From The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Seinfeld , there’s a long history of comedians ( 喜剧演员 ) starring in shows named after themselves, and even playing characters that share the same first name. We take it for granted that a situation comedy (sitcom) starring Drew Carey would be called The Drew Carey Show and feature a character named Drew. But we’d think it was pretty strange if a drama like 24 was titled The Kiefer Sutherland Show. As a matter of fact, Sutherland plays a character named Jack — not Kiefer. So where did this naming tradition for comedians-turned-actors come from? Tim Brooks is one of the top historians of American TV and radio. He worked for NBC from 1970 to 2007, where his job was to analyze ratings data ( 收视率数据 ) and figure out what viewers actually liked. Brooks says that while the tradition of naming a comedy show after its star probably dates back to the minstrel ( 吟游诗人 ) shows of the 1800s, the custom really took off when TV became “big business” in the 1960s. That was when TV networks started spending lots of money on market research to better sell their shows to the viewing public. Every summer, the networks would conduct surveys to evaluate public awareness and interest in the upcoming fall TV shows. “Shows that had the name of a star in them would immediately become popular,” says Brooks. “Even if the viewer hadn’t seen any promotion for the show, the name was instantly recognizable.” The main goal of all entertainment marketing is to get viewers to “sample” your product. In a crowded media marketplace, says Brooks, studios and production companies need something to cut through the noise . One of the best methods is to make use of the name of a star. Therefore, in many sitcoms, the title character shares the first name of the comedian: Mary Tyler Moore played Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show ; Roseanne Barr was Roseanne Conner on Roseanne ; Jessica Williams is Jessica James on The Incredible Jessica James . And comedian Jerry Seinfeld shared both names with his character on Seinfeld , basically playing himself. Even decades before Nielsen ratings, TV producers, networks and advertisers knew that a famous name would catch people’s attention. When TV was just starting out in the 1940s, it was seen as a younger brother of film, says Saul Austerlitz, author of Sitcom: A History in 24 Episodes from I Love Lucy to Community . “Film was understood to be the place where all the big, larger-than-life stars were, like John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn,” says Austerlitz. “TV couldn’t compete, so there was a desire to increase the value of the performers in TV programs and enlarge the star power.” Sometimes that star power wasn’t immediately recognizable. When Milton Berle was hired to host his first TV variety show, it was called Texaco Star Theatre , after the show’s main sponsor. Only later did it become The Milton Berle Show , one of the most successful TV shows in history. When Ed Sullivan, a newspaper writer, made the move to TV in 1948, he became the host of Toast of the Town . It wasn’t until 1953 that he’d become a big enough star to change the show’s name to The Ed Sullivan Show , says Brooks. While sitcoms are much more likely to make a profit from a star’s name, it wasn’t always that way. Back in the 1950s, there was a popular run of dramatic “ anthologies ( 诗文选集 )” hosted or presented by well-known actors that aimed to go in for something else. Examples included Robert Montgomery Presents (1950-1957), The Loretta Young Show (1953-1961) and Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre (1955-1958). You don’t see any TV dramas named after stars today, mostly because most new dramas are played by a group of relatively unknown actors, at least when those dramas first appeared on the screen. “You wouldn’t call CSI The William Petersen Show,” says Brooks.