Sometimes it's as though Scheherazade's genie representing some actors. How else to explain the repeated opportunities so many men are given?
Alan Tudyk is the perfect example of what we're talking about. A charisma-free actor, he keeps failing and keeps getting repeated chances, you'd think POWERLESS would have killed off any hopes of a leading man career. It certainly should have. But he's back, on SYFY, with RESIDENT ALIEN -- a sitcom deemed funny by those not noted for their sense of humor. He's about as funny in this as he was in SUBURGATORY -- which is to say, not at all. Ratings wise? It's no ALPHAS or DEFIANCE or even INCORPORATED. All of those SYFY shows were cancelled and RESIDENT ALIEN probably will be in season two as well but, currently, SYFY is trying to pass it off as a success.
Maybe it is? Maybe when you make a point to cancel one fan favorite after another, you run off your potential viewership? THE CW has restored faith in a lot of viewers by actually giving their shows a chance to find audiences. It helps that the network plans for summer programming (like everyone, they were effected by the COVID pandemic last summer). Of the non-Big Four (ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC), SYFY has the worst reputation for getting viewers excited about a new show only to quickly drop it.
Why does Tudyk keep getting roles?
You could argue look no further than KENAN.
KENAN could be a funny show. It isn't, but it could have been. In front of a live audience Kenan Thompson kills on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and has since 2003. Sadly, NBC doesn't like multi-camera sitcoms and that's how you arrive at the highly uneven show. Kenan isn't the problem. The rest of the cast are the problem. They're not an ensemble. There is no rhythm -- which is needed in comedy (and why MODERN FAMILY was whimsical, not hysterical) -- and they don't act as a cast. Everyone's doing their own little thing, in their own little space and no one's getting any laughs.
Especially true of Don Johnson.
Don can't really act. He never could. For whatever reason, The Water Cooler Set applauds him from time to time. We remember, for example, a TV critic at NYT devastating Farrah Fawcett by trashing her and then going on to do the same to Melanie Griffith but then it came time for Donald Johnson -- the surgically enhanced Don Johnson -- and the same female critic was like a kitten rubbing against Don's ankles. Now he once had that effect on some -- years and years ago. But those days are long gone and he supplied nothing to BOOK CLUB -- Andy Garcia provided the heat among the male cast members. Why does Tudyk keep getting roles?
Why did Don Johnson? He couldn't act and he still can't -- watch him struggle through an episode of KENAN. Flops like THE CITY and SIX PACK didn't destroy his career or him. Finally, in 1984, after 14 years of chances, he finally found success with MIAMI VICE. Another example would be Patrick Dempsey who failed for 20 years before GREY'S ANATOMY. A woman doesn't get the chances that Don and Patrick got or the ones that Tudyk is getting currently.
Were you wonderin',
"Was the gamble worth the price?"
Pack it in, I heard you did, pack it in
Was it hard to fold a hand you knew could win?
-- "The Midway," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her CLOUDS
Pack it in?
Why would anyone ever do that when Tyler Labine has a career?
Despite multiple failures, Tyler Labine has a career. Apparently, that's enough to keep failures in the race, no matter how many times they lose.
It's got to be Scheherazade's genie tugging the strings for these men because not even Mike Ovitz, in his hey day at CAA, could pull off this trick.