# And the MacLean Stevenson award for career stupidity goes to... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426 "2002-10-01T17:24:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/21 "2002-10-02T17:45:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*As long as we’re ridiculing TV “stars” who got swelled heads and abandoned successful shows to pursue movie careers, why not give some polite applause (subdued is fine) for people who were HUGE TV stars with ambitions of their own, but who were level-headed enough to know they shouldn’t be in a hurry to abandon a good thing and a steady paycheck? \*\* Excellent post. I often wonder how these TV actors feel about staying with some silly sitcom for year after year because they’re pulling in big, reliable bucks, possibly after years of starving and waiting tables. If you have ambitions of going on to bigger and better things career-wise (and think you have the acting talent to do it, of course), you have to make the jump before everyone stops watching the TV show, right? Sometimes, unfortunately, it seems like a matter of luck and Who You Know vs. aging and typecasting. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/22 "2002-10-02T17:57:06Z")
> [@](#): > > There’s a difference between saying “I’m going to Yale” and saying “I’m going to be a big star and make movies, you’ll see.” How many sitcom kids actually have adult careers even if they don’t leave the show? I’ve heard that kid from the Andy Griffith Show did a few things after the show was over. Oh, and whoever it was who played Richie Cunningham on Happy Days also did some stuff… ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/23 "2002-10-02T18:26:20Z")
Let’s not forget Lisa Bonet, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Larry Linville and Wayne Rogers (did _anybody_ leave M.A.S.H. and have a good career?). ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/24 "2002-10-02T18:33:28Z")
Let’s not forget Lisa Bonet, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Larry Linville and Wayne Rogers (did _anybody_ leave M.A.S.H. and have a good career?). ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/25 "2002-10-02T18:40:30Z")
Let’s not forget Lisa Bonet, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Larry Linville and Wayne Rogers (did _anybody_ leave M.A.S.H. and have a good career?). ---
**Author:** ![Mullinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/26 "2002-10-02T19:26:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Let’s not forget Lisa Bonet, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Larry Linville and Wayne Rogers (did anybody leave M.A.S.H. and have a good career?). How could we at this point? ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/27 "2002-10-02T21:19:11Z")
How about Noah Wyle who plays John Carter on ER? That guy is the only character left from the original ER cast. And he’s said how grateful he is to the show and how he feels they are owed loyalty. StG ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/28 "2002-10-02T21:48:14Z")
Wow, don’t know how that happened. I feel so…dirty. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/29 "2002-10-02T21:50:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by photopat \* > \*\*Let’s not forget Lisa Bonet, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Larry Linville and Wayne Rogers (did _anybody_ leave M.A.S.H. and have a good career?). \*\* Wayne Rogers didn’t act much, but his personal fortune is estimated in the low hundreds-of-millions. He’s a financial manager for some really big stars. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/30 "2002-10-02T21:55:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by widdershins \* > \*\* Professional poker followed, so he didn’t starve, however \*\* Yeah, that was an odd career move, but he’s won millions. And he owes it all to Jonathan Frakes. Re: Jumping-the-Shark, I actually heard it on MSNBC the other day used in a non TV series sense; the pundit was theorizing that Bush might have Jumped-the-Shark with his hawk policies towards Iraq. The cool thing is that he didn’t even give an explanation for the line, just assuming it would be understood. Odd the images it gives you of Bush in a leather jacket and light blue swimtrunks skiing behind the boat. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/31 "2002-10-02T22:01:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dewey Cheatem Undhow \* > \*\*Any others? > \*\* Seth Green, for leaving “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/32 "2002-10-02T22:01:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Rob Morrow shot himself in the foot careerwise, when he left _Northern Exposure_. He’s mostly been doing character parts in features and lead roles in cable and TV movies since then. _Quiz Show_ being the odd exception. > \*\* He gets double-suck points because his departure killed a great show (which admittedly was already sick, but was getting better). I’d love to see a reunion movie where we catch up with Marilyn (who doesn’t change expression when she sees Joel for the first time in a decade), meet Shelley/Holling and Maurice/Barbara’s kids, etc… Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/33 "2002-10-02T22:24:44Z")
