5 Comedy Stars Who Appeared in at Least Three Sitcom Flops
Chin up, struggling comedy actors! As discussed in a Reddit thread on r/Sitcoms this week, several of the genre’s biggest stars were featured in not one, not two, but at least three failed sitcoms over the course of their television careers. These five comedy stars can blame bad writing, bad time slots or bad luck, but there’s no getting around it — each of them has at least three sitcom bombs stinking up their IMDb.
(You happen to enjoy one of the sitcoms listed below? You’re entitled to that opinion. But for this exercise, I’ll classify a sitcom flop as a show that lasted only a single season or less. An even better indicator of inadequacy? You forgot the sitcom existed or never heard of it in the first place.)
Jason Bateman
Bateman hit sitcom gold with Arrested Development in the 2000s and logged 110 episodes on the forgotten 1980s hit Valerie. In between his successes, however, he was comedy kryptonite. Some fondly remember his teenage role in It’s Your Move, but that comedy couldn’t get through a single season. Raise your hand if you were a regular viewer of Simon, Chicago Sons or Some of My Best Friends? Yeah, didn’t think so.
Jennifer Aniston
Before everyone cut their hair like Aniston in Friends, she struggled to find her footing despite getting several kicks at the comedy cat. Sketch comedy show The Edge — a Gen X Carol Burnett Show with Tom “SpongeBob” Kenny and Wayne “Seinfeld” Knight — at least made it through a single year. The same can’t be said for sitcoms Molloy (playing Mayim Bialik’s older step-sister), Ferris Bueller (playing Ferris’ perpetually perturbed sister) or Muddling Through (as, you guessed it, another disgruntled sister).
Kelsey Grammer
Unlike some other stars on this list, Grammer didn’t suffer a series of failures before finally landing his big sitcom fish. He led off his career with all-time classics Cheers and Frasier before scrambling for years to replicate his earlier successes. Those one-season-or-less turkeys include Hank, Partners and Back to You, despite a cast that included Patricia Heaton, Ty Burrell, Josh Gad and Fred Willard. While we’re at it, nobody watched Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show either. No wonder he wanted to bring back Frasier.
Matthew Perry
Like his Friends co-star Aniston, Perry kept getting cast in earlier sitcoms that just didn’t catch on. Chances are you never caught an episode of Boys Will Be Boys, Sydney or Home Free. And unlike Aniston, he kept the unlucky sitcom streak going after Friends as well, starring in one-season duds like Mr. Sunshine and Go On. Technically, his rebooted Odd Couple from the late 2010s lasted three seasons, but 10 bucks says you forgot it existed.
Jenna Elfman
Elfman got a bunch of Emmy nominations for Dharma and Greg, but that didn’t translate into success when she starred in other sitcoms. You think three sitcom flops are hard to pull off? Elfman managed six, including Townies, Courting Alex, Accidentally on Purpose, 1600 Penn, Growing Up Fisher and Imaginary Mary.
