Tag Archives: Power Rankings

Power Rankings: Home Improvement

10 Oct

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

We’ve got a relatively short one this week – last week I did a show I barely watched when it was on (3rd Rock from the Sun) and was surprised how well the actors had done.  This week I take on a show that I saw every week for years and the actors have not fared so well.  We’re giving Earl Hindman a pass because he died in 2003.  RIP,Wilson.

7.  Taran Noah Smith (as Mark Taylor) – that’s it.  Seriously.  There is nothing on his IMDB page after 1999.

6.  Debbe Dunning (as Heidi Keppert) – she was in one episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and seven of something called Wicked Wicked Games.  This cast is brutal.

5.  Jonathan Taylor Thomas (as Randy Taylor) – the breakout star of the show at the time, he was big enough that he quit the last season of Home Improvement, and didn’t even return for the series finale.  That was the height of his powers sadly.  Afterwards, he’s appeared in a couple of indie films, an episode of Ally McBeal, two of Smallville, three of 8 Simple Rules and one Veronica Mars.  He also voiced a character in a Simpsons episode and five of The Wild Thornberrys.

4.  Zachery Ty Brian (as Brad Taylor) – At least he’s working as an actor.  Since Home Improvement ended, he’s been mostly working in single episode appearances.  Two episodes of Family Law, one of Touched by an Angel, one of ER, and three of Boston Public.  He was in one Buffy, one Smallville, two Veronica Mars, three of Center of the Universe, and one Cold Case.  He was in two K-ville, one of the new Knight Rider and one Burn Notice.  Oh, and he’s cousins with Broncos QB Brady Quinn.

3.  Patricia Richardson (as Jill Taylor) – She appeared in Lifetime’s Strong Medicine in a starring role for it’s three seasons.  She also appeared in nine episodes of The West Wing as the campaign director for Alan Alda’s Republican presidential candidate.  Since, she’s been in a couple of TV movies.

2.  Richard Karn (as Al Boreand) – When Karn is ranked second, you know you’re in trouble.  His most prominent work by far has been as host of Family Feud from 2002-2006.  Currently, he hosts the Game Show Network’s Bingo America.  Aside from that, he appeared in a couple of Air Bud direct to video sequels and a That ‘70s Show episode.

1. Tim Allen (as Tim Taylor) – Most of his biggest work after Home Improvement has been sequels to movies he made while starring in the show.  This includes two Toy Storys and two Santa Clauses.  Aside from that, he’s mostly been in bombs like Big Trouble and Christmas with the Kranks.   He’s also had a successful career narrating commercials, for Chevrolet and Campbell’s soup.  He’ll be starring in Last Man Standing this fall, which I don’t expect to last much longer.

Tags: , ,

Power Rankings: 3rd Rock From the Sun

3 Oct


(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

3rd Rock From The Sun – for a show I barely watched, this is a far more impressive Power Rankings than I was expecting.  Let’s go.

7. Simbi Khali (as Nina Campbell) – Every power rankings has to have a last place.  Khali in We Were Soldiers, in single episodes of That ‘80s Show and The Bernie Mac Show and as a voice in The Incredible Hulk video game.  Moving on.

6. Elmarie Wendel (as Mamie Dubcek) – She appeared in six episodes of NYPD Blue, 11 episodes of George Lopez, and in an American Dad and a Criminal Minds.

5. Kristen Johnson (as Sally Solomon) – in 2003 she appeared in a single episode of Queens Supreme and then in 2004 in a Sex in the City, in which she plays an aging party girl who falls out of her window and dies, forcing Carrie to reflect on her life.  She guest starred in six episodes of ER and in three of Ugly Betty.  She was in one episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine and in the second season premiere of Bored to Death as a dominatrix.

4. Jane Curtin (as Mary Albright) – her post 3rd Rock career started slowly.  She appeared in a series of TV movies, most notably as a librarian in the first The Librarian movie starring Noah Wyle, and she has reprised that role in two other The Librarian teleivision movies since.  She co-starred in short-lived Fred Savage 2006 series Crumbs, and appeared in two episodes of Gary Unmarried.  She played Paul Rudd’s mother in I Love You, Man and appears in 2011’s I Don’t Know How She Does It.

3. French Stewart (as Harry Solomon) – the man has kept far more busy than I had realized, albeit mostly in work that flies under the radar.  Within a year of the end of 3rd Rock, he appeared in single episodes of Ally McBeal, Becker and That ‘70s Show as well as as Inspector Gadget in the straight-to-video Inspector Gadget 2.  In 2004 and 2005 he appeared in single episodes of The Drew Carey Show and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as well as three episodes of Less Than Perfect.  In the years since, the guest appearances have continued in force, with Stewart showing up in episodes of Pepper Dennis, Bones, The Closer, Cavemen, Pushing Daisies, Castle, Private Practice and SGU Stargate Universe.  He will be starring in a voice role in Fox cartoon Allen Gregory this fall.

