Jorja Fox plays Sara Sidle on CSI: Las Vegas but left the showq after the eighth season. She returned a couple of years later. Personally, if I lucked into a regular role on a long-running series like that, I’d keep playing the part as long as I could, given that a regular cast member might be making $50,000 to $100,000 per episode.
I remember really liking Shelly Longs legs in Cheers. I was a kid though but REALLY liked them.
How would you know which ones are the delusional ones, and which ones were right to try out the movies, without the benefit of hindsight?
Two examples, off the top of my head, that left popular TV shows to pursue a movie career and succeeded were George Clooney (ER) and Johnny Depp (21 Jump Street).
If you compare their decisions vs the decisions of Caruso, Shelley Long, and Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure), could you tell at the moment they left their shows, which ones would make it and which ones would not?
I think that, even if it’s a 1 in a million chance of making it, some people prefer to take those odds vs continuing something that they don’t like any more (and, let’s face it, after a few seasons has provided you with some income that you can fall back on if the movie thing doesn’t pan out)
A lot of people are looking at this from the point of view of ourselves, regular Joes, and think, “I would *kill *to have a recurring role in a hit TV show”, but these folks are not regular folks, they have huge ambitions, and part of their ambition was proven right by the fact that they got very popular on the TV show they were in, so why not try the next step up in the career ladder?
You might like Shelley Longs and David Carusos, but, c’mon! No mention of Liam Neesons?
“Three’s Company” has a few examples of people not quite getting the full picture:
Norman Fell and Audra Lindley as “The Ropers” who were promised their roles back on TC if their spin-off only lasted a season. It lasted a season-and-a-half and they had signed Don Knotts in the interim, but I’m sure they don’t regret making main-cast money for 1.5 years.
Richard Kline who played “Larry” told an interviewer that John Ritter had petitioned for producers to make sure he was in a good half of Ritter’s spin-off “Three’s A Crowd” (which oddly became more successful in syndication than in real time), but that he was offered the main role in a new pilot. He got a good chunk of money for trying to be the lead in his own gig, it never got picked up, and he claims he never regretted it.
A little bit of hubris there, but Caruso was reading his own press too much at the time. Deservedly good reviews for “Mad Dog and Glory” and “King Of New York” (where he played basically the same role as in NYPD Blue) went straight to his head, and he made the retarded decision to try movies.
I think a lot of the failed gambits come straight from the managers, who are basically looking for that magic number so that their 10% is millions, not thousands of dollars. Suzanne Somers believed she was irreplaceable, but she was idiotic.
Lisa Bonet did the Cosby spin-off “A Different World” for one season, got dropped from the show for doing the movie “Angel Heart”, and the show improved immensely. She went to become famous as Lenny Kravitz’ ex-wife.
Speaking of Don Knotts, he left The Andy Griffith Show at the height of its success and, imho and that of most TAGS fans, sank the show. He had some initial success but by the late 1970s he was mainly doing pilots and low budget Disney movies and Tim Conway buddy vehicles. By his own admission a combination of divorces, putting his kids through college, and a lackluster career had depleted his finances and made Three’s Company a godsend. (The producers originally wanted to go with a “Don Knotts type” thinking he would never be interested, but he leaped at it.)
Jean Hagen (remember her as the shreiky-voiced Lina Lamont in Singlin’ in the Rain?) actually gave up her share of ownership to get out of playing the original wife in The Danny Thomas Show, because she was tired of playing fourth banana, behind both Danny and the kids. It’s safe to say her career didn’t exactly skyrocket.
Don Knottswon five consecutive Emmy awards for playing Deputy Barney Fife. He left to make movies, all of which were quickly forgotten.
For that matter, NBC begged Ted Danson to keep Cheers going, but he had had enough. What was the big movie he jumped into? Made in America.
[QUOTE=kunilou]
Don Knotts won five consecutive Emmy awards for playing Deputy Barney Fife. He left to make movies, all of which were quickly forgotten.
[/QUOTE]
HEY! Are you suggesting that ***The Incredible Mr. Limpet ***wasn’t a masterpiece???
I shall have to ask you to step outside…
I’m guessing you never watched TNG. 
In the case of Rob Morrow, “Northern Exposure”, for all due purposes, was nearing the end of its run anyway. The tried to reboot it with a new doctor and his wife but the show was already creatively exhausted.
