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Stars of other media who didn't quite make it on television

jwk1979 said:
WMC2006 said:
Chevy Chase, who got his notoriety from his one season on Saturday Night Live back in 1975 and did ok with movies, failed miserably with his talk show, The Chevy Chase Show, which lasted 4 weeks back in 1993.

And speaking of failed talk shows, Ervin "Magic" Johnson, while not a "star of other media", couldn't use his success as a sports star to become a successful talk show host. "The Magic Hour" was a failure on Fox in 1998.
Pat Sajak was pretty much a flop with his own late night talk show on CBS in the late eighties/ early ninties. Didn't he leave "Wheel of Fortune" in order to host his late night talk (snoozefest) show and his replacement wasn't successful, either? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Also, Nathan Lane's attempt at a television sitcom was pretty much a flop, only lasting a few weeks.

He had to leave the daytime version of the show on NBC, but continued doing the syndicated version. His replacement was former NFL kicker Rolf Benirschke, who was really not that bad, but the show got cancelled anyway.
 
bpatrick said:
Two more names that come to mind, both familiar
to moviegoers in the '40s and both of whom struck
out in the 1966-67 season: Ann Sheridan ("Pistols
'n' Petticoats," although she passed away before
the show left the air--it probably wouldn't have
been renewed anyway) and Jean Arthur ("The Jean
Arthur Show," about a mother-and-son tandem of
lawyers).

I managed to see a few episodes of "Pistols And Petticoats" on VHS a while back. I think if Miss Sheridan had not gotten ill, the show might have made it 2-3 seasons. Think of "Get Smart" set in the old west..Really not a bad show at all..I can only imagine how hard it was for the rest of the cast to carry on without Miss Sheridan..
 
bpatrick said:
....familiar
to moviegoers in the '40s and ... struck
out in the 1966-67 season: Ann Sheridan ("Pistols
'n' Petticoats," although she passed away before
the show left the air--).

Actually, Ann Sheridan was on Another World (as Kathryn Corning) for several months before landing the 'Pistols' show.
 
Corky mentioned David Brenner's sitcom "Snip."

Actually, NBC pulled the show from the lineup before it even aired.
It did make TV Guide's Fall Preview in '76.

Now I remember!!! His character was supposed to be a hairdresser.
 
Neil Rattigan said:
Corky mentioned David Brenner's sitcom "Snip."

Actually, NBC pulled the show from the lineup before it even aired.
It did make TV Guide's Fall Preview in '76.

..."SNIP!" had six episodes produced before NBC pulled the thing off the schedule, and Brenner claims it ran in Australia, where it became a hit! The Aussie network tried in vain to get the producers to make more episodes...
 
Was the Wil Shriner Show another one? He was a comedian who had his own talk show from 1987-88, but it flopped. What has happened to Wil since then?
 
Never mind where Wil Shriner's been. Where'd you manage to find this thread between now and the last time it was "used" in February 2007? :p
 
bpatrick said:
Jerry Lewis (The Jerry Lewis Show ABC 1963, NBC 1967-69)

Jerry Lewis also had a week-long syndicated late-night talk show pilot in 1981(?), but it never became a series. Of course, he's doing great in the telethon business.

Corky Marlowe said:
If you include stand-up comics in the ranks of nightclub performers, a few whose TV shows were flops include ... Jeff Foxworthy ("The Jeff Foxworthy Show")...

Yet he's having lots of fun quizzing grown-ups in front of fifth graders every week. (Hint, hint.)
 
My favorite star of all time Glen Ford had a series on NBC in the 1970's Cade County and Rock Hudson also stared on Mcmillian and wife.
 
Andy Coleman said:
My favorite star of all time Glen Ford had a series on NBC in the 1970's Cade County and Rock Hudson also stared on Mcmillian and wife.

Except that Rock made it on TV, as McMillan and Wife lasted several years (the last two without the "wife").
 
