Ted Danson at 34 cheers Debuting in the fall of 1982, it was relatively young for a television star at the time. The top 10 most-watched shows of the season also included several other thirtysomething shows starring Tom Selleck. Magnum, PI with John Ritter at company of threebut for the most part, the biggest hits on the small screen are built around actors in their fifties (Larry Hagman dallasgeorge peppard Team A) or the sixties (John Forsyth in dynastyJane Wyman in falcon crest). by the time cheers A dozen years later, Danson has entered middle age, and the faces on television are about to become fresher. Advertisers came to believe that the most valuable (and persuasive) audience was those under 35, and shows featured younger casts with traditional appeal, e.g. friends and melrose place Ponce de León was convinced that the fountain of youth in front of the camera would bring in a flood of new money, and business was booming. Danson didn't stop working during this era, but his two followingcheers sitcom, ink and Beckermade for CBS, a network with an older audience that has been trying to convince advertisers that people with gray hair have money to spend — even there, Danson dyed her increasingly gray hair The brown color he naturally has in his hair. Earlier career.
When his latest series, a man deep insidepremiered on Netflix as Danson was just weeks away from turning 77. Once he was asked to minimize the signs of aging, now he stars in a show where aging is the entire theme. Danson plays Charles Nieuwendyk, a former college professor whose life feels completely empty after the death of his wife and his retirement from teaching. He was running out of rope, getting out of bed in the morning just because it seemed like the right thing to do. It was only encouragement from his daughter and a job offer from a private investigator to help investigate a jewelry theft at a retirement community that brought him out into the world again. He makes new friends at the nursing home, discovers that many of his peers live full and complex lives, and realizes that he wants to experience more adventures while he still can.
It's a fun, endearing show that feels like the culmination of a trend that's developed over the past decade, in which television once again learns to embrace and even celebrate older adults and the stories they have to tell.
During the gold rush for the 18-34 adult demographic, our great older actors haven't completely disappeared from the small screen. They often play supporting roles in shows dominated by less experienced performers. We still have a lot of them these days, including 82-year-old Harrison Ford in shrink. But there is a growing welcome back to center stage for older players, who tend to be older than normal even in a less age-conscious era.
. That doesn't always seem to be the case, as people - especially celebrities - age differently than they did in mid-to-late 20th century America. Buddy Ebsen was 65 when he first played a seventies private eye
grace and frankie Syed Adityani/NetflixIronically, this darkening shift begins in an area of business often considered forward-thinking and youthful: streaming. Premiered on Netflix in 2015 grace and frankieIn the show, former co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, then in their seventies, play retirees who become close after their husbands leave and have an affair. It ran for seven seasons, making it one of the longest-running TV series of all time and a powerful reminder that Fonda and Tomlin were just as great a team as they were in feminist film comedies decades ago 9 to 5. A few years later, Netflix debuted a similar male character Kominsky methodstarring Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin as a famous acting teacher and his long-time agent and friend; the show only ran for three seasons, in part because Arkin (who was 84 before the show began) years) did not return after the second season. Nonetheless, the existence of these two shows and its longevity grace and frankie talked about an unintended side effect of the streaming revolution: With no advertisers to appease (at least in the 2010s), demographics became meaningless. What matters is eyeballs, and what drives subscriptions. If anyone has liked Fonda since then Barefoot in the park Since Ah Jin Catch 22Want to sign up for Netflix to watch them, they are a data point and a dollar amount equivalent to
-obsessed teenager. Related contentSoon, other anchors followed suit. hacker ,In what was then called HBO Max, Jean Smart had the best role of her career as legendary stand-up comedian Deborah Vance, struggling to stay relevant in her later years. Keep up with the times. Hulu critically acclaimed
Only murders in the building The comedy-mystery drama centers on the contrast between millennial pop star Selena Gomez and veteran pros Steve Martin and Martin Short.During this period, traditional broadcast networks and basic cable channels also launched exciting programming leading into retirement age. Danson's counterpart from the '80s, Selleck, just completed 14 seasons at the CBS helm. blue blood . Kathy Bates starred in a matlock remake (this is not exactly remake), 76-year-old Andy Griffith looked even more lively when he first played the role at 59. (Again, we are ages different now.) successionRoy is a show that often focuses on the Roy brothers, with all the action revolving around the doings of Logan, played by Brian Cox, a man who refuses to cede his power to the next generation. ’s senior class, which resonated with many viewers who weren’t heirs to media empires. Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow spent two seasons playing former spies forced back into active duty on an FX drama. elder . This trend even extends to unscripted television: BachelorThe series was designed to watch young hotties find everlasting love, and ABC recently launched an older version with success,Golden Bachelorand Netflix also has its own premium dating show
later dater .now we have a man deep inside debuting shortly before Thanksgiving. It's an absolute gem that illustrates how fertile ground is for this phase of life, which can feel alternately precarious and bursting with possibility. This series comes from good placeCreator Michael Schur had fun with the old-school attitude of Danson's Charles and how some of the other residents embraced the lack of responsibility that comes with living in a retirement community. But it also finds great sadness in the various issues specific to their age, as we see residents suffering from dementia, cancer, or just plain loneliness and a sense of disconnect from more active lives elsewhere. . It provided Danson with some of the best and most diverse material of his career, and also took advantage of a large and underserved cast of actors of a certain age - Sally Struthers )Everything is in the family
Susan Ruttan Los Angeles Law character actors Stephen McKinley Henderson and John Goetz — all of whom are clearly eager to show they still have it.
The show — and these shows about older characters — seem wary of mobility issues. A retirement community without any famous residents using wheelchairs, scooters, walkers or even canes is the equivalent of a senior comedy friends In their mid-twenties, they were able to afford a palatial Manhattan apartment while working a living job.In all of these shows, people are eager to prove that aging hasn't slowed down anyone's comedic tempo or dampened their ability to make you cry—in fact, some of them just got better with age. The craft just gets better - evident in all of these shows and many others that focus on older actors in some way. At 82, Ford looks livelier, funnier and more vulnerable shrink More roles than he's had in any movie in a long time. exist matlock Bates plays a woman who takes advantage of everyone's underestimation of her and becomes a non-threatening granny type. Anyone who has seen Bates play Annie Wilkes in the film suffering Never making the same mistake, there's still a sly glee in her performance as she delights in outdoing the youngsters around her. (She also said this would be her last acting role before retiring, and she's clearly giving it her all.) Steve Martin and Others
His joints are still a little loose. Jean Smart crushes it, as she does hacker Jack Giles Nate/MaxWhile streaming has introduced an ad-supported tier, the business hasn't returned to the safe zone of stars who don't need to take daily cholesterol pills. Some of this comes from recent studies showing that older Americans have a lot of disposable income, are eager to spend, and are more willing to switch brands than previously thought. Some are that TV is no longer the automatic default entertainment option for viewers under a certain age; if older viewers are more likely to watch TV, there's something reassuring about giving them stars they already know and love. But many of these shows, e.g.
hacker and only murder
also received strong vocal support from viewers much younger than the protagonists. Between boredom with television shows and the pervasive corruption in today's world, is it surprising that some pre-teen viewers are drawn to comfort food stories featuring stars of yesteryear? return? Before television became so democratically minded, series about older characters were often popular with younger viewers. In the eighties,golden girl Adored by many kids and teenagers for whom the idea of retiring to Florida wasn't even a point on the horizon.Of course, it helps that these shows are usually great. Jean Smart wins Emmy Award for Comedy Actress for three consecutive seasons
hacker So far, there's likely to be a monopoly on that award until the series is over. Bates has a slim chance of adding a third Emmy to her mantel