The West Wing 1999-2006

1. Donna Moss Janel Moloney has yet to find a permanent home since her performance as slightly distraught oddball Donnatella Moss. She has however found time to turn up as distraught oddballs in episodes of House, 30 Rock and the US remake of Life On Mars.

2. Sam Seaborn Following an early exit from The West Wing, Rob Lowe starred in and was slated for two abortive drama series of his own creation. He eventually returned to politics and ran for president as Robert McCallister in family drama Brothers & Sisters, although this time, horror of horrors, as a Republican.

3. Abbey Bartlet Stockard Channing returned to work as a doctor as Lydia Barnes in the unsuccessful, though well-received, US comedy Out of Practice, about a marriage counsellor who feels inferior to his family of doctors. Somehow even a pun that contrived wasn't enough.

4. Leo MacGarry Actor John Spencer died of a heart attack during filming of the final series, aged 58. You can however take a glimpse at the young Leo as lawyer Tommy Mullaney in early 90s legal drama LA Law. Or you can just watch The West Wing again and again and again until someone has to stage an intervention

5. Jed Bartlet The greatest president America never had, Martin Sheen is due to play Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson in the forthcoming Bhopal: Prayer for Rain. On the subject of atrocities, you may recently have seen him on Channel 4's The Sunday Night Project, performing as a Village People parody of Jed Bartlet opposite a blacked-up Alan Carr.

6. Charlie Young After leaving his job as bodyman to the President, Dulé Hill turned up as sidekick Gus in hit US comedy Psych, about a detective who claims to have psychic powers. It turns out he doesn't. Psych! In America that works as a joke.

7. Josh Lyman Bradley Whitford reappeared with redder, thinner hair but the exact same personality as executive producer Danny Tripp on Aaron Sorkin's ill-fated third TV project, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He's now filming sitcom Off Duty about the partnership between two police officers with very different personalities. How will they cope?

8. CJ Cregg You might have expected to see a lot more of impossibly brilliant Allison Janney. Oddly, though, Janney's most notable appearances since have been as oppressive mother Prudy Pingleton in Hairspray, oppressive stepmother Brenda MacGuff in Juno, and Peaches the voyeuristic starfish in Finding Nemo. Bring back CJ!

9. Toby Ziegler Last year, perpetually vexed and irritated Richard Schiff appeared briefly in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, in many ways The West Wing's obvious intellectual successor. You can also see him in the film Last Chance Harvey, with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, but it's harder to mock that without having seen it.

10. Bruno Gianelli (not pictured) Tragically, actor Ron Silver, who will be remembered for numerous outstanding performances, died on 16 March this year. Bruno really is no more.

Star Trek 1966-1969

Star Trek. Photograph: Allstar

1. Mr Spock Spock still hasn't died (apart from that one time when he did) and appears as his older self in the forthcoming Star Trek film. Leonard Nimoy also emerged from hiding last year to support Barack Obama. Apparently when they first met Obama gave a Vulcan salute. Live long and prosper, Mr President.

2. Hikaru Sulu George Takei turned out to have a son in the shape of time-travelling Hiro Nakamura, in Heroes, turning up as his father in the first two series. After his death in that, he moved out to the jungle to humiliate himself for the amusement of idiots in I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here, coming third in the Best in Show category.

3. Captain James T Kirk William Shatner has been beamed down to Earth in various guises over the years, most persistently as tough-talking cop TJ Hooker, in TJ Hooker, and as self-proclaimed genius lawyer Denny Crane, in Boston Legal. He is also known for his "singing", which has somehow become ironically brilliant. Very strange people might be tempted to visit his online video diary, The Shatner Project.

4. Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy DeForest Kelly never landed another significant acting role and went into retirement. He then wrote a number of eye-wateringly bad poems telling the behind-the-scenes story of Star Trek, titled The Big Bird's Dream. As of 1999, "He's dead, Jim".

