It's not about money that the actors do or don't have. Standard practice for guests at these things is to at least pay for their travel expenses. Period. Luciaphil
Bobubas and Luciaphil inspired another point I wanted to make:
I think that many people assume that folks who are (or have been) in the entertainment business make a lot of money. I work in the entertainment business, and have done so on the legal end, and I can tell you from my own knowledge that the actors who got residuals from DS in syndication were lucky if they could support a ferret on the money. There wasn't any significant money in the DS residuals even on a long term basis. During the run of DS, the actors worked on union scale and the more prominent actors got a little above scale. The actors don't profit from the merchandising of DS because way back then, no one ever realized that the show or merchandise would be an issue decades later so contracts did not provide for that possibility. The DS were generally just paid a flat fee back when DS was on for the use of their likeness and that was it. Jonathan Frid gets nothing for the use of his image on all the books, the tapes, keyrings, underwear or whatever that is merchandised, and that is true for the other actors. He is the most marketed face from the series but receives nothing for the use of his image.
I do know that many of the DS actors (from the original show) who attend the functions work very little as actors and have taken up other occupations - not necessarily by choice but just because they have to earn a living like the rest of us. As Bobubas pointed out, it would be easy for these same actors to take advantage of the fact that they are wanted at these fan events but they don't do that. Sure, some of them have things to peddle but again there isn't a fortune to be made in these items.
I don't hold any actor to be beholden to me because I supported him or her in a TV role just as I don't forever thank any employer for hiring me for a job I got paid for.
They got something out of it and so did I.
Nancy