Best Breakout TV Performance This Year

Better Breakout TV Performance This Year

  • Jamie Pressley, Joy, My Name is Earl

    Votes: 8 61.5%

  • Neil Patrick Harris, Barney, How I Met Your Mother

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • Total voters
    13
S

slayerpower

battlestar/veronica lover
Joined
Feb 27, 2006
Messages
708
Location
Los Angeles
Two terrific new characters graced the small screen this year. Jamie Pressly's Joy from My Name is Earl and Neil Patrick Harris's Barney from How I Met Your Mother. While Jamie is the better actress, at least for her role, I love Barney. He's like Joey, but even better. I urge you all to check out How I Met Your Mother just for Barney. Anyway, please tell who was better.
 
I think Jaime Pressly's amazing on that show. If you guys have ever seen Raising Arizona, it might make you think of that sort of feel. Just crazy, manic, dumb hick types. Really fun. Her timing and expressions are perfect.

Neil Patrick Harris was a surprise, really good too. But I vote for Jaime.
 
My God, I love that woman! She cracks me up with her dumb blonde-ness, and how common she is...there's just no subtlety in that character!
My favourite quotes from her would be:

"Y'all stop fighting or I swear to God, I'll slap you so hard, you'll both switch colours."

"You better look at my boobs when I'm talking about 'em Darnell!"

"Say something black!"

"I don't speak maid."

"BOYS, GET YOUR MAMA'S PLASTIC STRIPPER SHOES OUT OF THE LEGO BOX!"

I also love the way she is always chewing!
 
M
master kenobi
some exam karma :)
I have seen both, gotta say i'm not getting the big deal about HIMYM, but anyway Jaime Pressly gets my vote.
I've seen her in a few things, but never has she even been close to Joy.
That character is hilarious, so funny. MNIE is one of the funniest new shows i've seen in a long time, i gotta say its cast is perfect, and one of my fave TV scenes ever(documented in greatest fight scenes thread) was in this show,

Araminta, those are so funny, i can actually picture her saying those lines, but then every line Joy says is TV Gold.
 
sk8rj04 said:
This poll isnt that fair. Some people...as in me...havent seen either show. You should have more choices.
Click to expand...

Erm, it IS fair, because Slayerpower has seen both shows and wants an opinion on these two characters.
You don't have an opinion on either of these two then you can do one of two things, leave the thread OR, watch the shows😉

Now, HIMYM, is crap, so don't watch that, but My Name Is Earl is one of the funniest shows on TV, you should give it a try, seriously.
 
I voted for Jamie Pressley, she is hilarious in that Earl show. I have watched both shows, and in my opinion she is MUCH better than NPH. His character gets annoying, where as she is always funny.
 
I haven't seen either yet, But Jamie Presley is the actress that was in Not Anther Teen Movie, right? I thought she was hilarious in that.
 
slayerpower said:
sk8rj04, if you can think of a different breakout performance, please tell me.
Click to expand...

Can I help? 😀

Wentworth Miller - Prison Break

Jason Lee - My Name is Earl.

Charisma Carpenter - Veronica Mars (If Doogie Howser can be up there, I guess Cordelia Chase can too.)

Either lead from Supernatural.

Jennifer Love Hewitt - Ghost Whisperer. (Actually, kind of a re-breakout, back from obscurity. Does that count? Again Doogie.)

David Tennant or Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper (depending on where your marking your year)- Dr. Who

K9 - Dr. Who. J/K 😉
 
See, here is my issues with the list you presented N4H

Wentworth Miller - Prison Break
Click to expand...
No problem here, i've seen the show, didnt think much of it, but it has given WM status now.

Jason Lee - My Name is Earl.
Click to expand...
This guy has been around in some big movies for a while.
Now to regular folks he might not make it as a big name, but remembering the place this is, we all pretty much share a 'geekiness' and will have seen a few of his comedies. Granted this thread is about TV, but most of us knew this guy long before Earl.

Charisma Carpenter - Veronica Mars (If Doogie Howser can be up there, I guess Cordelia Chase can too.)
Click to expand...
Again, look at the place you are posting, CC isn't simply someone we relate to another show, she was part of two of the shows that are basis for this site and they only recently came off air.
Dougie Howser...don't know who he is, and i'm pretty sure he's been of Screens as this guy for ages.