2. John Lithgow (as Dick Solomon) –  at the same time 3rd Rock was wrapping up, Lithgow voiced the villainous Lord Farquaad in Shrek, and played Colin Hanks’ father in 2002 in Orange County.  He played Blake Edwards in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, and Alfred Kinsey’s strict father in Kinsey, both in 2004.  In 2006, he had a small role in Dreamgirls, and starred in a thirteen episode series, Twenty Good Years on NBC, with Jeffrey Tambor.  In 2009, he had perhaps his most memorable role since 3rd Rock, as Dexter nemesis and Trinity Killer Arthur Mitchell on the fourth season of Dexter, for which he won an Emmy.  Since then he appeared in Leap Year, in two episodes of How I Met Your Mother as Barney’s dad, and in Rise of the Planet of the Apes as James Franco’s dad

1. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Tommy Solomon) – It took Gordon-Levitt, the youngest main cast member, a little while to gain some career traction after the show ended, but since he grabbed it, he hasn’t given it up.  His first big post-3rd Rock break was 2005’s Brick, a high school film noir, for which he attracted rave reviews.  In the next couple of years, he appeared in Havoc and Shadowboxer, before appearing in The Lookout in 2007, for which he again received raves.  After Stop-Loss, The Miracle and Santa Anna and Killshot, he appeared in 2009’s (500) Days of Summer, an indie comedy smash, and as the villain, Cobra Commander in blockbuster G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  2010 brought a key role in Christopher Nolan’s Inception and in 2011 he’s co-starring with Seth Rogan in cancer dramedy 50/50.  His future looks just as bright as he’s slated to appear in the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and as Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’sLincoln.

Tags: , , , ,

Power Rankings: Full House

26 Sep

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

Back to back early 90s show rankings.  Sometimes it just goes that way.

9.  Andrea Barber (as Kimmy Gibbler) – Yeah, she retired from acting after Full House ended.  Oh well.

8. Jodie Sweetin (as Stephanie Tanner) – She was in two episodes of Party of Five, one of Yes, Dear and hosted the second season of Fuse show Pants Off Dance Off.  That’s just about it.

7.  Dave Coulier – (as Joey Gladstone) – Most of his post-Full House work has been voice roles, including individual episodes of Pinky and the Brain, Extreme Ghostbusters, Dexter’s Laboratory, Teen Titans and six episodes of Robot Chicken.  He appeared in person in an episode of Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher, four of George & Leo and in The Even Stevens Movie.

6. Candace Cameron (as DJ Tanner) – She appeared in a number of TV movies in the late ‘90s, and in single episodes of Boy Meets World and That’s So Raven.  She finally got another real shot with her role in ABC Family gymnast show Make It Or Break It, where she is a regular and plays Summer Van Horn, a true to real life a devout Christian, who is also manager of the gym.

5. Ashley Olsen (as Michelle Tanner) – Here’s how this is going to work.  95% of Ashley’s post-Full House work is the same as Mary-Kate’s.  We’ll discuss that here.  Under Mary-Kate, we’ll just work with her separate work, which is why she’s ahead.  They both appeared in at the end of Full House and right after video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley and You’re Invited to Mary-Kate and Ashley’s….  They starred together in a number of twin related films, such as It Takes Two in 1995, Passport to Paris in 1999, When In Rome in 2002, and New York Minute in 2004.  They also had their own animated series Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! in 2001.

4.  Mary-Kate Olsen (also as Michelle Tanner) – she’s got all that Ashley good stuff, and 8 episodes of Weeds and 2011 film Beastly.  And yeah, when you’re that similar, that’s all you need to get ahead.

3.  Lori Loughlin (as Rebecca Donaldson-Katsopolis) – The last three are quite close, and I’m honestly not sure how to rank them at all.  Loughlin is probably the single most underrated cast member. Loughlin has appeared on a number of shows since the end of Full House.  She starred immediately after Full House ended in Hudson Street for its one season next to co-star Tony Danza.  Like many of her fellow cast members she spent the late ‘90s doing TV movies, but she also appeared in a Suddenly Susan and a Seinfeld as Patty, Jerry’s girlfriend who tries to get him to be more in touch with his feelings.  In 2001 she was on three Spin Citys and in 2002 she was on two Drew Carey Shows.  In 2004, she co-created and starred in Summerland on the WB as a fashion designer.  The show lasted a year.  She appeared on episodes of Ghost Whisperer and Jake In Progress, and from 2008 to 2011 starred in 90210 as Debbie Wilson.

2. Bob Sagat (as Danny Tanner) – Saget also struggled post-Full House, though his second gig as host of America’s Funniest Home Videos lasted a couple years after the end of Full House’s run.  He starred in the 21-episode WB series Raising Dad again as a widower, this time with two kids, Kat Dennings and Brie Larson.  He appeared in Dumb and Dumberer and in single episodes of Huff and Listen Up.  He directed the Norm McDonald film Dirty Work. In 2005, he started his role as the narrator of How I Met Your Mother, which he continues to this day.  He hosted the two year game show 1 vs. 100 and guest starred in episodes of Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.  He also starred in the short-lived 2009 ABC sitcom Surviving Suburbia and has made multiple appearances as an exaggerated version of himself on Entourage.

1. John Stamos (as Jesse Katsopolis) – Stamos’ post-Full House career started out slower than he would have liked, as Stamos did nothing but a handful of TV movies until 2000, with names like Sealed with a Kiss and The Marriage Fool.  Time was kind though.  In 2001, he got a starring role in the show Thieves, which failed after 10 episodes.  2003 saw an appearance in a Friends episode and appearance in TV movie The Reagans.  In 2005, he starred in short-lived Jake in Progress and got a role on ER which he continued until the show’s end, for four seasons.  In 2010, he got involved in recurring roles in both Entourage, as himself, and Glee, as dentist Carl Howell.  In 2011, he appeared in a Law & Order: SVU.

