He was Roger Phillips on the last few years of the show (aka the sucky part). Even though they did bring back Pat Morita for that stretch, who’s done a TON of stuff since (granted, a lot has been some version of Mr. Miyagi). Also featured Crystal Bernard of the long running Wings.
Speaking of Wings, that had Emmy winner Tony Shalhoub, Oscar nominated Thomas Haden Church, and Emmy nominated Laura Innes. And the 3 leads have all worked steadily, if not terribly successfully.
Also wanted to give a nod to Bosom Buddies. Peter Scolari had the good run on Newhart, Thelma Hopkins was on Family Matters (yes it gave us Urkel, but people seemed to like it anyway), Donna Dixon was pretty high-profile after she hooked up with her husband, Holland Taylor has done a lot of Movies & TV including parts in some hits, and Wendi Jo Sperber worked fairly steadily for a while after that. Plus, Tom Hanks.
I disagree. Most of the original 1950’s Mouseketeers faded into obscurity. A few of them – such as Bobby Burgess, Cheryl Holdridge, Cubby O’Brien, Darlene Gillespie, Lonnie Burr, Tommy Cole, Dennis Day, Doreen Tracy, Paul Petersen, Sharon Baird and an obscure actress named Annette – continued to perform in show business; however, most of them were fairly well forgotten.
Of the 1970’s Mousketeers, only Lisa Whelchel continued to remain in the public eye. Julie Piekarski continued acting for a while, but most of the others faded away as well.
There was this TV show I remember watching at the end of last February. I think it only lasted one episode, but I think they try to bring it back each year with a different cast. In my opinion it has one of the most impressive group of actors as far as their film work. Just look at some of the cast:
Johnny Depp (Oscar Nominee)
Ben Kingsley (Oscar Nominee)
Jude Law (Oscar Nominee)
Bill Murray (Oscar Nominee)
Sean Penn (Oscar winner)
Alec Baldwin (Oscar Nominee)
Benicio Del Toro (Oscar Nominee)
Djimon Hounsou (Oscar Nominee)
Tim Robbins (Oscar winner)
Ken Watanabe (Oscar Nominee)
Keisha Castle-Hughes (Oscar Nominee)
Diane Keaton (Oscar Nominee)
Samantha Morton (Oscar Nominee)
Charlize Theron (Oscar winner)
Naomi Watts (Oscar Nominee)
Shohreh Aghdashloo (Oscar Nominee)
Patricia Clarkson (Oscar Nominee)
Marcia Gay Harden (Oscar Nominee)
Holly Hunter (Oscar Nominee)
Renée Zellweger (Oscar winner)
The show’s title escapes me. It was something like “The 76th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards Show Jamboree Special Thingee”
Holy crap. I just checked out IMDb to see what Kirk Cameron’s done other than Left Behind (pretty much nothing) and I was shocked to see he had a show ten years ago named *Kirk *that lasted two years.
Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford had The Jeffersons, and Hemsley had a five year run on Amen. (Though it is curious that Hensley and Sanford are ommitted from the AitF entry in the IMDB; I wonder why?)
And Sally Struthers? Lots of work saving children and hawking trade schools.
Telma (not Thelma) Hopkins is still going strong on UPN’s “Half & Half”. I’ve had a thing for her since she was the smart-aleck half of “Dawn” of “Tony Orlando & Dawn.”
Also from Bonanza: David “‘Candy’ Canaday” Canary has been on All my Children since about 1984. Maybe most wouldn’t consider that a success, but how many actors do you know that have worked steadily for 20 years straight? And he’s good too!
From pre-history:
The Garry Moore Show had Carol Burnett and Alan King, as well as the redoubtable Durward Kirby. Writers included Neil Simon and Woody Allen.
Sid Caesar had the same writers plus Carl Reiner as writer and performer. Imogene Coca did all right, but not great.
Steve Allen (1956-1960 show) had Bill Dana, Louis Nye, Pat Harrington, Tom Poston, and Don Knotts.
Laugh-In had a bunch of people who had varying levels of success, most notable of which are Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn.
The cast of MAS*H, of course, are co-owners of the moderate left, along with Norman Lear and his gang.
Let me submit for your consideration St. Elsewhere:
Denzel, Mark Harmon, Alfre Woodward and Howie Mandel were made “stars” off of the show, tho Mandel hasn’t aged well career wise but had the required “great success” for a while after the show.
Helen Hunt & Patricia Wettig each put in 2 years on St. E’s and got a nice step up on their careers, though their actual “star turns” came from elsewhere than Elsewhere.
William Daniels, David Morse and to a certain extent, Steven Furst have had some success after Elsewhere – but WD and SF l were pretty well established before hand.
Ed Begley Jr. has had some success post-show – he is fairly famous in fact despite not seeming to work much since