Either lead from Supernatural.
Click to expand...
Again, Jensen Ackles is known to a fair few of us here as he was a full cast member in a pivotal plot in Smallville only last season
and Jared Padalecki had a sizable role in Gilmore Girls if i'm not mistaken, which again was watched by a fair few people here

Jennifer Love Hewitt - Ghost Whisperer. (Actually, kind of a re-breakout, back from obscurity. Does that count? Again Doogie.)
Click to expand...
Hmmm, see what you call back from obscurity, i call the year after a Launch on the Pop charts, a year after a big movie while waiting to do the sequel.
I mean this one has been on the Silver Screen a few times over the last few years, so not really back from obscurity, as at least two of them movies have been pretty successful(God only knows why mind - Garfield SUCKED)

David Tennant or Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper (depending on where your marking your year)- Dr. Who
Click to expand...
See Issue here is more on location.
For a start, Eccleston is well known in the UK(before Dr Who) as well as him and Piper are part of last years TV schedule.
Tennants UK TV break out is actually a show called Casanova, based on the Man, Casanova(how weird i know)

For me though, a few 'break-out performances this year have been
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje - Lost
Ever Carradine - Commander in Chief
Emily Deschanel - Bones
Michaela Conlin - Bones
Eric Millegan - Bones
T.J. Thyne - Bones

See, i gotta say i wasn't too impressed with Bones in the beginning but it is now a fave of mine, and all 4 of the actors i have mentioned i may have seen occasionally in other shows, but i had no idea who they were, but in each case(and the other None Bones) i know who they are, find their performances great and look forward to their time on screen.

Ohh i also forgot most of the Invasion Cast, all doing a good job in a mediocre show(in my opinion)
 
Yeah Emily Deschannel would work by any definition, so we seem unanimous on two choices - Emily and Wentworth.

I think Slayer Power needs to define better what she means by breakout. Then we can offer her some better choices.

Doogie Howser was a big hit on American Television in 89, and played reruns for years on syndication. You remember Willow talking about writing Doogie Howser fanfic, right? Actually Doogie Howser has become an American icon, and you'll often hear the name used to represent an over-achiever at a young age.

Jennifer Love Hewitt was a big star about 1999 with the hit TV series Party of Five, and the movie financial success of I Know What You Did Last Summer. After that, she was relegated to stuff like TV Series walk-ons, made for TV potburners, voice-over work, and the odd role on movie dogs and bombs like The Tuxedo.

http://imdb.com/name/nm0001349/

The only difference between the two actors as possible breakouts would be the dates of their successes. So, I don't know. What dates are we using for the definition which will include forgotten stars as this years breakouts?

Perhaps neither works. What I'm thinking when I hear breakout is - he or she wasn't a star, or a household name, then suddenly he or she is. The Supernatural guys were supporting actors and not well known to mainstream america. You probably wouldn't have seen them say introduced on Conan O Brian as stars of the new hit series blah blah blah, for example (although every once in a while he needs filler). They might fit in legitimately now however, even though their success is only with the old WB. If not now, then possibly soon. Actually Charisma would be a bad choice, because she's still in support. Personally I would replace Jamie Presley from SP's list with Jason Lee.

Alyson Hannigan might be a better choice than Charisma, because she was fading into obscurity, and now looks to be on her way to Friends style, ensemble stardom in a mainstream American success. My impression is mainstream American success is the standard for a breakout hit. When you become big enough to expect time on American late night talk shows you've broken out. Simply because that's the way the term is generally used in American media. I'm pretty sure Slayer Power is American, so I assume that's what she was talking about. I know, she knows her American TV.

In fact maybe we should also have the term breakout defined so we know exactly what kind of success we're talking about. If someone's a big star in Argentina, but not heard of in America, is he or she a breakout by the definition of this thread when they become part of a mainstream American hit. Actually the Doctor Who people probably wouldn't be considered breakout stars over here, not because they may have been well known in another country, but because Doctor Who is still considered cult over on this side of the Atlantic.
 
Yup, even though not a fan of Miller, i think him and Deschannel, both as leads of hit shows, do constitute in the 'Break Out' and as both roles(infact all four if we include the two mentioned) are so different, that it makes it far easier, in most cases, to pick one specific name from the list.

