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Short lived shows with multiple future stars

C

chris12

Guest
What were some shows that were short lived but had multiple future stars pre-stardom. One would be It Takes Two from 1982-83 which had Patty Duke as a working mother with her kids played by Anthony edwards and Helen Hunt. Also, in the fall 1989 ABC had Living Dolls with Halle Berry and Leah Remini.
 
...in early 1982, ABC gave a shot to a really wild comedy called "No Soap, Radio," ostensibly about a seedy Atlantic City hotel. Among its cast were Steve Guttenberg (DINER had been released a month before the premiere broadcast, and the POLICE ACADEMY flicks started coming two years later) and Stuart Pankin (who went on to headline HBO's "Not Necessarily the News" a year later...
 
Poor Stuart...reduced to doing infomercials for a orthopedic shoe insert. Hope they paid him a lot to do that.
 
Hilary Duff was cast as one of the children in the pilot of the short-lived NBC comedy "Daddio" in 2000 starring Michael Chiklis; he even had some very nice words about her hitting it big in the future.

Unfortunately, Duff was dropped from the series before it premiered, but that was okay. Hilary tried out for the role of Lizzie McGuire, got the call...the rest as they say was history!

And oh yeah...future double Oscar winner Hilary Swank starred on ABC's "Camp Wilder" in 1992; it was brought up before on the old Radio-Info board.

Jonathan Allen
 
The Associates from 1979 which starred future stars Martin Short, Joe Regalbuto, Shelley Smith, and Alley Mills as Wall Street lawyers.

One Of The Boys from 1982 which starred Mickey Rooney and featured future stars Dana Carvey as Rooney's grandson, Nathan Lane as Carvey's best friend, and Meg Ryan (pre-dating her soap opera role on As The World Turns) as Carvey's girlfriend.
 
Alice the old Linda Linda show had a few "future" stars of their own maninly of the late night kind. Jay Leno played a motorcycle dude who had a crush on Alice. Bill Maher long before Politically Incorrect, appeared on Alice, as Elliot's ( Vera's husband ) co-worker. Then there was Jimmy Kimmel. Even though its not IMDB I am pretty sure I remember he said on his show that he appeared on Alice when he was a kid. Maybe he was on that Thanksgiving show when Tommy's friends had their feast at Mel's Diners. I don't believe any of those kids were credited.

Nancy McKeon did Alice before her role as Jo on the Facts of Life. Only one episode but still not a surprise.
her brother Phillip played Tommy.
 
Here's one with a few future stars:

ABC's short-lived 1982 comedy, "Square Pegs"

Sarah Jessica Parker ("Sex and the City")
Jami Gertz (the mom on "Still Standing")
Tracy Nelson (possibly a bit of a stretch, but nearly everyone knows who she is)
Merritt Butrick (starred as Dr. David Marcus, Captain Kirk's son in "Star Trek II" and "Star Trek III")
 
Tim-In-Houston said:
Here's one with a few future stars:

ABC's short-lived 1982 comedy, "Square Pegs"

Sarah Jessica Parker ("Sex and the City")
Jami Gertz (the mom on "Still Standing")
Tracy Nelson (possibly a bit of a stretch, but nearly everyone knows who she is)
Merritt Butrick (starred as Dr. David Marcus, Captain Kirk's son in "Star Trek II" and "Star Trek III")
Click to expand...

..."Square Pegs" was on CBS, not ABC...
 
If you're talking guest stars Mary Tyler Moore takes the cake. Had tons of people from Henry Winkler, Mary Fran, John Ritter, Bernie Kopell, Isabell Sanford, Fred Grandy, Louise Lasser, Mary Kay Place among others. And then the following appeared in two or three episodes (not always the same character) Penny Marshall (three shows, 2 different characters), Beth Howland (2 different characters), David Ogden Stiers. Penny Marshall, Pat Finley (two different characters) Eileen Heckart, Sheree North

Then there were all the previously famous people that appeared too like Arlene Golanka and Paul Sands etc

------

Now more in line with the OP

On her second show "Mary" she had David Letterman, Michael Keaton and Swoosie Kurtz as regulars but of course the show failed.
 
Facts of Life was not a short-lived show (unfortunately! ::)), but Molly Ringwald was on it in its first season, and had gone on to 16 Candles, Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink while Facts was still on TV!
 
johnnya2k6 said:
Hilary Duff was cast as one of the children in the pilot of the short-lived NBC comedy "Daddio" in 2000 starring Michael Chiklis; he even had some very nice words about her hitting it big in the future.

Unfortunately, Duff was dropped from the series before it premiered, but that was okay. Hilary tried out for the role of Lizzie McGuire, got the call...the rest as they say was history!

And oh yeah...future double Oscar winner Hilary Swank starred on ABC's "Camp Wilder" in 1992; it was brought up before on the old Radio-Info board.

Jonathan Allen
Click to expand...

Although Lizzie McGuire ran serveral seasons and ran its course...it still was kind of short lived as the series only focus on the character's junior high years...which looking back for me were the school years from hell. I absolutely admired Hallie Todd as Lizzie's mother Jo McGuire...and those incredibly funny quickie animated sequices of Lizzie as a cartoon character...reminded me of Jay Ward's animation,particularly Tom Slick's girlfreind Marigold from the late 60s animated series "George of The Jungle."

Lizie McGuire was the average kid which I found a lot funnier and family freindly over the much over-hyped Hannah Montana.
 
MASH featured a lot of up & coming people. Ronnie Howard, Richard Dreyfuss & Patrick Swazye come to mind, and I am sure there are a lot more that my creaky old brain can't think of at this minute.
 
"MASH featured a lot of up & coming people. Ronnie Howard, Richard Dreyfuss & Patrick Swazye come to mind, and I am sure there are a lot more that my creaky old brain can't think of at this minute."

Naturaly, a lot of famous actors have come up through TV, or cycled back through TV at some time during their careers. A lot of up-and-coming actors passed through the Quinn Martin cop shows in the 70s and 80s. I remember seeing a young Martin Sheen on an episode of The Streets of San Francisco. Leslie Nielson was a regular guest star on the QM shows - after his early film success, but before his later success with Naked Gun and other comedies.

A couple of years ago, I saw Jack Nicholson in a small part on The Andy Griffith Show. It was probably the last year of the show (67 or 68) because it was in color and without Don Knotts. Nicholson played a man unjustly accused of a crime. Jack spoke only one line and the end where he thanks Andy for helping to get him acquitted.

This couldn't have been more than a year before he filmed Easy Rider and became a big name. I remember that Nicholson did a lot of work on and off camera in his early years for American International - mostly cheap horror films for Roger Corman
 
There was another Andy Griffith episode with Jack Nicholson were he was the father of an abandoned baby that Opie finds.

There was also Working Stiffs, which had Michael Keaton and Jim Belushi.
 
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