He almost became Indiana Jones

I think it's the huge number of "almosts" from the ranks of TV stars that I was most thinking of in #18. Selleck had some interesting light film roles (diapering in 3 Men & a Baby, kissing Kevin Kline in In & Out; heck, even Mr Baseball is a better movie than one feared), but never became a film star, either as a box-office leading-man draw or a consistent character presence. I'd compare (in a cautionary way) Jon Hamm, an equally charismatic big TV star right now. He was not bad in The Town. He may still make great movies. But it's usually fair to reckon that if someone does really great TV, that's as good as it will get; enjoy it now.

Ryan Gosling came from the Mickey Mouse Club before hitting it big in Hollywood - probably not quite the same.

Ryan Gosling was on a show called Breaker High for a few years. He was a little waify preppy boy, hard to believe how much he's grown up.

age/2 + 7 rule

Not sure if I've ever heard of this rule, but is it wrong to be proud that I am breaking it? I am 36 and my girlfriend is only 24. Plus I will be 37 before she turns 25.

As a note on Jason Segal, he gets paid the same as the Robin, Lilly, and Ted characters on the show, but NPH still gets paid the most. I think Segal makes about 100K an episode if I remember correctly, which puts his yearly salary somewhere closer to 2.5 million than the 10-15 mentioned above. He was the lone holdout for the 9th season though, but in December signed on, mostly because of camaraderie for the other cast members and not wanting to leave them high and dry. But all of them also have decent movie careers as well.

So we all agree they were all killed in the diner, right?

All killed? Why all of them? Tony, sure. But why would they kill the rest, and what would draw you to that conclusion?

But it's usually fair to reckon that if someone does really great TV, that's as good as it will get; enjoy it now.

This is certainly true, especially because there just can't be all that many movie stars. But I think there's a "looks like a damn movie star" exception - see Clooney, Depp, and Franco. Hamm is just impossibly good-looking.

And in the oft-underrepresented African-American category:

Dennis Haysbert started out in TV. Recurring roles on firehouse drama Code Red, garment district sitcom Off the Rack, afternoon soap The Young and the Restless, and Growing Pains spinoff Just the Ten of Us before his first film role (as Pedro Cerrano in Major League). It probably helped that none of his series were particularly successful, so the public didn't associate him too closely with any of the roles.

Actually, there are a surprising number of major actors and actresses who started out on soaps. Meg Ryan, Kathleen Turner, Ray Liotta, Marisa Tomei, etc. Kevin Bacon too, more or less, though he technically broke in with a bit part in Animal House. A lot of them seem kind of embarrassed by that now, though I don't see why - it's not highbrow material, but it's steady work for a beginner, and a good opportunity to do a lot of acting in a hurry.

Say what you want about Lenny and his progency, but for Meadow it's a step up from Jackie Junior.

he was shot by some guy in see-through socks.

So we all agree they were all killed in the diner, right?

not a chance. tony goes on being a boss, but he either gets killed or ends up in jail and his family has to figure things out, the way the sacrimonis and christopher's widow did. i can't speak for chase, but i think he must have felt those were really the only options, and it would just be more of the same as what had been going on, so there was no point.

There was a TV series on FOX called Get Real that only lasted 22 episodes but starred both Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg as siblings.

Meg Ryan, Kathleen Turner, Ray Liotta, Marisa Tomei, etc. Kevin Bacon

Demi Moore started on General Hospital. SUCH a crush on her when I was younger and caught her there.

Jamie Foxx (In Living Color)

Jim Carrey, the same (though he was a good spot for a hair metal band singer in the Dead Pool, was also in Peggy Sue Got Married, pre-Living Color.

Jim Carrey, the same (though he was a good spot for a hair metal band singer in the Dead Pool, was also in Peggy Sue Got Married, pre-Living Color.

Am I the only one who remembers The Duck Factory? I mean, I don't remember much about it, but remember watching it. IIRC Carrey played the role fairly straight.