Only regular cast members should be considered. If a show changes casts members every few years, you must pick a specific year. Success is defined as working “in front of the camera” in a movie, a TV show, or on stage. For a tie breaker, you might consider the quality of the post-show works.
Here are my top two.
Saturday Night Live 1976-77 Aykroyd, Chase, Belushi, Murray It’s kind of tough to beat Caddyshack, The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Vacation, etc. If the judges split hairs, Chase 1976 and Murray 1977, I have to go with my next pick.
Taxi DeVito, Hirsch, Danza, Llyod, Kaufman, Marilu Henner, Carol Cane Although the quality might not be the same, it’s pretty much the entire cast.
Cheers could probably trump your Taxi. Shelly Long is probably the only out-and-out dog in the bunch. Ted Danson (Becker and credible movie roles), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), Woody Harrelson (Larry Flint and other flicks), Bibi Neworth (Broadway roles, etc.), and Reah Pearlman are all still genuine stars today. Even Ally Sheely and the actors who played Norm & Cliff get steady work and can hold their heads high. Poor Shelly, though.
No, I did not spellcheck any names. You know who I mean anyway, and I’m lazy.
First, Shelley Long did turn up in a few movies in the late 80s, early 90s, although nothing spectacular, certainly. But second, Ally Sheedy??? Am I forgetting something about Cheers, or are you thinking of the actress who played Rebecca, whose name escapes me at the moment?
I’ll take a more prosaic definition of success and just count the awards. In front of an behind the camera, after the show in question.
How about Bosom Buddies?
That cast has produced since then:
5 Academy Award nominations
2 Academy Award wins
12 Emmy Award nominations
4 Emmy Award wins
6 Golden Globe nominations
3 Golden Globe wins
Or how about Mork & Mindy?
4 Academy Award nominations
1 Academy Award win
12 Emmy award nominations
2 Emmy award win
11 Golden Globe nominations
4 Golden Globe wins
With Cheers you get:
1 Academy Award nomination
12 Golden Globe nominations
2 Golden Globe wins
17 Emmy award nominations
4 Emmy award win
Mary Tyler Moore
1 Academy Award nomination
45 Emmy award nominations
9 Emmy award wins
19 Golden Globe nomination
5 Golden Globe wins
Taxi
2 Academy Award nomination
8 Golden Globe nominations
1 Golden Globe win
3 Emmy Award nomination
1 Emmy Award win
On this metric, it looks like Mary Tyler Moore is the current leader for continued work and success. The first two were entirely driven by two actors, of course.
How about Andy Griffith? I don’t know/follow performers too much, but Ron Howard is one of the best directors and had a huge run on Happy days, and of course Andy as Matlock and in other things, too, I imagine. Don Knotts really did pretty well afterward, too. That’s the first I thought of when I saw this thread.
As I say, though, I don’t follow performers enough to know it would trump MTM, but yeah, I can see that I should have thought of it, I always liked that show as a kid.
And, you might want to put an asterisk beside Ron Howard as Opie, anyway, since he had more time to accomplish all he did, being a child actor.
I’m going to second Andy Griffith, at least in terms of more success per character than any other show. Don’t forget that Jim Nabors was spun off into Gomer Pyle (a success in itself) and George Lindsay had a pretty good career on Hee Haw.
The problem with Shows like Bosom Buddies or Mork and Mindy is that you get one enormous breakout star who skews the average. Then you have shows like the Mary Tyler Moore variety show that included Michael Keaton, David Letterman, Swoozie Kurtz and Dick Shawn in the company, but the show itself was a flop and quickly canceled.
YOu guys can’t leave out *All in The Family[i/] that show had the most spin offs of any show, incudlng Mod, and The Jeffersons. I can’t give you a list of all of them casue I just don’t know them all, this was 10 years before was born people! (ok more like 7, but the point is still valid)
Most of the ** Bosom Buddies ** wins are for Tom Hanks. Throw him out and see what comes up. That’s like nominating ** Family Ties** because of Michael J. Fox.
SNL also had Eddie Murphy, Al Franken, Michael Myers and a bunch of other people.
x = (8b + 6(d + f) + 4(a + h + j) + 3(c + e) + 2(g + i + l + n) + (k + m))/t
a = number of academy awards won by leading cast member
b = number of academy awards won by all other cast members
c = number of academy award nominations of leading cast member
d = number of academy award nominations of all other cast members
e = number of emmys won by leading cast member
f = number of emmys won by all other cast members
g = number of emmy nominations of leading cast member
h = number of emmy nominations of all other cast members
i = number of golden globes won by leading cast member
j = number of golden globes won by all other cast members
k = number of golden globe nominations of leading cast member
l = number of golden globe nominations of all other cast members
m = number of seasons of other television shows with leading cast member
n = number of seasons of other television shows with any other cast member
t = total number of cast members (as listed in opening credits)
I nominate Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Regular cast members who went on to pretty successful careers include [ol][li]Ruth Buzzi[/li][li]Gary Owens[/li][li]Eileen Brennan[/li][li]Sammy Davis Jr.[/li][li]Richard Dawson[/li][li]Henry Gibson[/li][li]Goldie Hawn[/li][li]Arte Johnson[/li][li]Lily Tomlin[/li][li]Flip Wilson[/li][li]Jo Anne Worley[/ol] 1968 - 1970 includes pretty much all of the above, except Richard Dawson, who joined the cast in 1971.[/li]
If we’re counting awards earned by the veteran cast members during and since their departure, Laugh-In racks up:
3 Academy Award Nominations
1 Academy Award Win
18 Golden Globe Nominations
1 Golden Globe Win
18 Emmy Nominations
5 Emmy Wins
1 Daytime Emmy Nomination
1 Daytime Emmy Win
3 National Society of Film Critics Wins
1 American Comedy Award Nomination
4 American Comedy Award Wins
Peter Scolari, the other “Bosom Buddy”, picked up three consecutive Emmy nominations in the late eighties (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Newhart). He also played the lead in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show.
Another actor from that show, Donna Dixon, was used as a punchline on the first Simpsons Christmas special, which I guess is notable in itself.
Depending on how you define your terms, the most successful post-series TV cast could arguably be the original Star Trek crew, since the first six Trek movies had an average worldwide gross of about $100 million. There’s no place for financial success in Little Nemo’s formula.
Cheers and Taxi post-show successes improve even further if you include Tony award nominations and wins, and really, why wouldn’t you? Of course, that once again limits things to one or two of the regular actors bringing in the body of the nominations (Bebe Neuwirth, Marilu Henner and Judd Hirsch) but it’s not insignificant.