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(#4) In Living Color
- Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jim Carrey, Kelly Coffield Park
Created by Keenen Ivory Wayans for Fox, In Living Color was the urban Saturday Night Live, not afraid to tackle issues of race way before Lorne Michaels held "secret" auditions for a black, female cast member for SNL. Their alumni sheet rivals SNL's own in prolificness, and launched the careers of nearly everyone in the Wayne's family (including Damon, Kim, Shawn, and Marlon). Also among the cast: Jim Carrey, T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh, Jamie Foxx, David Alan Grier, Jennifer Lopez and Carrie Ann Inaba (both of whom started out as one of the troupe's dance crew, the Fly Girls.) And who who was the coordinator of The Fly Girls? Rosie Freakin' Perez.
In Living Color ran from 1990 to 1994, before an eventual fallout between Fox executives and the Wayans tanked the program.
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(#8) Friends
- Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow
Friends is a special case on this list, because it's cast didn't get famous after the show's run, but during. So famous, in fact, that the NBC salary negotiations for the increasingly famous sextet is the stuff of legends.
And sure, a sitcom about six white people living in unaffordable apartments in New York wouldn't work today, but the show was legitimately hilarious and the cast put in a decade of their lives as Friends. Even if fans want a reunion, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Courtney Cox are under no obligation to give it to them. They've done their time as these characters. Sometimes you just have to move on.
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(#15) Misfits
- Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Joseph Gilgun, Iwan Rheon
E 4's Misfits is one of the better programs about people with superpowers out there, mainly because it just feels right: a bunch of juvenile delinquents get hit by a lightning bolt while doing community service, enhancing them all with gifts that...really suck. Especially for high-school aged kids. For example, the resident party girl, Alisha Daniels, is given the power whereby anyone who comes into physical contact with her suddenly has an overwhelmingly rape-y need to have sex with her. A villain in a season finale can only control milk and milk by-products. A self-conscious girl can hear what other people are thinking about her. And the incredible gift of the annoying Nathan Young...well, I won't spoil it. The whole show is just a brilliant satire on American superhero culture like the X-Men or The Avengers: these kids don't want to save the world, they mostly just try not to accidentally kill the myriad of social workers sent there way.
The notables on this show include: Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones), Joseph Gilgun (Preacher), Antonia Thomas (Lovesick), and Robert Sheehan (Geostorm, Bad Samaritan, Cherrybomb, Love/Hate).
And like Doctor Who, you can pick any random episode of the show and recognize a guest-star before they were famous.
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(#16) Undressed
- Max Greenfield, Christina Hendricks, Sarah Lancaster
Sort of like the American version of Skins, until MTV actually made an American version of Skins: the promise of beautiful, young people having sex was an unsurprising hit, given both MTV's demo and... well, who doesn't want to watch attractive 20-somethings pretend to awkwardly fumble around high school sexuality?
Notable cast members? Sure, here's a few: Max Greenfield (New Girl), Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones), Peter Paige (who went on to create The Fosters), Marc Blucas (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galatica), Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill), Jason Ritter, Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), Michelle Ongkingco (Gilmore Girls), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), and Adam Brody.
To be clear, there were approximately 50 more actors on that show that are relatively successful; it's hard to find one that hasn't made a nice career for themselves in television, film or music since starring on Undressed.
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(#9) Taxi
- Judd Hirsch, Jeff Conaway, Danny DeVito
The show that launched Danny DeVito's career must have a Midas touch. Andy Kaufman, Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, Carol Cane, eff Conaway, Tony Danza and Christopher Lloyd all have a show about a verbally abusive New York taxi dispatcher and his employees to thank for the their careers. Well, maybe not Kaufman, who famously hated being stereotyped as Latka Gravas.
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(#2) Saturday Night Live
- Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson
Yeah, this one is a freebie. Are you really going to sit here and read the names of ever famous comedian who started on Saturday Night Live? If you want to read this list first.
Maybe it's easier to think about actors that you might remember as cast members, but never were: Steve Martin, Donald Glover, Jim Carrey, Steve Carrell, Kevin Hart, Adam McKay (who did go on to be head writer of the show), the members of Kids in the Hall who weren't Mark McKinney, the members of Lonely Island who weren't Andy Samberg, and the members of Mr. Show who weren't Bob Odenkirk. (So...David Cross.)
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About This Tool
For actors, it is not easy to get the best role to start their careers. Sometimes they need to rely on luck, especially when their career is facing a bottleneck and they need to find a new project that can revive them. With a new role, a new image reappears in front of the public. Looking back on TV history, some successful TV shows have also made some worldwide famous actors.
It is very difficult to get the support of the audience and the recognition of the public. It seems that the audience can't separate your image from the characters they already know and love. The random tool lists 17 great TV shows that started casts' careers.
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