Tags: , , ,

Power Rankings: Saved by the Bell

19 Sep

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

We’re taking on Saved by the Bell this week, which like most rankings has some pretty good winners and some pretty miserable losers.  Note ahead of time that I’m not mentioning Saved by the Bell: The College Years for everybody; that’s just kind of assumed.

7.  Dustin Diamond (as Samuel “Screech” Powers) – Diamond’s post Saved by the Bell career has been much more as a punchline than as an actor.  He was one of two Saved by the Bell cast members to put their inevitable career decline on hold with a spot in Saved by the Bell: The New Class, which ran until 2000, and in which he appeared in 67 episodes as principal Belding’s assistant.  After that his career consisted mostly of a handful of cameos as himself and appearances on reality shows.  The cameos include in Big Fat Liar, Pauly Shore is Dead and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star and the reality shows include The Weakest Link, Celebrity Boxing 2 and Celebrity Fit Club.

6.  Dennis Haskins – (as Richard Belding) Like Diamond, Haskins appeared as his Saved by the Bell character in Saved by the Bell: The New Class, but he actually appeared in just about every episode and was the only consistent character throughout the run of the series. He’s had few roles since then, mostly appearing in single episodes of TV shows, but at least, unlike with Diamond, it’s been as a character and not as himself.  These shows include The Practice, JAG and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  He also showed up most recently in three episodes of Men of a Certain Age.

5. Lark Voorhies (as Lisa Turtle) – After Saved by the Bell, Voorhies worked for a year in soap The Bold and the Beautiful before she left when her character was asked to do sex scenes, which she declined to do for religious reasons.  She was a recurring character in NBC and later UPN sitcom In the House which starred LL Cool J and Maia Campbell.  She appeared in single episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Family Matters, Malcolm & Eddie, and Grown Ups.  She played a major character in the 2001 film How High.  She also appeared in music videos, including Boyz II Men’s On Bended Knee and Dru Hill’s These Are The Times, amongst others.

4. Elizabeth Berkley (as Jessie Spano) – Post Saved by the Bell, Berkley is best known for what she did immediately after, which is appear in cult film and massive critical and commercial failure Showgirls, one of the only mainstream films with an NC-17 rating.  She played a small role in The First Wives Club after that.  In the 2000s, she has appeared in a number of TV shows, such as in two episodes of NYPD Blue, three of Titus, a CSI, a Without a Trace, and a Law & Order Criminal Intent.  She also featured in four episodes of The L Word and nine of CSI:Miami.  In addition, she’s had a successful stage career, appearing in such plays as Sly Fox and Hurlyburly.

3. Mario Lopez (as A.C. Slater) – Lopez’s first big role after Saved by the Bell was as Greg Louganis in 1997’s Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis story.  In 1998, he got the role of Bobby Cruz in USA’s cop drama Pacific Blue, which he held for two seasons.  He guested in episodes of Popular and Eve and in 2006 worked a year on The Bold at the Beautiful.  In 2009, he started an eight episode run as a plastic surgeon in Nip/Tuck.  In addition to a successful acting career, Lopez has become a successful host.  He co-hosted short-lived talk show The Other Half, designed as a male counterpart to The View.  He hosted a show on Animal Planet called Pet Star, America’s Most Talented Kid on NBC, and several Miss America and Miss Teen USA pageants.  He currently hosts America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV and will host H8R on the CW.

2. Mark-Paul Gosselaar (as Zack Morris) – Gosselaar’s first significant roles post-Saved by the Bell were 1998’s feature film Dead Man on Campus (the last film he’s been in) and 1998 WB drama Hyperion Bay which lasted one season beginning in 1998.  He starred in another short-lived WB series, D.C., in 2000.  He guested on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2001 before getting partnered up with Dennis Franz in season 9 of NYPD Blue, replacing Rick Schroder.  He played the role of Detective John Clark for four years, until the end of the series.  He appeared in ten episodes of short-lived ABC Geena Davis series Commander in Chief.  He was in three episodes of HBO”s John from Cincinnati and starred for a season in TNT’s Raising the Bar, as a public defender.  TNT didn’t blame the failure on the show on him, casting him in his current role as Bash in Franklin & Bash, again as a lawyer.

1. Tiffani Thiessen (as Kelly Kapowski) – going with the “Amber” in the middle of her name for much of her career, it’s now been eliminated in her more mature days.  Immediately after Saved by the Bell ended she landed a role in Aaron Spelling’s Beverly Hills, 90210 as bad girl Valerie Malone.  She entered in season 5 and stuck around until season 9, being generally micheivious and dating nearly all of the major and minor male cast members.  She starred in a number of made for television movies in the mid-90s, and starred in two short-lived series, Fastlane, with Bill Bellamy and Peter Facinelli in 2002, and ABC’s What About Brian in 2007.  She appeared in three episodes of Will and Grace, eight of Two Guys, a Girl, and A Pizza Place and 11 of the two season Good Morning Miami.  Most recently, she found success with a lead role, albeit the smallest lead role in the show, but still, in USA’s very successful White Collar as FBI agent Peter Burke’s wife, Elizabeth.

Tags: , , , ,

Power Rankings: Saturday Night Live, Season 6 – 1980-81

12 Sep

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

Not all power rankings can be power-packed, and some of them have to sink pretty low.  Not too many will get lower than this one, I predict and hope though.  We’re going to take a stab at a ranking for the legendarily terrible 1980-81 (season 6) season of Saturday Night Live.  A quick backstory:  Before this season, Lorne Michaels, SNL’s famous producer left, along with the entire cast.  After the season, the entire cast aside from two members were replaced.  Get ready, because this could get brutal.

