To us regular people, landing a gig on an immensely popular television series might
seem like the best work ever for an actor.
Years and years of steady salary plus celebrity status?
What could go wrong?
Well, sometimes those roles aren't quite all they're cracked up to be.
These actors hit it so big with these TV shows that their careers still haven't fully recovered.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
If you have to go down in history for one role and one role only, it doesn't get much
better than being remembered as the kickass Buffy Summers, the Slayer, the Chosen One.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of the most influential television series to ever grace
the small screen, and fans have stuck by the series for 20 years now.
Sarah Michelle Gellar had a number of hits during the Buffy years, like I Know What You
Did Last Summer and Cruel Intentions.
But the post-Buffy years haven't been exactly kind to Gellar, at least in a cinematic sense.
Fortunately, her other pursuits have taken off.
In 2002 she married Freddie Prinze Jr., and the two '90s sweethearts now have two children.
In 2015, Gellar launched Foodstirs, a monthly subscription service offering baking boxes.
And in February 2017, she published her first cookbook.
Not bad for a former slayer...
David Schwimmer
Since his ten years as Ross Geller on Friends, Schwimmer's career has basically slowed to
a halt.
It's a typical case of a great television role ruining an actor's chances for success
in other arenas.
Schwimmer himself even acknowledges the damage his Friends success did to his career.
In August 2016, he told The Hollywood Reporter how his sudden celebrity status affected him:
"It made me want to hide under a baseball cap and not be seen.
And I realized that after a while I was no longer watching people; I was trying to hide."
And as if that weren't bad enough, Schwimmer's enormous celebrity nearly destroyed his personal
life, too.
"It messed with my relationship to other people in a way that took years, I think, for me
to kind of adjust to and be comfortable with."
But there's hope on the horizon.
More recently, Friends fans delighted in the return of David Schwimmer as attorney Robert
Kardashian in the critically acclaimed FX series The People vs. O.J. Simpson.
And if that doesn't reboot his career, we can always look forward to another Madagascar,
right?
Sarah Jessica Parker
Despite the fact that Sarah Jessica Parker said that she would never do a television
series again after Sex and the City, she popped up on HBO's Divorce, which has received mixed
reviews since its premiere in 2016.
SJP had quite the career before Sex and the City, beginning as a theater actor on Broadway,
and going on to star in such films as L.A. Story, Honeymoon in Vegas, Ed Wood, and Mars
Attacks!.
But it still feels a little like SJP will always be remembered as C-C-C-Carrie Bradshaw.
And there's really nothing wrong with that — Sex and the City has a pretty amazing
legacy.
Just, please, don't make any more Sex and the City movies.
Jason Alexander
From the cast of Seinfeld, there's Jerry, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards.
We all know what happened to Michael Richards.
And Louis-Dreyfus has gone on to star in another great show, Veep.
Jerry is still Jerry-ing right along.
That leaves Jason Alexander, a fantastic comedic actor...whose career just took a nosedive
after Seinfeld wrapped in 1998.
So what has Alexander been up to since Seinfeld?
Well, aside from those KFC commercials, apparently he's been playing a lot of poker, including
in televised tournaments where he donates his winnings to charity.
That's a big change from George Costanza, but hey, good for him!
The crew of the Enterprise
Although Shakespearean-trained actor Patrick Stewart has gone on to many more major roles
in his long and prolific career after playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the rest of the Star
Trek: The Next Generation cast was not so lucky.
Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, and Brent Spiner have all failed to embark on major careers
post-Trek.
That speaks more to the career stifling effects of the iconic characters they played, rather
than their talents as actors.
"Hey, Troy?"
"Hi, I'm LeVar Burton!"
Still, the Star Trek fanbase is a die-hard, dedicated, uh, enterprise.
Let's hope the Star Trek legacy has been enough to sustain these three over the years.
Jon Hamm
Mad Men's Jon Hamm is so totally Don Draper that the only parts he's had since are simply
different versions of that same character — like his brief cameo in Bridesmaids or
his role in 30 Rock.
"I guess I'll see you around then…"
"Or as the French say…"
"Yeah."
But the fact remains that since Mad Men wrapped in 2015, Jon Hamm's career has been mostly
dormant … or just flying under the radar.
It's only been two years, so let's hope that Hamm will be able to find a role that gives
him a break from the Don Draper persona.
So far — unless you count corny tax-preparation commercials — it hasn't happened.
Lauren Ambrose
Lauren Ambrose: What happened?
We miss you.
Ambrose is best remembered for her turn as Claire on HBO's Six Feet Under, one of the
most relatable and beloved characters of the series.
Before that, you may have seen Ambrose trapped in a bathroom with Seth Green in 1998's Can't
Hardly Wait.
But after Six Feet Under ended in 2005, Ambrose hasn't gotten many shots in big-name productions,
aside from a supporting role in The X-Files reboot.
We'd love to see her again!
Hopefully we'll get our wish soon...
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