“Who’s the Boss” alum Danny Pintauro shed light on his side hustle as an Amazon Flex delivery driver while discussing the reality of residual pay for cast members?
The actor, who played Jonathan Bower on the 1980s sitcom, revealed he chose to work for a company owned by Jeff Bezos in order to have more flexibility in his audition schedule.
“There’s always been a fascination with actors doing regular jobs and people reading too much into it, and that’s often seen as kind of a downfall, but I think we’ve moved away from that,” he told Fox News last week.
“In this economy and these times, we all have to work multiple jobs. We all have to work in any way we can to make sure we support ourselves and our families,” Pintauro added, explaining that fans think he still makes a lot of money from his appearance on Who’s the Boss?
“Most people misunderstand what residuals mean,” he says. “That’s crazy to me. People always assume that if they approve of you, you must be financially set up for your life, but that’s not really the case.”
The “Cujo” star claimed that 80’s holdovers are different from modern standards and that “DVD compilations” don’t exist.
He added that “there is nothing in the contract that specifies what to do if that happens” and that “reruns” are rare.
“What people don’t really understand is that when a network or Amazon Prime (Video), for example, buys a series, I get some money from the purchase, but every time it’s purchased, I get less money,” Pintauro continued.
“So, for example, Season 1 has been bought over and over again, and I get paid 5 or 6 cents per episode, but after that you can air it as many times as you want, so I don’t get paid anymore.”
Pintauro explained that although the money she received from the show was large, she used much of it to pay for her tuition at Stanford University, where she earned a degree in theater, and to support herself in the following years.
“So there’s not a lot of money sitting around these days,” he concluded.
Pintauro appeared on Who’s the Boss for eight seasons from 1984 to 1992, co-starring Tony Danza, Judith Light, and Alyssa Milano.
His latest projects are the 2022 film “A Country Christmas Harmony” and the 2025 TV series “The Comeback Kids.”
Pintauro has been open about his work as a delivery driver and said in April that “the entertainment business is very slow.”
At the time, he shared on Instagram how he delivered 38 packages and said, “There’s no shame in keeping moving.”
