Surprised that Andy Griffith hasn’t been mentioned - but then when I went and looked him up to find the third (past Mayberry and Matlock) - I cant find any other series that fit the bill - lots of roles - just the 2 series.
Then I went to look up John Ritter - he seems to fit the bill quite nicely -
Three’s Company
Hearts Afire
HooperMan
8 Simple Rules - would have gone on longer had he not passed mid second season.
Yes. They do have similar names. But they are also very similar in their subject matter and content. They all are shows that invite us to laugh at Lucy the clown. But I really don’t want to say much in the negative about Lucille Ball.
Before she became one of TV’s greatest stars ever, she made a whole bunch of movies - most of which would be called “B” films. But I’d like to recommend one of these to you in particular. It is “The Dark Corner” 1946 and stars Lucy and Mark Stevens.
I found this film to be extremely enjoyable and Lucy played a character who was nothing like the Lucy in her TV shows. That character was completely unrecognizable as Lucille Ball. She did a great job in that film and for those of you who may be interested, I would strongly recommend you see that movie. It was really good.
Katey Sagal
[ul]
[li]Married With Children - 10 seasons[/li][li]8 Simple Rules - 3 seasons[/li][li]Futurama - 7 seasons[/li][li]Sons of Anarchy - 7 seasons[/li][/ul]
Judd Hirsch
[ul]
[li]Taxi - 4 seasons[/li][li]Dear John - 3 seasons[/li][li]Numb3rs - 4 seasons (major supporting role)[/li][/ul]
Plus starring roles in shorter lived series
[ul]
[li]Superior Donuts - 2 seasons[/li][li]Delvecchio - 1 season[/li][li]Detective in the House - 1 season[/li][li]George & Leo - 1 season[/li][li]Small Miracles - 1 season[/li][/ul]
Hank Azaria
[ul]
[li]Herman’s Head - 3 seasons[/li][li]The Simpsons - too many seasons to count[/li][li]Brockmire - 3 seasons[/li][li]Huff - 2 seasons[/li][/ul]
She was a repertory player on SNL, too, for three seasons. That has to count; “Repertory player” is the highest rank of cast member, essentially a starring role.
Azaria was also in 16 episodes of Mad About You as Murray’s dog walker Nat Ostertag. Did a damn fine job.
There were 6 seasons, and as far as I know, his role was equally large in all of them.
Dick Van Dyke -
The Dick Van Dyke show
THe New Dick Van Dyke Show
The Carol Burnett show
Diagnoses Murder
From Wikipedia:
“Munch has become the only fictional character, played by a single actor, to physically appear on 10 different television series. These shows were on five different networks: NBC (Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, and 30 Rock); Fox (The X-Files and Arrested Development); UPN (The Beat); HBO (The Wire) and ABC (Jimmy Kimmel Live!). Munch has been one of the few television characters to cross genres, appearing not only in crime drama series, but sitcom (Arrested Development), late night comedy (Jimmy Kimmel Live!) and horror and science fiction (The X-Files).”
You left out Three’s a Crowd, which ran only one season.
Slight hijack about Dick Van Dyke.
My uncle by marriage was a Van Dyke and apparently was second cousins with him (maybe even first cousins because they looked a lot alike). They both were working at Universal Studios decades ago but didn’t know each other. They met because one day they were sitting next to each other at the Studio cafeteria counter and the waitress came over and said: “Well, it’s the Van Dyke boys!”
Taxi ran for five seasons, four on ABC, and one on NBC.
And he was also in “Forever”, which only lasted one season.
I didn’t think he was the star of Forever, but he was the lead in all the others listed there.
James Spader
He did one season on The Practice, then 5 seasons of Boston Legal. The character’s name in both are the same. Same character? I never saw The Practice.
His did 2 seasons of The Office in a guest starring role before starring in The Blackist.
Rescue 911 was 188 episodes, not 18. I had to double check, but when I read this I was wondering how in the hell it was only 188 seasons when that show was the bane of my existence when I was a kid. With no cable it seemed like the only show that was ever on my TV.
Courtney Thorne-Smith
[ul]
[li]According to Jim - 8 seasons[/li][li]Ally McBeal - 5 seasons[/li][li]Melrose Place - 7 seasons[/li][/ul]
Would voice talent for cartoon series count? Kevin Conroy’s voiced Batman for the last 20 years on multiple series.
Jane Curtin
[ul]
[li]Saturday Night Live - 5 seasons[/li][li]3rd Rock from the Sun - 6 seasons[/li][li]Kate & Allie - 6 seasons[/li][/ul]