This old Jet article says that she was paid $1 million for It's a Living (http://www.dansaraceni.com/danofscience/not-a-charity-ball), which is a pretty hefty sum for a first-run syndicated (http://www.city-data.com/forum/tv/1727353-its-living.html) program.

https://i.imgur.com/jYaCeQA.png

I'm guessing that with Ann Jillian (https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/57383-its-a-living/) gone, Sheryl Lee Ralph was if you want to get technical, arguably the biggest star on the show (https://poptrashmuseum.com/blog/its-a-living) given her status as a Broadway (https://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1059551&boardid=2&boardname=off) star through Dreamgirls (https://prince.org/msg/8/193483). It's kind of like when Louise Lasser was already "known" when she joined the show in Season 2.

She didn't get top billing on the show like Louise did. Nor did she get the special "And Sheryl Lee Ralph as Ginger" credit like Ann, Barrie and Marian all received at one time or another. I know I had never heard of SLR before she joined the cast.

I might be wrong but I doubt a 1980's sitcom in first-run syndication could afford to pay any actor a $1 million salary. I remember on her talk show, Vicki Lawrence talked about how she earned more from making personal appearances at corporate events than she did from working on 'Mama's Family.'

I might be wrong but I doubt a 1980's sitcom in first-run syndication could afford to pay any actor a $1 million salary. I remember on her talk show, Vicki Lawrence talked about how she earned more from making personal appearances at corporate events than she did from working on 'Mama's Family.'

Fred Berry wanted to be paid $1 million upfront for What's Happening Now!! When the producers (after initially believing that he was bluffing) couldn't reason with him (Berry wanted to be paid more than the rest of the cast, believing that he was the reason that people were tuning in), they had little choice but to fire him before the end of the first season.

The articles states a $1,000,000 contract but doesn’t state for how many seasons. It could be a total over three years (or some other number). Some actors/actresses sign multi-year deals, which may or may not be valid if the show is cancelled before the terms are up.

When Patrick Duffy returned to Dallas in 1986, he was making $70,000 per episode. And that was for a top-rated network show.

If the actors on those syndicated sitcoms were even getting 25K per episode, I would be surprised.

I just came across this video on Sheryl Lee Ralph:
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It argues that outside of black community, it seemed like Sheryl wasn't exactly a "household name" for most of her career. Basically, it goes back to what TV Tropes argues as being a case of "Pop Cultural Isolation" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PopCultureIsolation).

Before Abbott Elementary, I mostly knew Sheryl Lee Ralph through Moesha. I never saw her on It's a Living (I was alive during most of its run though but I don't have any recollection first hand of it) until many years later when the Logo channel started airing it.