# Actors with regular starring roles in two series at the same time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2025, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313 "2025-03-08T23:41:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/21 "2025-03-09T12:46:16Z")
Victoria Rowell was a regular on Diagnosis Murder and The Young and the Restless at the same time. Well, not every episode of the soap, of course, so I don’t know how much that qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/22 "2025-03-09T12:46:20Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Does voice acting count? > > Mila Kunis was in _That '70’s Show_ and also in _Family Guy_ (doing a voice role). And Seth Green did voice work on _Robot Chicken_, and Alex Borstein was on _The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel_. Yeardley Smith and Hank Azaria were voice actors on _The Simpsons_ while also co-starring on _Herman’s Head_. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/23 "2025-03-09T12:58:19Z")
[Wesley Eure](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Eure) played Will Marshall on Land of the Lost while also playing a major character on Days of Our Lives ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/24 "2025-03-09T13:38:00Z")
H. Jon Benjamin voiced the title characters on _Archer_ and _Bob’s Burgers_ for 12 consecutive seasons. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/25 "2025-03-09T14:33:24Z")
Nancy Walker played Rhoda’s mother, Ida Morgenstern on the sitcom **Rhoda** and also Mildred, the maid to Rock Hudson on **McMillan and Wife** at the same time over a few years. She got seven Emmy nominations between the roles. Mad magazine even pointed it out in their parody of Rhoda. Actually, you could say she overlapped with a third, **The Nancy Walker Show** , in 1976 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/26 "2025-03-09T14:39:11Z")
Mel Blanc is familiar all Dopers, I’m sure, because of his cartoon voice work. But he had a huge career in radio as a voice actor outside of cartoons. While he was a regular on NBC’s _The Jack Benny Show_ he also had his own program, _The Mel Blanc Show_ on CBS at the same time. But, what’s more: > [@](#): > > _Radio Daily_ magazine wrote in 1942 that Blanc “specialize[d] in over fifty-seven voices, dialects, and intricate sound effects”,[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Blanc#cite_note-13) and by 1946, he was appearing on over fifteen programs in various supporting roles. > **[Mel Blanc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Blanc)** > > Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank /blæŋk/; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy radio programs, including those of Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, The Great Gildersleeve, Judy Canova and his own short-lived sitcom. > Blanc became known worldwide for his work in the Golden Age of American Animation as the vo... ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/27 "2025-03-09T14:44:47Z")
Heather Locklear was in TJ Hooker and Dynasty at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/28 "2025-03-09T14:53:28Z")
Does _McMillan and Wife_ really count as a series, though? It was really more like a bunch of TV movies with the same characters - the episodes were 60-90 minutes long and it wasn’t on every week and therefore had fewer episodes than series at that time usually did. In fact . it was one part of a program called the _Something Mystery Movie_ I don’t remember if _Something_ was the network name or the day of the week as there were multiple programs with that set-up. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/29 "2025-03-09T14:59:41Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And Seth Green did voice work on _Robot Chicken_, and Alex Borstein was on _The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel_. > > Yeardley Smith and Hank Azaria were voice actors on _The Simpsons_ while also co-starring on _Herman’s Head_. If I remember right, LeVar Burton was hosting READING RAINBOW and showing up for work as Geordi LaForge on every episode of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION when he started voicing Kwame on every episode of CAPTAIN PLANET. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/30 "2025-03-09T15:22:37Z")
Fred Armisen was on Saturday Night Live and Portlandia at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/31 "2025-03-09T16:08:28Z")
Also, in 2015 Seth Meyers is credited writing and doing voice acting on The Awesomes (which he created) and writing on Documentary Now! (which he co-created), while still writing and hosting Late Night with Seth Meyers (every night!). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/32 "2025-03-09T16:29:17Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Does _McMillan and Wife_ really count as a series, though? It was really more like a bunch of TV movies with the same characters - the episodes were 60-90 minutes long and it wasn’t on every week and therefore had fewer episodes than series at that time usually did. In fact . it was one part of a program called the _Something Mystery Movie_ I don’t remember if _Something_ was the network name or the day of the week as there were multiple programs with that set-up. _NBC Mystery Movie_ (there was also a _NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie_ series). _McMillan & Wife_ ran in rotation with _Columbo_ and _McCloud_ (and, for a time, _Hec Ramsey_). And, while they weren’t making 25-ish episodes a season of each of those (which was the norm back then), it was still 7 or 8 a season for each of the component series. (There’s even an industry term for this: “[wheel series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_series)” or “umbrella series.”) Despite the longer time, the word “movie” in the umbrella series title, and the fact that a particular series wasn’t on every single week, making them “movie-like,” it’s hard to argue that they weren’t truly “series” – the amount of work that the actors (and crew) would have put in to produce seven to eight 90-to-120 episodes a season certainly made them comparable to every-week TV series, as far as workload (which is, I think, kind of the gist of the OP), and the actors were playing the same characters in dozens of episodes over just a few years. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/33 "2025-03-09T16:55:35Z")
If voice work counts, Robert Ridgely played the title roles in _Thundarr, the Barbarian_ and _The New Adventures of Flash Gordon_. Although he usually played supporting characters rather than lead roles, during the 1970s and 1980s, Alan Oppenheimer often had recurring roles in several different Saturday morning cartoons at a time. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/34 "2025-03-09T19:21:07Z")
He wasn’t the star of either show, but Wayne Knight’s roles on _Seinfeld_ and _3rd Rock from the Sun_ overlapped for a few years. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/35 "2025-03-09T19:24:01Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > seven to eight 90-to-120 episodes a season Apologies, this should have read “seven to eight 90-to-120-minute episodes a season” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/36 "2025-03-10T01:03:06Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > Well, not every episode of the soap, of course, so I don’t know how much that qualifies. Which reminds me, while Deidre Hall was on Days of Our Lives, she also was the lead character in Electra-Woman and Dyna Girl and Our House. I can’t possibly guess how many soap stars also had gigs on prime time shows at the same time. > [@GESancMan](#): > > He wasn’t the star of either show Frank Cady should count as well, appearing as Sam Drucker in 142 episodes of Green Acres and 168 episodes of Petticoat Junction. By the end of PJ he was billed right behind the Bradley daughters. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/37 "2025-03-10T01:25:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > > How about Glenn Howerton, who starred in _A. P. Bio_ while _It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia_ was/is still ongoing? > > If Always Sunny is still running, Kaitlin Olson is also appearing in a detective drama on ABC. Previously she was on a sitcom on Fox called The Mick. And Rob McElhenney also appears on Welcome to Wrexham. The three have done multiple shows at the same time and Always Sunny. Glenn Howerton A.P. Bio Velma Kaitlin Olson The Mick High Potential Rob McElhenney Mythic Quest Welcome to Wrexham The Mindy Project Charlie Day tends to do movies rather than tv shows. Shorter tv seasons nowadays make stuff like this easier. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/38 "2025-03-10T05:43:59Z")
If we do open this completely to voice actors, every cartoon made from 1967-72 featured at least one of six or seven very busy voice actors, like Mel Blanc, Don Messick, June Foray… Today, guys like Billy West, Mark Hamill and Seth McFarlane can be on three shows simultaneously! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/39 "2025-03-10T06:27:11Z")
Starring in multiple shows is easier these days, with series consisting of 8 episodes streaming every two years. For instance, at this very moment, **Walton Goggins** is starring in _Fallout, White Lotus_ and _the Righteous Gemstones_. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313/40 "2025-03-10T06:35:30Z")
He’s also a voice actor in _Invincible_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-regular-starring-roles-in-two-series-at-the-same-time/1015313.md?page=3)