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10 Years Later, Whatever Happened to the Cast of NBC's 'Ed'?

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | September 4, 2014 |

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | September 4, 2014 |


How many of you remember Ed, which ran on NBC from 2000-2004. About a hot-shot big city lawyer who returned to his hometown in Ohio, became a small-town lawyer and ran a bowling alley, Ed was one of the quirkiest, most charming television shows the aughts. Ed had his own Winnie Cooper back in Stuckeyville, Ohio — Carol Vessey — and Ed throwing frozen waffles on her roof remains one of my favorite romantic gestures of all time.

We may be in the midst of the golden age of television, but by God, I miss shows like Ed and Northern Exposure and Picket Fences: Light, character driven comedy-dramas with small stakes and huge hearts.

It’s been 10 years since Ed went off the air. Whatever happened to the cast of Ed?

Tom Cavanagh — For a minute there, he and Michael Ian Black had a fantastic podcast about snacks, but otherwise, he’s had a couple of series that I watched in their entirety out of loyalty to Ed: Trust Me and Love Monkey (both were cute, and both were cancelled after one season). He’s bounced around in a number of guest roles, too, including Scrubs, and we can all look forward to seeing him as a regular cast member on The Flash this fall. (Fun Fact: His ex-wife in Ed was played by several different actresses, including Janeane Garofalo and Lea Thompson).

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Julie Bowen — From Ed, Bowen jumped to David Kelley’s Boston Legal (which I also loved) and had a couple of notable guest stints on Lost and Weeds before landing on Modern Family, which is what she’s most famous for now. In other news, she’s actually aged backwards.

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Jana Marie Hupp — Alas, Ed was Hupp’s last major role, though she did have a guest appearance on Bones in 2012.

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Josh Randall — Randall played MIke Burton, who loved fried pie. Since Ed, Randall has worked consistently with numerous roles in countless guest series, but he’s never had anything steady (his most recent role was in an episode Masters of Sex).

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Lesley Boone — Boone played Molly. Like Hupp, Boone essentially disappeared from the industry following Ed, though she did marry a producer/director from the series, who now producers and directs mostly CBS procedurals.

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Michael Ian Black — One of Ed’s bowling alley employees, Ian Black and Cavanaugh became close friends on Ed. Interestingly, this role was originally played by Donal Logue in the pilot (although, most of his scenes were re-shot). Since the series, Ian Black has been in a ton of sketch comedies and web series. He’s also very famous on the Twitters.

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Rachel Cronin — Another one of the bowling alley’s employees, Cronin is another actress who has essentially disappeared since Ed. She was in a 2009 episode of Reaper. That’s about it.

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Justin Long — After kicking off his career on Galaxy Quest in 1999, Long jumped to Ed and was really one of the biggest draws on the series. He was another employee at the bowling alley, and a lot of the B-plots revolves around his predicaments and his love life, including that little love triangle between his character, Mark (the fat guy) and their high-school friend played by Ginnifer Goodwin. These days, believe it not, Long is one of Kevin Smith’s regulars, and has most recently had a stint on New Girl.

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Michael Genadry — Gendardy played Mark, who had trouble with his weight on the show. He hasn’t had much of an acting career since (he had a small role in Tina Fey’s Admission), but he looks great!

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Daryl Mitchell — I was so blown away at the time that Ed would use an actual paralyzed actor to play a paralyzed character. It worked brilliantly. Since Ed, Mitchell has mostly bounced around in small TV roles (many of which have been on Disney and Nickelodeon), though he and Michael Strahan did have a one-season series together in 2009 called Brothers.

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