7.  Ann Risley – it’s never a great sign when your wikipedia article mentions the number of movies you’ve been in the first lines, and it’s in single digits.  Even those movies were all before SNL.  After, Risley’s got a bunch of TV movies from the early ‘90s with names like Telling Secrets, Jericho Fever, and Four Eyes and Six Guns (I really want to know what these are about).

6.  Joe Piscopo – Piscopo was actually kept on SNL and stuck around ’til 1984, becoming one of the most important actors on the show.  Sadly, that was the highlight of his career.  He appeared in the 1986 “Let’s Go Mets Go” music video (one of the many elements which dates the video) and films Johnny Dangerously, Wise Guys and Dead Heat.  He had a voice role in 2000’s Nickelodeon series 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd.  He also appeared in three episodes of Law & Order.

5.  Gail Matthius – Matthius, who co-hosted Weekend Update, did about nothing live action, but had a bit of success with voice acting.  The most notable of these roles were as Bobby’s mom Martha Generic in cult favorite Bobby’s World and as Shirley the Loon in Tiny Toon Advenures.  She also appeared in several episodes of Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.

4.   Denny Dillon – the shortest ever SNL cast member by stature at 4’11”, she had to be one of the shortest by tenure as well.  It took a while, but unlike many of the cast members, Dillon was actually able to find some regular work.  She showed up in a couple of episodes of the TV show Fame, and then in the main cast of one season sitcom Women in Prison, about, well, women in prison.  She got her big role on HBO’s Dream On, one of HBO’s first sitcoms, which employed a gimmick of using old black and white clips to show the main character’s feelings.  Dillon appeared on much of the series as Toby Pedalbee, the main character’s assistant.

3. Charles Rocket – the other half of the Weekend Update team, Rocket was fired immediately after cursing during a sketch on air.  Rocket actually had a far more productive career than I had realized.  He appeared in episodes of Remington Steele, Hardcastle and McCormick, and Miami Vice, and four of Max Headroom and six of Moonlighting.  He appeared in three separate failed series over a decade, Tequila and Bonetti in 1992, The Home Court in 1995, and Normal, Ohio in 2000.  He appeared in Earth Girls Are Easy, as Pat-stalker Kyle in It’s Pat (which is sadly how I best know him) and as villainous Nicholas Andre in Dumb and Dumber.  Later he appeared in 10 episodes of Touched by an Angel, and single episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The King of Queens, and 3rd Rock From the Sun.  Sadly, he killed himself in 2005.

2. Gilbert Gottfried – probably the second biggest name to come out of this season, Gottfried is best known for his irritating voice, but apparently didn’t use it much in SNL.  Because of this voice, he is probably best known for his vocal roles – chief among them Iago from Aladdin in the movie and many other tv and video game incarnations.  He also lent his voice to Fairly Oddparents and Cyberchoice and as Mr Mxyzptlk in Superman: The Animated Series.  Amongst his most famous non-vocal roles are his role as a sleazy orphanage employee in Problem Child and well, appearing at just about every Comedy Central roast.  He also told one of the most memorable renditions of the title joke in the movie The Aristocrats and was the voice of the Aflac duck until he was fired for insensitive comments about the Japanese tsunami.

1. Eddie Murphy – so this isn’t really fair.  I don’t think there’s been a power rankings yet where the #1 has been so far ahead of the #2.  Piscopo and Murphy were the only two cast members asked back from this miserable season, and of course Murphy became a massive star.  His film roles are too numerous to name, but include bona fide ‘80s classics like Trading Places, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming to America.  Murphy fell into a bit of a slump in the early ‘90s, but came back with box office success, if not the critical success he enjoyed earlier with films like The Nutty Professor, Dr. Doolittle, Daddy Day Care (the movie made $164 million – I didn’t believe it either) and voice roles in Shrek and Mulan (we’ll forget about Holy Man and The Adventures of Pluto Nash)   His non-Shrek career hasn’t been so great at least, but he was nominated for an Oscar for his work in Dreamgirls.

Tags: , ,

Power Rankings: Cheers

5 Sep

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

RIP Nicholas Colasanto.  That said, let’s go.

9. George Wendt (as Norm Peterson) – Wendt, along with Rhea Pearlman and Ted Danson, was one of the only three actors to appear in every single episode of Cheers.  It’s a good thing, because it’s been a pretty brutal stretch afterwards.  He got his own starring vehicle in the George Wendt Show in 1995 where he was a mechanic with a radio show, but after its failure, he didn’t get much else, except occasional TV movies and guest appearances.  He showed up in a couple of episodes of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

8.  Rhea Pearlman (as Carla Tortelli) – she appeared in the film adaptation of Matilda, a 1996 short-lived sitcom called Pearl where she starred a middle-aged woman going back to college, and another failed series called Kate Brasher, starring Mary Stuart Masterson in 2001.  She most recently appeared in a few episodes of Hung and an episode of Wilfred.

7.    Shelley Long (as Diane Chambers) – after leaving almost halfway through Cheers’ run, Long didn’t really take full advantage.  She appeared in Troop Beverly Hills, Frozen Assets, and a couple of Brady Bunch movies.  She showed up in Dr. T and the Women, and most recently featured as Ed O’Neill’s ex-wife in Modern Family.

