# Duos where only one goes on to superstardom and... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031 "2010-04-14T04:31:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/61 "2010-04-15T00:02:20Z")
Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. (Chet who?) ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/62 "2010-04-15T00:06:07Z")
And to go back a few years, of the vaudeville team of Clayton, Jackson, and Durante, only Jimmy Durante made it big time. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/63 "2010-04-15T00:38:10Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > And in related news, Cybil Shepard and Bruce Willis from _Moonlighting_. > > (Stupid brain! You can’t remember the names of your friends’ children, but you can remember this?!) I’m not sure I’d count them. _Moonlighting_ was not Shepherd’s big break; she was already quite famous before the series. It was more that he came from behind and overtook her. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/64 "2010-04-15T00:43:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. Not really a good example. Both men were pretty much of equal stature when they were working together. Then Huntley retired and died shortly thereafter. Obviously Brinkley was going to pull ahead after that. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/65 "2010-04-15T00:50:06Z")
Tenacious D - **Jack Black** and ummm… that other guy. Phil? ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/66 "2010-04-15T05:47:19Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’m not sure I’d count them. _Moonlighting_ was not Shepherd’s big break; she was already quite famous before the series. It was more that he came from behind and overtook her. Isn’t that how he got Demi? 😃 …or was that Ashton? :rolleyes: How about a quartet: KISS was way big in the '70’s and '80’s, but only Gene and Paul remain active in the band. Ace’s and Peter’s characters have been subleased to other guys. Success? Two words: Butch and Sundance. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/67 "2010-04-15T05:53:35Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Tenacious D - **Jack Black** and ummm… that other guy. Phil? Oh, I remember! His name is Kyle. But, I only remember because they introduce him in one of the intros to their songs… or something. And I haven’t the foggiest what his last name is. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/68 "2010-04-15T06:00:50Z")
David Faustino and Christina Applegate started as child actors on _Married With Children_. Christina Applegate made the transition from child star to adult. She’s appeared in several Broadway plays. She was nominated for a Tony for her work in _Sweet Charity_. David Faustino? I suspect he’s still humping a plastic sex doll somewhere. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/69 "2010-04-15T06:03:15Z")
The 1940s Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team had sort of a duo in manager Leo Durocher and coach Charlie Dressen. Both were highly knowledgeable, self-confident men whom could hold court with writers. But the difference was Dressen had a personality which caused him to assume he knew everything while Durocher, who had a strong ego, wasn’t threatened if someone could help him win. When Dressen was managing the Dodgers in the early 1950s, he rejected input from statistician Allen Roth. Durocher, manager of the rival Giants, once came out of a shower naked and told a fan with detailed statistics “You have something that can help me win? Tell me what you got.” Of course it helped Durocher cheated to win the 1951 pennant by stealing signals and while Dressen suspected something, he couldn’t prove it. But when after the 1953 season after losing one pennant and two world series, Dressen demanded a multi-year contract. Owner Walter O’Malley refused and Dressen never had a job managing a good team again. Durocher won the World Series the next year and ultimately was elected to the Hall of Fame. Dressen today is ridiculed for his ego and as a biographer of pitchers Reynolds, Lopat and Raschi says “it is impossible to find anyone today who has something kind to say about Dressen”. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/70 "2010-04-15T07:32:01Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > The way I always heard was that Harrison Ford had practically given up on acting because he couldn’t get enough work to support himself. He was on the set of SW as a carpenter when Lucas asked him to help with the readings. It seems he got his role in _American Graffitti_ after building some cabinets for Lucas’s home, and it was because of that relationship that he was asked to help out with the auditions for _Star Wars_ – through which he got the part of Han Solo. I don’t think he ever worked as a carpenter on a film set, and wouldn’t have been able to work on the _Star Wars_ set anyway, since it was filmed in Tunisia and the UK. