For Christmas I bought someone a DVD of an old forgotten (by me at least) British TV series Seven Of One which starred Ronnie Barker. Two of the episodes became series starring Barker Porridge and Open All Hours.
The latter reminded us of his comedic foil in the show Sir David Jason, a household name in Britain and Australia, at least, despite having virtually no movie credits.
During his career he has had the following continuing roles:
Do Not Adjust Your Set - 1967 sketch comedy with Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Michael Palin.
Hark At Barker - 1969 sitcom playing a 100 year old man, Dithers. Later played the part in another series with Barker His Lordship Entertains
The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs - 1974 series starred as the original Austin Powers
Lucky Feller - 1976 starred in this comedy series I have never seen.
Porridge - 1974-77 5 episodes with Barker again
Open All Hours - 1976-85 co-starred in classic Brit comedy series
A Bit of a Do - 1989 social comedy/drama series
The Darling Buds of May - 1991-93, much loved family saga
Only Fools and Horses - 1981-2003 63 appearances as Del Boy in another comedy classic.
A Touch of Frost - 1992-2006 37 appearances as DI Jack Frost in a great cop show.
Surely no-one else has had such a varied career and starred in so many different “classic” shows?
Peter Davison
All creatures Great And Small (Drama, 1978-1990)
Sink Or Swim (Sitcom about student life, 1980-82)
Holding The Fort (Sitcom, 1980-82)
Doctor Who (Science Fiction, 1981-84)
A Very Peculiar Practice (Medical Comedy/Drama, 1986-88)
Campion (Detective drama, 1989-90)
The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (Detective Drama, 2000)
At Home With The Braithwaites (Family drama, 2000-03)
The Last Detective (Detective comedy/drama, 2003-05)
Burt Mustin is an astonishingly character actor in the US. Dead in 1977 he was the go-to guy for the ‘old man’ role for a hell of a long time. IMDB places his as appearing in:
A zillion Disney things.
Phyllis
The Moneychangers
All in the family
Emergency
Rhoda
Adam-12
Miracle on 34th Street
Streets of San Francisco
Love, American Style
Here’s Lucy
Sanford and Son
Temperatures Rising
The Brady Bunch
The Funny Side
Alias Smith and Jones
O’Hara, US Treasury
Mayberry RFD
Bewitched
Mary Tyler Moore
Nanny and the Professor
The Good Guys
Dragnet 1967
Gunsmoke
Petticoat Junction
Cimarron String
The Virginian
Gomer Pyle USMC
The Monkees
CBS Playhouse
The Lucy Show
The Girl for UNCLE
Bonanza
Pistols and Petticoats
Batman
The Andy Griffith Show
My Three Sons
Run Buddy Run
Summer Fun
Get Smart
Run for your Life
Ben Casey
Hank
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Jack Benny Program
The Fugitive
Mickey
The Further Advantures of Gallagher
Dr Kildare
Destry
The Outer Limits
The Judy Garland Show
Wagon Train
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
The Dick Van Dyck Show
Leave it to Beaver
The Twilight Zone
77 Sunset Strip
Bus Stop
Thriller
Ichabod and Me
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Surfside 6
The Texan
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Dennis O’Keefe Show
General Electric Theater
Mr Lucky
Peter Gunn
Tombstone Territory
Maverick
Date with the Angels
Oh, hell. Here.
That’s got to be some sort of record.
Harry Morgan had a long career as a movie character actor before he even did a TV show. On TV he was never the lead, but I don’t think anyone ever had many second leads or co-star credits – everything from Dragnet to Pete and Gladys to MAS*H.
I can’t vouch for this, but I figured out once that the actresses who had the most featured roles in TV series came down to a tie between Shelley Fabares and Elinor Donohue .