See that was my thought, i mean Love Hewitt for instance, technically 'started' in the 2005 run so it was the 2004/2005 that Garfield became a big hit in the cinema, so it doesnt count...UNLESS you make it break-out TV show then she DOES fall into the catagory, but then you could add Donald Sutherland to the list or Geena Davis both of whom have attained a substantial amount of BoxOffice success but only recently found acclaim within a TV series.

Dougie Howser, i know the name, but not the reference, i don't think it 'happened' in the UK.
And the Willow thing, well i remember it, but i didn't jump online to quick reference it, lol.....

Thats the other thing, this is an international board, so just because an 'actor' hasnt made its into some sort of 'main stream' in the states, doesnt mean that his 'break-out' success in other countries should be discounted as break out.
Personally, i hated Tennant in Casanova, but it went along way to making him a star, giving him spots on the Conan O'Brien equivalent, Johnathan Ross, before Dr who was even suggested.
See the problem with something like this is to be truly accurate you have to be able to take into account the big shows in each country, past performances and suck.
Like for instance, there is a Ricky Gervais show called 'Extras' here, don't know if and when it will be around the world, but it helped place a new actress, Ashley Jensen, in teh light as she shone in that show AND also Eleventh Hour.
I mean she should be in the list because she did a marvellous job to say shes a relative newcomer, but she doesnt because we rate by American standards.

Put basically, i think we agree but agree with different standpoints.

Edit:
Ahhh, see aswell Alyson, she is quite well recognised outside of Buffy, i mean American Pies plus that awful date Movie, not to mention that people who don't watch Buffy still know who she is(weird i know)......i mean that added to the fact HIMYM hasn't seemed to take off here, its been dumped in an odd slot on TV, i don't know.
The problem is, if we were discussing Emma Caulfield, Nic Brendon, Merc McNab or even Amy Acker, then yeah, but the ones that are being mentioned have a semi decent level of 'fame'...sorry, i know it adds nothing to the conversation🙂
 
I still think Slayer Power needs to give us a definition of what she means by breakout. It's a term that can be hijacked to pretty much mean whatever we want it to. It's probably best to discover what the intent was of the original poster of the thread. We can probably discuss her subject better if we know what it is. 🙂

I was really starting to get worried about Alyson, before HIMYM. The Harry Met Sally on the London Stage thing made her look a little forgotten over here, then her first comedy pilot flopped, the Buffy animated thing fell through, and I thought if the failures continued maybe her and Alexis would be on their way to teaching theatre in Peoria, or something.
 
I haven't watched a lot of MNIE but the shows I saw Jamie did a good job but for carrying a show it has to go to Neil.
If you take Neil out of HIMYM and it wouldn't have seen week 6. Barney's character creates the spontaneous factor of the show with real zinger lines. Jamie has a stellar cast and guest stars that really puts her performances higher then if they were not acting beside her.
 
But thats the point as well. One character should not hold together a show, specifically a sitcom.
I love Joy, she is a wonderful character, but Earl, Randy and the often used other plays are alot of fun too.
Where as, like said, you get rid of the 'Joey' character from HIMYM and you are left with an emsemble thats, while amusing, couldnt carry the series.
 
Well then doesn't that make Neil the breakout performance of the year?
If the character you play supports the show then to me that means best breakout performance of the year. Now next season HIMYM has a chance to develop the other characters to keep Barney "fresh" instead of going stale.
Whereas the writers now have a chance to expand Jamie's character next season because the rest of the cast props her up during her character development.
 
I do not think HIMYM would collapse without Barney. He is a very funny character and adds supports to the show, but he is not the reason I watch. As for the definition of a breakout performance, I am not thinking of a person who just recently did something big. Alyson was last on the small screen two years ago and people already know who she is. Breakout, in my book, is someone who has not done anything big or at least not in a very long time to the point where no one really remembers them. Jamie has not been in anything big and Neil has made a comeback. Breakout has to make someone sit up and say, "Wow"! Hope that was specific enough for you.
 
For all the mention of breakout performers, no one has mentioned anyone from Invasion.

What about Tyler Labine. Sure he's been in a bunch of stuff before, but not like this.

Of course maybe im just upset cos I just found out that it seems to have been cancelled. I dont know why. Its such a great show. And I hate how they ended it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom