The magic century mark

F. Scott Fitzgerald said “There are no second acts in American lives.”  I don’t know if that’s true anymore; it seems like the American public is consumed by tearing down public lives just to “forgive” the person and raise them up again.  After all, Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer both ran (albeit unsuccessfully) for office in New York City after being publicly humiliated by their own hubris.  It’s almost as if the public believes someone who got caught transgressing once before is more trustworthy now because he or she knows not to make the same mistake again.  Which isn't to say they won’t make new ones (heads up all you Bobby Petrino fans in Louisville!).

One place where there are very few second acts is on television.  Let me give two examples.  Michael Lerned was an actress with a man’s first name who starred on The Waltons back in the 1970’s.  To call her one of the best actresses at the time is an understatement; she was nominated for six Emmys for Best Actress and won three.  How did she follow this success up?  She starred in a show called Nurse that lasted two seasons (and netted her another Emmy) but after that she pops up in TV movies and guest star spots on shows such as Scrubs.  She did not star in another successful series.  The same goes for Daniel J. Travanti, the star of the show Hill Street Blues.  Travanti received five Best Actor nominations and two Emmys, but he never starred in another successful TV drama.

Let’s set an arbitrary measure of a “successful” series at 100 episodes, the point at which most series can go into syndication and last seemingly forever.  How many actors or actresses have starred in one hour-long dramatic series that lasted 100 episodes, and then starred in another?  The answer is very few.

Raymond Burr logged 271 episodes as Perry Mason in the 1950’s and 60’s, then followed that with 195 episodes of Ironside.  Michael Landon was the lead in 187 episodes of Little House on the Prairie, then produced 111 episodes of Highway to Heaven (add that to 426 episodes of Bonanza and that’s a lot of screen time; I am reluctant to include Bonanza as he technically wasn’t the lead in that show, Lorne Greene was).  Rob Morrow just squeaks in, starring in 102 episodes of Northern Exposure and 111 of Numbers.

Perhaps the most surprising member of this group is David Boreanaz, who starred in 111 episodes of Angel and is currently on Bones, which is rapidly approaching 200 episodes.  Maybe the stupidest thing I ever said was that his career would be over 10 minutes after Angel was cancelled.  In my defense, I then said in a blog on a previous website that Boreanaz had done something really difficult--he did something he didn’t have to do: get better.  Most actors who get acting roles thanks to their looks don’t feel the need to improve, but Boreanaz has developed from the callow youth cast by Joss Whedon on Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a solid light comedic actor who can play drama without losing any credibility. 

That’s the list.  Oh, there are a couple of names that bear mentioning, but I exclude them on technicalities.  Richard Dean Anderson was in 139 episodes of the legendary MacGyver and then was in 175 episodes of Stargate SG-1.  I prefer to keep the list solely focused on network shows and not include syndicated fare such as Stargate; the point of getting to 100 episodes is to get to syndication, so it seems like cheating to start in syndication (technically Stargate started on Showtime, but it was immediately put into syndication).  Dule Hill was in more than 100 episodes of West Wing and just recently passed that mark on Psych, but as with Michael Landon in Bonanza he wasn’t the lead actor in West Wing.

Tom Selleck will join the group next year assuming Blue Bloods is renewed; of course he was in 185 episodes of Magnum, PI and has now finished 80 episodes of Blue Bloods.  But I have been racking my brain for a while now and I cannot come up with any more examples of an actor or actress who played the lead in a one-hour network drama that lasted 100 episodes and then managed to do it again.  If anyone has any other ideas, please let me know.

Repeat success is more likely in comedy, but just barely.  Mary Tyler Moore followed up The Dick Van Dyke Show with her own eponymous show (Dick van Dyke was less fortunate with his subsequent ventures).  Bob Newhart followed one classic sitcom with another classic sitcom.  But Kelsey Grammer’s follow ups to Frasier, Back to You and Hank, both sank ignominiously.  And the less said about Michael Richard’s post-Seinfeld career, the better.

So my advice to anyone who is starring in a network TV show is: enjoy it now.  The odds of you being able to enjoy more success once your show goes off the air are very, very small.

I'm adding an addendum with two more names that have been pointed out to me.  The one I wouldn't have guessed is Joshua Jackson, who logged more than 100 episodes on both Dawson's Creek and Fringe (I watched neither of those shows so I forgive myself).  The one I should have gotten was Lee Majors, but NOT for the Six Million Dollar Man, which aired 99 episodes.  He was in more than 100 episodes of The Big Valley and The Fall Guy.  He wasn't quite the "star" of The Big Valley, but he got third billing and if I give Michael Landon credit for Bonanza I guess I have to give Majors credit as well.