Last week, our sister site gave offered a list of the actors they'd watch in (almost) anything, which ties nicely into something I've been thinking about: mediocre-to-bad shows I wouldn't have watched if not for one of my gay icons.

Mary Tyler Moore and Madeline Kahn
made me watch New York News

It sounded promising before it debuted: a fast-paced newspaper drama with Mary Tyler Moore as a tough editor-in-chief and Madeline Kahn as the gossip columnist. (And apparently 80s studmuffin Gregory Harrison was also a part of the cast, according to that picture.) That bit of casting was so genius the rest of the show had to be amazing, right? Eh, unfortunately not. New York News' stories were entirely forgettable and while Mary brought what she could, the show never made her character as tough as she could have been. Kahn, meanwhile, occasionally got a good storyline as a woman with a very misplaced set of priorities, but most episodes focused on the younger characters who weren't my reason for tuning in.

Margaret Cho
made me watch All American Girl

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Back in my college days, Margaret Cho was the one comedian who we could never get enough of seeing and the idea of her having her own sitcom was too exciting. Unfortunately, the show failed to live up to her talent ... even then I caught every episode I could, I figured with a talent like Cho chances were good that once All American Girl was canceled, we wouldn't see her on TV again for a long time.

Lynda Carter
made me watch Law & Order: SVU

I know the long lasting franchise has its fanbase but its tendency to stick to formula can really drive me crazy. But I made an exception when the mothership and Special Victims' Unit held a cross-over that included a guest-appearance by Lynda Carter (whom we don't get to see on television often enough). Unfortunately, the first part turned out to be one of the ickiest hours of television I've seen in ages. In one of those way-too-complicated-to-take-seriously schemes, Carter played a con artist pretending to be estranged from her daughter (Estella Warren), herself a con artist who would date high profile men, slip them a date rape drug and... uhm, harvest material to sell in a high-end sperm bank. Bobby Flay had a cameo role as one of Warren's victims, but we never see the SVU detectives telling him he might have been victimized, as if that didn't matter. Carter was fabulous, with the kind of strong presence that made her perfect as Wonder Woman, but the rest of the story left me wanting to stay away from SVU.

Madeline Kahn
made me watch Mister President

Madeline Kahn with someone other than George C. Scott

Yes, Madeline Kahn gets two entries on this list; she was one woman I was willing to watch read the phone book and the then-fledging Fox network certainly got my attention when they added her to the cast of Mister President as George C. Scott's ----. While Kahn delivered on the laughs, Mister President was a quietly serious dramedy before her arrival and the addition of her broad comedy made the show a confused mess. Fox would have been better off canceling Mister President and giving Kahn her own vehicle. It's not like Oh, Madeline! was that bad.