It Takes Two to Tango

[Mugs914]

Wanted Dead or Alive. Steve McQueen was way too cool for a sidekick, let alone a cast of regulars.

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GREAT CALL! I forgot about ol' Josh!

MASSIVE oversight on my part! I have the series on DVD...

 

[jqavins]

So, I would make the rules as follows:

1. Two main characters, and
2. No recurring characters, unless
3. They are part of a single story arc that spans multiple episodes, or
4. They appear very infrequently over the duration of the series.

I would say something simpler: Two and only two characters who appear in more than about (oh, lets say) 4% of episodes (i.e. once per 25 episode season). Billing in the credits as "staring", "also staring", or "with" is irrelevant. And appearance in all parts of a multi-part episode only count as one episode.

Nurse Chapel is a recurring character, Lt. Riley is not.

My $0.02.

Meanwhile; The Twilight Zone really didn't have any "Starring Roles" so much as it had Rod Serling introducing each episode.
Now in both The Wild, Wild West as well as The Twilight Zone there were actors that showed up in many episodes but not as the same character they either played "Henchmen" in TWWW or background/bit part characters in TWZ.

Sometimes those actors played main characters in multiple episodes of anthology series like The Twilight Zone. But those are still different characters. Look at Twilight Zone appearances by Burgess Meredith and Jack Klugman. And even in episodic shows, you'll sometimes see the same guest star, main character of a story, doing it more than once, e.g. Mark Leonard in ST:TOS.

 

[Bat-mite]

Sounds good.

So, Dan Reid was in 14 of the 217 Lone Ranger episodes (on TV). That's about 6.5%. So I think that number needs to go up a little.

 

[jqavins]

Maybe. That show ran for five seasons (I just looked it up). An argument could be made that 14 appearances in five seasons constitutes a recurring character, but I wouldn't say that it definitely does. I guess there's room to call it a matter of opinion.

And it seems I've been dominating the discussion a bit. I'll try to pull back.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

What about the old Kung Fu TV series? I didn't watch enough to be sure but it seems like a possibility.

Some seasons of Doctor Who do it, but obviously not the whole series.

 

[JoePfeiffer]

Speaking of "Have Gun Will Travel", my wife and I have almost finished watching the entire series (it is available as a DVD box set), and it included five seasons of some of the best television ever (and a sixth season that is bad, bad, bad). One thing to note is that while the series had exactly one star (Richard Boone as Paladin) and one other recurring character (Kam Tong as Hey Boy in all but one season, and as noted above, Lisa Lu as Hey Girl in that one), there were a number of actors who appeared repeatedly in various small parts. Hal Needham, in particular, was Boone's stunt double, and so appeared in many, many episodes as various henchmen and townspeople (and in a few episodes as a lead bad guy).

In spite of the awful character names (how could that have been acceptable even in 1960?), Hey Boy and Hey Girl were actually treated with respect. I actually preferred Hey Girl, as she had a more overt snark that was fun to see.

 

[Mugs914]

How about Then Came Bronson? Michael Parks on a Harley XLH; no other regulars except him and the bike, I don't think.

A bit before my time, but I used to see it occasionally in syndication. Cool show...

 

[user 13]

What about "Mannix"?

I Think it was just Mannix and his Secretary Peggy.

Great reminder with "The Invaders" Roy was really the only main character. But Edgar Scoville is in over 25% of them.
He is not really a central player though, I would still classify him as a recurring character.
In any event it is a much underrated TV show, very well done.

 

[Mugs914]

Agree on The Invaders, very underrated show...

 

[icyclops]

I was watching an episode of Quantum Leap the other day and I realized that this program had only two reoccurring characters; Dr Sam Beckett played by Scott Bakula and Admiral Al Calavicci played by Dean Stockwell.
Sure, there were a few characters on QL that appeared in more that a single episode but they certainly weren't "Regulars" by any stretch of the imagination.

This got me to thinking, which leads no good, about other TV series that only had two starring/reoccurring roles and I really couldn't come up with another.
Oddly enough I did think up a couple of shows which had only a single leading role; The Invaders with Roy Thinnes and Run For Your Life with Ben Garraza.

Now there are lots of shows that might have had one or two "Starring Roles" Alias Smith and Jones comes to mind or Maverick but both of those had a lot of other characters that showed up in a lot of episode.

So help me out here and try to name some shows with only one or two characters holding down the fort.

Dragnet? 2 guys and a egg salad sandwich.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Does anyone know if "The Invaders" can be streamed here in the US?

 

[jqavins]

Dragnet? 2 guys and a egg salad sandwich.

Oh, good God, how can I have failed to think of Dragnet?!

 

[dr wogz]

Disagree. Rudy Wells was recurring, as was secretary Callahan.

I was .. pre teen.. I only remember those two were consistent!

 

[Mugs914]

Does anyone know if "The Invaders" can be streamed here in the US?

It looks like they are available on Face Tube...

 

[Mugs914]

Dragnet? 2 guys and a egg salad sandwich.

"You know, you ougtta change your diet Joe; stop eating out so much."

"Yeah, whyzat?"

"You can save a lot of money eating at home, you know. Made this egg salad m'self; good as any anywhere..."

"I like the egg salad at the cafe down the street."

"Suit your self Joe, but you can save a lot of money by eating at home."

Riveting stuff!

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Does anyone know if "The Invaders" can be streamed here in the US?

I have "The Invaders" in my archive. 17 shows, 8.31 GB. I don't have cloud storage so the best way would burn DVDs and mail them.

 

[Echo3]

The Incredible Hulk only had two recurring characters, Dr. David Banner and Jack McGee, the sleazy investigative reporter. I’m counting Dr. Banner and the Hulk as the same character even though they were portrayed by two different actors in every episode.

 

[Bat-mite]

The Incredible Hulk only had two recurring characters, Dr. David Banner and Jack McGee, the sleazy investigative reporter. I’m counting Dr. Banner and the Hulk as the same character even though they were portrayed by two different actors in every episode.

Good one! Can't believe I missed that.

 

[Bat-mite]

"You know, you ougtta change your diet Joe; stop eating out so much."

"Yeah, whyzat?"

"You can save a lot of money eating at home, you know. Made this egg salad m'self; good as any anywhere..."

"I like the egg salad at the cafe down the street."

"Suit your self Joe, but you can save a lot of money by eating at home."

Riveting stuff!

I was never a fan, so I don't know, but Wikipedia lists four stars for Dragnet.

Adam 12 may be closer, although I think there may have been a commanding officer at the precinct.

 

[Greg Furtman]

I checked YouTube and it looks like it has all of "The Invaders" episodes.