• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Lead Actors Who Had More Than One TV Series to their credit

M

Mark Giardina

Robert Culp- Trackdown. I Spy. The Greatest American Hero.

Bill Cosby- The Bill Cosby Show. The Cosby Show. Cosby.

Carroll O' Connor- All in the Family. Archie Bunker's Place. In the Heat of the Night

David Janssen - The Fugitive. O'Hara US Treasury. Harry O.

Ted Danson- Cheers. Becker.

John Astin- I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. The Addams Family

Tom Selleck- Magnum PI. Blue Bloods
 
He was.

How about James Franciscus (Naked City first season,
The Investigators, Mr. Novak, Longstreet, Doc Elliot, Hunter
('77 version)?

Sherman Hemsley (The Jeffersons, Amen)

Redd Foxx (Sanford And Son, The Royal Family)

John Ritter (Three's Company, Hooperman, Eight Simple Rules...)

And how can anyone forget Robert Young (Father Knows Best,
Window On Main Street, Marcus Welby, M.D.) or Andy Griffith
(The Andy Griffith Show, The Headmaster, The New Andy Griffith
Show, Salvage-1, Matlock)?
 
Maybe we should restrict this to lead actors who had more than two successful series (i.e., each lasted more than one season).

I don't know that we should count Archie Bunker's Place as a separate series: Same time slot, same character. Same would apply to Jack Webb (two versions of Dragnet).

Bob Newhart
Lucy-Lucy-Lucy
Mary Tyler Moore
Ron Howard
William Shatner
 
James Garner - Maverick, The Rockford Files, Man of the People (only 1 season), Bret Maverick (also just one season), and 8 Simple Rules... (after John Ritter's death). Lest we forget, he was also a major movie star for a decade or so, following the original Maverick, and before Rockford.
 
Lkeller said:
James Garner - Maverick, The Rockford Files, Man of the People (only 1 season), Bret Maverick (also just one season), and 8 Simple Rules... (after John Ritter's death). Lest we forget, he was also a major movie star for a decade or so, following the original Maverick, and before Rockford.
Click to expand...

James Garner is one class act.
 
How about Don Johnson, since he was in Miami Vice, Nash Bridges, and Just Legal. Legal was only a few episodes though.
 
While I can see the point in naming TV series that went a year or more, I think that every series produced was hoped to last a long time..In that vein, Lucille Ball had:

I Love Lucy
Lucy Show
Here's Lucy
Life With Lucy

How about Eve Arden:

Our Miss Brooks
Eve Arden Show
Mothers-In-Law

Ann Sothern:

Private Secretary
Ann Sothern Show
My Mother The Car
 
Lkeller said:
James Garner - Maverick, The Rockford Files, Man of the People (only 1 season), Bret Maverick (also just one season), and 8 Simple Rules... (after John Ritter's death). Lest we forget, he was also a major movie star for a decade or so, following the original Maverick, and before Rockford.
Click to expand...

You forgot to add James' 1971-1972 NBC western that he starred in "Nichols".
 
William Frawley- I Love Lucy - My Three Sons. Granted Frawley wasn't a lead actor but did have a major role in both shows; especially Lucy as landlord Fred Mertz.
 
Dick Van Dyke: CBS Cartoon Theater
Mother's Day
Laugh Line
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The New Dick Van Dyke Show
Van Dyke And Company
The Carol Burnett Show ("co-star")
Diagnosis: Murder


Dick Sargent: One Happy Family (here he was the lead)
Broadside
The Tammy Grimes Show
Bewitched

Bill Bixby: My Favorite Martian
The Courtship Of Eddie's Father
The Magician
The Incredible Hulk

Ray Walston: My Favorite Martian
Picket Fences

and I have to include one of my favorites from the golden age,
Marvin Miller:
Mysteries Of Chinatown (he played a Charlie Chan-
like detective in '49)
Space Patrol (semiregular villain Mr. Proteus)
The Millionaire
The FBI (narrator)
 
I'd be more impressed by actors who simultaneously had a hit TV show and a successful movie career, like Michael J. Fox in Family Ties and the Back To the Future trilogy.

Then you have those who, while they were not actors, had several projects going at once, like Dick Clark and Ed McMahon, who had the Bloopers shows together, while each was also doing his own separate projects, like The Tonight Show, Star Search, American Bandstand, and numerous TV commercials. Clark even had the Radio and Records top 40 countdown show back then.
 
I don't know if this was brought up, but another example was Martin Milner who was a co-star of two different major shows: Route 66 and Adam-12.
 
Before he got really famous, Martin Milner played Babs Riley's
husband Don Marshall on the last season of "The Life Of Riley"
(1957-58).

Someone mentioned Larry Hagman, so how about Patrick Duffy:

Man From Atlantis
Dallas
Step By Step

Or Bob Saget:

Full House
America's Funniest Home Videos
1 vs. 100
 
How about Michael Landon? He had "Bonanza", "Little House On The Prairie" and "Highway To Heaven." All three of those shows lasted several seasons.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom