# When Bad Actors Happen to Great TV Series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810 "2006-02-16T16:08:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/61 "2006-02-17T14:25:57Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Now see, I could picture Brooks being great in this situation. I think his problem in DS9 wasn’t so much that he was trying to out-emote Shatner as he was trying to out-Shakespeare Patrick Stewart. Nana Visitor is guilty of over-emoting, as well. Whenever she finished some long monologue, I half expected her to say, “ACTING!” ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/62 "2006-02-17T18:11:38Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > I wonder in which Universe Martin Lawrence plays Sisko? Probably the same one where’s lauded for his comedic genius by James Lipton on \*Inside Actor’s Studio \* for his role in “Big Momma’s House.” :smack: Waitaminute. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/63 "2006-02-17T18:52:41Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Probably the same one where’s lauded for his comedic genius by James Lipton on \*Inside Actor’s Studio \* for his role in “Big Momma’s House.” > > :smack: Waitaminute. I really don’t think James Lipton has met an ass he wouldn’t kiss. You know, just IMHO. Martin Lawrence, don’t the French think he’s a comic genius? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/64 "2006-02-17T19:04:20Z")
One obscure one: The great (and lamented) **My So Called Life** was full of great acting among all the regular cast. (The weakest link was probably **Devon Odessa** as Sharon, and she was still fine). But the Christmas episode featured a guest starring appearance from country singer **Julianna Hatfield**. And she could not act her way out of a paper bag. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/65 "2006-02-17T19:07:09Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > I really don’t think James Lipton has met an ass he wouldn’t kiss. You know, just IMHO. I _loved_ Tobey Maguire/Will Ferrell as Dustin “Screech” Diamond/James Lipton on SNL. “You… sir… are… quite simply… the… single grea—test… comic actor… of all time.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/66 "2006-02-17T19:38:07Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Is it because she’s a lesbian? 🙂 Who, Rohm? Wikipedia says she was engaged for two years to MSNBC’s Dan Abrams. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth\_Röhm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_R%C3%B6hm) Yeah, engaged. What? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/67 "2006-02-17T19:42:33Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Who, Rohm? Wikipedia says she was engaged for two years to MSNBC’s Dan Abrams. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth\_Röhm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_R%C3%B6hm) > > Yeah, engaged. > > What? Whoosh. Her last line on _L&O_ was “Is [my being fired] because I’m a lesbian?”, the first time the character’s orientation was ever mentioned (though I think she had been seen with a dog and a tennis racket). ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/68 "2006-02-17T19:49:07Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > I really don’t think James Lipton has met an ass he wouldn’t kiss. In a typical calibre of ITAS guests, I’d be kissing ass, too. I expect Great Important Actors on ITAS. I can see a place for Underappreciated Legendary Character Actors and Hot Up And Comers With Unbelievable Talent and Enjoyable Perfomances. I could conceivably see a place for Whole Series Casts, although I kind of :rolleyes: at the ones for _Everybody Loves Raymond_ and _Will & Grace._ But Martin Lawrence has always struck me as too much the poor man’s Eddie Murphy. Why the hell was Billy Joel once a guest on ITAS? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/69 "2006-02-17T19:53:51Z")
I can’t believe this thread has gone this far with no mention of Roseanne Barr-Arnold-whatever. Okay, she did improve over the course of the series so that she could at least do a passable job portraying a character that mirrors her own personality. But for the first few years she could not deliver a line to save her life. Whenever I see those early episodes, my heart really goes out to John Goodman & Laurie Metcalfe and even the three kids, all of whom struggled mightily to compensate for that enormous albatross weighing down her _own show_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/70 "2006-02-17T19:55:13Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > I could conceivably see a place for Whole Series Casts, although I kind of :rolleyes: at the ones for _Everybody Loves Raymond_ and _Will & Grace._ The cast of _Will & Grace_ was on Leno one night and they were asked about their interview on ITAS. Unanimously and openly they despised it, particularly the asinine “answer this question as your character” pieces. They thought the interview was too silly except when he tried to get deep, which with ten people (the 4 principals _AND_ their characters as well as the producer and creator) just isn’t gonna happen in a short show. I think that episode even more than Lawrence or Robin Williams’ second interview was it’s nadir. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/71 "2006-02-17T22:01:11Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Why the hell was Billy Joel once a guest on ITAS? Well, he DID do the voice of Dodger in Disney’s [Oliver & Company](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095776/). ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/72 "2006-02-17T22:34:14Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > One obscure one: The great (and lamented) **My So Called Life** was full of great acting among all the regular cast. (The weakest link was probably **Devon Odessa** as Sharon, and she was still fine). But the Christmas episode featured a guest starring appearance from country singer **Julianna Hatfield**. And she could not act her way out of a paper bag. Was Hatfield playing a country singer? Because that’s not her preferred musical style. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/73 "2006-02-18T01:19:32Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I agree, including his appearances in Seinfeld. He is the reason I find the show impossible to watch. That’s cuckoo talk. Jason Alexander was easily the best actor on that show. His _character_ was annoying, for sure, but that’s not because of bad acting. Anything other than _Seinfeld_, though, and I agree - he’s lost it. I came in to say the actress who plays Corrinne Mackey on _The Shield_ - I guess when you’re the creator’s wife, it doesn’t matter how bad you come across on camera. Even worse (though she was only on a few episodes of _The Shield_, and I’ve never seen her in anything else except movies) is **David Mamet** ’s wife (whose name I can’t remember, and my work computer is way too slow to open another window to look her up on imdb) - on the show she was supposed to have some sort of British accent, I think - she was so painfully bad (and intermittent) with it that it was hard to tell. Talk about the perks of being the creator’s wife - she’s probably the worst actress I can think of (even counting Elisabeth Rohm), yet she gets to appear in more critically-acclaimed shit than many actresses with far, far better chops. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/74 "2006-02-18T09:04:46Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Was Hatfield playing a country singer? Because that’s not her preferred musical style. No, she was playing a mysterious and angelic homeless waif. I thought she was a country singer in real life, but as I’ve never heard of her in any other context, I might well be mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/75 "2006-02-18T14:17:57Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > But Martin Lawrence has always struck me as too much the poor man’s Eddie Murphy. > > Why the hell was Billy Joel once a guest on ITAS? Martin Lawrence is the desperately-starved-for-entertainment, lacking-a-sense-of-humor-man’s Eddie Murphy’s untalented brother. The Billy Joel episode of ITAS was one of my favorites, because it was mostly Billy Joel singing and playing and talking about songwriting. I don’t know why he was ther, but he was great. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/76 "2006-02-18T16:05:32Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > I came in to say the actress who plays Corrinne Mackey on _The Shield_ - I guess when you’re the creator’s wife, it doesn’t matter how bad you come across on camera. Even worse (though she was only on a few episodes of _The Shield_, and I’ve never seen her in anything else except movies) is **David Mamet** ’s wife (whose name I can’t remember, and my work computer is way too slow to open another window to look her up on imdb) - on the show she was supposed to have some sort of British accent, I think - she was so painfully bad (and intermittent) with it that it was hard to tell. Talk about the perks of being the creator’s wife - she’s probably the worst actress I can think of (even counting Elisabeth Rohm), yet she gets to appear in more critically-acclaimed shit than many actresses with far, far better chops. One more example of a horrible actress and nepotism on _The Shield_: Autumn Chiklis, star Michael Chiklis’ GIANT daughter, playing his character Vic Mackey’s daughter Cassidy Mackey. The girl seems extraordinarily huge, and is an even worse actress than Cathy Cahlin Ryan, who plays her mother. All she does is whine, scream, cry, and flounce… and not even in a believable “I’m a teenage girl, my parents are separated, and my father is a shady scumbag” sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/77 "2006-02-18T16:06:52Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > Martin Lawrence is the desperately-starved-for-entertainment, lacking-a-sense-of-humor-man’s Eddie Murphy’s untalented brother. Wouldn’t that be CHARLIE MURPHY? Oh wait, he’s actually funny as well. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/78 "2006-02-18T18:37:20Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > Martin Lawrence is the desperately-starved-for-entertainment, lacking-a-sense-of-humor-man’s Eddie Murphy’s untalented brother. > > The Billy Joel episode of ITAS was one of my favorites, because it was mostly Billy Joel singing and playing and talking about songwriting. I don’t know why he was ther, but he was great. Both Billy Joel and Elton John got the pass because they’ve written the music for successful Broadway shows (old style in Billy Joel’s case where they take a bunch of his more popular songs and build a show around them). Sir Elton has actually written the music for two successful shows. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/79 "2006-02-18T21:29:53Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > Both Billy Joel and Elton John got the pass because they’ve written the music for successful Broadway shows (old style in Billy Joel’s case where they take a bunch of his more popular songs and build a show around them). Did you happen to see _Movin’ Out_ when it was here in town? Un-fricken’-believable! ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810/80 "2006-02-18T22:00:33Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Did you happen to see _Movin’ Out_ when it was here in town? Un-fricken’-believable! Nope, out of work at the time – couldn’t afford it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-bad-actors-happen-to-great-tv-series/344810.md?page=5)