They killed Hengist!

[Maurice]

If I did my math right, that would have meant that Bloch made an average of over $3167 per episode, which is significantly more -- percentage wise -- than the $2500 that the Facebook info said Bloch was paid. So, was Bloch paid more than the standard rate? @Maurice, do you have accurate information on this matter? Thanks.

For "Catspaw" his contracted fee was $4,500, broken down as:

(1) $ 655 on delivery of story​

(2) $ 695 when advised to proceed with teleplay​

(3) $ 1,800 on delivery of first draft teleplay​

(4) $ 1,350 on delivery of final draft teleplay​

We don't appear to have the budget documents for "WALGMO?" yet, or the specifics for "Wolf In the Fold". The final episode budget for the latter is as follows, but this includes all fees related the writing: STORY $ 8,370.34

Apparently they paid to license the story rights. These are the estimates from a few days earlier:

STORY RIGHTS $ 1,500​

SCENARIO WRITERS $ 6,385.29​

SCENARIO MISCELLANEOUS $867.33​

ESTIMATATED FINAL $ 8,752​

But you can probably assume similar figures per completed episode. Same with Bloch's unproduced "Sleeping Beauty" story that I think went no farther than stage (1). So roughly $ 15,155 total.

Don't trust Facebook.

 

[Roundabout]

For "Catspaw" his contracted fee was $4,500, broken down as:
(1) $ 655 on delivery of story
(2) $ 695 when advised to proceed with teleplay
(3) $ 1,800 on delivery of first draft teleplay
(4) $ 1,350 on delivery of final draft teleplay
We don't appear to have the budget documents for "WALGMO?" yet, or the specifics for "Wolf In the Fold". The final episode budget for the latter is as follows, but this includes all fees related the writing: STORY $ 8,370.34

Apparently they paid to license the story rights. These are the estimates from a few days earlier:
STORY RIGHTS $ 1,500
SCENARIO WRITERS $ 6,385.29
SCENARIO MISCELLANEOUS $867.33
ESTIMATATED FINAL $ 8,752
But you can probably assume similar figures per completed episode. Same with Bloch's unproduced "Sleeping Beauty" story that I think went no farther than stage (1). So roughly $ 15,155 total.

Don't trust Facebook.

^Thanks for the info. I guess it was decent pay for the time.

 

[Maurice]

^Thanks for the info. I guess it was decent pay for the time.

More than decent. Median household income in 1967 was about $7,200 per year, so making $4,500 was equivalent to 7 ½ months of salary for the average American.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Sometimes they're so quiet and subtle, too. In Space Seed, I absolutely love the silent, fluid, impromptu coordination between Kirk and Spock when the latter is being thug-marched to the death chamber.

Images courtesy of TrekCore.

Spock has just discovered that the best friend he will ever have is not dead after all, and he exhibits the calm of a man without a care in the world.

If Spock just kept leading each enemy one by one to Kirk, it'd be like two players teaming up in a video game..

 

[Roundabout]

More than decent. Median household income in 1967 was about $7,200 per year, so making $4,500 was equivalent to 7 ½ months of salary for the average American.

I see your point. If I may ask another question, did Bloch, or his agent, negotiate his contract? Did he use his status as a distinguished author to eke out more than what might have been offered by the studio?

Also, on a different point, if the $9500 that Bloch received for selling the film rights to Psycho is correct, then he did indeed make more money from his three TOS stories than what Hitchcock paid him for the Psycho film rights. That is kind of amazing.

 

[Maurice]

I see your point. If I may ask another question, did Bloch, or his agent, negotiate his contract? Did he use his status as a distinguished author to eke out more than what might have been offered by the studio?

Also, on a different point, if the $9500 that Bloch received for selling the film rights to Psycho is correct, then he did indeed make more money from his three TOS stories than what Hitchcock paid him for the Psycho film rights. That is kind of amazing.

Contracts were the purview of Desilu's Ed Perlstein, and business affairs are not much recorded in the Star Trek Office paperwork.

Bloch only got $1,500 for the rights to the story that was the basis of "Wolf In the Fold," which is less than 1/6th the amount you state for the film rights to Psycho. The rest of what he got from Star Trek was for actually writing scripts, not just selling rights to existing works. What he probably got out of Psycho was indirect—mainly from increased book sales and royalties tied to the novel’s renewed popularity after the film’s release.

 

[Christopher]

Bloch only got $1,500 for the rights to the story that was the basic of "Wolf In the Fold," which is less than 1/6th the amount you state for the film rights to Psycho. The rest of what he got from Star Trek was for actually writing scripts, not just selling rights to existing works. What he probably got out of Psycho was indirect—mainly from increased book sales and royalties tied to the novel’s renewed popularity after the film’s release.

Is there any record of how much Joseph Stefano was paid for writing the script to Psycho? Presumably Bloch would have been paid a similar amount if he'd actually scripted the film himself.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

where it's point-blank stated that Uhura pulled the switch.

Your info on this episode in this thread has been really worth contemplating. It's interesting, like I mentioned earlier, that I had begun to imagine that Uhura was indirectly responsible for what had happened to Scotty, but, despite the fact that had been one version of the story, it was changed. I wonder if they felt that was too much conflict between characters? Or would avoiding that be too much of a TNG-style thing?

 

[Christopher]

Your info on this episode in this thread has been really worth contemplating. It's interesting, like I mentioned earlier, that I had begun to imagine that Uhura was indirectly responsible for what had happened to Scotty, but, despite the fact that had been one version of the story, it was changed. I wonder if they felt that was too much conflict between characters? Or would avoiding that be too much of a TNG-style thing?

Uhura isn't in "Wolf in the Fold." Nichelle Nichols was only contracted for a certain number of episodes per season, so I guess they figured they didn't need her that week and wrote her out.

 

[Roundabout]

Contracts were the purview of Desilu's Ed Perlstein, and business affairs are not much recorded in the Star Trek Office paperwork.

Bloch only got $1,500 for the rights to the story that was the basic of "Wolf In the Fold," which is less than 1/6th the amount you state for the film rights to Psycho. The rest of what he got from Star Trek was for actually writing scripts, not just selling rights to existing works. What he probably got out of Psycho was indirect—mainly from increased book sales and royalties tied to the novel’s renewed popularity after the film’s release.

Thanks again, for the information.

The info that I read about the Psycho film rights was from a Starlog article.

I was going to joke that Lucille Ball paid better than Hitchcock, but that would be a lousy and dumb joke.

 

[Maurice]

Is there any record of how much Joseph Stefano was paid for writing the script to Psycho? Presumably Bloch would have been paid a similar amount if he'd actually scripted the film himself.

I don't have it as it's outside the scope of our research.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

Uhura isn't in "Wolf in the Fold." Nichelle Nichols was only contracted for a certain number of episodes per season, so I guess they figured they didn't need her that week and wrote her out

That makes sense, although it does nicely align with my fan theory that she is still being reeducated after "The Changeling," and so she is the woman involved in Scotty's accident, albeit she was not really responsible for Scotty being injured

 

[Phoenix219]

*pushes up glasses* Well you see, it was an anti-time version of the original events, so details don't have to completely match.

Personally I think it was all Q constructs and not even real time travel, just more games and tests. I believe the same of Tapestry.