John Cullum

Why did John Cullum never get his own tv show? It seems like they gave tv shows to everyone from Stockard Channing to Nathan Lane to Dorothy Loudon.

Cullum had certainly built respectability on Broadway. From "On A Clear Day" to "1776" to "Shenandoah" to "On The Twentieth Century." It seems like in the 1970s or 1980s, they would try him in a series where he was a country preacher fighting racism or a gentle father in a Waltons ripoff. He finally hit it big in the 90s with Northern Exposure, but even that was an ensemble piece. Why wasn't he ever given his own show?

..and did any of those shows even last a single season??

John Cullum did a marvelous job as the straight man surrounded by eccentrics in Northern Exposure. A wonderful role for his talents for, what was it - about 6 years?

Updated On: 11/23/15 at 10:32 PM

He probably either wasn't interested or they never found a good vehicle for him. Broadway stars don't always do well on TV, I remember Lila Kaye from 'Nicholas Nickleby' got her own show that was cancelled pretty quickly. She played a TV chef with her own cooking show.

He did do some other TV work. He was in an episode of Quantum Leap called 'Catch a Falling Star' in which he played a drunken stage actor performing in a production of 'Man of La Mancha' (one of their best episodes, Scott Bakula also got to show off his singing chops), and he was in an episode of the series "The Magnificent Seven" playing a Wild West preacher.