1 of 1- RadioActive
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Do You Recognize This TV Star In His Early Series?
The network: NBC.
The year:1990
The show: The Fanelli Boys.
There's a good reason you never heard of it. It barely lasted a season, if that. But one of its actors not only became a huge star on the network, he's coming back to the Peacock network this fall. Without looking at the names in this TV Guide preview, see if you can guess who the guy directly to the right of the woman is, the star right beside the actor with the beard.
Give up? It's Christopher ("Chris" at the time) Meloni, who went on to star as Elliott Stabler in "Law & Order: SVU," and later in his own show, "Law & Order: Organized Crime." To me, he's almost unrecognizable. I doubt he ever talks about the flop he was in, but I'm sure he misses that full head of hair!
Here's the whole page.
- Binson Echorec
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Re: Do You Recognize This TV Star In His Early Series?
Chris Meloni was dynamite in Oz.
- Radio Bob
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Re: Do You Recognize This TV Star In His Early Series?
That's Ann (Morgan) Guilbert, as in Millie Helper on the Dick Van Dyke Show and Grandma Yetta on The Nanny, among other roles.
- Paul Jeffries
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Re: Do You Recognize This TV Star In His Early Series?
Coincidentally, this show premiered the same year the original Law & Order debuted.
Also pictured is the late Ned Eisenberg, who also coincidentally had a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, among many other credits (including two appearances in the franchise's Law & Order: Criminal Intent).
I find it fascinating to look at these fall previews in retrospect, knowing that some of these shows have soared to great heights while others have fallen to the ground with a resounding thud. Although you can usually spot a turkey from the get-go, a lot of great shows have also bit the dust, simply because they couldn't find an audience, often because of poor promotion or being up against an established hit. You can never really tell which shows are going to fall into which category. Kind of like, what would the TV landscape look like now if the original Law & Order didn't take off? Quite a bit different, I would assume, as Dick Wolf has had numerous shows greenlit over the years, which were no doubt given the opportunity to shine given his success with the L&O franchise.
PJ
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- RadioActive
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Re: Do You Recognize This TV Star In His Early Series?
In case you're curious what this show was like. Leave it to YouTube to have it.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: Do You Recognize This TV Star In His Early Series?
Just watched that compilation and I can see why it didn't make it. Odd seeing "Eliott Stabler" playing the hunky dummy.
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Thread Starter- mace
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Re: Do You Recognize This TV Star In His Early Series?
Perhaps NBC should have left the show on Saturdays, which is when the pilot aired. Its only real competition was Cops on FOX. Wednesday it had to face Doogie Houser and Jake and the Fat Man. Even with Dear John as a lead-in, the Fanelli's lasted only a total of 19 episodes.