Most prolific actor on tv-regular cast only

Cafe Society
1

Which actor has been a regular cast member on the highest number of series?
No movies, no guest starring, no mini-series. Just listed as a regular cast member. Actor, of course, means any human gender (and I hate that this still as to be said, btw), and tv series is not restricted to the U.S. of course.

2

He likely won’t be the thread winner, but Ted Danson has been a regular (and, in fact, a lead) in 12 different television series:

  • Cheers
  • Ink
  • Becker
  • Help Me Help You
  • Damages
  • Bored to Death
  • CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
  • CSI: Cyber
  • Fargo
  • The Good Place
  • Mr. Mayor
  • A Man on the Inside
3

Ted Danson was my first thought. Probably is the answer to starring roles on TV and Leads role.

My guess for supporting actors is Ted McGinley or Betty White.

4

Definitely not limited to leads, of course.

5

Did you mean for this to be only live action? If so I will update the OP.

6

Voice only counts also. This really makes it interesting.

7

Voice actors are going to top the list by far then.

8

Because I have time on my hands this morning:

McGinley: 9 series

  • Happy Days
  • Love Boat
  • Dynasty
  • Married…With Children
  • Sports Night
  • Hope & Faith
  • Transformers: Robots in Disguise (voice role)
  • Shrinking
  • The Baxters

White: 14 series (I didn’t include numerous game shows in which she was a regularly-recurring panelist)

  • Life with Elizabeth
  • Date with the Angels
  • The Betty White Show (1958)
  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  • The Betty White Show (1977)
  • Just Men! (a game show, but on which she was the host)
  • The Golden Girls
  • The Golden Palace
  • Bob
  • Maybe This Time
  • Ladies Man
  • Hot in Cleveland
  • Betty White’s Off Their Rockers
  • Betty White’s Smartest Animals in America
9

Wow, nice. For some reason I thought Betty also would count as a regular on Mamma’s Family.

10

She appeared as a recurring character in 15 episodes, but as she wasn’t apparently a regular cast member (i.e., in most, if not all, episodes, and listed in the main cast), I didn’t include it in her list. (There were several other series like that for her, as well.)

11

15 appearances I think should count as it was playing the same character.

12

But did she appear on the cast list as a regular, or as a guest?

13

15 appearances (I see 16 on IMDB) out of 130 episodes does not make a series regular.

14

For the US, Dee Bradley Baker & Frank Welker probably are the answers. Very prolific voice actors with a lot of regular roles on a lot of shows.

Frank Welker is best know for Fred Jones in almost every Scooby Doo series but has dozens of other regular roles.

15

Because…?

16

Youtube has the intros for Season 1 and Season 2 (accounting for all but one of her appearances), and no, she’s not listed in the “regular” cast in the intros.

17

Fourteen of those fifteen appearances were in the first two seasons (when it was on NBC; the remaining four seasons were syndicated), but as I noted just now, she’s not named in the main credits.

18

I am glad that, because they are nowhere near the top of the list, I don’t have to make a ruling on Jonathan Harris or Kurt Kasnar. :grin:

19

In relation to voice actors? It’s acting, and it’s not excluded in your OP.

And, yeah, prolific voice actors probably have a very large number of roles as regulars on animated television series.

20

I was asking “Because” I was hoping for lists of shows they were regulars in.
According to the singular title, “There can be only one!”