Push Actors

Mayim Bialik!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Caren Kaye in the 1970s and 1980s, first in the show that took Nancy Walker off of [italic]Rhoda[/italic], then in the show that took Jason Bateman off [italic]Silver Spoons[/italic].

This woman. Silence of the Lambs, Grey's, Weeds and a bunch of other crap. So completely unappealing and unlikable and unattractive I will turn something else on if she shows up.

I didn’t mind because I think he’s cute but a few years back someone was trying really hard to make Kyle Bornheimer happen. He didn’t.

R3 makes me take back everything about the "sure, Jan" troll.

[R3] makes me take back everything bad I said about the "sure, Jan" troll.

Rena Sofer in the early 2000s. NBC wanted to make her happen and stuffed her into any production that had an opening. She had no chemistry with anybody. I think she finally found her niche, but back then she was trying very hard to do whatever.

Roma Maffia

[quote]Caren Kaye in the 1970s and 1980s, first in the show that took Nancy Walker off of Rhoda, then in the show that took Jason Bateman off Silver Spoons.

Caren Kaye also guest starred on MTM as the female sports anchor Mary hired, who refused to cover violent sports.

In real life Kaye is a psychologist having a PHD from Carnegie Mellon University in psychology

Martin Mull.

Whatever do you mean OP?

Bonnie Hunt

how many flop shows will Jenna Elfman star in before networks get the message?

Do they have to be unsuccessful. I feel Téa Leoni has been pushed on me for decades and I've never been interested.

Joel McHale......

I remember some Bruce Willis look-alike guy in the 80s and 90s, can't remember his name, but he got a few plum starring tv roles. Some exec must have had a hard-on for him. Audiences didn't. Can't even remember his name.

Jesse Jackson

Mark Feuerstein by NBC in the 90s.

Paul Sand owns this thread.

Jonathan Silverman, and John P. Navin Jr and all of the Jacobys/Jaynes

[quote]I remember some Bruce Willis look-alike guy in the 80s and 90s, can't remember his name, but he got a few plum starring tv roles. Some exec must have had a hard-on for him. Audiences didn't. Can't even remember his name.

You mean the guy that would eat food and walk on his legs?

NBC pushed Ann Jillian through two series and several movies and specials.

Fox put Alison LaPlaca into more than one show as leading lady.

R12, I think a certain retired late night talk show host was screwing Bonnie Hunt, and kept bankrolling her shows through his world-wide production company. Allegedly

Looking up Roberta Sherwood she had only seven acting credits between 1967 and 1977. That's not pushing very hard.

Better example would be Dennis Dugan. Him NBC DID push hard and got nowhere.

Bonnie Hunt was freaking funny!

Bess Armstrong, (although I kind of liked her)

Pat Carroll

R3 So funny. I was watching a miniseries on Netflix while looking thru threads. Started reading this one. I completely agree with you about Brooke Smith. FYI, her mom was noted publicist to the stars, Lois Smith, so daughter Brooke had help getting her foot in the the door. She was also best friends with Mary Louise Parker which explains her role in Weeds.... So I begin episode 5 of this Netflix series, Unbelievable, and there she is: Brooke Smith. lol I had read your post less than 5 minutes before starting it.

I hope this doesn't disappoint you, but she was quite good. First time I've ever liked her in anything.

I LOVE Alison LaPlaca r22. To be fair to her, she was a supporting member on Duet and then Fox cancelled it and then revamped it as Open House with LaPlaca as the star and pushing Mary Page Keller (star of Duet) as more of a supporting character.

I also like Bonnie Hunt. I don't feel these two were pushed on us so much that they never seemed to catch on to the degree that they should have. Talented ladies.

Bonnie Hunt, rhymes with c---.

I find him adorable, but Jason Ritter has been give more opportunities than any other five white men put together and yet still can’t seem to pull off a sustainable career. Is it because the industry basically killed his father and they feel guilt that they have given him abundant chances?

R3 YESSSS. She is unwatchable to the point of becoming offended.

