Will Megyn Kelly's Career be Doomed by the "McLean Stevenson Effect?"

Self | January 8, 2017 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

Four years ago I posted about the "McLean Stevenson Effect" which you can read HERE.

Basically, McLean Stevenson starred on the hit series M*A*S*H. However, after 3 seasons in the role of Henry Blake, Stevenson got tired of being part of an ensemble and decided to leave the show and go it alone on the "McLean Stevenson Show" which was an immediate flop. His career never recovered and his name has become synonymous with really poor entertainment career decisions. You could even consider McLean Stevenson to be the patron saint of that type of poor judgement.

Okay, so my question is, will Megyn Kelly suffer from the curse of the "McLean Stevenson Effect?" To me the signs are all there. She has/had a built in audience at Fox News which she alienated by her attacks upon Donald Trump. However, if she thinks she will be attracting a new audience at NBC, she needs to be aware that the liberals still dislike her for merely being associated with Fox News. That is what I am reading on the web now. In addition, she appears to be spread very thin in her new role as morning host and a couple of other slots at NBC. Maybe she could even substitute for Brian Williams.

Her biggest flaw might be thinking it was all about her. What she doesn't get is that the Fox News audience (which she won't get at NBC) was essential for her previous ratings success.

All I know is her quick descent at NBC will be very painful. Megyn will spend the rest of her life wishing she never left her Fox News gig (along with regretting attacking Trump).

What McLean Stevenson's name means for TV entertainment, Megyn Kelly's name could become synonymous with poor TV news department decisions.

[zzwhale]

i dont know about any “effect” dooming her career
however a lack of factual reporting and simply regurgitating “news” will not get her very far...
i was amazed she got the 9pm slot on fox and perhaps there was something behind this other than “talent”...
i am sure she will continue to bash trump and the libtards will love it...
other than that dont look for anything of substance... or news breaking....

[morphing libertarian]

she needs to gain weight and bring back her boobage, a little career advise

[Sivad]

You give Kelly way to much credit. Your claim of her
being able to demand and “easily” secure $100 million per
year MAY have worked from an the “after election” perspective.
Nobody would have given her $100M/ yr worth of credit
for taking out Trump at any time up until the general
election. She opened a door that someone else would
have opened at some point because she was the first
to have such a debate opportunity to do so. I
am not saying that she would not have liked to
have played a major role in taking Trump down
but nobody on the other side gave him a
chance from the jump, anyway. Isn’t it possible
that the biggest deal as far as the MSM was
concerned was that it was a FOX woman that
went after Trump? They would never admit it but
I’m sure that it was there to some degree.

[llevrok]

He was an actor on the hit TV show M.A.S.H. At the peak of the show, he left for greener pastures, thinking he would get his own TV show etc.

The pastures never materialized and his career was pretty much over.

He over played his hand, in other words.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

He was an actor on the hit TV show M.A.S.H. At the peak of the show, he left for greener pastures, thinking he would get his own TV show etc.

I do remember McLean Stevenson on one episode of Love Boat. I think he was Captain Stubing's replacement for one show.

[xkaydet65]

Did you miss my :) at the end?

[Textide]

That was my first thought. The MASH guy flopped almost 20 years earlier though.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, Chevy’s Show is available on YouTube. Made it through about 30 seconds of this clip before shutting it off just now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdqMEfV-r9A

[j.argese]

ACKKK!!!

[DoodleDawg]

Invalid comparison. Had McLean Stevenson remained at M*A*S*H then his career would have prospered. He wasn't forced to leave. Kelly kind of blew any future she may have had at Fox. She had no choice but to bail.

[T-Bone Texan]

Hello Larry! That’s a blast from the past.

I click on these threads solely for the history lesson. I learn so much from the accumulated pop wisdom of other FReepers.

[T-Bone Texan]

I get Norville mixed up with Norplant.

[T-Bone Texan]

Shelly Long did “the Money Pit” with Tom Hanks, and then...nothing that I can remember.

[Political Junkie Too]

Not Dingle-Norwood?

-PJ

[Political Junkie Too]

Had McLean Stevenson remained at M*A*S*H then his career would have prospered.

Interestingly, I don't think that ANY of the stars of MASH had any future successes that rivaled that of their time on MASH.

-PJ

[Nuc 1.1]

Zahn has a show but I have not heard anything about Laurie. Thanks for the info. You jogged my recall about that one.

[Political Junkie Too]

I think Laure Dhue does motivational speaking tours now.

-PJ

[HHFi]

It’s not fair to compare her to McLean Stevenson. Aside from being a good comic actor, he was also a quick wit who often filled in for Johnny Carson and was considered by NBC as a possible Carson successor on “The Tonight Show.” So he would have been a much better talk show host than her.

It’s also not fair to ascribe this syndrome only to him, since he wasn’t the first famous victim of it. That would be Pernell Roberts, who left “Bonanza” for greener pastures and wasn’t heard from again until “Trapper John MD,” ages later. During Roberts’ lost-in-the-wilderness period, Sally Struthers left “All In The Family.” Johnny Carson quipped that she had a better offer: “She’s forming a partnership with Pernell Roberts.”

BTW, I’m not old enough to remember all that personally; I just know far too much showbiz trivia.

[central_va]

Sally Struthers biggest problem was her battle with the knife and fork.

[HHFi]

Post-”Money Pit,” Shelley Long was in a very funny movie with Bette Midler called “Outrageous Fortune,” and played the mom in two satirical movie takeoffs of the Brady Bunch. In recent years, she’s done TV, but aside from a few seasons on “Modern Family,” it’s mostly been one-shot guest star roles, including reviving her Diane Chambers character on “Frasier.”