Why, when bringing back big stars to juice up their desiccated TV landscapes, do the network suits never think of asking any women to return to the small screen?
The recent announcement of Bill Cosby’s return to NBC next season in yet another family sitcom received widespread attention. You can understand why NBC would want Cosby, even at the grand old age of 76. He’s a true TV icon, and “The Cosby Show” was a ratings juggernaut in the 1980s.
And Cosby’s not the only one on the way back. Oscar host and ’70s sitcom star Billy Crystal (“Soap”) has a show at FX, aptly titled “The Comedians.” Even Kelsey Grammer, who has struck out his last three times at bat (“Hank,” “Back to You” and “Boss”), is determined to revisit our living rooms one more time — this time in a series with comedy throwback Martin Lawrence.
And somebody up there likes Matthew Perry, a three-time loser with “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Mr. Sunshine” and “Go On.” He’s getting another show, a remake of “The Odd Couple.”
But has anyone tried to create a series that would showcase the older-but-wiser talents of a Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston or Jennifer Garner? Or even Heather Locklear?
They’re certainly younger — and more glamorous — than the guys on the most-wanted list. In “Sex and the City,” “Friends” and “Alias,” Parker, Aniston and Garner proved their star power. They have decent-to-good movie careers, but think of how much they would shine in a smart, well-written television show.
Locklear has the best track record of any of the women from her ingenue days on “Dynasty” to the bitchy career woman she played to perfection on “Melrose Place.” Audiences have followed her from one show to another, and there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t do it again.
Recent TV seasons have seen the successful reintegration of 1980s “Magnum P.I.” star Tom Selleck into the TV landscape; his CBS series, “Blue Bloods,” is now in its fourth season. And Robin Williams, whose career was launched on the ABC comedy “Mork & Mindy” (1978-82), saw his fading fortunes reverse as the star of the hit CBS sitcom “The Crazy Ones.”
So far, the only female TV stars from an earlier era to reinvent themselves as successfully on the small screen have been Claire Danes — just a teen when we met her in 1994 on “My So-Called Life” and now the Emmy-winning star of “Homeland” — and Keri Russell, a perky ingenue on “Felicity” in 1998 who returned in 2013 as a dangerous Russian spy on “The Americans.” And, on “The Good Wife,” Julianna Margulies, part of the “ER” ensemble in the 1990s, graduated to bona fide TV star. Julia Louis-Dreyfus also traded up from “Seinfeld” to “Veep.”
In the 1990s, Parker and Aniston were the toast of TV comedy. They would regularly compete for Emmys with Jane Kaczmarek, the drill sergeant mom on “Malcolm in the Middle.” But of the three, only Kaczmarek is headed back to TV in a new Fox series called “Here’s Your Damn Family.”
Of course, not all TV comebacks work. Michael J. Fox had a reservoir of good will to draw upon when his NBC comedy premiered in the fall, but the audience didn’t stick with him. And given Hollywood’s bias against older actresses, it’s not entirely surprising that we should see fewer of these women getting the kid-glove treatment at the networks.
But if stars in their 60s including Glenn Close (“Damages”) and Jessica Lange (“American Horror Story”) can swing a TV show, certainly there has to be room for the Jennifers or Sarah Jessica Parker to light up TV screens again. Here’s to hoping.