„Honestly, That Pissed Me Off”. Tom Selleck Tricked CBS Executives when They Refused to Pay the Magnum P.I. Crew a $1,000 Bonus for the Final Season
Tom Selleck fought for the interests of the crew that worked with him on Magnum P.I., and made sure that its members received bonuses after the production of the final season was completed.
Tom Selleck is already a veteran actor. One of his most famous roles is the one in Magnum P.I., a 1980s crime TV series about a private detective who lives and works in Hawaii. The production aired for eight seasons, and on the occasion of his return in the last one Tom Selleck decided to fight not only for himself, but also for the crew working with him, in negotiations.
The actor wanted to negotiate bonuses of $1,000 (currently the equivalent of $3,000) for the cast members. Unfortunately, representatives of CBS, the station that produced Magnum P.I., refused, claiming that it "it would set a dangerous precedent". Selleck disclosed this in his biography, You Never Know: A Memoir.
They always invoked precedent when you had an original thought beyond their contractual boilerplate. Honestly, that pissed me off.
However, Selleck wasn't about to let it go, so he began looking for another solution, working with agent Bettye McCart and lawyer Skip Brittenham. The actor decided to solicit a "substantial" bonus for himself – to which CBS agreed.
After that, Selleck only waited until the end of work on the final season of Magnum P.I. to contact CBS and Universal Television once again, and tell them to give the crew a bonus of $1,000 from his own bonus, which he had negotiated for himself earlier.
I called Skip and Bettye and told them to tell Universal — not ask them tell them — to issue thousand-dollar checks to every regular member of our 'Magnum' company in both Hawaii and LA. And that since it was coming out of my bonus money, there was no precedent involved.
The actor ultimately stood his ground, while at the same time showing that he can take care of his colleagues, whose interests he defended to the very end. And this is no small matter, since the topic of wage disparity in the film industry is nothing new, and it is known that crews often end up in the least favorable place.