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/71 "2010-04-15T07:56:55Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > I don’t think he ever worked as a carpenter on a film set, and wouldn’t have been able to work on the _Star Wars_ set anyway, since it was filmed in Tunisia and the UK. He was asked to be the stand in for Han Solo during screen tests, then was subsequently cast from that. But I do recall hearing he was doing some carpentry at the production offices during that pre-production stage. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/72 "2010-04-15T08:13:11Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > He was asked to be the stand in for Han Solo during screen tests, then was subsequently cast from that. But I do recall hearing he was doing some carpentry at the production offices during that pre-production stage. Okay, I just looked up the facts in the _Making of Star Wars_ book that came out a couple of years ago. Fred Roos was a casting director friend of George Lucas’s, unofficially helping out on _Star Wars_, and he hired Harrison Ford as a carpenter, to install a door in his offices, deliberately at the time he knew the casting for _Star Wars_ was going on, in an attempt to manipulate Lucas’s thinking. Ford was then used as a stand-in for the screen tests, and the rest is History. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/73 "2010-04-15T08:21:23Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Coincidentally, he also married a member of Bananarama. If I am not mistaken, that leaves one for me! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/74 "2010-04-15T09:26:48Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Okay, I just looked up the facts in the _Making of Star Wars_ book that came out a couple of years ago. > > Fred Roos was a casting director friend of George Lucas’s, unofficially helping out on _Star Wars_, and he hired Harrison Ford as a carpenter, to install a door in his offices, deliberately at the time he knew the casting for _Star Wars_ was going on, in an attempt to manipulate Lucas’s thinking. Ford was then used as a stand-in for the screen tests, and the rest is History. Yeah, it was really just the idea that Ford was working as a carpenter on the set that I was quibbling with. He seems to have got other work through his carpentry, too: he had the part in _The Conversation_ after doing work on Francis Ford Coppolla’s office (or Francis Ford Office’s cupola, I forget which). I don’t know whether it was a deliberate stratagem on his part, but it certainly seems to have opened doors – even if he had to install them himself, first. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/75 "2010-04-15T12:03:57Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Oh, I remember! His name is Kyle. But, I only remember because they introduce him in one of the intros to their songs… or something. And I haven’t the foggiest what his last name is. See Post 16. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/76 "2010-04-15T12:31:46Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I actually remember that show, but I don’t remember them as a couple. I thought Ganzel was the ditzy, widowed trophy wife of the boss who died in the first episode (or something like that). As the show progressed, Carrey and Ganzel had the usual sitcom sexual tension thing going. One episode revolved on their dating, for instance, and even from the beginning Ganzel’s character took a shine to Carrey’s. The show didn’t last long enough to develop that, though. The original cast of SCTV shows this: John Candy became a superstar almost at once, while the rest of the cast (Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, Dave Thomas, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, and Joe Flaherty), while successful enough, never reached his level (though Levy came close). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/77 "2010-04-15T14:08:07Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > The way I always heard was that Harrison Ford had practically given up on acting because he couldn’t get enough work to support himself. He was on the set of SW as a carpenter when Lucas asked him to help with the readings. Not quite true. (For one thing, there wouldn’t have been a Star Wars set when they were in the casting process.) Lucas had previously worked with Ford on American Grafitti, and had in fact done carpentry for both Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, though on their homes, not on sets. He did, in fact, get the Star Wars job because Lucas had hired him to read lines during the casting process. ---
**Author:** ![Richie\_Incognito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e36b37/32.png) [@Richie\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richie_Incognito)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/78 "2010-04-15T15:58:38Z")
Tina Fey/Rachel Dratch Will Ferrell/Chris Kattan Loggins/Messina ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/79 "2010-04-16T00:47:12Z")
Jesus Christ and the Devil. There’s a toss up for you.😃 ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031/80 "2010-04-16T01:27:51Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > See Post 16. it feels so good to be appreciated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duos-where-only-one-goes-on-to-superstardom-and/536031.md?page=5)