Why do TV actors have problems finding the next show after making themselves a star?

Nathan Fillion seems the exception. His Castle costar Stana Katic is one that comes to mind. Did she do anything after Castle?

I always thought Michael Hogan was incredible in the BSG reboot but he did nothing further. Similar for the guy who played Baltar.

Michael Weatherly left NCIS and later started in Bull. I don't know enough to judge his success. Rainn Wilson had a show. Did it have any success?

Do you mean lead roles? Cause Hogan has tons of credits post BSG

Dave Foley. Well he had Kids in the Hall, but Newsradio was his big show. Did a bit of stuff, but nothing that matched. The "new" season of kids in the hall was 2022 and was great but a one off.

Maybe some don't want to be big Hollywood stars

Its definitely a downside of tv acting. If you are lucky enough to be part of a long running big hit, people are also less likely to want to see you, or believe you, in another role.
For some reason we dont do the same thing to people that were in a movie (maybe if it was a trilogy we might?)

PatAg said:

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Its definitely a downside of tv acting. If you are lucky enough to be part of a long running big hit, people are also less likely to want to see you, or believe you, in another role.
For some reason we dont do the same thing to people that were in a movie (maybe if it was a trilogy we might?)

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a movie…or let's say a trilogy of 3 movies is a total of about 6 hours…..so that's 6 hours we've seen an actor portray a character usually spread out over a period of 6 years since obviously there's gaps when trilogy movies come out (matrix and LOTR being the only exceptions)……

Now….sitcoms…..when I was growing up a sitcom revolves around the school year and you had roughly 16 episodes a season when factoring out commercials lasted about 22 minutes…..and let's say that show lasted 8 seasons….

16 x 22 x 8 / 60 = 47 hours we've seen an actor portray a character…..holy crap I wasn't expecting to see a number that big when I was doing this!

This is why we at times see actors leave shows because they don't want to get "type casted"…..Gary Burgough from MASH immediately comes to mind….

Sucks but it makes sense why regular viewers might have a hard time seeing sitcom actors be in other roles when you look at it like that…..Jim Parsons also comes to mind….

nickstro66 said:

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Taylor Kitsch
Might be too early for these but Aaron Paul and Jensen Ackles comes to mind for me too

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Ackles did The Boys and is about to be in another show, but I'm drawing a blank on it.

Pretty much the whole cast of Cheers.

Most of Married With Children too. I think Bud is the only one that didn't go on to big things.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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I thought we were naming exceptions. Did I get it backwards?

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Maybe I got it backwards!

I think it is probably that people always see you as the character from the first successful show and expect the same or similar - but then gripe that they are just playing the same character. And second, landing a hit TV show is very hard, even with a "big" name attached.

Makes you think being a star and having more than one big, notable role is more the exception

Former prime time network shows were 22 episode seasons. 100 episodes to get to syndication. I remember when MASH was in syndication and would be on at 6:30 and 10:30, plus regular season 1 time a week. Movies stars get to get famous on a lot of movies. Rare tv stars do on multiple shows.

This isn't the exception but the rule for most.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Pretty much the whole cast of Cheers.

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John Ratzenberger has made a killing off his voice

Unnecessary Deafness said:

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Zach Braff

Sure he made some of his own shows, but surprised he never had anything else big and lived off scrubs

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Sticks to doing TMobile commercials with the other guy from Scrubs.

Quote:

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Cleavon Little - Blazing Saddles

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Your comment, and Blazing Saddles being on TV last night got me to look him up. Doesn't look there was any big reason for him not becoming a bigger star, other than maybe he was a stage guy and that might have been where his focus was.

I was going to say Greg Evigan from B.J. and the Bear, not realizing he was also on My Two Dads (a show I didn't watch). I thought Darren E. Burrows would do better after Northern Exposure. His character was quirky, but he seemed to do well in the role.

The TV world is just so weird. I can think of countless stars who were perfect for their roles and commanded a ton of money, then either kept going, walked away and did something different, or flamed out.

LOST is a great one to look at. Tons of great actors on that show, for that show. Most of them never really turned into much (by trying, or not trying). Evangeline Lilly- never really tried. Josh Holloway- tried and failed.

THE WEST WING- perfectly acted by a huge cast, and really the only thing to come out of it was Allison Janney, who moved totally out of drama into sitcom.

Then there's a Patricia Heaton who can do 9 years of Everybody Loves Raymond, right next to 7 years of The Middle, land a (failed) show with Frasier Crane, then her own show.

It's just such a weird space, that has shifted in the last few years with streaming.

A lot of folks wanted to "do their own thing", be that acting in movies, with varying degrees of success (looking at you George Clooney and David Caruso), or go "direct and be fulfilled and stuff."

One of the biggest ones you'd have to talk about is Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (she was Buffy) was a thing. And she spent her time between seasons making movies that did incredibly well- (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, etc).

Gorgeous, great actress, but after 7 years, took a break. You know, to have kids and stuff. Tried to come back in a couple of different ways, and it just didn't work. And after 2 failed shows was like "no thanks anymore".

NoahAg said:

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The girl from Chuck.
Maggie Lawson from Psych.

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Yvonne Strahovski has had a steady career since "Chuck" ended. She isn't a superstar by any stretch, but she has had steady work.

Phoebe Cates prioritized being a mom after marrying Kevin Kline.

She now owns a shop on the upper east side of Manhattan where she can be found more often than not.

She's still beautiful in her 60's, btw.