Inspired by “stars fired from their own show” thread, sometimes actors choose to leave a hit show they are on, thinking that they can make it bigger on their own. It seems that more often than not, they are wrong. Examples that come of mind of people that chose to leave and later came slinking back for crumbs are Denise Crosby on ST:TNG and Don Knotts on Andy Griffith. How about some actors for whom it wasn’t a big miscalculation?
David Caruso? His movie career never really took off, but that show with the sunglasses ran forever.
George Clooney?
In that thread, I mentioned George Clooney. He went on to bigger success in movies.
I think Steve Carell also counts, though not as much.
Ron Howard left Happy Days and went into Directing. Pretty good move.
Even more so with Rob Reiner leaving All in the Family to become an all-time great director.
Does Chevy Chase leaving SNL to a successful movie career count? He had a pretty good run.
Weird one, how about Kal Penn leaving House to join the Obama administration in 2008?
Another weird one: how about Dwayne Johnson?
Christa Miller left The Drew Carey Show with about a season to go. IMHO the show was still pretty solid until the end but the network had stopped caring. She did pretty well after that with a major recurring role on Scrubs and then third lead on Cougar Town.
I wouldn’t say Denise Crosby came “slinking back for crumbs” on TNG; she definitely had justification for wanting out since the producers brought her on and then eliminated most everything her character would do. And her return visits were smart writing and are arguably better than any of her first season episodes. Few of her subsequent roles were high-profile, but looking at her filmography, it seems she didn’t stop working for years afterwards, which is what any actor wants.
Leaving Wrestling (which is basically a show) for a massive movie career.
I would say that is a great one.
Keep in mind that all 3 shows she went on to (Shrinking on Apple+ is the third), are her husband’s shows. She was very good in all 3, but I’m thinking getting the roles was extra easy compared to normal. They where written with her in mind also.
John Travolta!
He was there in the final season of Welcome Back Kotter and says he stuck it out in order not to hurt his career. He left early in the final season, but he did Saturday Night Fever in 1977 and Grease while still doing the show until early 1979.
How about the “trope namer”, McLean Stevenson? Left a hit show, which ran for another billion years, and he went onto such hits as Hello Larry, and Password+.
I’m pretty that was the opposite of a good move.
You are correct. I was going by the title of the thread, and missed the actual question.
Can we still give him a point for leaving early in the final season and heading off to do Urban Cowboy?
Rob Morrow was the star of Northern Exposure. His leaving guaranteed the end of the show a short time later. I’ve always felt his acting was good, but the projects he has done since don’t have much acclaim, except maybe Quiz Show.
Rob Morrow had a good six year run as the star of Numbers.
Michael Weatherly left NCIS and starred in Bull for six years. Now he’s going to star in an NCIS spinoff.
There’s going to be a long list if someone does a thread on “Stars that chose to leave their show and it was a bad move?”.
Wasn’t Margot Robbie in Australian soap operas before leaving for Hollywood?
Wrestling allows the cast to stay on while working on other projects. He never really left and has been back in the ring recently. Switching to part time was definitely a great career move, and now he’s not only back wrestling, he’s running the show (sorta).
Speaking of former wrestlers-- Dave Batista is doing pretty good for himself with HIS movie career.
Gotta wonder if Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi would have come back for another season of Euphoria had it been renewed.