I'm wondering what the longest-running regular role in sci-fi is, played by the same actor. Most SF shows don't run long in the first place, so we're pretty narrowed. What do we have here?
-Doctor Who lasted twenty-seven (now twenty-nine) years, but not consecutively and with a constantly changing cast. The longest-lasting Doctor was Tom Baker, with seven years.
-Most of the regulars on TNG, DS9 and VOY all had seven years.
-Amanda Tapping and Chris Judge as Samantha Carter and Teal'c on SG-1 will have ten years by the end of next year.
-Michael Shanks took the sixth year "off", but still managed three pivotal appearances as Daniel Jackson and another two as Thor in the same show. He essentially skipped out on being the secondary character in all the other episodes that season, despite being a recurring character. So would he have ten years?
-By the same token, Michael Dorn did seven years as Worf for TNG, but before doing it again for four years on DS9 he did the "Generations" movie during the year between. So it's not eleven CONSECUTIVE years, but it's still eleven years...
posted
I'd probably be willing to cut Michael Dorn a break, seeing how his "break" was only one year (DS9's third season), and he spent a big chunk of that year filming Generations. I'd call it "technically consecutive", myself.
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posted
The Stargate cast is the longest lived that I can think of.
I'm not sure we can count Dorn's Worf as consecutive, because there was a time that he wasn't under contract to play the character, IIRC.
On a side note, what was the deal with Shanks leaving during season 6? Was it that he just wanted the season off with the full intention of returning for season 7? Or did he want to leave not knowing if he'd come back? The addition of Jonas to the cast didn't seem to be quite worked out as of the season 5 finale, in which neither Jonas nor Daniel appeared (nor was Shanks credited).
posted
We can really get obscure here, if we don't limit ourselves to TV series. The longest one I found was Adele Ronson and Edgar Stehli, who voice Wilma Dearing and Dr. Huer in the Buck Rogers radio series. They did this four times a week for 15 years from 1932 to 1947. Buck was done by several different people.
posted
I'd count it, if it were a consecutive roll. But it wasn't. However, if you start from the first use of her voice on TNG, count her "appearances" as the runabout voice on DS9, and all of Voyager's run, as well as the movies in between... you might be able to make a case for it being a consecutive roll from early TNG through the end of Voyager. But you couldn't count TOS.
posted
Colm wasn't a regular on anything but DS9. And while he had some meaty stuff to do on occasion on TNG (culminating in "The Wounded", I'd say), he really wasn't anything but a recurring secondary character. Likewise, Majel as the computer was recurring and not much more than a symbolic thing.
I'm talking about lead characters here... So I'd guess that Tapping and Judge rule the roost here so far in television, and the Buck Rogers people (man, how did you know that?) for radio. If we don't count consecutive periods, then Dorn gets the television honor for 11 seasons with Worf.
posted
What about Mitch Pileggi or William B. Davis' stint on the X-Files? Granted they weren't series regulars and didn't appear in every episode but they managed, I think, quite a long run at it.
Come to that James Marsters made a good showing of it with Spike...what was it, six years on Buffy and one on Angel? David Boreanaz managed eight: three on Buffy and five on his own show.
Of course on the other side of things, who would be the shortest running regular? Denise Crosby? Brent Stait?
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posted
For a long running show, my guess would be Doyle.
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quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Every castmember on every show that got cancelled by the second episode?
Oooops sorry, I really should have qualified: shortest serving regular on a show that went on to run for a while...otherwise the entire cast of Mercy Point could be put on the list! :-D
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quote:Originally posted by Omega: For a long running show, my guess would be Doyle.
Are we going to count re-casting? Depending on if SG:A will count as a long running show, the first Dr. Elizabeth Weir would be even shorter.
Babylon 5 would also have a number of short-lived regulars with little screentime like Keffer or Na'Toth. Depending on how you look at it, they also lost a number of "regulars" going from the pilot to the series. (Takashima and the doctor)
Star Trek would even have a couple of "regulars" being lost between the pilot and the series (Hunter and Number One).
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