There’s also Ed O’Neill who went from poor shoe salesman on Married with Children to rich entrepreneur with a really hot wife on Modern Family. Though personality-wise, both characters are still kind of schlubby.
There’s Marcia Cross who went from playing a psychotic, bomb building, revenge obsessed doctor on Melrose Place to conservative, prim-and-proper Martha Stewart-wannabe on Desperate Housewives.
There are however shades of that DH character on Melrose Place - in a couple of episodes she’s suffering multiple personality disorder and one of the personas she adopts is that of prim-and-proper, conservative housewife “Betsy.” I got a kick out of that when I saw the DVDs a couple of years after Desperate Housewives debuted.
I’m not sure how different that makes Angel & Booth. Booth believes in Heaven and hopes to go (I’m not sure sure he’s convinced that he will go), whereas Angel knows there is a hell because he’s been there and wouldn’t be surprised to end up there in the end.
Stephen Root; swaggering, millionaire media mogul Jimmy James on NewsRadio, and sad-sack Army barber Bill Dauterive on King of the Hill.
Actually, Root also played rich lout Buck Strickland on KotH, so here’s a guy who played two opposite roles on the same show.
**Brent Spiner **as the recurring country bumpkin guy in Night Court and as Data in ST: TNG
Dunno. I remember David as pretty nerdy, too.
Timothy Olyphant played handsome, calm, cool lawmen on both Deadwood and Justified, but also played a blotchy redneck loser on My Name is Earl.
I had no idea! But there he is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLvtoKZfxY
Heck, I figure Michael Gross wins, for his portrayal of the ultraliberal ex-hippie father on Family Ties and his later turn as a gun-loving survivalist paranoid through the Tremors franchise.
He also played a desperate, gun-toting bank robber in this TV movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095366/
For that matter, I see David Soul was also in that movie. He played a simple-minded alien on Star Trek, then a tough-guy cop on Starsky & Hutch, and then a bank robber in In the Line of Duty.
Alan Alda played ultra-liberal Hawkeye Pierce on MASH and conservative Senator Vinick on West Wing.
My personal theory is that Modern Family is the spiritual sequel to MWC. Remember that the Bundy curse was lifted when Al defeated Igor in a jousting contest in Lower Uncton. The problem was that Peg was part of the curse, and she remained afterwards. I believe that after Peg died, Al was able to use his formidable talents to start a thriving shoe business, as well as finally succeed with one of the gorgeous women he was always meeting. Kelly got hit on the head again, and regained her intelligence (note that they often refer to Claire’s colorful past) and Bud finally gave up on women and embraced his true nature.
No, Steve played a high school geek who murdered one of the jocks who always tormented him.
Psych is still ongoing, and I am pretty sure it came after Jericho. Maybe I should cue up Jericho on Netflix to see how he does that. Hope he lasted longer than Brom Garrett did.
Neither was a one-shot. Both were recurring roles.
Ron Rifkin went from playing bad guy terrorist (turned good guy (?)) Arvin Sloane on Alias to friendly gay Saul Holden on Brothers & Sisters.
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Married with Children was the best sitcom ever to air on television, good enough to not only survive but to thrive after the addition of Ted McGinley, the patron saint of shark-jumping.
That’s an interesting theory. They never have said just what line of business he’s in on “Modern Family,” have they? Just that he’s successful at it enough to live in a big house, drive expensive sports cars and have a much younger and really hot trophy wife.
Jeff Goldblum plays roles 0º from each other.
Noboddy has mentioned Lisa Kudrow’s portrayals of the bubble head Ursula and the smart and creative Phoebe at the same time.
i don’t know if the characters were 180º from each other but the acting quality was 180º.
Maybe you can say he plays roles that are 360º from each other.
William Shatner–Star Trek vs. 3rd Rock
Jericho started in 2007; psych started in 2006, so, although *psych *is still ongoing, it was a bit of a bridge. Although, the early Lassiter in psych is a lot more pathetic and Brom Garrett-ish than he is now.
Anyway, let me warn you as to Jericho - it started bad, then became so-bad-its-good, then suddenly got good, and then was cancelled right when it started to go somewhere.
Mayor Constantino of New Bern appears as a significant character around episode 20 of season 1. BTW, Omundson’s fellow Deadwood alum Gerald McRaney plays the mayor of Jericho.
David was a nerd on Roseanne. He was a whimp. He got beat up by DJ. His brother Mark was the cool, goodlooking one. David was the wimp, the smart kid, the sensitive one. Galeki plays that role on TBBT as well. Of all the guys, Leonard is the sensitive one, and is a wimp