6.  Bebe Neuwirth (as Lilith Sternin) – Neuwirth, outside of Cheers, may best be known for her theater work, most notably Chicago, where she originated the role of Velma Kelly in the mid-90s revival, and won a Tony (with a couple of Emmys for Cheers, she’s halfway to the EGOT).  She co-starred in Oliver Platt one season series Deadline in 2001, and showed up in a few episodes of David Morse series Hack.  She also starred in attempted Law & Order spin-off Trial by Jury, which lasted a season, and appeared in a dozen episodes of Frasier.  Amusingly, her wikipedia also contains the sentence, “ She is not easy in groups, and the thought of a cocktail party where she must meet a lot of new people strikes terror in her soul.” which is clearly a case of “citation needed”.

5.  John Ratzenberger (as Cliff Clavin) – Ratzenberger’s main claim to fame post-Cheers is his appearance in every single Pixar film, sometimes in bigger roles than others.  His bigger roles include Hamm, the piggy bank, in the Toy Story films, and Mack the Truck in the Cars movies.  He appeared in Dancing with the Stars, Season 4.  He also appeared in a few episodes of 8 Simple Rules.

4.  Kirstie Alley (as Rebecca Howe) – Alley had the unenviable task of replacing Shelley Long in Cheers, but performed admirably for six seasons, winning an Emmy.  In the mid-90s, she appeared in some lackluster movies, including Village of the Damned, It Takes Two, and For Richer or Poorer, along with being part of the ensemble in Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry.  In 1997, she started the first of three seasons as the star of Veronica’s Closet, in which she portrayed the head of a lingerie company.  The series met with middling reviews and ratings, but earned her an Emmy nomination.  She appeared in one season of sitcom Fat Actress in 2005, and now is starring in her own reality show, Kirstie Alley’s Big Life, about her attempts at weight loss.  She also appeared in Season 12 of Dancing With the Stars in 2011.

3.  Kelsey Grammar (as Frasier Crane) – this is mostly predicated on one role, in fact, the same role that he played for 9 seasons on Cheers, that of Frasier Crane.  Frasier, his spin-off, in which his character moved back to Seattle, lasted for 11 seasons and was a critical and commercial success, earning Grammer four Lead Actor in a Comedy Emmys for his work.  Since Frasier, his career has suffered a bit, as his two attempts at new sitcoms, 2007’s Back to You with Patricia Heaton and 2009’s Hank both failed quite miserably.  His second most famous role is probably an animated one – the villainous Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons. Grammer has appeared 12 times as Sideshow Bob in such classic episodes as Cape Feare and Sideshow Bob Roberts and he won an Emmy for the role in 2006.  He also appeared as Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand, and as himself in a 30 Rock.

2.  Woody Harrelson (as “Woody” Boyd) – the only Cheers cast member to become a bona fide film star, Harrselson is continuing to bank major film roles.  Immediately after Cheers, he starred in White Men Can’t Jump, Indecent Proposal and Natural Born Killers, cementing his status as a movie lead.  He followed these with Money Train, Farrelly brothers comedy Kingpin, and The People vs. Larry Flynt, for which he gained serious critical acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.  He played supporting roles in Wag the Dog and EDtv, closing out a very successful 1990s.  The first half of the ‘00s was a bit slow for Harerlson, as he took no films roles until 2003, though he appeared in a few episodes of Will & Grace.  After taking these couple of years off, he had supporting roles in Anger Management and After the Sunset.  In 2007, he had a small but important role in No Country for Old Men, and in 2009, he earned another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor for The Messenger.  He most recently starred in Zombieland, and appeared in Friends with Benefits.  He’ll be in a Zombieland sequel and in teen book adaptation Hunger Games.

1.  Ten Danson (as Sam Malone) – His first attempt at a sitcom after Cheers was the unsuccessful Ink with his wife Mary Steenburgen.  He then starred in an acclaimed adaptation of Gulliver’s Travels, in minseries form.  For a remarkable six seasons, he starred in Becker, featuring him as a pain-in-the-ass doctor who cares deep down inside.  After another failed sitcom called Help Me Help You, Ted Danson began a string of successes which hasn’t abated yet.  He started appearing in Curb Your Enthusiasm as himself, and has appeared in a number of episodes.  He became a regular in the first season of Damages, playing the villainous Ken Lay clone Arthur Frobisher, who appeared in several episodes of the second and third seasons as well.  In addition to that, he appears  in HBO’s Bored to Death as magazine editor George Christopher, a serial womanizer and pot-smoker.  Although the entire show is great, Danson may be the highlight.  If all this weren’t enough, Danson will be starring in CBS procedural giant CSI in this upcoming season.

Tags: , , , ,

Power Rankings: The Daily Show

29 Aug

Okay, a few rules here.  There have been a trillion correspondents so we can’t handle them all.  We’re limiting it to correspondents no longer on the show, correspondents who were on during the Jon Stewart era, and we’ll tackle the top eight of them.  Let the games begin.

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

8.   Mo Rocca – after leaving the Daily Show, Rocca worked as a regular correspondent on The Tonight Show from 2004 to 2008, and also filmed pieces for Countdown.  Rocca was a regular on VH1’s I Love the ‘80s. He hosted the short-lived television presence of web site The Smoking Gun, and currently hosts a program called Food(ography) on the Cooking Channel (I don’t think I have that channel either).

