Star's Name Used to be Able to Carry a TV Show

[Zoneboy]

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Not long ago, a youngster in her 20s expressed surprise when she learned there was no character named Mary Tyler Moore in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

Yours truly (not a youngster anymore), on the other hand, expressed surprise that she was surprised. That seemed pretty much utterly unremarkable to me.

It's one of those generational things, apparently.

When I was a kid — before I was born — there were lots of shows named for their stars. And those stars played characters with names other than their own.

Just a few examples include:

 Danny Thomas played Danny Williams in "The Danny Thomas Show" (1953-65).

 Bob Cummings played Bob Collins in "The Bob Cummings Show" (1955-59), and Bob Carson in a later "Bob Cummings Show" (1961-62).

 Phil Silvers played Ernie Bilko in "The Phil Silvers Show" (1955-59).

 Donna Reed played Donna Stone in "The Donna Reed Show" (1958-66)

 Betty Hutton played Goldie Appleby on "The Betty Hutton Show" (1959-60).

 Andy Griffth played Andy Taylor in "The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68).

Dick Van Dyke played Rob Petrie in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961-66), and Dick Preston in "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" (1971-74).

 Doris Day played Doris Martin in "The Doris Day Show" (1968-73).

 Patty Duke played Patty and Cathy Lane in "The Patty Duke Show" (1963-66).

 Jimmy Stewart played Jim Howard in "The Jimmy Stewart Show" in 1971-72.

 Sandy Duncan played Sandy Stockton in "The Sandy Duncan Show" (1972).

 Betty White played Joyce Whitman in "The Betty White Show" (1977-78).

 Bill Cosby played Chet Kincaid in "The Bill Cosby Show" (1969-71), Heathcliff Huxtable in "The Cosby Show" (1984-92), Guy Hanks in "The Cosby Mysteries" (1994) and Hilton Lucas in "Cosby" (1996-2000).

 Bob Newhart played Bob Hartley in "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-78), Dick Loudon in "Newhart" (1982-90) and Bob McKay in "Bob" (1992-93).

 And, of course, Mary Tyler Moore played Mary Richards in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1970-77).

In the past 30 years, however, there haven't been many shows named after their stars. And the stars played characters with names other than their own.

Perhaps because the few there were, for the most part, were unsuccessful.

Series like "The Stockard Channing Show" (1980), "The Redd Foxx Show" (1986), "The Bonnie Hunt Show" (1995), "The George Wendt Show" (1995), "The Gregory Hines Show" (1997-98), "The Tony Danza Show" (1997-98), "The Geena Davis Show" (2000), "The Michael Richards Show" (2000) and "The Tracy Morgan Show" (2003-04).

If you can remember more than one or two of them, you have quite a memory. And you watch way too much TV.

There have been some successful shows named after their stars, like "Roseanne" and "Ellen." But they shared only first names.

(It was "Roseanne," not "The Roseanne Barr Show." Or "The Roseanne Pentland Show." Or "The Roseanne Arnold Show." Or "The Roseanne Thomas Show.")

And there have been a few successful self-titled shows more recently. Shows like "The Drew Carey Show" (1995-2004), "The Bernie Mac Show" (1996-2002) and "George Lopez" (2002-2007). But those actors played characters named Drew Carey, Bernie Mac and George Lopez, respectively.

One of the few places where self-titled shows in which the actors played characters with different names succeeded was on start-up networks, with relatively small audiences.

So Jamie Foxx played Jamie King in "The Jamie Foxx Show" (1996-2001) and Steve Harvey played Steve Hightower in "The Steve Harvey Show" on The WB.

And "The Bill Engvall Show" (2007-2009) survived three seasons on cable with Bill Engvall playing Bill Pearson.


One of the few exceptions in the past 20 years — and it's a bit of a stretch — is that John Larroquette played John Hemingway in "The John Larroquette Show" (1993-96). But that show never caught on in the ratings.

Look around the TV schedule today and there aren't any self-titled shows. Except for talk shows, and those are something entirely different.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

First, the success rate for TV series is very low. Better to be Joe Schmo, the star of the failed "It Was Supposed to be Funny," than Joe Schmo, the star of the failed "Joe Schmo Show."

And, second, are there any big names out there who can carry a show? Who can bring viewers in based on their names?

The days of Danny Thomas, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore are long gone.

The youngsters are too young too miss them. Not all of us are, however.

[Marvo301]

A very interesting article. It's very true there are no stars big enough these days that their name could carry a show. My how times have changed!

[factsoflife]

One reason is also because sitcoms aren't as popular right now as they had been in the past. There simply aren't as many sitcoms around for a star to use their name on.