In the old days television could have some, let us say, “rugged” leading men, like Richard Boone, Lee Marvin, James Arness and Steve McQueen. Not so any more. If it weren’t for Richard Belzer (and he is a secondary lead), there wouldn’t be any non-handsome men in dramas on prime time.
Why just the pretty boys?
People like to look at attractive people. I dispute your theory, though - there are any number of non-pretty boys on tv right now.
I don’t think HOUSE stars a pretty boy.
Steve Buschemi is the lead on Boardwalk Empire. He’s a long way from pretty.
I don’t think its that unusual though, I’d be harder pressed to find an ugly female lead.
ETA: I guess Boardwalk isn’t really primetime, but its still a popular current TV drama.
While Dominic West (Jimmy McNulty on “The Wire”) has a odd sort of sexy charisma, objectively speaking, he’s a monkey-man.
Oh, you can find 'em all right, but they’re not really ugly, they’re Hollywood Homely (i.e., remarkably beautiful, unless compared to the average TV/film actress).
Michael Chiklis
Because the male gaze is being turned around?
I don’t think it’s true (that TV is full of pretty people), but pretty boys (and girls) might be more likely to consider acting as a career.
Lots of exceptions though – ordinary-looking actors are all over the place on The Wire, The Shield, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Deadwood (except for Olyphant). Even Mad Men has just three really pretty actors – Hamm, Jones, and Hendricks.
But it’s harder to find ordinary-looking actors on the main networks. That’s how I can tell I’m watching ABC, CBS, and NBC – everybody’s soap-opera pretty.
Well, the OP specified leads, certainly there are plenty of homely secondary characters, but even for males its fairly rare that the leads aren’t at least debatably good looking, and I can’t really think of a current ugly female lead.
The sitcom Mike & Molly stars Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy. While I don’t think either one is ugly, they are not your typical Hollywood pretties.
Simplicio, I don’t think any of the leads on the shows I listed would be considered pretty (except for Olyphant). Not homely or ugly, but definitely not pretty.
Certainly, in the Seventies, there were a LOT of popular dramatic TV shows with lead actors who were far from handsome. Just off the top of my head, there were:
Karl Malden on “Streets of San Francisco”
William Conrad on “Cannon”
Telly Savalas on “Kojak”
Ed Asner on “Lou Grant”
Richard Boone on “Hec Ramsey”
Robert Blake on “Baretta”
Today? Well, there are plenty of shows I can think of with stars who aren’t terribly glamorous, but very few who are ugly. Andy Sipowicz from “NYPD Blue” was one of the last ugly lead characters on a prime time network TV drama.
I mean, if you look at “Law & Order” and its spinoffs, Christopher Meloni certainly wasn’t a dreamboat and William Petersen of “CSI” wasn’t particularly handsome… but both were certainly better looking than the average man on the street. And the women on crime dramas are WAY better looking than most real policewomen or D.A.s
I think stand-up comedians getting their own shows is probably the biggest source of non-pretty actors on TV. Seinfeld, Roseanne, Tim Allen, Kevin James, Ellen, etc. all ranged from plain to ugly, at least by TV standards.
AuntiePam, sorry, I should’ve been more clear, I was just responding to your giving the leads of Mad Men and then saying that other then those there were ugly looking characters on the show (Breaking Bad is the only other show you mentioned that I’ve seen, and I agree that the leads there are pretty plain).
Eddie McClintock from Warehouse 13 and David Boreanaz from Bones kinda remind me of each other, and neither of them strikes me as “pretty.” Not sure I’d say “rugged” though.
Those people are just overweight. There’s nothing unappealing about their faces and if they were both in proper shape they would widely be considered attractive.
I also disagree with the premise of “Hollywood ugly” and that the “average person on the street” is substantially less attractive than movie/TV stars. No. Attractive facial features are actually surprisingly common, if you look at the core facial features - people who are truly ugly are outliers. But “the average person on the street” is
All of those things can be corrected, though. It doesn’t mean the “average person on the street” is ugly - it means they’re not presenting themselves properly.
I wouldn’t say that. Christopher Meloni is exceptionally handsome, and all the women I know seem to think so. William Peterson is also very handsome, as anyone who watched Manhunter will remember, but he’s gotten substantially heavier.
If I want to see “ugly” I’ll look in a mirror. TV should be pretty.
I immediately thought of Harry’s Law headlined by Kathy Bates, but I think that might be the exception that proves the rule.
Jeffrey Donovan is a male lead, and decidedly unpretty. I don’t watch Burn Notice because I find him so unattractive.
I would not classify any of the actors on The Big Bang Theory as pretty boys.
