Teri Hatcher’s years on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES were preceded by years on LOIS & CLARK, which – well, it wasn’t a comedy, exactly, but it’s about as close as you can get.
And she was the voice of My Mother, the Car
Yeardley Smith and Hank Azaria share a unique double as they were both stars on Herman’s Head and are also voices on a mildly successful show called The Simpsons.
All this talk of 8 Simple Rules and Big bang Theory and nobody has mentioned Kaley Cuoco.
David Spade was also in 8 Simple Rules, but not really a main character.
Mary Tyler Moore was the voice (and more famously, the legs) of the secretary in Richard Diamond, Private Detective. At least at first. There were a lot of male fantasies about those legs.
Both extremely successful, but it’s a bit of a stretch to call Monty Python a sitcom.
I don’t know whether British sitcoms are really comparable, since they aren’t as “open-ended” as American shows, tending to run for a fixed number of episodes, then giving their creators/stars an opportunity to move on to their next project. So you get things like Ricky Gervais doing “The Office” and moving on to “Extras,” or Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson following up “The Young Ones” with “Bottom.”
Mayim Balik? First Blossom and now The Big Bang Theory.
We’re calling Cougar Town a success now? I enjoy it, but since it got a big delay in coming back for it’s third season and they just added a cute baby to the cast in the middle of the season, I figure it’s on it’s way out. It’s been struggling for years. It’s too bad because it’s finally figured out what kind of show it wants to be.
…and don’t forget that little sitcom in between Andy Griffith & Arrested Development for Ron Howard. “Happy Days.”
ETA: Totally missed that little dig with “Opie Cunningham.” Oh, The Other Waldo Pepper, you’re so clever!
Fair point. The only one out of those that I listed that got run into the ground was Only Fools and Horses, and even then that wasn’t because the network demanded yet another 20-odd episodes, they just commissioned various annual specials that were not very good.
Pace Thudlow Boink another British one: Peter Bowles, who was in Only When I Laugh, The Irish R.M., Perfect Scoundrels, and To the Manor Born.
I have no idea whether any of these were “run into the ground,” though probably not.
Penelope Keith in The Good Life and To the Manor Born.
Paul Eddington in The Good Life, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.
Richard Briers in The Good Life and Ever Decreasing Circles.
Felicity Kendall (the other star of The Good Life) also had another sitcom, Solo, but it didn’t do very well.
It’s still difficult for a British sitcom to be successful. And Bottom was several years after The Young Ones.
Naw, I just heard it from the man himself, is all.
That said, how about Candice Bergen moving from Murphy Brown to Boston Legal?
Meg Griffin was in “That 70’s Show” -Mila Kunis…
Kirstie Alley was in Cheers(149 episodes) and Veronica’s Closet(65 episodes.)
You mean “is” in that. Futurama is still on going.
Valerie Bertinelli. One Day at a Time, Hot in Cleveland.
Miranda Cosgrove is in iCarly and used to be on Drake and Josh, though I don’t know how central a character she was on that show.
Courtney Cox - Friends and Cougar Town.