7.  Rob Riggle – Riggle appeared on a number of terrible Budweiser ads, and won supporting roles in Step Brothers, The Goods, The Hangover, and The Other Guys.  He had a recurring role in CBS’s Gary Unmarried.  Riggle now appears in Childrens Hospital kind of spin off, NTSF: SD: SUV.

6.  Rachel Harris – one of three list members to appear in The Hangover, Harris also had film roles in Kicking and Screaming and License to Wed.  She co-starred in Kirstie Alley’s Fat Actress for a season.  She appeared in six episodes of Reno911, and single episodes of many shows, including CSI, Pushing Daisies, Cougartown and Party Down.  In addition, Harris co-starred in two seasons of ABC sitcom Notes from the Underbelly.  Like Rocca, she appeared in VH1’s I Love the ‘80s and I Love the ‘90s.  In 2010, she appeared as the mom character in the film adaptation of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

5. Nate Corddry – Rob Corddry’s younger brother, Nate was a correspondent for just a year on The Daily Show.  He was a member of the cast in the ill-fated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  He had a recurring role, appearing in 10 episodes, on The United States of Tara.  Currently, he is a regular cast member in the surprisingly successful Harry’s Law, starring Kathy Bates, which will be coming back for its second season in the fall.

4. Rob Cordry – Corddry originally left to star in The Winner, a sitcom executively produced by Seth MacFarlane, which was set in the mid-90s, about a thirty-something man living with his mother who has a crush on the single mother next door.  It was an abject failure.  After that he played supporting roles in a number of movies, such as The Heartbreak Kid and What Happens in Vegas, and as part of an ensemble in Hot Tub Time Machine.  In 2008, he created the web series Childrens Hospital, in which he also appears, and it was such a success that it was picked up by Adult Swim and is currently airing in its third season.

3. Ed Helms – Helms may be poised to follow in Steve Carrell’s footsteps almost exactly.  He joined The Office in the third season as lovable WASP Andy Bernard and has remained ever since, with his role growing more prominent each season.  Recently, he finally got his name into the main cast.  Helms, after showing up in small roles in a number  of films, like Walk Hard and Semi-Pro, finally got his big break in The Hangover, which became a smash of unexpected proportions, and made Helms, Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis stars.  The Hangover 2, while far less successful critically, was just as much of a smash commercially.  With Carrell off the Office, Helms is likely to get more screen time.

2. Steve Carrell – a bona fide movie and television star, an argument could easily be made for #1 on this list.  He only starred in one of the most influential, culturally, critically and commercially successful tv comedies of the last decade, The Office.  His movie record is a little more spotty, but it has more than its share of hits, and he gets top billing in almost every movie he films now.  He had a breakout supporting role as the mildly retarded Brick in Anchorman, and a breakout leading role as Andy in the Judd Apatow The 40-Year Old Virgin.  He had a prominent supporting role in Little Miss Sunshine, and then starred in Evan Almighty, Date Night, Get Smart, and Crazy Stupid Love.

1. Stephen Colbert – Colbert’s work consists primarily of one show, but what a show.  In October 2005, The Colbert Report launched, in an effort by Jon Stewart and Comedy Central to keep Colbert in house, as the other star of Daily Show correspondents, Steve Carrell, had gotten away.  From Day 1, Colbert has, by way of his show, made himself part of the zeitgeist.  The very first episode introduced the concept of Truthiness, which became a buzzword for the entire year and beyond.  In 2006, he spoke at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, and mocked President Bush to his face, getting a poor reception at the dinner, but becoming a youtube sensation.  His 2008 Presidential bid caused a stir, as well as his current SuperPAC, which, although satirical is having real world campaign finance impact.  He even has his own Ben and Jerry’s flavor.

Tags: , , , , ,

Power Rankings: Mary Tyler Moore Show, Part 2

22 Aug

Part 2 – Part 1 can be found by scrolling down, or by clicking here.


4.  Gavin McLeod (as Murray Slaughter) – Like Knight, McLeod’s post Mary Tyler Moore career is based around one role, but also like Knight, that role was no six episode series, but a big one, even bigger than Knight’s.  Gavin McLeod, for 9 seasons and 249 episodes, portrayed Captain Merrill Stubing on Love Boat, which lived on for years in syndication after its original run ended.  Afterwards, he showed up in guest appearances here and there, in shows like That ‘70s Show, JAG, The King of Queens and Murder She Wrote.

3.  Cloris Leachman (as Phyllis Lindstrom) -Leachman incredibly marks the third over-80 cast member to still be active.  She was one of the three characters with her own spin-off, Phyllis, which lasted two seasons, ending the same year as Mary Tyler Moore.  She appeared in an absolutely remarkable number of TV movies during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and a couple of Loveboat episodes before getting her next regular gig as Charlotte Rae’s replacement on The Facts of Life.  Unfortunately, the show didn’t have much left, and ended two seasons later.  She starred in a quickly failed series in 1989 created by Mel Brooks called The Nutt House in which she played a ridiculous hotel proprietress.  She voiced the first appearance of Mrs. Glick in The Simpsons, later to be replaced by Tress MacNeille, and her other voice work includes the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, and The Iron Giant.  She starred in another short-lived series in 1991 called Walter & Emily, as one of two grandparents who are in charge of their grandson, while their son, portrayed by Christopher McDonald travels for his job as a sportswriter.  Her next failed foray into the world of television was in an amazing sounding series Thanks, which ran for six episodes on CBS.  The show was set in 17th century Massachusetts and was about the everyday lives of a Puritan family.  This woman did not stop trying, though.  She next took part in Ellen Degeneres’ second sitcom, The Ellen Show, which also lasted one season.  She played a cantankerous grandmother on several episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, became the oldest contestant on Dancing with the Stars, and now costars as a grandmother in Fox’s Raising Hope.

