After doing so many projects, these actors search for clues so they can spot a loser or a winner more preemptively. Gorham's warning signs are ''turmoil in the writing staff, or if the tone of the advertising is wrong...or if the time slot is bad.'' Ultimately, however, trying to predict a TV hit is an easy recipe for a breakdown. ''I used to think I could tell if a show was good,'' says McClintock. ''But year after year you go, 'Wow, I passed on that script, and now it's been on the air for four years.' And then you do something that you think is great, but it either turns out poorly or the critics think it's poor or no one watches. I've come to the conclusion there is no formula. It feels so arbitrary; I just show up, do the best I can, and let the chips fall where they may.''
Fortunately, when the networks love you, there are plenty of chips to toss. Leigh was asked to test for three pilots this year, including the lead in The WB's Pepper Dennis, which she passed on to go for Reunion. (Pepper eventually went to Rebecca Romijn.) McClintock says that he's heard casting associates say, ''We want an Eddie McClintock type, if not Eddie McClintock.'' CBS so wanted Gorham for Practice last spring that they hired him in second position, which means they'd get him only if his current show, NBC's Medical Investigation, was canceled.
For all the aspiring actors who bound into the city with a head shot and a dream, there are still only a relatively small percentage of actors that a network will trust in a new show. ''There are a lot of actors out there, but a limited amount of talent,'' says Fox's executive vice president of casting, Marcia Shulman. ''Not many radiate star power. You see them year after year, and you believe in them. And you say, 'One day I'm gonna make it work with that person.''' David Stapf, president of Paramount Network Television (which produces Out of Practice) says, ''It's less of a guessing game'' to go with someone you've worked with than someone who you've only seen on an audition tape. ''When I've actually been in the trenches with somebody on numerous series, I know they can do it, I've seen them do it. That's one less thing I have to worry about.''
More times than not, a TV series' success depends on its concept, not its stars. Last year's breakout hits, Lost and Desperate Housewives, had no sure things in their casts. Celebrity comes only after a show succeeds: The only ''name'' in Friends' debut was Courteney Cox, but the rest quickly established their own public personae. Execs say that since TV is a writer's medium, when a show fails, an actor can emerge blame-free. ''We're not punitive if an actor has been in a few pilots that haven't caught fire,'' says NBC's executive vice president of casting, Marc Hirschfeld. ''Look at the numbers of pilots that make it onto the fall schedule, and then the ones that actually make it to year two. The odds are very much in favor of failure.''
Gilmore Girls' Graham can attest to that: In the five years before The WB series' debut in 2000, she was a constant presence on TV, whether guesting on NewsRadio and Caroline in the City, or costarring on the ill-fated sitcoms Conrad Bloom and Townies. She thought she was just building a television career responsibly, and then she read a sneering magazine article opining that the constant rehiring of actors like her was the reason TV was so boring. ''To me, it was like any other job,'' she says. ''You work your way up the ladder. I didn't know [doing all those shows] could be seen as a negative thing.'' However, two years later, after Gilmore was both a critical and ratings hit, the same magazine touted Graham as an example of how hard work pays off.
This season's itinerants hope that's the case. Lawson says she never gets recognized: ''If I had a show on for a few years, where you're put in front of people's faces every week for a while, then maybe...'' Leigh is approached more for her one film credit — Not Another Teen Movie — than all of her TV gigs. McClintock is usually stopped by people who know him from TV — but it turns out they think he's Angel's David Boreanaz. And as for Gorham, he even has trouble in L.A. ''It's funny, as many shows as I've done, how many people have never heard of me in this town,'' he says.
Maybe that will all change this season. Or the season after that. Or the one after that...
(Additional reporting by Whitney Pastorek)
