# "Perfect Attendance Index" for TV shows
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 29, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420 "2016-08-29T18:05:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/41 "2016-08-30T17:17:34Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> While I knew it wouldn’t rank as high as ones already mentioned, I went to IMDb and checked the score for the original run of _Perry Mason_.
>
> Um. 0.
>
> As in there are _two_ episodes where Raymond Burr didn’t appear. I figured there’d be some episodes where Barbara Hale or William Hopper might not be in. (I remember one episode that takes place when Mason is at a cabin out in the sticks, but he at least calls people to check into things.) But no Perry Mason on _Perry Mason_!
>
> 271 episodes. Not an anthology type show or anything. Scores a 0. Wow.
Only two?
Over the last few years I’ve watched most of the Perry mason run on METV. I never watched the show before, so it was all new to me. I thought there were quite a few episodes where Burr didn’t appear, though he’d appear briefly on the phone talking to his replacement. Oh, and his replacement was Bette Davis!
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/42 "2016-08-30T18:52:48Z")
I doubt he’s appeared in every episode - he must have taken a holiday now and then - but Bill Roach has been playing Ken Barlow in Coronation Street since its inception in 1960.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/43 "2016-08-30T19:21:42Z")
> [@N9IWP](#):
>
> Using IMDB Deep Space 9 has a score of 1211
Star Trek: Voyager seems to have the highest index of any Star Trek series, if we trust the IMDb data:
Kate Mulgrew
Robert Beltran
Roxann Dawson
Robert Duncan McNeill
Ethan Phillips
Robert Picardo
Tim Russ
Garrett Wang
8 actors \* 170 episodes = 1360.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/44 "2016-08-30T19:30:44Z")
Ed Sullivan deserves a mention. Assuming he hosted every single Sunday for nearly 2½ decades is good for 1068 according to Wikipedia.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/45 "2016-08-30T20:26:09Z")
Parenthood looks like 13 x 103 = 1339. One character was “only” in 102.
Every Always Sunny episode features every character, except that DeVito didn’t come in until S2E1, so 492.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/46 "2016-08-30T21:36:21Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> Parenthood looks like 13 x 103 = 1339. One character was “only” in 102.
I have no idea where you’re getting your data. While many have 103 “credits”, the first 10 actors I checked each has at least 2 “credit only” listings.
Another score of 0, it seems.
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### Author:  [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/47 "2016-08-30T21:49:50Z")
> [@Crotalus](#):
>
> I was thinking Frasier had a shot, but 5 times 263 is 1315. If Eddie had been in every episode…
I did not realize that Frasier had more episodes than Friends, Cheers, or Seinfeld. For some reason I am shocked.
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### Author:  [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/48 "2016-08-30T22:22:54Z")
According to IMDB, [The Office](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386676/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) (US version) had Rainn Wilson (Dwight), John Krasinski (Jim), Jenna Fischer (Pam), Leslie David Baker (Stanley), Brian Baumgartner (Kevin), Angela Kinsey (Angela), and Phyllis Smith (Phylilis) in all 188 episodes for a total score of 1316.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2016, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/49 "2016-08-31T06:57:38Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> I have no idea where you’re getting your data. While many have 103 “credits”, the first 10 actors I checked each has at least 2 “credit only” listings.
>
> Another score of 0, it seems.
I don’t know, I haven’t watched it really, but a quick scan of Netflix suggests that you’re right. And I see now that you have to click the actor, not merely trust the data on the show.
I think you know exactly where I got the numbers though, and was the snark really necessary?
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2016, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/50 "2016-08-31T12:00:22Z")
> [@Quartz](#):
>
> I doubt he’s appeared in every episode - he must have taken a holiday now and then - but Bill Roach has been playing Ken Barlow in Coronation Street since its inception in 1960.
Good old **William Roache** has clocked up over 4300 episodes of **Coronation Street** since 1960 playing the same character which qualifies him for all sorts of records. But there has not ever been even a single year he has appeared in every episode that year.
TCMF-2L
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/51 "2016-08-31T13:12:40Z")
> [@Enginerd](#):
>
> According to IMDB, [The Office](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386676/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) (US version) had Rainn Wilson (Dwight), John Krasinski (Jim), Jenna Fischer (Pam), Leslie David Baker (Stanley), Brian Baumgartner (Kevin), Angela Kinsey (Angela), and Phyllis Smith (Phylilis) in all 188 episodes for a total score of 1316.
Um. You really, really need to actually check each actor’s listings. Fischer and Smith both missed some episodes.
Actual score: 940 (at most).
There is a difference between getting a credit and actually appearing in an episode.
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### Author:  [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/52 "2016-08-31T17:28:03Z")
Per its Wikia site, if Scrubs had ended after NBC dropped it, it would have had an index of exactly 900 (6 x 150). It only took 9 episodes for ABC to zero the index.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-attendance-index-for-tv-shows/764420/53 "2016-09-01T01:52:49Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> Ed Sullivan deserves a mention. Assuming he hosted every single Sunday for nearly 2½ decades is good for 1068 according to Wikipedia.
But he didn’t. It’s noted that on one of Elvis Presley’s appearances, Charles Laughton was actually the guest host. I have no idea whether it ever happened before or since that time, but it did spoil the record.
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