Nah, it’s more likely that the contract was a Work For Hire setup, so the network owns the IP. His point about getting paid only as long as he was working there seems to indicate that. He doesn’t get royalties and he can’t touch the characters.

I’ve long said WFH in the arts has to die, but last time I wrote it in a HN thread I was accused to be a communist terrorist out to destroy the American way of life...