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

OK, an actor has a good series. It runs its course. He still has a good Q-score. He gets offered new projects and he, his agent, his ex-wife, his mistress and the producers hope lightning will strike twice. Mostly, it doesn't. In the recording industry there are a lot of one-hit-wonders but they didn't just cut one record. Only a handful of those mentioned had two hits. Did anybody have three hits?

First there's the hit. Then there's the show that ekes out one season (maybe its on the bubble and gets a second). Then there's pseudo-documentary on cable and then the infomercial. But yes, the actor has had more than one series.

How many have had a hit, long-running series and then did a second that came anywhere near (let alone surpassed the first)?
Mary Tyler Moore
Bob Newhart
Raymond Burr
Larry Hagman
James Garner
Michael Landon
Andy Griffith
Robert Young
William Shatner

The others mentioned were just hanging on the second time around.
Martin Milner
 
The goal today is for shows to last 100 episodes or more. That way actors can receive residuals once the show goes into reruns; if they have that clause written into their contracts.

Case in point is Smallville.

There is a show, in my opinion, that jumped the shark years ago.

Granted this is the show's last season, but out of its ten year run, I would say seven of those ten years produced nothing but mediocre scripts and acting. It's no wonder that a majority of the original cast bailed out years ago. Yet they stuck around long enough to collect their residual checks should this show go into syndication.
 
MattParker said:
OK, an actor has a good series. It runs its course. He still has a good Q-score. He gets offered new projects and he, his agent, his ex-wife, his mistress and the producers hope lightning will strike twice. Mostly, it doesn't. In the recording industry there are a lot of one-hit-wonders but they didn't just cut one record. Only a handful of those mentioned had two hits. Did anybody have three hits?

First there's the hit. Then there's the show that ekes out one season (maybe its on the bubble and gets a second). Then there's pseudo-documentary on cable and then the infomercial. But yes, the actor has had more than one series.

How many have had a hit, long-running series and then did a second that came anywhere near (let alone surpassed the first)?
Mary Tyler Moore
Bob Newhart
Raymond Burr
Larry Hagman
James Garner
Michael Landon
Andy Griffith
Robert Young
William Shatner

The others mentioned were just hanging on the second time around.
Martin Milner
Click to expand...

James Garner is another actor who had multiple (2 in his case) hit series. Even some of these folks had some clunkers - Bob Newhart struck a second time with Newhart, but the third try (called Bob, if I remember correctly) bombed out.

After Father Knows Best, Robert Young starred in a well meaning and sincere show called Window on Main Street. It didn't do well, and he didn't strike gold again until 7 years later with Marcus Welby.

William Shatner has one of the best records, but remember that the original Star Trek only ran 2 seasons with mediocre ratings, and he had quite a few years before his next hit series, though guest shots and the growing Trekkie cult kept him quite comfortable, I'm sure.
 
Actually, according to Shatner's book, "Star Trek Movie Memories" after the series left the air, he was living in a camper doing dinner theater. He had no residuals and Star Trek re-runs had yet to take off in syndication anyway. It wasn't until the first Star Trek movie in 1979 that any of the original cast got to make real money off the franchise.

The original series ran three years, but most of the 3rd season was so bad, forgetting about it is probably a blessing.
 
Bob Newhart also had a sitcom with Judd Hirsch called
"George & Leo." Think "Bridget Loves Bernie" from the
fathers' point of view: Newhart is the Catholic father;
Hirsch, the Jewish. Naturally, they're not too crazy about
their kids' interfaith marriage (after all, this was a sitcom;
there have been Jewish-Catholic marriages that were very
successful, such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, to name one
that comes to mind immediately). That
show came and went so fast I barely remember it being on.

BTW, Newhart's full name is George Robert Newhart.

Has anyone mentioned Jack Klugman? He hit with "The Odd
Couple" and "Quincy," but was less successful with "You Again?".
Tony Randall, OTOH, doesn't seem to have done as well, post-
"Odd Couple": "The Tony Randall Show" is an overlooked gem that
never quite made it, first on ABC, then on CBS. Then "Love, Sidney,"
I think, was the victim of so much controversy, even after the gay-man
angle was practically abandoned, that it was doomed from the beginning.

Also, don't forget Lee Majors, who scored with "The Six Million Dollar Man'"
and "The Fall Guy," and before that, got famous on "Big Valley" and "Owen
Marshall, Counselor At Law" (he hated the latter because he had to wear
ties all the time). And Harry Anderson ("Night Court," "Dave's World").
Finally, the ill-fated Pete Duel ("Love On A Rooftop," "Alias Smith And Jones");
and his "Rooftop" co-star Judy Carne ("Fair Exchange," "The Baileys Of Balboa,"
and--of course--"Laugh-In," even though "Rooftop" was the only one on which
she had top billing).
 
I remember the ridiculous Love Sidney controversy. Yes, it was the first network show with a gay lead character, but NBC copped out by then downplaying Sidney's sexual orientation, and made sure the viewers were clear that Sidney was a celibate gay man. So apparently it was only okay to be gay on early 80s TV as long as you didn't have sex.

The show ended up being so watered down that it was an empty shell, in my opinion.
 
Just a passing mention for Robert Urich? Didn't he have the record for the most series at one point? "SWAT", "Vega$", "Spenser", "The Lazarus Man" (the show he was in when he first got sick, IIRC), and the clunkers "Love Boat: The Next Wave" and "Emeril".

And let's not forget Burt Reynolds..."Hawk", "Dan August", and "Evening Shade", along with the 2 shows where he was a supporting castmember, "Riverboat" and "Gunsmoke".
 
bpatrick said:
Redd Foxx (Sanford And Son, The Royal Family)
Click to expand...
Can you really count The Royal Family with Redd Foxx since he only made a handful of episodes before he passed away during the first season? And if you can, then what about his co-star on Sanford and Son, Demond Wilson? Without him, you only have Sanford. He also did "Baby, I'm Back" on CBS in 1978 and "The New Odd Couple" where he was Oscar Madison to Ron Glass' Felix Unger.

