Name some actors or actresses who have starred in at least 3 (reasonably) successful TV series
The rules[list=1][li]Each series must have lasted at least 80 episodes (about 3 or 4 seasons)[sup]1[/sup] on U.S. primetime network television[/li][li]The actor must have played a major character on the series for at least 3 seasons (but not necessarily for the entire run of the series).[/li][li]No actor gets credit for playing the same character in a second series[/li][li]Playing the voice of a major character counts (Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson counts, but William Conrad as the narrator of “Buck Rogers” doesn’t) [/list=1]I can think of only a few who (probably) fit the bill:[/li] Michael Landon: Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven Lee Majors The Big Valley, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy Heather Locklear: Dynasty, T. J. Hooker, Melrose Place (and Spin City if she stays on the show a total of 3 years) Bill Cosby: I Spy, The Cosby Show, Cosby Kate Jackson: The Rookies, Charlie’s Angels, Scarecrow and Mrs. King (I’m not sure she was a major character in “The Rookies”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the show).
Surely there are others. Aren’t there? It kept me up for a couple of hours last night trying to think of some, but these five were the only ones I could come up with. There is no shortage of people who have starred in two successful series.
[sub][sup]1[/sup] I lowered the standard from 100 episodes to 80 episodes specifically to let Bill Cosby slip under the wire.[/sub]
Majel Barrett. She does the voices for the ships computers in the three latter-year Star Trek series. Not exactly a “starring character”, but a crucially prominent one.
I think, nowadays, most actors are chosen not so much for their diversity, but because they fit the role. Typecasting seems much more common these days than it was forty years ago… and while, then, it was seen as something to avoid, now it seems to be considered beneficial to a career (if you’re successful enough to be typecasted… cha-ching!).
All in the Family
Archie Bunker’s Place
In the Heat of the Night
Shatner was also in "Barbary Coast, but I doubt that went to 80 episodes
James Garner?
Maverick
Rockford Files
I think he was in another series, but can't think of one
Bill Cosby has had a LOT more than 3 series:
I Spy
The Cosby Show (he played a high school atheltic instructor)
The Cosby Show (a variety show. It featured one of the last TV appearances of Groucho Marx)
The Cosby Show (Dr. Huxtable)
The Cosby Mysteries
The Cosby Show (the one where he's a retiree)
Little Bill
Fat Albert
do you want to open the floodgates and include game show hosts, too?
[nitpick alert](by the way Carrol O’Connor wouldn’t count under the rules, since the character of Archie Bunker was the same for both AB’s place and AITF).[/nitpick alert]
He played the same character in the first two shows, so I don’t think it counts.
Markie Post was in three series that each lasted at least three seasons (Night Court, The Fall Guy, and Hearts Afire)
Howie Mandel has been in three series that each lasted three seasons, but the last two were cartoons (St. Elsewhere, Muppet Babies (he did the voices of Animal, Bunsen and Skeeter), and Bobby’s World.
Aside from the fact that “Bob” only ran a season, you really can’t even give him credit for two series, as he played the same character in both, though granted, the bulk of “newhart” was a vast and elaborate dream sequence…