Ahem

This

R33, they send Ted McGinley in when a show needs to be killed.

It certainly didn't work on "Married With Children."

[quote]Looking up Roberta Sherwood she had only seven acting credits between 1967 and 1977. That's not pushing very hard.

Look back farther. She and her untalented son, Jerry Lanning ("Randy Twizzle"), were on many shows in the '50s and '60s. (You need to look under "SELF" also (48 credits); she often played herself in sitcoms.) Usually one-offs. She made the rounds of variety shows as well. I have NO idea why. And she ALWAYS sang "Cry Me A River."

R37 At least her theme song was apropos.

[quote]Bess Armstrong, (although I kind of liked her)

I loved her as the mom on My-So Called Life.

Elizabeth Reaser

R39 - Did not Bess Armstrong star in the TV movie "Lace" with Phoebe Cates?

[quote]I find him adorable, but Jason Ritter has been give more opportunities than any other five white men put together and yet still can’t seem to pull off a sustainable career. Is it because the industry basically killed his father and they feel guilt that they have given him abundant chances?

I don't think there is guilt over John's death in the industry. But, I bet some people were loyal to John and it's carried over to Jason.

Dan Cortese was highly visible on TV in the 90s -- I wonder whatever happened to him.

R43 - He got fat and ugly????

Im quite happy to have Nolan Gerard Funk pushed on me, preferably under me, but that tiny role is Mrs. Maisel made me sad that he's circling the drain.

[R37]; she sang "Up a Lazy River",not "Cry Me a River."

r46 Sorry! You are so right! Senior moment.

Do you mean actors you want to push out of a window?

R37 Mother and son were shoe-horned into an episode of “The Lucy Show. “ A plot point was the regular cast getting sick of hearing “Up a Lazy River.”

Do Jonathan Silverman and his wife Jennifer Finnigan own this thread?

Jennifer was good on Bold and the Beautiful, especially when she learned that her mother Brooke "The Slut from the Valley" Forrester was a whore who was sleeping with her own husband! That tramp!!!

I believe Jennifer got an Emmy from that storyline. Brooke got a baby and probably an STD. Whore!!!

Carla Gugino. I've always felt bad in her case because she is genuinely talented and genuinely interesting--she just never caught on.

Roberta Sherwood was interesting as a phenomenon--she tried to make it in night clubs for years (even decades), and then suddenly in Las Vegas in 1955, at age 43, she became an overnight sensation. The lateness of her fame became oart of her story, sort of like Susan Boyle 9except Sherwood was attractive and did not seem psychically wounded).

She had a powerful expressive voice, with nice phrasing, and a charming "just folks" demeanor, so the network became convinced they could push her as a TV star. But she just never caught on somehow. hey had her sing "Up a Lazy River" (her one charting hit) to death, which made people get sick of her.

Zendaya. I have yet to see where the charisma or magic is in her.

Lindsay Price and Olivia Mann.

Olivia MUNN, not Mann (damned autocorrect!)

Scott Porter

R12, wasn't she fucking Letterman?

There’s a big difference between being a busy character actor like Brooke Smith and someone being actively promoted to being a star. Bonnie Hunt had a sterling reputation with other performers and the media but the public was uninterested. Sometimes an actor gets hired a lot for one-off appearances because they have already been hired a lot — what many casting people consider being “hot” — but then get cast in a regular series and fizzle out (Kaye). A lot of leads in 90s sitcoms on Fox were like this.

I’m not sure television is that invested in performers the way movie studios were. They just need bodies. I don’t resent any actor who can make a living at it, no matter how many different places they show up.

Helen Hunt

Steven Eckholdt

R60, I suspect she was also fucking Letterman.

I cannot imagine Letterman being a good fuck.

r61

Whom

Surprised no one mentioned Jenna Elfman yet. They seemed determined to make her a TV star. Never got her appeal.

R65 see R13

Jenna Elfman is irritating as fuck.

This guy in the 90s

We mustn’t forget Paget “I killed 14 of the 15 shows they put me in!” Brewster.