2.  Ed Asner (as Lou Grant) – Asner spun his character off from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, a comedy, into Lou Grant, an hour long drama.  He was awarded Emmys for both – the only person to win an Emmy for both drama and comedy for the same character.  Back when miniseries were actually iconic, he won yet another Emmy for his role in Roots, as the captain who sold Kunta Kinte into slavery, and appeared as a villain in Rich Man/Poor Man.  He starred as an inner city do-gooder principal in the one season of The Bronx Zoo and as a retired race car driver in the one season of Thunder Alley (I swear these shows are real).  He had a recurring role on the short-lived Aaron Sorkin show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and on one season CMT sitcom Working Class.  He also starred in Pixar’s Up, and voiced characters in more animated series than I can name, including J. Jonah Jameson in the 1990s Spider-Man, and Hudson on Gargoyles.

1. Betty White (as Sue Ann Nivens) – who saw the giant Betty White renaissance of 2010 coming?  Not I.  There is far, far, far too much in her career to talk about even a fraction of it, but I’ll start with what I just leaned, that she got one season of her own show, aptly titled The Betty White Show, right after Mary Tyler Moore ended.  She played an actress who landed a role in a police series, Undercover Woman, which was a parody of the successful Angie Dickinson show Police Woman.  She was a game show regular in Pyramid, back in the era where game shows revolved around rotating celebrities, as she was a recurring character in Mama’s Family, spun off from a sketch on the Carol Burnett Show.  Of course, in 1985, she got the role she’s still best known for, Rose Nyland in Golden Girls, and won an Emmy for her trouble.  She then appeared in short-lived spin off Golden Palace.  She had a reoccurring role in Boston Legal as a gossipy elderly woman, and in 2010 won another Emmy for being the oldest person, by almost a decade, to host Saturday Night Live.  She now starts in TV Land series Hot in Cleveland.  The woman has had a busy life.

Tags: ,

Power Rankings: Mary Tyler Moore Show, Part 1

22 Aug

Power Rankings Retro Edition – Mary Tyler Moore Show edition.  Because this one is a little longer, due to having thirty years of career to cover, I’ve split it into two parts for aesthetic purposes with the second posted later in the day.  We’re also trying a system of counting down towards the top, rather than up towards the bottom.  On to the rankings!

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

8.  Georgia Engel (as Georgette Franklin) – After Mary Tyler Moore, she appeared in the one season of The Betty White Show, and then in two short-lived shows with very different premises.  First, Goodtime Girls, airing in 1980, starred her alongside three other women (including Annie Potts) who were living together and making their way into the world in a big city in the wartime 1940s.  Second, Jennifer Slept Here, featured Engel as the mother of a family who moved into a house haunted by the old movie actress who used to live there until she was run over an ice cream truck.  Engel also did her time on Love Boat, and then had a recurring role on Coach.  She may be best known to modern audiences for her appearances in Everybody Loves Raymond, as Pat MacDougall, Robert Barone’s mother-in-law.

7.  Mary Tyler Moore (as Mary Richards) – It goes without saying here that The Mary Tyler Moore Show was an enormous success both culturally and critically and Moore had a lot of trouble following it up.  She first tried a variety series called Mary in 1978, which co-starred Swoosie Kurtz, Michael Keaton, and David Letterman, and it lasted all of three episodes.  A retooled version of the show, now called the Mary Tyler Moore Hour aired later that spring, with Moore portraying a comedian who hosted a fictional show, but it failed as well.  As she was putting together her string of unsuccessful follow up sitcoms, she had her most notable film role, 1980’s Ordinary People, where she was nominated for an Oscar.  She had two more shots at sitcoms.  In1985’s Mary (the woman had something about naming shows after herself, I guess), she played a 40 year old divorcee who lost her high profile fashion writing gig when her company went out of business, and now wrote a column at a lousy paper.  It lasted 13 episodes.  1988’s Annie McGuire lasted 10, starring her as a mother who must deal with the stress of both her children and the very different lives of her and her husband.  Since then, she’s done some guest starring in shows like Lipstick Jungle, That ‘70s Show (again), The Ellen Show, and The Naked Truth.

6.  Valerie Harper (as Rhoda Morgenstern) – she left Mary Tyler Moore halfway through to star in her own spin-off Rhoda, and that lasted four years.  She also starred in a whole bunch of TV movies, which I guess was big back then, and a couple of Love Boat episodes.  She then got her next chance to star in a sitcom with Valerie’s Family, but after a salary dispute, she left the show, was replaced by Sandy Duncan, and the show ran for four more years without her.  She played the city manager of an unnamed city, in, well, City, which ran for 13 episodes as mid-season replacement in 1990.  Perhaps the most interesting thing about City is that it was created by Paul Haggis, who would eventually go on to win an Oscar for writing Crash.  She co-starred in a six episode run of something called The Office, and since them has been showing up in guest appearances on TV shows left and right, including That ‘70s Show, Sex and the City, Touched by an Angel, Less Than Perfect, and Desperate Housewives.