And how about Valerie Harper (Rhoda, Valerie(later known as Valeries's Family and The Harper Family))?
 
I think in lists like this, you have to have it similar to how Brooks and Marsh do it in the Prime Time TV Directory..Cerain Guidelines as to what a "Prime Time Series" is..

1..Airs after 6PM eastern
2..One of the Major Networks (Incl. WB, CW, UPN, Etc,)
3..Either lasted or was intended to last at least 4 weeks consecutively..
4..Not considered a "special program"

Jn the instance of the "Royal Family" it should be considered as a series with Redd Foxx as lead because it was intended for him as a Lead actor, except for his untimely passing.
 
John Astin- I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. The Addams Family
Don't forget Operation Petticoat

Scott Bao-Happy Days, Joni Loves Chaci, Charles in Charge
Willy Aames-Eight is Enough, Charles in Charge
Tom Bosley-Happy Days, Father Dowling Mysteries
Don Knotts-Andy Griffith, Three's Company
Denver Pyle-Grizzly Adams, Dukes of Hazzard

Casey Kasem is another like Dick Clark when it came to multiple jobs-Not only was he the voice of Shaggy & a mess of other Hanna Barbera cartoons, he had AT40 & America's Top 10 t.v show & popped up on shows like Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries.
 
Also, John Astin appeared on Mary Tyler Moore's 1985-86
sitcom "Mary" (set at a newspaper instead of a television
station). He was film critic Ed LaSalle, who always identified
himself as ED LaSALLE! (That show, BTW, introduced much of
America to Katey Sagal, pre-"Married With Children".)

Anybody mention Dick Van Patten? He played son Nels in
the '50s comedy/drama "Mama," long before "Eight Is Enough."

Morey Amsterdam, according to an article I found in an old TV
Guide, was host of the first show with a studio audience, "Stop
Me If You've Heard This One," and this was in 1945! (Milton Berle
hosted the radio version, on which the host would begin reading a joke and
if one of the panel of comedians recognized it he would yell "STOP!"
and try to correctly complete the joke.) He also had his own variety
show, on which Art Carney appeared before teaming up with Jackie
Gleason, and in his last years appeared on "The Young And The Restless."
 
firepoint525 said:
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.
Click to expand...

There was one point in the mid-80s that Clark had shows on all three major networks, plus syndication: $25,000 Pyramid (CBS), Bloopers (NBC), American Bandstand (ABC), and $100,000 Pyramid (syndication). He had to be seen every day of the week but Sundays.

Back to the topic, I didn't know if Bill Cosby was already brought up, but he had the following...

*I Spy (co-lead with Robert Culp)
*Fat Albert and The Cosby Kids (he did few of the voices and appeared as himself in live-action segements)
*The Bill Cosby Show
*The Cosby Show
*You Bet Your Life (of course, as host)
*The Cosby Mysteries (short-lived NBC series in the early to mid-90s; his last series with the Peacock)
*Cosby
*Kids Say the Darnest Things

Of course, there was the man you had the longest tenure in prime time with a single network (fourth overall in tenure behind Don Pardo, Tom Brokaw, and Johnny Carson)...Michael Landon

*Bonanza (as one of four leads)
*Little House on the Prairie
*Highway to Heaven

You can also add-in the primetime project for CBS he was working on before his death, "Us". It started as a two-hour pilot, but never went beyond that.
 
ShawnHill1 said:
Of course, there was the man you had the longest tenure in prime time with a single network (fourth overall in tenure behind Don Pardo, Tom Brokaw, and Johnny Carson)...Michael Landon
Click to expand...
...Carson and Pardo did not star in prime time series on NBC. Carson's main prime time show, The Johnny Carson Show, ran for only 39 weeks in 1955-56 on CBS, and Pardo's entire NBC employment was as a utility announcer, not a lead actor or on-camera performer...
 
Charlie Sheen: Spin City Two and a Half Men

Robert Reed: The Defenders Brady Bunch

Howard Hesseman: WKRP In Cincinnati Head of the Class

Brian Keith: Family Affair Hardcastle & McCormick

Dennis Weaver: Gentle Ben McCloud

Fred Gwynne: Car 54, Where Are You The Munsters

Clifton Davis: That's My Mama Amen

John Forsythe: Bachelor Father Charlie's Angels Dynasty

Robert Conrad: Wild Wild West Black Sheep Squadron

Richard Mulligan: Soap Empty Nest

Eddie Albert: Green Acres Switch

Greg Evigan: B.J. & the Bear My Two Dads

Paul Reiser : My Two Dads Mad About You

John Schneider: Dukes of Hazzard Smallville

Ed Asner: Mary Tyler Moore Lou Grant

Gerald McRaney: Simon & Simon Major Dad

and now for some Ladies..........

Meredith Baxter: Bridget Loves Bernie Family Ties

Michael Learned: The Waltons Nurse

Bea Benaderet: The Flintstones Petticoat Junction

Susan St. James: McMillan & Wife Kate & Allie

Sally Field: Gidget The Flying Nun

Kate Jackson: The Rookies Charlie's Angels Scarecrow & Mrs. King
 
Forgot about Roseanne Barr...her sitcom & her talk show.

Vicki Lawrence....Carol Burnett
Mama's family
Win, Lose or Draw
Vicki ! !

Tammy Faye Bakker...The PTL Club and The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show

Ken Berry...F Troop and Mama's Family...and that "Ken Berry WOW Show"
 
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