Arrested Development Stars Scored Weird Payday

When the Arrested Development cast agreed to reunite for a long-awaited revival of the show, each of the main members was guaranteed to star in at least one episode, for which he or she would be paid $125,000. That's fairly high for a TV actor, but from there it gets "unusual," according to the Hollywood Reporter. Any actor who appeared, but didn't star, in an episode for more than a minute and a half got $50,000; anyone who was onscreen for less time than that got $10,000. And if a clip featuring a character from a prior episode was used, that actor got $1,000.

Because of this sliding scale, ultimately the actors didn't earn as much as they would have had they been filming a typical TV show. But nothing about shooting was typical: The stars had to work around their busy schedules; the Reporter notes that many of them have become more famous since the series ended. Because of that, scenes were filmed out of order. Creator Mitch Hurwitz says the episodes should be viewed as chapters, which allowed him to probe more deeply into each character's story. The series premieres on Netflix Sunday. (More Arrested Development stories.)