`$EINFELD' STAR POWER : CAST'S MILLION-DOLLAR GOAL MAY FOREVER ALTER THE WAY, AMOUNT ACTORS GET PAID.

Byline: Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writer

Kramer takes a two-second tumble through ``Seinfeld's'' door and - bam! - actor Michael Richard's wallet grows $1,500 fatter.

Nice padding for a pratfall.

Then there's Elaine. She shoves Jerry with her trademark ``Get out of town!'' and - bingo! - Julia Louis-Dreyfus has earned the equivalent of two months' rent on a typical two-bedroom apartment in the Valley.

And, boy, how the greenbacks stack up during one of Jerry's phone calls to Uncle Leo! Or a visit to George's parents' house! As Kramer would say, we're talking big bucks. You betcha.

The ``Seinfeld'' cast members - Seinfeld, Richards, Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander - have banded together to ask for $1 million per episode each to return for a ninth season of the hit show.

Consider that the average sitcom is on the air 22 minutes and the show about nothing could cost $3,000 a second in the four stars' salaries alone. If the salary requests are met, ``Seinfeld'' would become the most expensive sitcom in TV history. (NBC currently pays Castle Rock, which owns the show, a $2 million-per-episode licensing fee that covers production costs and salaries.)

To viewers - us working stiffs to whom a seven-digit figure is a phone number - $22 million for one actor for one season's work seems crazy.

But in the high-stakes world of TV economics, the requests make sense, and may lead to changes in the way casts are paid and how much actors get.

After all, once Jim Carrey hit the $20 million milestone for ``The Cable Guy,'' other box-office leaders fell in line, asking for similarly bloated paychecks.

Why would NBC agree to the salary requests? ``Seinfeld'' is the No. 1 show on the No. 1 network (NBC) and plays on the network's most dominant night of the week. The show commands $500,000 for a 30-second advertising spot, more than any other series on television.

It's also wildly successful in syndication (referred to in TV talk as ``the back end''), raking in hundreds of millions more. ``Seinfeld'' is so strong with audiences that NBC uses the time slots before and after it to launch other shows, most notably ``Frasier'' and ``Friends.'' The network also uses ``Seinfeld'' breaks to carry all-important promotions for other NBC shows, movies and miniseries.

And the key to all that is ``Seinfeld's'' ensemble cast. Unlike other shows, where actors come and go, ``Seinfeld'' goes nowhere without all four stars. Seinfeld himself has vowed to end the show this season unless his three compadres return.

Although all four actors and NBC declined requests for interviews on the subject of negotiations, analysts and others say they may just get what they want.

``When you look up the word `leverage' in the dictionary, their pictures are there,'' says one agent with a major television talent agency. ``It's the No. 1 show on television. It's a big hit in syndication and there's a tremendous amount of money pouring into the show. Yet there's no deal without the stars.''

Currently, Seinfeld draws a $500,000-per-show base salary and an estimated $40 million from the show's syndication sales. The take ranks him among the highest-paid stars on TV (Roseanne and Bill Cosby are said to have similar takes).

But supporting cast members typically do not participate in the back-end profit sharing that stars do. Louis-Dreyfus, Alexander and Richards are reportedly paid $125,000 an episode each, with no back-end chunk.

So, the question raised by their salary demands is this: Will other supporting cast members start asking for slices of the lucrative back end?

Paul Schulman, president of Paul Schulman Co., a New York-based network television buying service, says the supporting cast is raising the bar when it comes to negotiations, and others surely will attempt similar deals.

``It doesn't hurt to ask,'' he says. ``They're resetting the platfrom for negotiating, and if they fall short of $1 million, they're still going to go to work with smiles on their faces.''

William Croasdale, president of the national broadcast division of Western International Media, an L.A.-based buying service, agrees. Croasdale calls syndication profits a ``gravy train,'' and notes that everyone wants to get aboard.

