With this in mind, I wonder how this affects the star’s performance, and whether or not these questions of difference and similarity draw a significant amount of attention during production and the test screening process. Were Danson and Dreyfuss more likely to play up the similarities in mannerism, delivery etc between their previous characters and their new vehicles, or is this something that they might try to avoid with varying degrees of success? This seems to a particularly common issue in the situation comedy where so many of the shows have, at least in the past, been star vehicles and the star’s comedic style is often such a drawing point.

But then it might also be a function of ‘character’ actors versus type cast ones. De Niro pretty much’s always DeNiro for me, whereas i can watch Hannibal Lecter, Stevens (in Remains of the Day) and Nixon in turn and stay firmly within the text.

But you’re totally right about TV actors being longterm associated with roles–for better or worse! [And now i’m trying to think of lead actors/actresses reinventing themselves for several central role runs…]

The heavily alignment with a singular (and very popular role) can lead to that particular actor becoming a star — defined by fan knowledge of his/her extra-textual life. But at the same time, the actor is also confined to that role, and usually unable to outgrow/move on from it. (There are, of course, exceptions, but they are few and far between).

Ultimately, this is what differentiates television stardom from film stardom — if Tom Cruise is an indelible Top Gun, he’s still only that character for one two hour chunk, and can go on to other movies (and bigger pay checks) that still recycle that image, but do so in ways that further his career. In contrast, while the TV star may receive a steady paycheck over the course of 3-10 years, his/her career is wed, perhaps forever, to that singular role.

And yes, I think it’ll create nice backward intertextuality when rewatching GG.

And you’re not the only person who responded to m,y piece talking about Dexter. Now there’s a character backlash you don’t want to have fall back onto 6fU 😀

I think what I was most fascinated with when I was writing this was that regardless of the interpretive community agreements I used as examples from canon/fanon, Derek’s and my reaction (and yours) showed how incredibly personal it is.

I love reception aesthetics and like that film and TV studies has embraced audience studies much more thoroughly than language departments ever did. And yet I keep on coming back to a Five readers reading scenario, because my individual experiences are central to all reception and not generalizable…