# Who's the worst actor on tv? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422 "2012-07-16T17:43:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/21 "2012-07-16T22:39:56Z")
Ray Romano is as good as he needs to be, considering the roles he plays - I mean, just look at him! What do you want from the guy? (and anyway, he started out as a comedian, didn’t he?) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/22 "2012-07-16T22:48:50Z")
It’s some years canceled, but I’ll still nominate the kids who played the young twins on Seventh Heaven. Man, they were terrible! ---
**Author:** ![D-bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@D-bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D-bear)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/23 "2012-07-16T23:03:25Z")
Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume all manage to keep from laughing when they say “Fair and Balanced,” but they are _ **terrible** _ actors. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/24 "2012-07-16T23:11:23Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Completely agree with **RickJay**. I am traumatized from the times I’ve been subject to tween shows. I had to have all my teeth replaced after grinding them to dust from not going into a tirade of how a black screen would be more entertaining. > > Now I’m pissed off at you RickJay for bringing that trauma back to my mind and since I can’t Pit you, I’m going to go kick some puppies. You can pit moderators same as other posters. ---
**Author:** ![Doody\_Pants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@Doody\_Pants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doody_Pants)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/25 "2012-07-16T23:13:42Z")
Jayma Mays in Glee. I think her eyes are going to literally fall out if she opens them any wider. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/26 "2012-07-17T00:51:08Z")
> [@Anamorphic](#): > > I never really watched much of his sitcom, but he was good in the prematurely cancelled “Men Of A Certain Age”. It was basically the exact same character. ---
**Author:** ![charmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@charmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charmstr)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/27 "2012-07-17T00:59:59Z")
Matt Passmore on _The Glades_. Weirdly enough, as awful as his wooden smirkiness is, I still enjoy the show. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/28 "2012-07-17T01:00:21Z")
Is Wanda Sykes still on any shows currently? If so, I’d say her. She doesn’t do anything but yell stuff in “sassy” ebonics. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/29 "2012-07-17T01:43:49Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > …The guy who plays the older brother on “iCarly,” Spencer Shay, is an actor of no talent at all whose only ability is doing a goofy voice. He makes George Lopez look like Sir Laurence Olivier, I shit you not. He literally just looks like a high school improv nerd who somehow stumbled onto the set of a real TV show and the cast doesn’t have the heart to tell him to fuck off… I agree with your criticism of tween shows generally (_The Suite Life_ first and foremost), but I actually like this guy. He has great comic timing and almost always makes me laugh. I would go so far as to say he’s the best thing on the show, which my boys watch just about whenever it’s on. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/30 "2012-07-17T01:58:07Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I mean, just look at him! What do you want from the guy? Was i the only one who imagined Ray Romano saying this in that horrible, drawn-out Ray Romano whine? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/31 "2012-07-17T02:10:36Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Is Wanda Sykes still on any shows currently? If so, I’d say her. She doesn’t do anything but yell stuff in “sassy” ebonics. She doesn’t do much more than this in her standup act these days. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/32 "2012-07-17T02:10:55Z")
Oops ---
**Author:** ![ScarletNumber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@ScarletNumber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScarletNumber)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/33 "2012-07-17T02:13:58Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > My nominee would have to be Thomas Gibson, formerly “Greg” on _Dharma and Greg_, currently on _Criminal Minds_. Is this guy capable of anything other than a beetle-browed scowl? It’s like he’s trying too hard to be a “serious” actor after being on a crappy sit-com. I don’t know- maybe his whole face had been botoxed and that’s the best he can do. I put him, Eric McCormack, and Charles Shaughnessy all in the same category. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/34 "2012-07-17T02:19:43Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > My nominee would have to be Thomas Gibson, formerly “Greg” on _Dharma and Greg_, currently on _Criminal Minds_. Is this guy capable of anything other than a beetle-browed scowl? It’s like he’s trying too hard to be a “serious” actor after being on a crappy sit-com. I don’t know- maybe his whole face had been botoxed and that’s the best he can do. Let’s put it this way: I think he played a one-note, stick-in-the-mud tightass on _Dharma and Greg_ for a very good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/35 "2012-07-17T03:43:56Z")
I have a personal beef with Thomas Gibson: During his broke and hungry days he did an internship with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. While he was on _Dharma and Greg_ he mentioned this during a Jay Leno appearance, at which Leno immediately went off on a “tuh bay er not tuh bay, that thar’s the question” southern accent joke and then asked something like “Alabama Shakespeare Festival, was it in the back of a truckstop?”, to which Gibson laughed and said “You’re not too far off”. For those not familiar, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is one of the best and most famous repertory companies in the United States. It was endowed by a billionaire who basically said “spare no expense” in building it, it’s internationally famous, QE2 recognized it by sending an item from the Crown Jewels (admittedly a cheap item I’m sure, but still- only done for very worthy Shakespearean theaters- I think 2 or 3 others in North America have that distinction). [Pictures.](http://www.google.com/search?q=alabama%20shakespeare%20festival&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=-t4EUMaOG4Km8ATCvvDOBw&biw=1440&bih=712&sei=_N4EUMKOOpCu8QTOxZT0Bw) Its members have gone on to Broadway and movies. (Norbert Leo Butz is one of the most famous alumni and he has publicly praised it.) Say what you will about Alabama, the Shakespeare Festival kicks ass. Pissed me the hell off that he didn’t stand up for them or give just a two second “no, actually, it’s really nice” defense. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/36 "2012-07-17T03:52:35Z")
Ice T. As for iCarly, that is an awesome show and the actors aren’t grand thespians, but they are better than any other tween shows by a mile. Even the older brother. ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/37 "2012-07-17T04:04:13Z")
I haven’t watched enough bad TV recently to judge, but I do overhear my daughter’s viewings of the Disney & Nickelodeon tween shows. I will agree with RickJay regarding the vacuum of talent therein. Nevertheless, the one show I’ll admit I watched for way too many episodes that has worse talent is ABC’s “Revenge”, with Henry Czerny, who plays the “evil” Conrad Grayson, as the pinnacle of “baaaaaaad”…to quote Leonard Pinth-Garnell. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/38 "2012-07-17T04:39:40Z")
[Michael Rapaport](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001650/). [I win](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zcj6eqkzjY). You can just watch the first 10 seconds in which his direction is to enter and remark on the pleasant smell in the kitchen. What a natural. Or you can watch him in literally anything else. He’s the only bad thing in True Romance 'fer instance. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/39 "2012-07-17T12:00:20Z")
> [@D-bear](#): > > Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume all manage to keep from laughing when they say “Fair and Balanced,” but they are _ **terrible** _ actors. Let’s keep politics out of this, please. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422/40 "2012-07-17T12:24:11Z")
> [@ScarletNumber](#): > > I put him, Eric McCormack, and Charles Shaughnessy all in the same category. I’ve never watched **Will and Grace** , so I can’t speak to his performance in that, but Eric McCormack was in a show called **Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years** in the mid-'90s, playing a Civil War veteran and local tyrant, and I thought he was great in it. Fairly nuanced portrayal of someone alternately charming and menacing. Thomas Gibson and Charles Shaughnessy I’ll grant you, though. 🙂 (Even my lingering love of Shaughnessy from his days on **Days of Our Lives** can’t cloud my eyes to the fact that he’s a very one-note performer.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-on-tv/628422.md?page=3)