How come Ted McGinley got such a bad reputation for being a "show killer"? They've even got a shrine dedicated to him here: http://www.jumptheshark.com/

From what I hear, Ted McGinley is not a real problem per se, but he's the kind of actor who joins the cast of a particular show that is already going downhill in terms of popularity and for some reason or another was close to cancellation.

But why does he still this possibly undeserved bad reputation? And I heard that Married With Children continued for six more seasons on his watch and I imagine a few other shows he was on lasted a few years after his addition.

I imagine the shrine dedicated to him on "Jump the Shark" is supposed to be an ironic in-joke.

Were you expecting responses to this? It seems to me you pretty much covered all the angles.

He's not much worse than Robert Hays. Truly, he kills sitcoms and keeps the heads as trophies.

I think Jumping the Shark refers more to creative quality than ratings/cancellation. You can't deny that Married With Children was not better before Jefferson Darcy joined the cast (btw, that was my best Joe Theisman doing his usual double-negative analysis).

Wrong places at the wrong times.

Ted McGinley and I have the same birthday......that's how.

McGinley joins shows after they've declined and they manage to scrape a few more years in before finally getting cancelled. Basically, if he wasn't on a show right now, he'd be perfect for ER. Or he would've been Marwan for season four of 24.

I think thier poin is that McGinnely is the kind of generic, workman line actor that gets hired when the production team gives up on creativity and just falls into a pattern...It has nothing to do with him, since he always does good work

"What show do you next expect to hire Ted McGinley?" could be an entire thread.

That does sound interesting. I think Tiffani- "Amber" Thiessen is the new Ted McGinley. Rene Sofer is close too. They even did damage on the same show...

Isn't Hope and Faith doing well? He's been on that since the begining.

The Ted McGinnely theory is about as relevant as jumptheshark.com

I Thought Hope and Faith got cancelled.

D

Criticism of Ted McGinley is just borne of jealousy.

That's one helluva good-looking man!!

He was great in Revenge of the Nerds.

What role did he play?

Plus is there any links to a DVD review or details?

He was the nerds' #1 nemesis -- the handsome jock/student president type with the hot girlfriend. Then he became a nerd in one of the TV sequels.

wasn't he on early west wing seasons?

At least that's one show he didn't jinx, although it did kinda lose it's way until after he left...

When your early fame comes from being on both Happy Days and The Love Boat at a time when a large number of people thought those shows should've already called it quits, you're going to get a reputation even if you manage to have success on other shows later on.

I guess I am one of the few that liked him on MWC, more than Steve.

I always liked him since he was on when I started watching the show. I never saw any of the Steve episodes until much later when they ran on syndication. I guess it was still a good show in its last 4 or 5 years, as long as you didn't compare them to the first 4 or 5 years.

One of the great MwC Jefferson moments was when Kelly had a job at some sort of "TV Land" amusement park and when Jefferson showed up there he was recognized by some park guests as some of the other TV characters he has played (I believe it was the Happy Days and Love Boat ones in particular).

Stan Gable in revenge of the nerds 1, 3 and i think also 4.

He was fine on "Married with Children", i liked Jefferson alot more than Steve.