Worst actor/actress

[Hal Erickson]

Hands down...Gabe Kaplan. The man didn't even play himself well.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Here is my short list of some of the worst actors/actresses that have graced our TV screens.

The guys who played Ralph Malph and Potsie Webber on "Happy Days": Donnie Most & Anson Williams

The cast of the Andy Griffith Show (after Don Knotts left). Especially the guy who played Howard the town clerk.

David Caruso (of course).

The kid who starred on "Boy meets World. ( Plus he also got uglier as he grew older).

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. (Only thing she had going for her was her great body).

*Demond Wilson from Sanford and Son. * Larry King got so PO at Wilson that he never invited Wilson back to King's talk show.

There are so many more, but who has the time to list all of them?

 

[EZway2go]

A number of people have mentioned Desmond Wlson. I'll have to catch some Sanford & Son episodes and see for myself.

In retrospect, it's hard to see how Dark Shadows ever became such a big cult hit with its over-the-top acting, flubbed lines, and all-too-obvious reliance on cue cards. Of course, maybe that is why.

 

[wbhist]

*Demond Wilson from Sanford and Son.

I seem to recall that at least part of the time of S&S's run (probably near the end), Wilson was coked up. Whether this had to do with his acting performances, I guess, is best left to the imagination.

 

[dmargalotti]

EVERYONE who ever appeared in a regular or semi-regular role on the TV show, CHiP's!

 

[nightfly61]

Movie "Signs" kid that said "There's a monster outside my roon, can I get a glass of water?"
btw, I also thought Jan Smithers was WAY hot.
Cletus on "Dukes of Hazzard".
The entire cast of V.I.P...but it was fun to watch while it lasted.
The entire cast of the new (& now cancelled) Night Rider.
Linda Lavin& the kid that played Tommy on Alice.
(p.s-props to the kid that played "Stephanie" on the later "All in the Family").
Loudmouthed Roseanne & the son.
All but Jane Curtin on Kate & Allie. Very lame humor & even lamer acting.
Tina Yothers as Jennifer on Family Ties plus the kid who played Andy. I guess Tina got better w/ time.
Webster.
95% of wrestlers or sports figures asked to make guest appearances on show.

 

[Ultimajock]

The entire cast of V.I.P...but it was fun to watch while it lasted.

...the first season of SheSpies was a vastly superior version of the same basic concept...

 

[nightfly61]

The "Silk Stalkings" chick
Here's a really bad one (great guy though).........."MR.T".
Most all of the hot females on "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo".

 

[LKellerIII]

EVERYONE who ever appeared in a regular or semi-regular role on the TV show, CHiP's!

Actually, Robert Pine has proved to be a talented character actor over the years since CHiPs. Even though the show wasn't produced by Mark VII Productions, it always had that same cheap Jack Webb feel - do one take, then print it. On Webb's productions, you could often tell that the actors were reading off cue cards.

Actors aside, the funniest thing about CHiPs were those freeway action scenes where you could tell that the vehicles were really only moving at about 15 MPH.

 

[BobSacamano]

It's pretty well known that "Dragnet's" dialogue was read off of teleprompters...Jack Webb was notorious for cutting expenses, judging from the horrrible acting from a few of the regulars, he didn't spend much on actors either

 

[Mike Stroud]

It's pretty well known that "Dragnet's" dialogue was read off of teleprompters...Jack Webb was notorious for cutting expenses, judging from the horrrible acting from a few of the regulars, he didn't spend much on actors either

As one of Webb's admirers, I will agree with you that it wasn't Shakespeare, and that, for the most part, most of the Mark VII shows, from Dragnet 1967-70 onward were primarily puff pieces, if you will, for governmental and law enforcement agencies (e.g., Adam-12, O'Hara, United States Treasury, and Emergency!). Webb made his millions largely on the backs of a small repertory company (e.g., Howard Culver, Virginia Gregg, Stacy Harris) and the tastes of "Middle America," or the "Silent Majority," as Richard Nixon put it. Viewers of the Mark VII shows in the 1960s and 1970s more or less wanted confirmation of their strait-laced, anti-countercultural values and got it from the Webb shows in hyper-abundance. In other words, none of them particularly GAVE a damn about the quality of the acting; in fact, Quinn Martin, after The Fugitive, pretty much copied Webb's formula of strong male leads and weak supporting characters (e.g., The FBI, Cannon, Barnaby Jones), just spicing things up a little with some gratuitous violence, something Webb utterly refused to do in his shows.

The original 1950s Dragnet was a much different animal, as those of you who have seen the YouTube clips of episodes can understand; the film noir Joe Friday was considerably more debonair and suave than the middle-aged, square-jawed, staccato-voiced public servant from the color version was. Not surprisingly, when he turned 50, Webb decided to hang up Dragnet for good in favor of off-screen work packaging shows, probably a wise decision given changing tastes by the mid-1970s. His style, though, had become all but passe by the end of the decade, with shoot-'em-up cop shows by the dozen in prime time, and he went into more or less a tailspin of alcoholism, bringing on a heart attack that claimed his life just before Christmas 1982.