Glenn Ford had another flop: "The Family Holvak,"
a Waltons-like show about an itinerant preacher and
his family in the 1930s South; it lasted one season on
NBC (1975-76). At the time I was going to the University
of Georgia, and Atlanta's then-NBC affiliate, WSB, pre-empted
it and ran Lawrence Welk instead (Sundays at 8).

Paula Poundstone's ABC variety show lasted exactly two
weeks in 1993. She later went on to antagonize viewers
and fellow panelists alike on John O'Hurley's version of
"To Tell The Truth."

And I don't think "Pistols 'n' Petticoats" would have lasted
much longer even if Ann Sheridan had lived. The show was
originally scheduled Saturdays at 8:30 on CBS against "Get
Smart" and Lawrence Welk. At midseason, it did a sort of
flip-flop with "Mission: Impossible," which had been airing at 9.
"Mission" was moved to 8:30, and "Pistols 'n' Petticoats" to 9:30,
where it now faced NBC's movie and "The Hollywood Palace."
In the 1967-68 season CBS completely revamped its Saturday
schedule with the exception of Jackie Gleason at 7:30; "Mission"
was moved to Sundays at 10, and "Gunsmoke" to Mondays at 7:30.
Following Gleason were "My Three Sons" (8:30), "Hogan's Heroes"
(9), "Petticoat Junction" (9:30), and "Mannix" (10).
 
Baseball pitcher and author Jim Bouton had a very short-lived sitcom that didn't even make it past the conclusion of the 1976 World Series, which was a four-game sweep by the Reds over the Yankees.

It was a TV adaption of his first book, "Ball Four". The book was great. The sitcom? Well....let's just kindly say that it was a soft infield pop-up.
 
RicoGregg said:
Baseball pitcher and author Jim Bouton had a very short-lived sitcom that didn't even make it past the conclusion of the 1976 World Series, which was a four-game sweep by the Reds over the Yankees.

It was a TV adaption of his first book, "Ball Four". The book was great. The sitcom? Well....let's just kindly say that it was a soft infield pop-up.

Mr. Bouton had fared better on TV as a sportscaster, though, first on WABC-TV from 1970 to 1973 as part of the Eyewitness News team, and then from 1973 to 1975 on WCBS-TV. As a sitcom star, you said it.
 
Baseball pitcher and author Jim Bouton had a very short-lived sitcom that didn't even make it past the conclusion of the 1976 World Series, which was a four-game sweep by the Reds over the Yankees.

It was a TV adaption of his first book, "Ball Four". The book was great. The sitcom? Well....let's just kindly say that it was a soft infield pop-up.
It's amazing how tame that book seems in the pro sports universe of today. "Ball Four" should also be remembered as the source of one of the more memorable (and unprintable on this site) catchphrases in movie history..."_________-Ay" from "The Deer Hunter".
 
Glenn Frey of the Eagles had a detective show (or at least I think it was) called "South of Sunset" which lasted all of one episode before CBS canned it.
 
Arthur Lake was quite successful playing the role of Dagwood Bumstead in all of those Blondie flicks that came out from late 30's until 1950 as well as the radio version of Blondie. However when he played Dagwood in the 50's TV version of Blondie..it wasn't successful. When Blondie was tired again in 1968..Arthur Lake was nowhere to be seen at all.

However his movie co-star Penny Singleton..she had a very successful run on TV...doing the voice of Jane Jetson. A job she held all the way until the late 1980's.

The kids who played Alexander ( Baby Dumpling ), Cookie and Alvin all more/less got out of the biz once Blondie ( the movie series ) ended and as far as I know..all three are still alive today. Of course Lake and Singleton have since passed away and I assume that is the case with all of the other adults who appeared in the movies as well.....like Glenn Ford.
 
azumanga said:
Andy Coleman said:
My favorite star of all time Glen Ford had a series on NBC in the 1970's Cade County and Rock Hudson also stared on Mcmillian and wife.

Except that Rock made it on TV, as McMillan and Wife lasted several years (the last two without the "wife").

Actually just the last season(1976-77)
 
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