Top 10 Famous Actors Who Started on Bad Shows
#10: Jason Momoa “Baywatch” (1989-2001)
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Long before he played Aquaman in the DCEU, Jason Momoa showed he had the right stuff to play the pretty boy as Jason Ioane, one of the lifeguards in “Baywatch: Hawaii.” His run spanned the last two seasons of the show, which was a total of 44 episodes, and he would reprise his role in “Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.” Momoa has since revealed in interviews that for a few years after the show ended, no one would hire him and no agent would take him simply because he was on “Baywatch.” It would take nearly a decade for him to cement his reputation by playing Khal Drogo on “Game of Thrones.”
#9: Dana Carvey & Nathan Lane “One of the Boys” (1982)
In addition to Carvey and Lane, “One of the Boys” had a cast that included Mickey Rooney, Scatman Cruthers, and Meg Ryan, and yet was still so bad that TV Guide named it one of the 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time. In it, an elderly man, played by Rooney, lives with his grandson, played by Carvey, and his roommate, played by Nathan Lane, who are both attending college. This show was cancelled after its first season and it’s safe to say that few people missed it. If there’s one silver lining to its existence however, you did get to see a pre-SNL Dana Carvey do his Mr. Rogers impression.
#8: Rami Malek “The War at Home” (2005-07)
In this sitcom, Malek, who would go on to star in “Mr. Robot” and win an Oscar for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury, played Kenny, a gay teenager who was the best friend of one of the main characters. Surprisingly, the sitcom doesn’t take the low road with Kenny and actually humanizes him, something one might not have expected from a Fox sitcom in the mid 2000s. Malek’s character, and the show’s representation of an LGBTQ+ character, which earned it a GLAAD award nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series, are seen as the few remarkable things to come out of this otherwise forgettable show.
#7: Jim Carrey “The Duck Factory” (1984)
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Considering the kind of wacky roles that have made Jim Carrey famous, we can look back in hindsight and say this show was obviously not a good fit for the comedian. In this sitcom, Carrey plays Skip Tarkenton, an animator who works for a company that produces a cartoon called “The Dippy Duck Show.” The humor revolves around the quirky workplace environment and the personalities of the people who work with Skip. No one could have made this lackluster material work, but it’s especially painful to watch Carrey play someone so mild mannered.
#6: Carrie-Anne Moss “Models Inc.” (1994-95)
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In the mid 1990s, the “Matrix” actress starred in this spinoff of “Melrose Place” about a modeling agency. Critics blasted the primetime soap opera for its melodramatic story arcs. In the evening series, Moss played Carrie Spencer, a model represented by the titular agency. For one of her storylines, Carrie looks for her long lost son, whom she thought had died. The show was cancelled after one season, and ended on the bleakest of notes for Moss’s character - she was kidnapped and forced into slavery in a Central American location known as “Hooker Hell.”
#5: David Duchovny “Red Shoe Diaries” (1992-97)
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Shortly before taking on his iconic role as Agent Mulder, Duchovny starred in this strange and now largely forgotten tv show. Known for striking a softcore erotic tone, “Red Shoe Diaries” is about a man whose wife commits suicide, and to his surprise, she was keeping a diary that detailed an affair and repressed desires. To make sense of these new discoveries, he asks other women to send him letters about their desires, which each episode then revolved around. Producers of the series said they were breaking new ground with this provocative series, but it only goes to show that just because something is original doesn’t automatically make it good.
#4: Halle Berry “Living Dolls” (1989)
This late ‘80s sitcom about young models working at an agency marked Halle Berry’s first credited acting role; she played Emily Franklin, one of the models. Considering that Berry had a background in modeling and beauty pageants prior to acting, this was a perfect place to start. “Living Dolls” was a spinoff of “Who’s the Boss?” and also starred a young Leah Remini. The show was poorly received and only lasted 12 episodes. However, Berry managed to land on her feet shortly afterward, finding steady work in film and television where she’s won both an Emmy and an Oscar.
#3: Jennifer Lawrence “The Bill Engvall Show” (2007-09)
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This A-lister’s first big acting role was playing Bill Engvall’s fictional teenage daughter in “The Bill Engvall Show,” which only lasted three seasons. Though it was a thankless role, Lawrence was seen as one of the few bright spots of this TBS sitcom. Showing promise in her performance, Lawrence won a Young Artist Award in 2009. That Lawrence could go from average girl in this sitcom to resourceful teenager in “Winter’s Bone” or Katniss Everdeen in the “Hunger Games” films shows what kind of range Lawrence actually has as an actress.
#2: Ryan Gosling “Young Hercules” (1998-99)
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After his stint on the “The Mickey Mouse Club” but before his film career took off, Gosling starred in this prequel to “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.” As is likely self evident from the title, “Young Hercules” followed Hercules as a teenager before he grew into Kevin Sorbo. Though the show aired on the Fox Kids network, Gosling took his work seriously. When asked to name a project in his career he felt was underrated, Gosling chose “Young Hercules,” with part of his reasoning being that he had to fight monsters that “weren’t really there.” It’s hard to argue with that!
#1: Leonardo Dicaprio “Parenthood” (1990-91)
The 1990s saw Leonardo DiCaprio becoming one of the biggest stars in the world, but the decade didn’t start out so promising. DiCaprio’s first prominent role was in the sitcom “Parenthood,” which was based on the 1989 film starring Steve Martin. On the show, DiCaprio played Garry Buckman, a role played by Joaquin Phoenix in the original movie. The show was cancelled after 12 episodes, but it did earn DiCaprio a Young Artist nomination for Best Young Actor Starring in a New Television Series. Fortunately for DiCaprio, he found success shortly after when he joined the tv show “Growing Pains,” before going on to star in films like “Romeo + Juliet” and “Titanic.”