As for Shelley Long, people now say that her decision to leave “Cheers” indicated proof of an unsound mind but, as you said, that picture was not so clearcut in 1987. At the time of her departure, she had just starred in a hit movie, Outrageous Fortune, and had done solid work in some films prior to that. Granted, she wasn’t as popular as Eddie Murphy (who was the #1 box office star at the time) but her future as a film star certainly looked a lot brighter than that of Bruce Willis who was also trying to parlay his TV fame into a movie stardom (and mostly failing).
In my opinion, there were two things that really killed Long’s career: (1) Her reputation as a difficult performer (which was further enhanced by horror stories about her diva-ish demands on the set of Hello Again) and her subsequently getting fired from My Stepfather Is An Alien); and (2) The arrival of Meg Ryan. Ryan was cheaper, younger, and (at the time) more agreeable and could easily do the type of roles that Long had been considered for just a few years before.
Strangely that is the same thought that ran through my head. Loved that stupid film when I was a youngster :D.
I read interviews with Caruso when he left NYPD Blue and from an actor’s perspective leaving was the right choice, for him and anyone that has a shot at movies. It wasn’t a case of “I’m to good for this and should be in pictures.” He had deals lined up and made several films. Things didn’t work out but but was as good a shot as anyone gets.
My gripe was he got Stringfield booted as well. As his somewhat estranged wife, him leaving meant she was gone - harsh. Though I never liked ER, I was glad she found another prime-time gig.
Ahem.
Shatner appeared in ‘Judgment at Nuremberg’, A brilliant version of ‘The Andersonville Trial’ directed by George C. Scott. Two Twilight Zone episodes, one of which is iconic. Did Boston Legal…and of course one of the top five most iconic roles in frigging TV history. AND he cut a brilliant album with Ben Folds.
Hamlet of his generation? I’d say if you put a pic of him next to Laurence Olivier, a good 35% more people would recognize Shatner.
And Shatner does an entertaining stage show where he talks about his life, Star Trek, and whatever else comes to mind.
Shatner’s costar in Alexander the Great was Adam West, who will be known for all time as Batman.
When David Caruso left NYPD Blue in 1994, I remember some comedian (may have been on SNL “Weekend Update”) reporting it thusly.
“David Caruso is leaving NYPD Blue to pursue his career in the movies. He will be replaced by Jimmy Smits, who left LA Law to pursue his career in the movies”
George Clooney’s a good example of what an actor should do.
Clooney was cast on ER in 1994 and it was a breakout role for him (keep in mind he’d already been working for fifteen years). So he got cast in From Dusk Til Dawn. That was a success and he was cast in One Fine Day. That was little more iffy but he bounced back with Batman & Robin. That didn’t work out but his career survived and he cast in Out of Sight. That did pretty well and he was cast in Three Kings. And then you know what he did?
He left ER.
That’s right. Clooney made five movies before leaving the TV series that had made him a star. He made sure he had a movie career locked in before quitting TV. And that probably saved his career. If he had quit ER after one season and gone straight into movies, then one or two flops might have ended his career. Instead, he could flop in a movie and still be a successful TV star which kept his name in the public eye and allowed him to get a second chance in the movies.
Same thing with Depp. He didn’t quit 21 Jump Street until after he had made a couple of movies and was sure he could make the jump successfully.
If you’re a struggling actor and you land a steady job on a TV show, you’re an idiot if you quit the show to go make movies. The smart thing is to go make movies and then quit the show if your movie career works out. And if it doesn’t work out - and it usually doesn’t - then you’ve still got your TV show.
One advantage modern actors have is that acting for TV seems to be losing its stigma, especially with actors known more for movie roles making the jump TO television.
Well a lot of times that’s not an option; if you’re starring in a feature film, you’re pretty much booked for a year. We’ve all heard horror stories about how Michael J. Fox was filming Back to the Future and Family Ties at the same time and getting four hours of sleep every night or whatever; I’m not sure every actor out there would be up for that. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith.
I would guess this is more the “History Channel” crowd than the “TCM” crowd. :rolleyes:
(Don’t get me wrong; there’s a lot of good stuff on History. Just not as much as there used to be, IMHO. 
)