Matt Solomon
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As the situation comedy disappears from broadcast television, we might be losing more than simply 23 minutes of laughs surrounded by Progressive commercials. Over the past 50 years, the sitcom has been a surefire cannon from which to launch unknown comic actors onto the A-list.
Here are 7 sitcoms that turned anonymous comedians into the biggest stars in the world…
Robin Williams was a 1970s club comic with a growing reputation as an improvisational genius. A guest turn on Happy Days — producer Garry Marshall’s kid was into Star Wars so Marshall ordered writers to invent a funny alien — launched a spin-off series that turned Williams into a star practically overnight. Also up for the Happy Days alien cameo? A young Richard Lewis.
Want a idiotic premise for a sitcom? How about two guys who decide to pose as women so they can get a permanent room in an affordable women-only hotel. This dumbed-down Some Like It Hot for the 1980s wasn’t that popular, but the show did introduce America to its future favorite citizen: Mr. Tom Hanks. Bosom Buddies (Get it? BOSOM?) didn’t last long, but when Hanks hit it big with Splash and Bachelor Party, NBC threw it back into rerun rotation.
Was America really hungry for a Young Republican hero, or was Michael J. Fox just that charismatic? No one had heard of the guy when he landed the role of Alex P. Keaton, a job he got only because Matthew Broderick wasn’t available. Soon he was pulling double shifts, filming Family Ties by day and Back to the Future by night.
Friends turned out to be a starmaker for all six of its unknown leads, but no performer benefitted more than Jennifer Aniston. While other cast members’ careers faded, Aniston landed leading roles in feature films and continues to score high-profile gigs like The Morning Show. Friends turned out to be a big step up from young Aniston appearing in a bit part alongside Ronald McDonald in Mac and Me.
Viewers may have recognized Steve Carell from his correspondent turn on The Daily Show, but he didn’t become a household name until The Office. The show, debuting months before The 40-Year-Old Virgin hit theaters, turned Carell into one of the biggest comedy stars of the 2000s.
Likely the only place you’d seen Donald Glover prior to his turn as Troy Barnes in Community was on YouTube performing with his online funny group Derrick Comedy. The show turned him into a young Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars universe and the inspiration for the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man. While Ken Jeong and Joel McHale judged reality shows, Glover won two Emmy Awards for Atlanta.
The original concept for Leslie Knope’s young assistant was a dumb blonde, but that all changed once Aubrey Plaza met the show’s producers. “I was wearing jean shorts and just acting weird, according to Mike Schur,” she told The New Yorker. “He always says, like, ‘And then I met the weirdest person I’ve ever met when she walked in.’ And I’m still, like, ‘What did I do that was so weird, other than just be myself?’”
While the whole cast got viewer love, unknowns Plaza and on-screen boyfriend Chris Pratt became huge stars.
