Why didn’t the Mad Men have better careers after the show?

Mad men cast*

Same thing with True Blood. Only Alexander Skarsgaard has a good career.

None of the Lost cast had major successes.

R2 I think Anna Paquin is still doing pretty well, but she had a career before TB.

Joe Mangie-whatever is still visible, but I'm not really sure he's doing anything other than being Mr. Sophia Vergara.

I think some of it had to do with range. Outside of Moss,a good portion of the cast were perfect for their specific roles but didn't have a huge amount of range.

Christina Hendricks had another series.

John Slattery has always worked.

Vincent Kartheiser should work more. He’s so delightfully weird.

Jon Hamm would’ve been huge in the 50’s.

There was talk of putting Jessica Paré into a reboot of MR. ED, but the financing fell through : (

Alison Brie had “Glow,” which I loved.

It is more unusual for the stars of a big hit tv show - especially one with more of an ensemble cast - to go on to other high profile work OP.

Most of them weren't particularly good actors. They had a look that was perfect for the time period MM was set in, but they weren't great (or in some cases, even good) actors.

January Jones was never going to be the next Sandra Bullock.

Kiernan Shipka has had a fine career given her age: she of course played B. D. Hyman in "Feud," and had several seasons playing the title role on "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina."

Alison Brie has done very well: she had "Community" during the latter years of "Mad Men," and then after both shows were done she did both "Glow" and "Bojack Horseman."

Jon Hamm has regularly found work in film, but mostly as a supporting actor... which makes sense, given that he's really more of a character actor than a leading man (despite his good looks). He did play the lead in some films (like "Beirut"), and he will play Fletch in the next Fletch film: but he had supporting work in (among others) "Top Gun: Maverick," "Richard Jewell," "Bad Times at the El Royale," etc.

Vincent Kartheiser's true love is the theater, so he went back to do some plays with the Guthrie in Minneapolis (his hometown). But he did played The Scarecrow for a full season of "Titans."

John Slattery pops up all the time in supporting roles, which is pretty much what he did before "Mad Men."

January Jones is among the major actors who pretty much disappeared, but she can't play anything but Betty Draper.

I was hoping to see more of Jessica Paré (I'm one of the few people on DL who liked Megan Calvert Draper), but she's also disappeared.

Might be why Vincent didn’t go further in his career.

Funny because I always thought I would have liked the Peggy character more because Elisabeth Moss was so odd. But she does seem to be a good actor, maybe the weirdness is part of being a $cieno (also who marries Fred Armisen?)

R13 He was perfectly cast as Peter I see.

Oops r14 again, I meant I think I would have liked the Peggy character more if she was played by another actress.