I cannot say what strangely attracts me to watch those shows on Hulu instead of better-acted cop dramas such as Kojak and Hill Street Blues. I think the Webb style of moral clarity and the image of a government doing its job properly is probably the most seductive thing, nostalgia and political preferences aside. Whether one agreed with his stands against the hippies and their subsequent liberal-culture stepchildren, Jack Webb made a fascinating case study of sorts as a Hollywood mogul who had one foot inside the establishment but the other in the heartland, and the latter loved him a hell of a lot more than the former.

 

[Mike Stroud]

One more observation about Webb: had he stayed on as an exec at Warner Brothers in the mid-1960s, it is almost certain that he would have been cast as Inspector Lewis Erskine instead of Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. in The FBI; WB owned any and all rights to movies and TV shows about the federal agency, with Quinn Martin joining in. We would have never seen the Joe Friday character ever again, you can rest assured. The FBI was essentially Dragnet on the federal level, down to the lingo, the routines, the dead-end leads, and so on; the only differences were that the big bossman was J. Edgar Hoover, rather than the LAPD chiefs, and The FBI was an hour-long show, unlike Dragnet's antiquated 30-minute format.

In fact, a strange irony occurred during the 1971-72 season. Webb put out on CBS O'Hara, United States Treasury, often noted by critics as the worst show David Janssen ever starred in. In many respects, O'Hara copied a lot of the stilted dialogue and bureaucratic trappings of The FBI; it was really Webb's next best thing to the ABC series. But, as mentioned above, The FBI itself was a pretty blatant rip-off of--what else?--Dragnet. Obviously, Webb tried his damndest to get revenge on WB for his less-than-ceremonious ouster a few years before.

If he had remained with WB, Webb might have joined forces with Quinn Martin, and instead of Martin Milner on Adam-12, we might have been treated to Burt Reynolds, who appeared in QM's Dan August in 1970, as Officer Pete Malloy. Or, think about it, perhaps instead of Robert Fuller as Dr. Brackett on Emergency!, we would have had Karl (Streets of San Francisco) Malden in that role. And instead of being private eye Frank Cannon, William Conrad might well have become Joe Friday's partner instead of Harry Morgan.

All in all, books like the autobiography Just The Facts, Ma'am and tribute websites all but make the claim that Webb was, at heart, first and foremost a producer and director, not an actor. If you don't believe that, consider the fact that he cancelled Dragnet himself, not just once in 1959, but a second time in 1970, in order to devote time to producing and doing the thing he loved best, editing film. Much of the so-called cheapness of the Mark VII shows is largely a result of his passion for doing everything possible to a piece of film other than leaving it alone. While he should be held responsible for forcing his cast to read off teleprompters and not really practice their skills, I do not think Webb himself ought to be included in the "worst actor" category. It really wouldn't make any sense, knowing these things about him.

 

[bpatrick]

"Boston Legal" fans could give you an argument that William Shatner
did some of his best work on that show.

As for the soaps, "Bold And The Beautiful"'s Ronn Moss (Ridge) and
Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) haven't improved one bit in the 23
years that show's been on. But if you want my vote for the best
actor, male or female, on a daytime show, it goes to Michelle Stafford,
Phyllis on "The Young And The Restless." Even some professional critics
have said she could give acting lessons to most of her counterparts
throughout the soap world.

 

[LKellerIII]

Great observations, Mike Stroud. But I don't think it was anybody's intention to include Jack Webb as a "Worst Actor." Somebody had included in 'Worst' category - everybody who had every acted on CHiPs. I responded by speculating that it wasn't the actors' fault - that it had a lot to do with the quick 'one-take-and-print' production values. Any actor would come off poorly in that kind of production. I compared it to the various Mark VII TV productions. A couple of other posters ran with it.

But I don't think anybody meant to include Webb as a Worst Actor. Quite the contrary, in my opinion - he was quite a good actor. Two examples are his work in Pete Kelley's Blues and The DI. These films weren't big budget, and they probably seem dated today; but his acting and direction were first rate.

A response to your comment about his supporting cast: They were never stars, but most were talented actors who worked extensively in a wide variety of films, TV series guest shots, and stage plays. My father knew Virginia Gregg, and said that she spoke very highly of Jack Webb - she liked him very much, and not just because he helped her pay the bills.

Most of the supporting cast did quite well in the business. Olan Soule (the geeky skinny guy who wore the big glasses) was everywhere in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Howard Culver was a well known Los Angeles radio news anchorman. These folks did not suffer.

 

[jwk1979]

How can anybody have a "worst actors" thread without mentioning William Shatner? ;D

I know that William Shatner gets a bad REP for being a BAD ACTOR (especially on STAR TREK), but I really think that most of that is an ACT. He, along with several other actors and celebreties, appear on several volumes of "Golden Throats" compulations from the '90's and he even does it on there. Basically, he realizes about his REP as a bad actor and he incorporates in everything he has done since then. He knows it's a joke.

 

[Al Timiter]

Two contemporary actresses come to mind: Alana De Garza on "Law and Order" and Christa Miller from "Cougar Town," "Scrubs" and "The Drew Carey Show."

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Olan Soule (the geeky skinny guy who wore the big glasses) was everywhere in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Including Mayberry, where having to direct Barney in the choir must have aged him by about 20 years.