Castellaneta and Kavner were asked to voice the lead roles of Homer and Marge Simpson as they were regular cast members of The Tracey Ullman Show on which The Simpsons shorts appeared. Cartwright auditioned for the part of Lisa, but found that Lisa was simply described as the "middle child" and at the time did not have much personality. She then became more interested in the role of Bart, so Simpsons creator Matt Groening let her try out for that part instead, and upon hearing her read, he gave her the job on the spot. Smith had initially been asked by casting director Bonita Pietila to audition for the role of Bart, but Pietila then realised that Smith's voice was too high, Smith was given the role of Lisa instead, although she almost turned it down. When the show was commissioned for a full half-hour series, Shearer joined the cast and performed multiple roles. Groening and Sam Simon asked Shearer to join the cast as they were fans of his radio show. Azaria was only a guest actor in the first season, but became permanent in season 2. He first appeared in "Some Enchanted Evening", rerecording Christopher Collins's lines as Moe Szyslak. As he joined later than the rest of the cast, Groening still considers Azaria the "new guy." Up until 1998, the six main actors were paid $30,000 per episode. In 1998 they were then involved in a pay dispute in which Fox threatened to replace them with new actors and went as far as preparing for casting of new voices. However, the issue was soon resolved and from 1998 to 2004, they were paid $125,000 per episode. In 2004, the voice actors intentionally skipped several table reads, demanding they be paid $360,000 per episode. The strike was resolved a month later and until 2008 they earned something between $250,000 and $360,000 per episode. In 2008, production for the twentieth season was put on hold due to new contract negotiations with the voice actors, who wanted a "healthy bump" in salary to an amount close to $500,000 per episode. The dispute was soon resolved, and the actors' salary was raised to $400,000 per episode. In 2011, Fox announced that, due to financial difficulties, they were unable to continue to produce The Simpsons under its current contract and that unless there were pay cuts, the show could end. For the negotiations, the studio requested that the cast members accept a 45% cut of their salaries so that more seasons could be produced after season 23, or else that season would be the last. In the end, the studio and the actors reached a deal, in which the actors would take a pay cut of 30%, down to just over $300,000 per episode, prolonging the show to its 30th season. As well as the actors, everybody involved in the show took a pay cut.