In fact, it was after Warner Bros. struck a $4 million-per-episode syndication deal for reruns of ``Friends'' that the cast banded together to demand $100,000 an episode each. It's widely reported that they finally settled for about $75,000 - about double what they made the first two seasons. Their pay will escalate annually to a height of $120,000 in the 1999-2000 season, if the show lasts that long.

``When a show has the overwhelming syndication success of a `Seinfeld' or `Home Improvement,' that's when the stars wake up and ask for back-end participation,'' Croasdale says.

Some draw parallels between what is happening in television to what already has occurred in the film industry.

When Jim Carrey became the first actor to hit the $20 million mark, others followed. Now there are several stars who command such pay, including John Travolta and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And Mel Gibson reportedly is upping the ante again by seeking $50 million to make a fourth installment of ``Lethal Weapon.''

Indeed, there already is evidence of such a domino effect in TV.

After the ``Friends'' negotiations, Malik Yoba and Michael DeLorenzo, stars of Fox's ``New York Undercover'' demanded raises, refusing to come to the set until they received more money. The two reportedly asked for $75,000 per episode, more creative input, a gym, a star trailer and better food.

But with weak weekly ratings, the stars had no cachet to cash in on. They were forced to come back for their original pay after executive producer Dick Wolf advertised open casting calls for their replacements. Universal Television also filed a suit against them for breach of contract, saying they cost the company $60,000 a day by holding up production.

At the time, Wolf called demands accompanied by threats of a walkout a ``virus'' in the industry.

``Deals have to stop being done this way,'' he said in a harshly worded statement. ``It's going to destroy the industry.''

That failed salary-raising attempt left some asserting that the ``Seinfeld'' cast is not setting a precedent but capitalizing on a unique opportunity.

Unlike the film industry, where each movie offers an opportunity to make $100 million, there is only one top show in TV. And climbing to the top is a slow process that happens over several seasons.

It took ``Seinfeld'' eight years to gain the sort of absolute dominance that allows stars to demand seven-digit paychecks. If a show such as ``Frasier'' or ``Friends'' or ``Home Improvement'' or ``Mad About You'' eventually reaches that pinnacle, those casts also may ask for more.

``Will (the `Seinfeld' salaries) be a trendsetter? Yes, if there's another `Seinfeld' down the pike,'' says Croasdale.

Adds the agent: ``This will get the attention of other actors, but no other show has the stars lined up in the right order,'' referring to ``Seinfeld's'' dominance and the strong ensemble nature of the cast.

Andy Kaplan, vice president of Sony Television Entertainment, which distributes ``Seinfeld'' reruns, says he sees no escalation in television paychecks because of the current requests.

``When a show becomes successful in syndication, actor re-negotiations become fairly normal,'' he says. ``But `Seinfeld' is the No. 1 show on television. I don't think there will be an abnormal ripple effect because there isn't another No. 1 show.

``It starts with network performance and network ad revenue,'' Kaplan says. ``NBC makes a lot of money on it. So it stands to reason that the talent will get whatever they want.''

Like Kaplan, Schulman predicts that the network and the stars will reach an agreement and there will be a ninth season. He says NBC has other shows it wants to launch around ``Seinfeld'' - ``Fired Up'' starring ``NYPD Blue's'' Sharon Lawrence is one - and won't let it go off the air until that is accomplished.

``I think it will be back,'' Schulman says. ``They'll find a way to reach agreement. The writing consistency is strong and it's a show that delivers every week.''

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Something for `Nothing'

With the posibility of making $1 million each per episode, the cast of `Seinfeld' - `a show about nothing' - is poised to change the way TV does business

(2) No caption (Michael Richards as Kramer)

(3-5) `When you look up the word `leverage' in the dictionary, their pictures are there.'

An agent

with a major television talent agency, referring to ``Seinfeld'' cast members, clockwise from top left, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander, who want $1 million each per episode next season.