to win the national championship, beating Michigan in the finals. His other two playoff teams were Pitt (6-4) and Baylor (6-4).

First of all, Ohio State was a consensus top-three team going into the season. That aside, Pitt and Baylor in the final four? Baylor may have been worth a gamble (key words “may have been”), but Pitt? My wife, who knows absolutely nothing about sports, could have picked a better final four than Howard. I’m only half-kidding, by the way.

Remember when ESPN finally fired Mark May as a college football analyst in 2017? He, too, carried some sort of grudge against Ohio State. Maybe ESPN will finally show Desmond the door, too.

3. The best of “Found On Facebook” in the past week:

• “How do we know baseball is America’s pastime? Because kissing a girl is called getting to first base, not a first down.”
• “I used to just crastinate, but I got so good I went pro.”
• “Then there was the lion who ate his friends. He had to swallow his pride.” (This is quality material.)
• “John Cougar Mellencamp was thinking about renting a car when he wrote and performed the hit song ‘Hertz So Good.'”
• “My husband called me from his job at the velcro factory. He’s stuck at work.”

Steve Thought O’ The Day — My late mother, who was an absolutely wonderful woman, was born in Michigan. But not once did I ever hold it against her.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. I have never seen this respect he claims to have for Michigan.