I don’t think Ray Romano deserves to be here. After next year, it will have been 7 seasons, the full extent of his contract. He’s rich enough never to have to work again, and his syndication shares should move him from merely very rich to obscenely rich. I’d like to suggest an addition. Sherry Stringfield left ER after it’s second (IIRC) so that she could move to New York and spend more time with her boyfriend. And another pat on the back for Henry Winkler. At the height of it’s popularity, the producers wanted to change the name to Fonzie’s Happy Days and make his character the lead rather than a foil for the Cunninghams. He insisted that the name and format stay as they were. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/34 "2002-10-02T22:50:58Z")
**Number Six** , I’m glad you added a bit more to the Henry Winkler angle here. Far from desiring to take over the entire show ( and nation for a year or two… ), Winkler was very much the team player. I get this from the man who directed the PILOT of “Happy Days”. Don’t ask me his name. I shot an episode of “Early Edition” in Chicago a few years back, and he was the Director. Once I heard he’d shot the Pilot of “Happy Days”, I was all ovah him. His take- a highly educated one- was that it was class acts through and through. That show died a prolonged death, but the earlier years were vintage decent writing, amazing comic timing and no celebrity hogs. When The Fonz broke out, you are right- he demurred and kept the show on keel. The last moment of the pilot truly solidified the entire character anyway, and stands in my head as one of the best starts a series ever had. Fonzie has failed a test. Richie offers to tutor him, since they’re good friends and work with him to keep him in high school. This character NEVER looked so outcast and vulnerable as the last moment, when he politely declines Richie’s offer. The camera booms up slowly above him, as he crumples the test up, kickstarts his motorcycle and leaves High School. The stage was set, and they all made the most of it. I don’t watch “Raymond” ( to return to the OP, finally…gasp gasp ), but I have to say, Romano is not doing a Maclain Stevenson. He will fulfill his contract, knows his hit is wearing thin and going sour, and wishes to end it BEFORE they all drag it through the mud of a tragic last season. I respect the move. Well, as much as I can respect anything done by a guy paid $ 800,000 a week to talk about his real life family. :rolleyes: Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/35 "2002-10-02T22:56:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by StGermain \* > \*\*How about Noah Wyle who plays John Carter on ER? That guy is the only character left from the original ER cast. And he’s said how grateful he is to the show and how he feels they are owed loyalty. > > StG \*\* On a related note, Sherry Stringfield stunned everybody by leaving just as the show was peaking, but now she’s back. Wylie is the only original character who’s been with the show _continuously_. I wonder if Anthony Edwards will end up making _Revenge of the Nerds III: Nerds on Wall Street_. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/36 "2002-10-02T23:20:08Z")
I think that John Goodman can arguably be added to **Cervaise** ’s list of anti-MacLeans. He stuck with that TV show for what, eleven years? At the same time he was snagging some excellent supporting roles from the likes of the Coen brothers, and a fair number of leads as well, so that at this point I think he is probably just as well known as a screen actor as he is as a sit-com dad. Then again, the occasional stinker such as _King Ralph_ probably helped to keep him honest. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/37 "2002-10-02T23:53:03Z")
I think when Mark Harmon left _St. Elsewhere,_ he thought he was going to be a big movie star. But David Caruso has to be the prototype because _NYPD Blue_ was perfect for him and he quit after one great season to catch a one-way\* train to Straight-To-Video land. Anyway, has anyone ever left a TV show (other than possibly _Saturday Night Live_) to pursue a movie career and not sunk like a lead balloon? Did Bruce Willis quit _Moonlighting_ or was it cancelled? \*I take this back if his new CSI series is a hit. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/38 "2002-10-03T00:14:10Z")
Bob Scene: John Travolta springs to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/39 "2002-10-03T00:18:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > \*\*I wonder if Anthony Edwards will end up making _Revenge of the Nerds III: Nerds on Wall Street_. \*\* Heh. _Top Gun II: Goose Returns_. 😃 Tagline: He’s back from the dead…and he’s _pissed_. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426/40 "2002-10-03T00:24:13Z")
_Moonlighting_ was cancelled… too late, imho. Denzel Washington also left TV to do the movies… didn’t do his career any harm. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-maclean-stevenson-award-for-career-stupidity-goes-to/130426.md?page=3)