Got to mention Carroll Spinney.
Don Pardo was the announcer on Saturday Night Live for thirty-nine seasons - from the show’s premiere in 1975 until his death in 2014. And prior to this he was the announcer for The Price Is Right from 1956 until 1963 (when it switched networks) and for Jeopardy from 1964 until 1975 (when the show was originally cancelled). So Pardo was steadily working in television for fifty-eight years.
You shouldn’t forget her pre-Seinfeld career. Louis-Dreyfus had been part of the cast of Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985. And then she had a breakout role in the series Day by Day which ran from 1988 to 1989. Day by Day has been forgotten today (it didn’t last long enough to get syndicated) but Louis-Dreyfus was noted at the time for her supporting role in the series.
And her first show “Hollywood on Television” was 5.5 hours of just her every day, apparently. She may have racked up more time on screen than most of the other actors on this list in just her first year in the business.
Not nearly that many episodes, but Peter Sallis starred in Last of the Summer Wine from its debut in 1973 until its cancellation in 2010, appearing in all 295 episodes (the only actor to do so). He also appeared in the prequel series First of the Summer Wine (playing his own father) for 12 episodes. Perhaps most famously, he was also the voice of Wallace in Wallace and Gromit. And like most British actors of his generation, he shows up in any number of old Hammer horror movies.
Sharon Gless
Switch - 71 episodes
Cagney & Lacey - 119 episodes
The Trials of Rosie O’Neill - 34 episodes
Queer As Folk - 79 episodes
Burn Notice - 111 episodes
Heather Locklear
T.J. Hooker - 85 episodes, while appearing at the same time in
Dynasty - 127 episodes
Melrose Place - 199 episodes
Spin City - 71 episodes
These are just the highlights. Both women have other credits that didn’t last as long.
How about David McCallum? He’s been on TV most years since 1961 in roles from Illya Kuryakin to Ducky Mallard.
The land that gave us Shakespeare, Dickens, Wilde and Pinter also has long serving soap opera actors
Richard Dean Anderson
James Brolin
Marcus Welby, M.D. - 170 episodes
Hotel - 115 episodes
Pensacola, Wings of Gold - 66 episodes
Life in Pieces - 22 episodes and counting
He also married both Jan Smithers (9 years) and Barbra Streisand (18 years and counting), which is pretty impressive in its own right.
Plus 15 episodes of Captain Nice.
Eddie Albert appeared in the very first TV movie, in 1936.
Nineteen thirty-six.
Wikipedia has him in some 90 shows, including five in which he starred, beginning in 1952. A TV career of about 60 years, plus a stage and movie career including an Oscar nomination.
Plus, he’s an executive producer on a franchise where that means something. Mark Harmon FTW!
And he played this guy too! :eek:
And while I know award winning and award nominated really don’t enter into this, I was surprised to see that she has been nominated 9 times for an Emmy in the Lead Actress category and 7 times for an Emmy as a Supporting Actress.
She won once in the Supporting Actress role (for Seinfeld) and Five times as a Lead Actress (For Veep and New Adventures of Old Christine)
Bill Cosby did I Spy and Electric Company, and what must be a record number of series named after any one person: The Bill Cosby Show, Cos, The Cosby Show, Cosby, The New Bill Cosby Show, The Cosby Mysteries, and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. And coming next fall, Law and Order: Cosby Victims Unit.
Richard Chamberlain, the king of the miniseries in his post Dr. Kildare (161 episodes) years.
Scott Bakula has had a pretty good run of shows over the last thirty years or so.
On the other side of the pond, Helen Mirren has done quite a bit of TV work.
Sam Waterston has had a very healthy TV career since 1965.
How can you mention Lucille Ball without mentioning Gale Gordon?