Out of purely useless curiosity, I came to wonder who the longest-running regular characters on television are. I couldn’t find any list on the web. After thinking about it for a while I came up with a list; I was wondering if I made any errors below. I’m defining a regular character as a character with a speaking part in every episode of a drama or comedy that’s aired since the start of his streak. I only tried to come up with currently active characters, but I’m wondering who the all-time record holder is, because this would be an interesting record to see broken.
#1: Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) appeared on, to my knowledge, every episode of Cheers from fall 1987 on. I was not a fan of that show so I would need this confirmed. Since Frasier began mere months after Cheers ended, this means that he has been a regular character for over fifteen years.
#2-5: Homer (Dan Castellaneta), Marge (Julie Kavner), Lisa (Yeardley Smith), and Bart (Nancy Cartwright) Simpson have appeared in every episode of The Simpsons since 1989. Maggie has only had five lines and may not even have appeared visually in a few episodes, so she misses the cut.
#3: Lenny Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) joined the Law & Order lineup in November 1992.
#4-5: Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) has appeared in every episode of NYPD Blue, which began in fall 1993. Anita van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) joined Law & Order at the same time.
#6: Greg Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) has been a regular on NYPD Blue since the eighth episode, in November 1993.
#7-12: ER’s John Carter (Noah Wylie) and the titular Friends all debuted in fall 1994. I don’t follow ER anymore; has Carter ever missed an episode? Same with Friends, has there ever been an episode without one of the principals?
I wouldn’t know where to begin in figuring out the all-time record. Did anyone stay on those really long-running shows like Gunsmoke for the whole ride?
The current record is James Arness as Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke 1955-1975. Kelsey Grammer first appeared as Frasier in a 1984 episode. Grammer has stated that he is trying to set the record of playing the same character for the longest time. His show will run through 2004, thereby tying him with Arness even though he (Grammer) does not appear in every episode of seasons 3-4 of Cheers.
There are some soap opera actors who’ve been on for 30+ years, playing the same role. I don’t think they would have been in every episode, but that probably shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
He also did a guest shot on “The Beat.” Probably there’s someone I can’t think of who has played the same character on more shows, but Munch is intriguing in that he establishes a link between the X-Files/Millenium universe and the L&O/L&O SUV/L&O CI/Homicide universe. The mind boggles at Jack McCoy prosecuting Alex Krycek for murdering an alien in Manhattan…
Also, Kelsey Grammar is the only person every nominated for an Emmy for playing the same character on three different shows: Best Supporting Actor for Cheers, Lead Actor for Frasier, and as a special Guest star on wings.
The Simpsons is now tied with “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” at fourteen years for longest running sitcom.
Ozzie and Harriet Nelson had been doing their radio show (with actors playing the boys) for 8 years previous to that, so they played the same characters, thenselves, for 22 years.