The legendary Angela Lansbury never starred on any sitcoms. According to her IMDb page, she never had any credited guest appearances on any sitcoms.

Harrison Ford can be scratched off the list. According to today's blog (https://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2022/12/apple-tv-announces-premiere-date-for.html), he will be on the upcoming Apple TV comedy Shrinking.

Can you think of any other famous actors and actresses who never starred on any sitcoms or had very few guest appearances?

Who would you have liked to see as one of the main stars on a sitcom?

I would have liked to see Elvira and Dolly Parton. I guess I'm a fan of busty women. Both have made sitcom pilots. Maybe it could still happen. They are both still looking good in their 70s.

Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) has made some sitcom guest appearances before (uncredited on Happy Days) and after she started playing Elvira. She did a sitcom pilot called The Elvira Show for CBS in 1993. It was reportedly pretty close to being picked up before the CBS president got sick. The interim president who oversaw sports programming passed on it. He said they couldn't have boobs like that on television.

The pilot is on YouTube. It's funny and has some great one liners. They had a talking cat like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch would later have with Salem. Katherine Helmond was in it.

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Dolly Parton has made some sitcom guest appearances over the years. She has done some variety shows. She starred on a unaired CBS sitcom in 1994 that was intended to air at midseason in 1995 called Heavens to Betsy. They never aired the six produced episodes. The concept was allegedly later reused in the 1996 CBS TV movie Unlikely Angel. She shot another pilot for CBS in 1996 called Mindin' My Own Business.

Lost Media Wiki - Heavens to Betsy - https://lostmediawiki.com/Heavens_to_Betsy_(partially_lost_unaired_MGM_sitcom_TV_series;_1994)
Lost Media Wiki - Mindin' My Own Business - https://lostmediawiki.com/Mindin%27_My_Own_Business_(lost_CBS_sitcom_pilot;_1996)
Unaired sitcoms with multiple episodes produced that never aired on a network - https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=421371
List of television series canceled before airing an episode - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_series_canceled_before_airing_an_episode

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https://lostmediawiki.com/images/3/3f/Gettyimages-1189432517-1024x1024.jpg

I've always felt that Hillary Clinton had potential as a spoof dominatrix.....sort of a flinty-eyed minx with a passion for watching men squirm, sort of thing

Or it's kinda late now, but Charles Bronson in a "Paul Kersey comes to Mayberry" satire on small town law enforcement.

Roma Downey
Jerry Orbach
Richard Thomas
Lori Singer
Britt Robertson
John Michael Higgins
Peter Falk
Beverley Mitchell
Michael Landon
Dick Clark
Chuck Woolery

John Michael Higgins


John Michael Higgins has starred on at least four sitcoms. He has many other sitcom guest appearances.

Saved by the Bell (2020-2021)
Great News (2017-2018)
Happily Divorced (2011-2013)
Kath & Kim (2008-2009)

If you ever saw David Letterman on Mork and Mindy you’d know he missed his true calling.

(Jay Leno was on One Day At A Time, but I didn’t see any YouTube clips of it)


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https://youtu.be/Ny6p9_zlOJc

I would have liked to see a show populated by the old character actors - Vito Scotti, Kathleen Freeman, Bernard Fox, et al.

Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) has made some sitcom guest appearances before (uncredited on Happy Days) and after she started playing Elvira.

She also guested on "The Goldbergs'" Halloween ep. last year.

Cant happen now since several have died or are too old, but actors from The Sopranos in a comedy. I dont what, and not about the mafia, but a program about an Italian American family. Have James Gandolfini play a good person for once.

Have the actors of Star Trek: The Next Generation in a sitcom. Patrick Stewart and Marina Sirtis married, the actor playing Wesley their son, Brent Spiner plays the brother of Stewart. Bring actors in who were in this series and the other Star Trek series on in episodes and cameos. Wont work, but would be an improvement over the drek that modern Star Trek is now making.

Movie legend Mickey Rooney turned down the role of Archie Bunker before Carroll O'Connor was cast.

I don't think Walter Matthau was on any sitcoms but he would have been great.

Also Gene Wilder.

Mel Brooks obviously wrote for sitcoms but I don't remember him starring in one.

If you ever saw David Letterman on Mork and Mindy you’d know he missed his true calling.

(Jay Leno was on One Day At A Time, but I didn’t see any YouTube clips of it)

https://youtu.be/Ny6p9_zlOJc

Letterman was robbed of an Emmy for that performance. He was on the 1978 variety show Mary with Mary Tyler Moore and Michael Keaton. There are a few episodes on YouTube. It needs to be seen to be believed.

He made a cameo in the Swedish version of Mork & Mindy.

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Movie legend Mickey Rooney turned down the role of Archie Bunker before Carroll O'Connor was cast.

Also Gene Wilder.



It's difficult to picture anyone besides Carroll O'Connor in the Archie Bunker role. He turned down the role because of the strong potential for controversy, because he thought it had a poor chance for success and he thought the character was "un-American."

He was on The Mickey Rooney Show (aka Hey, Mulligan) (1954-1955), Mickey (1964-1965) and One of the Boys (1982).

Gene Wilder starred on the short-lived Something Wilder (1994-1995).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wilder

It would have been nice to see Richard Pryor star on a primetime sitcom. He starred on the Saturday morning children's comedy series Pryor's Place.

Pryor and Wilder starred in four movies together. They should have done a sitcom together.

If you ever saw David Letterman on Mork and Mindy you’d know he missed his true calling.

The young Dave Letterman, who (I've posted elsewhere) was a weekend and sub weatherman on then WLWI here in Indianapolis, was a phenomenal comedian on those weathercasts. It was low-rated in news, and he pretty well ad-libbed any funny stuff he wanted to do. There's a little on Youtube, but so little probably survives.

He would have been great in a Sitcom, in those days. He could have been the Ray Romano of that time.

Mickey Rooney would have done Archie Bunker justice I believe. Rooney was older, he could play cantankerous and argumentive characters like Archie.