Stars who didn't conquer TV

[amybrickwallace]

 

Agreed. He was the scene stealer, and when put into a lead role it was just too much. Back in the 1970s, did anyone really buy Paul Lynde as someone who had a wife and kids on TV? (Yes, I know he played an exasperated father in Bye Bye Birdie - see "Kids".) 

[Paul Raven]

Yes, agreed. Even in those times, viewers understood on some level that the Paul Lyndes and Charles Nelson Reillys were not the marrying kind.

 

Moving on..

Tammy Grimes was a hot property after Broadway success with Unsinkable Molly Brown. She was offered the lead in Bewitched but instead went with her own sitcom.

 

The Tammy Grimes show was one of the all time bombs up till that time,  taken off after a few episodes which was unprecedented in that era

.

[Paul Raven]

Despite Bing Crosby's years of success as singer and actor in radio and movies and successful TV specials, his 1964 sitcom failed.

And Gene Kellys only foray into TV series was 'Going My Way' (1962) based on Bing's much loved 1944 movie.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Paul Raven

[Roman]

if memory serves, Pryor ended the show himself because he and NBC were into it every single week about content. he started one episode saying he had lost nothing in his dealings with NBC, only to be shown wearing a flesh colored body suit that gave off the impressions his privates were cut off. NCS S&P fought him on that. it was the same thing for Delta House, a 1979 sitcom based on Animal House. they were in the top 10 but the Producer got tired of fighting ABC and cancelled it himself.

Oh my. Madam Sin. where she would launch plan after plan to take over the world. the pilot was DREADFUL. 

[Paul Raven]

Reviving this thread

Ann Magaret tried for primetime with Four Corners, which was canned after 3 eps

[Paul Raven]

Marsha Mason "Sibs" ABC 1991 

Ryan O'Neal 'Good Sports' (with Farrah Fawcett) CBS 1991

[Khan]

 

Oh, I loved "Sibs" sooooo much.  It had everything: a terrific cast (Mason, Margaret Colin, Jami Gertz, Dan Castellaneta, Alex Rocco), terrific writers (creator Heide Perlman, Jim Brooks, Sam Simon) and a REALLY terrific theme song (by George "Atomic Dog" Clinton) that I still sing/hum to this day.

 

I thought "Sibs" had tremendous potential.  Unfortunately, it came along at a time when the TV zeitgeist was blue-collar shows like "Roseanne" and "Home Improvement."  (Plus, rumors suggest that Mason had a falling out with Brooks, although I don't know how true those rumors are).

 

RE: "Good Sports" ~ Ironically, O'Neal BEGGED Farrah to be on the show; yet, I think Farrah, rather than O'Neal, turned out to be the better actor for the project.  I'm not saying Farrah was another Candice Bergen, but she was certainly funnier than her then-partner.  Years later, I asked Paul Feig, who had co-starred on the show, about GS.  Apparently, working with Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett was nothing short than a nightmare for everyone involved.

 

Speaking of "Sibs," someone uploaded the premiere episode, "The Naked and the Damned," on YT last month:

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Khan

[Soaplovers]

And the creator was Rhea Perlman's sister...and there was a pilot made for a revival that didn't get picked up as a series.

 

And best part of Good Sports was the intro.

 

 

[All My Shadows]

Would Ryan O'Neal's success on Peyton Place count as him "conquering" TV?

[Paul Raven]

In Ryan's case it was the fact that he had made the leap from TV to movies and returned to the small screen and that return didn't work out.

 

[Khan]

 

That's right: "Related by Birth."  Unfortunately, neither Marsha Mason nor Alex Rocco appeared in the retooled version.

[John]

Grayson McCouch was in that pilot. That was prior to Another World

[Khan]

I guess you could add Dustin Hoffman to the list, since HBO's "Luck" ended up stalling at the gate (pun not intended).

[John]

That was because of the horses were treated and not the ratings

[Vee]

It Had To Be You, 1993. To this day I don't understand who thought Faye Dunaway could headline a romcom sitcom. IIRC they retooled the show with like, Robin Bartlett?