5.  Ted Knight (as Ted Baxter) – Sadly, Baxter died in 1986 and is the only non-living major cast member from Mary Tyler Moore.  He didn’t have as much time to star in as many failed sitcoms as the others.  He did take advantage of the time he had though.  He did his duty and starred as a rival captain in six episodes of Love Boat, and then starred for six years in Too Close For Comfort, as a comic strip author penning a strip called Cosmic Cow.

Tags: ,

Power Rankings: Party of Five

15 Aug

’90s  teen drama Party of Five on the agenda this week:

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve doneafter the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

  1. Matthew Fox (as Charlie Salinger) – It’s fair to make it a close call between the first two, but there’s a one word answer for why Fox takes home the title:  Lost.  Simple, yes, but important as well – it’s just one TV show, but Jack was the first amongst equals in the ensemble cast, and though that’s really the only major project Fox was working on for years, it’s far more significant, culturally relevant, and memorable, horrible ending or not, than anything our second place finisher has come home with.  Honestly, that’s just about it – it’s just a really big one, but I should at least mention his role in colossal flop Speed Racer, short-lived pre-Lost UPN series Haunted, and in, what I suppose might be his largest movie role, We Are Marshall.
  1. Jennifer Love Hewitt (as Sarah Reeves Marin) – While Matthew Fox would wait a solid four years from the end of the Party of Five for the role that would make his career, Hewitt was the breakout star almost immediately, and her career has pretty much gone downhill from there.  Arguably her two best remembered film roles happened while she was still on Party of Five, with I Know What You Did Last Summer and Can’t Hardly Wait.  At the time same time as the last season of Party of Five was airing, Hewitt got her shot at a spin-off with Time of Your Life, co-starring Jennifer Garner, which failed after a single season.  From there, feature film pickings have been relatively slim, with two Garfield movies and The Tuxedo, and a whole lot of made-for-tv movies.  She lasted a hard-to-believe five seasons starring in her own show, Ghost Whisperer, which reruns on PAX constantly.  Does she have more on her resume than Fox?  Certainly.  That said, all combined, I still don’t think it equals one Lost.  And this is including her musical career, topped by single How Do I Deal which peaked at 59 on the Hot 100.
  1. Scott Wolf (as Bailey Salinger)– Never with the starpower of either of the first two actors on the list, Wolf has nevertheless put together a workmanlike career of appearing in the main cast of relatively unsuccessful but at least vaguely remembered shows.  First, four years after the end of Party of Five’s run, he joined the cast of the third and fourth season of Treat Williams-led drama Everwood.  Next, he was in the main cast of the ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful The Nine (constantly confused by me with other failed pilot that year Six Degrees).  Most recently, just these past two years he was a key member of ABC’s ‘80s Sci-fi reboot, V.  Nothing spectacular, but steady, solid work.
  1. Neve Campbell (as Julia Salinger)-  talk about Jennifer Love Hewitt, squared – Campbell was as big as Hewitt at the time of the show, starring in Scream, the movie that inspired Hewitt’s hit, I Know What You Did Last Summer, along with Wild Things, The Craft, and Scream 2, all before the end of Party of Five’s run.  At that time, Campbell’s theatrical career took off in the wrong direction, but she still had some things going on, as she appeared in Scream 3, as well as the small-budget but well reviewed Panic, in 2000, and The Company in 2003.  After that, well, it’s a lot of TV movies, and projects you’ve definitely never heard of, rescued only by the resurrection of the Scream franchise and a main cast role in an extremely short-lived NBC series in 2009 I don’t remember existing called The Philanthropist.
  1. Scott Grimes (as Will McCorkle) – So here’s where it gets interesting – I wasn’t even necessarily planning on ranking Grimes – he was only a main cast member for half the seasons of the show, and frankly, I had, unfairly, it turns out, figured that he hadn’t really done much else.  Turns out he put out quite the nice little career.  He played a main character in ER for its final six years, from 2003 until 2009.  He also voices Steve Smith in American Dad, which has now run for six years itself.  He played a supporting role in Band of Brothers as well, appearing in every episode.  Oh, and he charted two top 40 adult contemporary singles in 2005, and appeared as a killer in a fifth season Dexter episode.  Not shabby at all.
  1. Lacey Chabert (as Claudia Salinger) – She’s got one very prominent movie role, as one of the Plastics in 2004’s Mean Girls, and she appeared in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and, well, Daddy Day Care, and a bunch of things even worse than that.  That said, voice roles keep her a little more occupied.  She played Meg during the first season of Family Guy, before being replaced by Mila Kunis.  She voiced one of the Wild Thornberrys for that show’s six year run, and in the feature film and she voiced Gwen Stacy in two seasons of a recent Spider-man kids show.  Not great work by any means, but work, and pretty good for the sixth most accomplished cast member in Party of Five.
  1. Paula Devicq (as Kirsten Bennett Thomas Sallinger) – We start getting closer to scrub territory.   She was in the one season produced of the A&E Sidney Lumet created legal drama called100 Centre Street, starring Alan Arkin.  She was in six episodes of Rescue Me.  And she was in the pilot of the Dylan McDermott led TNT miniseries The Grid (of which I own a T-shirt, my favorite random pop culture shirt).  Wikipedia also describes her as “starring” in the upcoming Richard Gere movie Abritrage, and their definition of starring apparently now includes being the eleventh cast member listed on IMDB.  Moving on.
  1. Jeremy London (as Griffin Chase Holbrook) – he was a regular in two seasons of 7th Heaven, and according to wikipedia, he seems to be killing it in a whole bunch of TV movies that don’t even have their own entries.

Tags: , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →