‘80s Sitcom Star-Turned-Amazon Delivery Driver Divulges Harsh Reality of Cast’s Residual Pay

Danny Pintauro, who played Jonathan Bower on all eight seasons of the ABC sitcom “Who’s the Boss?” when he was a child actor, made headlines in April after he posted a photo of himself on Instagram that revealed he was working part time as an Amazon delivery driver. Fans were shocked to discover the star of a classic sitcom was now delivering packages for a living, but Pintauro explained on a recent episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) it’s one of several jobs he currently has to pay the bills since acting gigs aren’t consistent enough.

via: EW

In April, the former child actor made headlines after he shared photos of himself working as a delivering driver. Within days, after fans expressed confusion about why he would need such a job after his time on the hit sitcom, Pintauro was making the rounds to explain the harsh realities of being a working actor.

During a recent visit to the Pod Meets World podcast, Pintauro noted that the Amazon ordeal wasn't his first time witnessing such an intense reaction to the idea of actors working additional jobs.

"Near the end of the show, I wanted a summer job just for fun," Pintauro told hosts and Boy Meets World alums Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong. "So I worked at The Gap, and somebody brought in a hidden camera and took pictures of me folding clothes and said 'He's already lost all his money, the downfall of Danny Pintauro! Series regular on Who's the Boss?, and he's working at The Gap.'"

Pintauro explained that the past few months have taught him that people simply don't understand the finances of working actors and wrongly believe that they all have lucrative careers that are actually enjoyed by a select few.

"When I posted the picture for [Amazon] Flex, I really didn't, it did not cross my mind because everybody knows that I'm working," he explained. "It's one of the five different gig jobs that I'm doing right now. We're gig actors. Acting is one of the six gigs."

Pintauro, now 50, was just 8 years old when he began starring alongside Tony Danza and Judith Light on the iconic sitcom. Who's the Boss? aired for eight seasons throughout the '80s and early '90s. As it began before DVDs and streaming, there was no language in the actors' contracts about earning money from those avenues in the future.

For that reason, the sitcom alum makes very little in residuals and shared that the money he makes from driving for Amazon is "surprisingly good." On the podcast, Pintauro noted that in a two-to-three hour shift, he makes around "$80 to $100."

"We have to do what we have to do to survive. We have got to keep moving as humans," Pintauro told listeners. "We're all doing it. I am not different from you in that sense. We've never been different from you in that sense. I don't make money from residuals."

His stance was met with agreement from the Boy Meets World alums, with Friedle adding, "Most people in any form of creative field, if you're an artist in any way, you're a musician, you need to do something else. There's the very, very select group of people that are making a good living in the artistic field."

Friedle continued, "And to other people, they're like, 'That's the craziest thing! You have a job?' It's like, yeah. I'm an actor. I might have a great year and then have five s--- years."

Strong agreed, "There's always been a fantasy, like a mystique about actors… Like, they must live a fantastic life in a big house and have people waiting on them. Like, if you're on a TV show, if you're in a movie, you've made it, and it's done. And it's just not the truth at all. And it's only gotten worse."

Shortly after Who's the Boss? ended, Pintauro left the television industry to attend Stanford, graduating in 1998. His return to acting came decades later, with his first major role in the 2022 Lifetime film A Country Christmas Harmony.

Amid the initial reaction to his delivery driver gig, Pintauro told PEOPLE that the general public "overestimate[s] what residuals from a sitcom in the '80s and '90s look like."

He explained, "I invested a good portion of that money, but I also used a lot of it to pay for Stanford and to get through my early 20s, so it's not like there's just been endless money sitting there."