The television industry is difficult and fickle, and making a hit is an elusive craft. You’d be forgiven for thinking it all comes down to a combination of a good idea, script, cast, and production, but even those aren’t any guarantees that a show will be popular. Instead, successful television is often characterized by a combination of commonplace quirks as hard to explain as they are to fabricate, and smart choices with the cards they’re dealt. But whether it’s genetics or ingenuity, some of the most prodigiously successful pieces of television ever made have carved their initials into these pillars of the rite of passage:
Giving an audition actor another part besides the part they went for:
Successful TV shows have always managed to accommodate talented actors in ways they didn’t initially intend. McLean Stevenson auditioned for the role of Hawkeye Pierce before becoming Henry Blake in MIXTURE*, whose last episode obtained the highest audience in history. Michael Rispoli auditioned to be Tony Soprano, but instead became Jackie Asprile Senior. January Jones tried to become Don Draper’s assistant, Peggy Olson, in Crazy men before being promoted to wifely duties. Kristin Davis from sex and the city could have made Carrie Bradshaw a lot less equine. Sarah Michelle Geller and Charisma Carpenter originally auditioned for each other’s eventual roles in buffy. Courtney Cox was originally asked to play Rachel in Friends before becoming Monica. And John Ratzenberger pretended to sit on the edge of the stool while Norm Peterson in Healthexcept it was the subject of another successful television phenomenon.
Create a character for someone:
Having written himself off as Norm, Ratzeneberger resolved to annoy the producers of Health with stupid talk to the point where they had Cliff Claven build on his tirade. When many of those same producers broke away and created phrases, casting director Sheila Guthrie brought to her attention a photo of actor David Hyde Pierce, whom she considered the spitting image of a young Kelsey Grammer. Niles Crane was created largely on the strength of that photo. Steve Van Zandt, recruited by David Chase for a role in The sopranosHe was so concerned with taking another actor out of a role that Silvio Dante was created specifically for him.
Promote a small player to the big leagues:
The most successful shows often have supporting characters come to life on screen who don’t exactly jump off the page. M*A*S*H* Corporal Klinger was meant to be little more than a one-episode gag, but he made the impression that he was there until the final episode. Lilith Sternin was meant to be Frasier Crane’s one-date wonder but ended up becoming his wife, while The West Wing’s Donna Moss was only meant to be a recurring guest, but her chemistry with Josh sealed her fate as a of the most popular. cast members throughout their career. And 30 Rock’s Kenneth Parcell is close to the dictionary definition of a breakout character.
Replacing characters wisely:
A good way to tell the wheat of television from the chaff is how they handle the departure of a pivotal character. Do you remember, for example, who replaced Eric on That Seventies Show? Of course not. The guy who played him probably doesn’t even remember him. The best approach to take is to go for a very different character than before: in M*A*S*H*, the bumbling meddler Frank Burns was replaced by the brilliant blue blood Major Winchester and the hapless Colonel Blake by the much more close-knit Colonel . Potter, and on Cheers, the passing of veteran The Coach made young Woody Harrelson a household name. Other shows practically had a habit of constantly bringing in/sending in new stars, just to show off. The West Wing got rid of Mandy Hampton and Sam Seaborn without breaking a sweat. Between them, LA Law and ER had a cast larger than Gandhi’s set lunch queues, but both managed almost a quarter century between them. The former’s showrunner, David E. Kelley, got so used to bringing in and taking out great characters that on his most recent hit, Boston Legal, he regularly dumped major cast members without explanation. And he also got away with it. Now that is a sign of success.
