- Bill Cosby was the highest-paid entertainer in the world in 1987, earning up to $4 million per episode of The Cosby Show.
- Ted Danson commanded over $450,000 per episode for his role as Sam Malone on Cheers during the final season.
- Larry Hagman earned $100,000 per episode for his portrayal of J.R. Ewing on Dallas, making him one of the highest-paid actors on television.
The 1980s marked a golden age of television, a watershed decade that fundamentally reshaped the cultural landscape. From the rise of the family sitcom to prestige police procedurals and gripping primetime soap operas, the era produced some of the most enduring shows in TV history
It was a time when dramas like Dallas, Magnum P.I., and All My Children dominated ratings and propelled fresh faces to stardom – and with global fame came significant fortune.
Keep reading to discover which television icons commanded the highest paychecks during this iconic decade.
Bill Cosby
In 1987, Bill Cosby was reported to be the world’s highest-paid entertainer, earning an estimated two-year total of $84 million in 1986 and 1987
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The now-disgraced TV star became a household name as the star of The Cosby Show, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1992. At the show’s peak, Bill reportedly earned an estimated $1 million per episode in base salary, which after the addition of producing fees, syndication rights, and other streams of income, hiked up to around $4 million per episode
Ted Danson
Thanks to his iconic role as Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom Cheers, Ted reportedly earned more than $450,000 per episode during the final season of the show. The actor has since starred in a string of TV hits, including the acclaimed NBC comedy The Good Place, Netflix’s A Man on the Inside andMr Mayor
Tom Selleck
Tom became one of the decade’s most iconic television stars as the mustachioed private investigator Thomas Magnum in the crime drama, Magnum P.I
The actor starred in 162 episodes between 1980 and 1988, earning a whopping $4.8 million per season, according to the Los Angeles Times. He enjoyed further TV success in the CBS police drama, Blue Bloods, which ran from 2011 to 2024, and reportedly earned $200,000 per episode
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Jan-Michael Vincent
At the peak of his career, Jan was the highest-paid actor on American television, thanks to his portrayal of brooding helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the action-espionage series Airwolf. Vincent reportedly commanded a staggering salary of $200,000 per episode
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Johnny Carson
Widely regarded as the ‘King of Late Night,’ Johnny Carson ruled the late night landscape as the host of The Tonight Show. The TV legend was a permanent fixture on American screens for 30 years, earning NBC $50 million a year by 1979.
But how much was John making?
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In 1969, Johnny signed a new contract that reportedly put his salary between $75,000 and $85,000 a week. By 1980, the TV host had renegotiated his earnings to $25 million a year for three nights a week on air, 37 weeks a year.
Susan Lucci
Susan became a daytime TV icon after playing cosmetics mogul Erica Kane in the ABC soap, All My Children. The actress held the role for over 40 years. While we don’t know how much she made during that time, she was reportedly raking in $1 million a year by 1991
In 2011, it was revealed that Susan had taken a pay cut to prevent seeing “a lot of people out of work – a lot of really good people – which was the way it was presented to me,”
Joan Collins
Joan shot to international fame thanks to her role as the ruthless, highly manipulative Alexis Carrington on the era-defining soap Dynasty. The actress, who starred on the show from 1981 to 1989, often locked horns with her co-star John Forsythe over their differing salaries.
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Joan told Piers Morgan in 2021: “[Forsythe] had it in his contract that he always had to have $5,000 (£3,600) an episode more than anybody else in the cast, and that in any publicity that went out about the show, he always had to be front and centre.”
She went on to say that her earnings eventually lifted to $120,000. “It came with a caveat that they’d only put me in half the episodes as they couldn’t afford to pay me,” she added.
Larry Hagman
As the ruthless oil tycoon J.R. Ewing in CBS’s smash-hit soapDallas, Larry became one of the highest-paid actors on television with a reported salary of $100,000 per episode at the height of the show’s popularity
The actor became one of the most recognisable faces on TV screens during his 14 seasons on the show, which was watched by an estimated 300 million people in 57 countries
