Where do the Stars Go

Over the years some TV shows become big hits. I have had my favorites and I watched them every week, not wanting the episode to end. The actors and actresses in these shows were fabulous but when the show finally faded into history, most of these actors and actresses faded with them.

Many shows have caught my imagination over the years. The show American Dreams premiered on September 29, 2002, and it's run on TV was less then three years. In less than three years it received two Emmy Awards. It appealed to me because I am a baby boomer and the setting was in 1963. I identified with all of the struggles and the events that were depicted in the show. My favorite character in the show was the father in the family, Jack Pryor. Jack was played by Tom Verica. I thought Mr. Verica did a great job with a challenging role. Jack had to struggle with the changing attitudes of the sixties. He faced changes in so many truths that he had to fight be a strong and decisive father, but at the same time understanding that the old rules weren't always right. His performance was every bit as good as Jon Hamm's performance on Mad Men. Jon Hamm's character Don Draper is a man in the identical time period as Jack Pryer dealing with some of the same changes. I haven't seen Tom Verica in anything since then. I know he did have a role in the TV show The 4400, but I never saw that show.

Mr. Verica went the way of many actors and actresses in big TV shows; when the show is gone, so are they. This is not always the case. Milo Ventimiglia played Meg's rebellious boyfriend late in the final year of American Dreams. Milo went on to get the biggest role of his career as Peter Petrelli in Heroes.

Small screen productions and big screen productions seem to focus on different things. The stars seem to be the big deal on the big screen while the show is the big deal on the small screen. A star's name carries a movie while a TV show relies more on the content of the show for appeal. As a result big parts on big TV shows do not guarantee continual work.

Some beat the odds. Some do it by crossing over from the small screen to the big screen. If you have a solid talent and great appeal this can be done. George Clooney did it with style and his fame is well deserved. Others beat the odds and stayed right on TV. My favorite perennial star is Richard Dean Anderson. Mr. Anderson managed to parley just two characters into a full career on television. Mr. Anderson played in 139 episodes of MacGyver from 1985-1992. Then he returned to TV to play Colonel Jack O'Neill in Stargate SG1 from 1997 to 2007. My friends and I have always said that if Richard Dean Anderson was a stock, that it would have been an investment we would like to have picked up early.

Recently there have been returns of some of my favorite actors and actresses. There was an amusing changing of roles in the once married couple of Bradley Whitford and Jane Kaczmarek.. While Bradley played the serious, almost arrogant, White House staffer in West Wing, Jane played the hilarious mom on Malcolm in the Middle. Recently Jane gave a solid and powerful dramatic performance as Judge Kessler on the great show Raising the Bar, while Bradley is now playing a crazy, and very funny, offbeat detective in The Goodguys. I am happy to see both of them doing well.

Another good actor that traded a serious role on West Wing for comedy is Dule Hill. Dule was excellent as an assistant to the president on West Wing, but he is even better as one part of a zany private detective duo in Psych.

Some do remain in the spotlight but many of the fine actors and actresses from our favorite shows have their moment in the sun and just seem to fade away.