Thread inspired by this post from the Downton Abbey thread (re an actor who played a major character on the show and was just killed off):
I’m thinking of other actors in other series who think that because the show’s a hit, they’re now Hot Stuff, and leave to pursue “better opportunities” only to never (or virtually never) be heard* from again.
Two that come to mind are MacLean Stevenson of MASH and Rob Morrow of Northern Exposure. MASH went on to thrive with Stevenson’s replacement, Col. Potter, but Morrow’s departure pretty much killed one of the best series of the late 80’s.
George Clooney left E.R. to never be heard from again.
What about the kid from Home Improvement? Jonathan Taylor Thomas? Can’t remember why he left, but I remember him having one or two movies after his departure but nothing really good.
Well, these folks didn’t disappear FOREVER, and all eventually had some success after leaving the TV show that first made them famous. But…
Pernell Roberts left*** Bonanza,*** complaining that its stories were lowbrow and weren’t socially or politically relevant. He ended up unemployed for nearly two decades, before making a comeback on Trapper John, MD. His new show was far stupider than*** Bonanza,*** but by now, he’d learned to shut up and be grateful for a steady paycheck.
David Caruso left NYPD Blue to make movies that nobody watched. He eventually found a good job taking his his sunglasses on and off on CSI: Miami.
Suzanne Somers thought she was too good for Three’s Company and made some awful movies that nobody saw, then spent some years in Limbo before getting a few more sitcoms.
Farrah Fawcett left Charlie’s Angels to make the movies ***Somebody Killed Her ******Husband ***and Sunburn (anybody see them? didn’t think so!).
The moral is, don’t be too quick to give up a lead role on a hit TV show. You MIGHT be moving on to better things, but then again, this MIGHT be as good as it ever gets. Henry Winkler and Michael J. Fox were HUGE stars on TV sitcoms, but were smart enough to STAY with those sitcoms to the end, even as they tried to make movies too.
IIRC, Don Knotts, aka Barney Fife, even though he had some good comedy movies, didn’t quite make the bucks after giving up The Andy Griffith Show. The Show went to crap, too.
Steve Carell’s movie career sucks. He’ll still make major bank off of pap like Despicable Me 2, but he’s lacking a leading-comedic-man hit. If he doesn’t get a hit before the decade is out, I suspect you’ll see about as much of him as you do Mike Meyers.
Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode on Gunsmoke. He claimed he was glad to get out of the role when he did, but it was another ten years or so before he resurfaced as McCloud.
There’s a peripheral discussionof this phenomenon in the NYTimes online today. (Clicking will take you to the article, so if you don’t want to mess with your quota, don’t go there.)
Yeah Steve Carrell may be the worst example. He left the Daily Show to go to The Office for 7 hit seasons. Since 2003 by my count he has been in 14 well known movies as either the lead or one of the main supporting roles. Some of those movies have been small indies and others big Hollywood movies. In the next couple of months he has two more movies coming out in which he is the star. He seems to be doing quite well for himself.
I remember hearing that the Highlander TV show ended largely because the star…Adrian Paul? What that his name?..felt that he had finally broken through to be a real life Actor, and wanted to pursue his film career. The results speak for themselves. The last season of the show had him in maybe a scant handful of scenes. It turned into a season-long audition to try out various female Immortals, trying to find one that could star in a spinoff series.
Dennis showed up on Kentucky Jones and Gentle Ben in between. But neither was much of a show. In his case leaving Gunsmoke may have been a good idea, he could have ended up typecast as Chester.
Julianna Margulies left ER for greener pastures, never really found them and returned for the final season (I don’t know how many appearances).
Rob Morrow spent six seasons as a star of Num3ers, which was as big or bigger a show.
Julianna Margulies is the absolute darling of network television as the star of The Good Wife.
Topher Grace looked for a moment like he was going to be a giant star when he left That 70s Show but hasn’t happened yet.
Valerie Harper got herself fired off a show with her name in the title. That isn’t exactly leaving, although it’s suicide by mod-like, but I can’t think of a worse implosion.
Jackie the Jokeman and Artie Lange, when they left Howard Stern. Jackie saw greener pastures, and allegedly walked off aver $50,000 a year, which was like 5% of his salary (again, allegedly). Bad mistake, career-wise. Every ancillary comedy thing to the show that he had going on dried up almost completely without the constant promotion and daily radio presence that he had with Howard. Artie is still having major drug issues, IMHO, and is better off, even if he never works as a comedian again. And frankly, he blows goats as a standup and as a film actor.
Steve Carell will be around until he decides not to be. He’ll never reach the height of fame that Myers did, but I also think he’ll have a more fruitful career than Myers will.
