{"id":687797,"date":"2026-07-12T15:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687797\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:08:12","slug":"how-a-2005-tv-show-kevin-bacon-never-appeared-in-changed-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687797\/","title":{"rendered":"How a 2005 TV show Kevin Bacon never appeared in changed his career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Gage Skidmore<\/p>\n

Sun 12 July 2026 11:00, UK <\/p>\n

Kevin Bacon<\/a> got to witness a monumental shift in the perception of television.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Bacon has earned his reputation as the actor who seemed to pop up in every movie based on his impressive output. Although he could have easily been a traditional leading man in the 1980s<\/a> following his breakout role in Footloose, Bacon chose to take on all sorts of supporting, comedic, villainous, and bit parts, as he was more interested in the quality of the film than his screentime. <\/p>\n

As a result, Bacon has one of the most eclectic and fascinating careers of any living actor; while he\u2019s been in quite a few films that would be considered all-time classics, he\u2019s also taken chances on unusual projects<\/a> that are, at the very least, worthy of consideration.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons that Bacon has been able to consistently appear in so many films is that he wanted to make acting on the big screen his speciality. It\u2019s easy to forget that in the days before the \u201cprestige\u201d era of television, actors who worked on the small screen were considered to be \u201clesser\u201d when compared to movie stars. Beyond the expectations of quality, actors on television had to spend so many weeks of the year shooting for weekly releases that they had less time to go off and make movies.<\/p>\n

Bacon had resisted the idea of doing a television show for quite some time, but his eyes began to open<\/a> to the possibilities of the medium when his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, began starring on the series The Closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, the business changed, and it really did change,\u201d Bacon said. \u201cKyra did seven years on The Closer, and I saw how satisfying that was for her. So, it was a difficult call for me to make, to say that I\u2019m interested in television, because I felt like, in some ways, I was giving up and that I\u2019d tried to be a movie actor and it didn\u2019t work out, or something like that. That\u2019s where your head goes, as an actor, but I had a really great experience doing The Following, so I was looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Following was a popular crime thriller series in which Bacon played an FBI Agent, and earned some of the best reviews of his career. While he wasn\u2019t sure if this meant he wanted to only do television, Bacon said he began scouting out other potential projects, which led him to the Amazon comedy I Love Dick.<\/p>\n

Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t like, \u2018I\u2019ve gotta get a show right now,\u2019 but once I did television, there was no longer this thing of, \u2018I\u2019m not going to do that,\u2019\u201d Bacon said. \u201cI was certainly thrilled that this opportunity became because it\u2019s not an hour drama. As great as that is, and I like to work hard, The Following was so hard on my psyche and on my body. It was just really hard. The hardest gig there is in entertainment is to be the lead in an hour show, especially if it\u2019s a show that\u2019s blood and guts and fighting. It\u2019s rough. I love to work, but to do something different is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

I Love Dick, despite having half-hour episodes, was seen as a breakthrough for what could be done on streaming and led Prime Video to develop a more robust slate of prestige shows. Bacon worked with the streaming service again when he appeared in the horror dark comedy The Bondsman.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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