Is it possible that the longest-running, arguably most successful television show in history could be forced to end over money? A show that generates billions of dollars worldwide is going to die because Fox Television doesn't want to pay the actors what they're earning!

Fox reportedly wants the voice actors—Hank Azaria (Moe), Dan Castellanata (Homer), Julie Kavner (Marge), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa) and Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns)— to accept a pay cut of 45 per cent. What actor—what worker in any job on earth—would agree to that? Is it a ploy, a way to end the show and blame the actors, instead of just ending it honestly?

The actors are in an untenable position: they can't win. But no matter what they do, Fox makes money, lots of it.

They offered to accept a pay cut of 30 per cent if they could make a deal to share some of the billions Fox earns from syndication and merchandising, but that was apparently not good enough for Fox.

In a statement, 20th Century Fox Television said it "cannot produce future seasons under its current financial model." It has been suggested that the network could make more money from the show if it stopped producing new episodes, which now cost more than $5 million each.

Not that the actors' reported $8 million annual salary for their work is anything to sneeze at. If Fox gets its way, they'll still make about $4 million a year. But does Fox really need the extra few million it would save when they earn, we repeat, billions from the show?