Created by: The catbird seat of prime-time TV. The creator gets a royalty check every time an episode airs--typically $2500 to $5000 but often much higher. That's chump change compared with the windfall he receives if the series is sold to syndication. Then the creator splits the bulk of syndication profits with the production company--receiving anywhere from five or ten percent to as much as 50 percent of the take. For a sought-after series, that could mean a check with more zeros than the old Japanese air force--$40,000,000 to $50,000,000.
Executive Producer: The grand Pooh-Bah. May be under contract to a studio to create a series or brought in to play C.E.O. for someone else's idea. Can earn $20,000 to $40,000 per episode. Television nirvana--its highest, most lucrative state--is reached when one person executive-produces a show that he or she created, which is made by a production company that he or she also owns.
Directed by: Assuming that none of the producers is also directing, the job usually goes to a hired gun contracted per episode. As such, directors don't participate in the series profits. They don't mind, though, because they're paid about $20,000 to $40,000 per show. These figures may not apply to a few directors in the stratosphere of their craft, however--such as Jay Sandrich of The Golden Girls and The Cosby Show--for whom the sky is the limit.
Produced by: Producer is an amorphous title. Each show has several, and they come in all sizes: producer, coproducer, supervising producer, coordinating producer, co-executive producer.... A producer can be (A) one of the show's main writers, (B) an agent who negotiates the title for himself on top of his client's ten percent fee, (C) the executive producer's girlfriend or (D) a real producer, who may run the day-to-day operations on the set or supervise postproduction. Whatever it is that he or she does, it's worth $10,000 to $15,000 and up per half-hour episode.
Story Editor: He supervises the scripts--holding pitch meetings, doling out ideas to writers, penning a few episodes himself. They make about $10,000 and up per week, plus what they earn as writers. Story editor is the larval stage of the television hierarchy. After a few seasons, they metamorphose into pupae, otherwise known as executive story editors or story consultants. Eventually, they molt and become producers.
Written by: A writer just in from the prairie and a seasoned veteran usually make the same amount for a half-hour story idea and teleplay--about $12,000, plus $6300 for a rerun (which ain't much after union dues and taxes). Often, however, a show's writer also holds one of the positions described above, which is sufficient to keep him or her from becoming a burden to society.
