Is that more or less than three television seasons?
Dick Van Dyke (Dick Van Dyke Show, the entirely different New Dick Van Dyke Show, Diagnosis Murder)
Bill Cosby (I Spy, The Cosby Show, Cosby)
Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven)
People you have to look up.
Drew Carey (Drew Carey Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway, and, because no one said daytime doesn’t count. . . The Price is Right)
Thomas Gibson (Chicago Hope, Dharma and Greg, Criminal Minds)
Craig T. Nelson (Coach, Parenthood, The District)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has Seinfeld, New Adventures or Old Christine, and Veep.
I think Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids should also count.
In the UK it’s almost 13 episodes!
Bob Newhart deserves a mention for starring in three shows which were named after him, though only the first two were hits by the definition given in the OP.
I was going to say Adam Baldwin for The Last Ship, Chuck, and Firefl…
Then I was sad.
But that does remind me that McSteamy has been a pretty successful TV actor. Has Adam Baldwin ever starred in anything on TV though? Seems like he’s always been a supporting actor.
Carroll O’Connor —* All in the Family, Archie Bunker’s Place*, and In the Heat of the Night.
He’s a British actor doing British shows and yes, British shows have a lower episode count, but I think David Jason deserves consideration.
I’ll give some detail here for those unfamiliar with British TV.
Open All Hours was a gentle comedy about an old fashioned Northern English shop keeper. The star was Ronnie Barker but Jason was a co-star for the 4 seasons and 26 episodes. However nearly thirty years after the show finished the same basic show returned as Still Open All Hours with Jason, still portraying the same character although obviously much older, and now he is the clear star (Barker, the actor and his character, having died.) The resurrected show alone ran for 6 series and 41 episodes.
Sitcom A Sharp Intake Of Breath starring Jason managed three seasons and 22 episodes.
Now considered one of the best loved British Sitcoms, Jason starred in Only Fools And Horses which had seven regular seasons and continued with one off Christmas Specials for years.
He starred in Comedy Drama The Darling Buds of May which managed three seasons and a few specials. It provided an early role for Catherine Zeta Jones who later found some fame in Hollywood (and married Michael Douglas.)
The Detective Drama A Touch of Frost tended to be broadcast as two or three episode stories once or twice a year so the 42 episodes over eighteen years count as 15 seasons.
He provided the voice for DangerMouse in the animated children’s TV show of the same name. Ten seasons and 161 episodes. There was a spin off animated show called Count Duckula also voiced by Jason lasting four seasons and 65 episodes.
Then there was the further animated spin off Victor and Hugo (with Jason voicing Hugo) but that only managed two seasons and 30 episodes.
A mention has to be included for Do Not Adjust Your TV Set. An early live action Children’s TV comedy where Jason was one of the main cast which included several soon to be Monty Python stars. The show only managed two seasons. Although that’s significant for a British show.
So Jason has five genuine shows across comedy, comedy drama and drama. Plus another couple of shows which count by British standards plus the three related animated shows he was lead voice for.
Plus other shows which only lasted one season or were always intended as one off, multi-episode productions.
TCMF-2L
Garry McDonald
A close call for Garry McDonald, an Australian actor and voted a National Living Treasure.
Not only was he Norman Gunston - three seasons of The Norman Gunston Show on ABC plus another on Channel 7, but he was the son in Mother and Son (6 seasons) and the lead in Eggshells (2 seasons - 15 eps).
Shaun Micallef
He’s had two topical shows - Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell (10 series), another newsy topical show - *Newstopia *(3 seasons) and The Micallef Program (3 seasons), plus was host of the game show Talkin Bout Your Generation (6 seasons).
The winners as far as Australia is concerned has to be the acting and production ensemble Working Productions. There are about half a dozen mainstays in the group, who perform various acting and back of camera roles. Their work includes:
D Generation (2 seasons + specials series on another channel) - strictly not Working Dog, but where they all started as a post-uni comedy
The panel (7 seasons)
Frontline (3 seasons)
Utopia (4 seasons)
Actually Bob Newhart had four shows named after him! He was host of a variety show in the 1960s that only lasted one season. (He was also co-host of a different variety show that didn’t have his name in the title.)
And while it doesn’t really count for this thread, Newhart also guest-hosted The Tonight Show more than 80 times.
They’d be in black & white. Maybe Kinescoped.
George Clooney starred in three very successful TV shows: Facts of Life Roseanne and E/R. And walked away from all of them.
I guess he did all right for himself.
He didn’t star in the first two, he had a recurring character role. He was only on Rosanne for 11 episodes, and 17 episodes of The Facts of Life.
He did star in all 8 episodes of a series called E/R which was cancelled in the first season. The show that made him famous is actually called ER, no slash. He was also in 19 episodes of Sisters in a recurring role, and 16 episodes of Bodies of Evidence in a supporting cast role.
Nathan Fillion starred in Castle, The Rookie, and Firefly, the last doesn’t meet the criteria since it didn’t last long enough. He did play a supporting character in 60 episodes of Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place.
Kelsey Grammer gets credit for Cheersand Fraiser, and he had starring roles in several other short lived shows like Boss, Partners, Back to You, and Hank.
Matt LeBlanc has Friends, Joey, Episodes, and Man with a Plan which all qualify I think.
How many series of Top Gear was Matt Leblanc on? That might qualify as well.
Wikipedia says Robert Urich starred in 15 series and he died young at 55
a lot of his only lasted 1 season
Grammer was not a lead character on Cheers. E.g., he was nominated twice for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Emmies for that.
I thought two of the LeBlanc shows were under 3 seasons. Joey lasted only 2 but that Man with a Plan is in its 4th season. :eek:
Lee Majors was main cast in “The Big Valley” and the star of Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy.