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T-t-t What’s up Skip? T-t-t No residuals?

Actor Tony Bonner today lost a long battle with the producers of Skippy for a share of the show's profits.

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tonybonner1Actor Tony Bonner today lost a long battle with the producers on 1960s hit television series Skippy The Bush Kangaroo for a share of the show’s profits, says the ABC.

Bonner, who played helicopter pilot Flight Ranger Jerry King in the series in 1968, had taken action in the NSW Supreme Court against Fauna Productions Pty Ltd.

He had argued the production existed years before DVDs and contracts that remunerated actors for merchandise and related spin-offs.

“When I signed the agreement with them for production in 1967, VHS was not even heard of, let alone DVDs or the internet,” Bonner previously said.

“Intellectual property had never been heard of.”

Despite being made more than 40 years ago, Skippy was sold to more than 128 countries and stil airs in some territories.

But the judge ruled Bonner had not established he was entitled to a claims for $750,000 “or any other sum.”

Bonner was paid for his services in accordance with a work agreement which entitled him to $140 per week in respect of each of a minimum of 38 TV episodes.

“Under the agreement, Mr Bonner assigned to Fauna the sole and absolute rights throughout the world to all results and proceeds of the services rendered by him,” Justice Gzell said.

“Here there was no incurrence of expenditure for which Mr Bonner was not paid.

The judge adjourned the case to July 8 for the making of formal orders and to consider the issue of legal costs.

Source: ABC

10 Responses

  1. I was part of the making of skippy 40 years ago. We have held a dignified silence and it will remain that way. Skippy brought great joy to many people a long time ago and most of those people have either grown up or moved on…………..except some.
    Dick – it is dangerous to assume.

  2. I feel sorry for actors like Tony who starred in hit shows from way back when and not seeing the eventual monetary rewards.

    But having said that, he was paid according to his contract at the time and by his own words said that VHS and DVDs didnt exist then.

    There is no way the producers could have dreamt that the show would last for decades and the actors wouldn’t have known either.

    For current times, sure there could be residual payments in place for current contracts, but as for contracts from 40 years ago…..well that’s showbiz!

  3. I agree with Kenny, he was paid for the work he did. Claiming that the contract should be amended to accomodate current media formats would set a very dangerous precident.

    I see that ACA have in their usual way jumped on this ‘hard luck’ story where the little guy gets screwed. Nice work as always.

  4. Tony Bonner quote: “The difficulty of working with a kangaroo is they have absolutely no mental capacity at all…”

    Bet she signed a better contract Tony… “tchk tchk tchk”

  6. Tony “who” was hired to do a job and he was paid for it. The residuals come from overseas sales, which he was well aware of, or should have been, when the series was being made. Fauna, and Sir Frank Packer, took the risk in making the program with no overseas pre-sales. He should be grateful for the exposure the program gave, and continues to give him in his quest for work. I can’t recall anything else of note that he’s done.

  7. Agree. Unfortunately for Tony, he achieved his 15 minutes of fame in the worng decade. And, let’s face it… the helicopter pilot wasn’t the star… even Ed Deveraux knew Skippy got top billing.

  8. He’s no doubt in the same position of most actors from that era, worldwide. A contract is a pretty rock solid base, you can’t easily change it retroactively years after the fact, especially if you have no weight behind your reputation.

  9. That sucks. I hate seeing people being screwed like that.

    $750,000? The owners of ‘Skippy’ could have just given Tony Bonner that money out of the millions they’ve made from the show. It’s just a drop in the ocean to them.

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