5. Uhura Nichelle Nichols turned up recently as Nana Dawson in Heroes, now in its spectacularly confusing third series. Nana Dawson's powers and significance are still unknown, although fans speculate that she may be invisible to fish. The Star Trek universe trembled when her 1994 autobiography revealed her long-term affair with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

Teachers 2001-2004

Teachers. Photograph: Channel 4

1. Brian Steadman Brian's career was cut short when writers put him in a fatal car crash between series three and four. Adrian Bower reappeared voicing Vodafone adverts and went on to win Celebrity Poker Club. Witnesses report that, after winning, he mounted the table, roared "Look at me now, writers! I'm king of the world!" and headbutted the camera. Or maybe someone made that up to make him seem less dull.

2. Susan Gately Raquel Cassidy shone as alcoholic Labour MP Jo Porter in the 2007 BBC drama Party Animals. This year she has led two lives, working as high-powered and highly strung executive Nancy Weeks on ITV's navel-gazing sitcom Moving Wallpaper, then returning home to supportively gaze at Jack Dee's navel in BBC2's Lead Balloon.

3. Simon Casey Andrew Lincoln moved from teaching English to lecturing in psychology as the star of supernatural ITV drama Afterlife, a classic boy-meets girl-who-can-talk-to-his-dead-son drama exploring the issues of mental illness, cancer and loss and successfully cheapening all of them. He returned in his best-loved role as affable Egg in 2007's This Life +10 and is now due to appear in ITV's forthcoming Wuthering Heights.

4. Kurt McKenna After being trapped by the show's writers in Brian's fatal off-screen car crash, Navin Chowdry emerged better, stronger, faster and less dead with supporting roles in Channel 4's NY-LON and BBC Three's Sinchronicity, both now finished. He recently popped up as Sharon Horgan's gay accountant in C4's egregiously profane new sitcom Free Agents. He returns to teaching as Mr Watson in Sky One's forthcoming adaptation of the children's classic Skellig.

5. Jenny Paige It was never revealed exactly why or how Nina Sosanya had vanished at the beginning of series three and to this day Channel 4 refuses to launch an inquiry, but judging by her recent ubiquity it seems to have been a good move. She can now be found smoking a lot and being a little bit one-dimensional as station manager Jane in ITV2 sitcom FM.

The Wire 2002-2008

The Wire. Photograph: BBC/HBO

1. William "Bunk" Moreland In the dying days of The Wire, Wendell Pierce popped up briefly in Numb3rs (the 3 is silent, as in "rubbi3sh n3ame"), a crime drama about a mathematician who isn't psychic and is forced to resort to equations to solve crime. He'll also star in The Wire creator David Simon's new series Treme, about a group of New Orleans musicians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, beginning next year.

2. James "Jimmy" McNulty Dominic West claims his mother stopped speaking to him after he played Oliver Cromwell in historical drama The Devil's Whore, alongside Peter Capaldi's Charles I and Andrea Riseborough as Angelica Fanshawe. This year, he'll be using the classical warfare skills he learned in 300 in Centurion. And even as the star of arguably the best drama series ever made, at just 40, West's best may be yet to come.

3. Thomas "Herc" Hauk If the pilot goes down well Domenick Lombardozzi will have a lead role in new US crime drama Finnegan, about a woman fighting organised crime the old-fashioned way, without any equations, telepathy or vampires. How will she cope?

4. Leander Sydnor Having had no film or TV work since The Wire ended, Corey Parker Robinson has sought creative fulfilment elsewhere. Last year, perhaps inspired by William Shatner, he narrated A Lincoln Portrait, a medley of Abraham Lincoln's speeches backed by the National Symphony Orchestra.

5. Shakima "Kima" Greggs Formerly a respected slam poet, Sonja Sohn's most notable appearance since The Wire was giving away her child as Trish Evans in Brothers & Sisters. Presumably all of the main characters were too rich and beautiful to give birth themselves.

6. Ellis Carver Seth Gilliam has had small roles in CSI: Miami and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He is is set to segue into legal docu-drama this month with the premiere of The People v Leo Frank.

7. Russell "Stringer" Bell Idris Elba's phone hasn't stopped ringing and he turned in great performance after great performance with guest roles in the US remake of The Office and The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. He has also, more dubiously, been in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla, and stars opposite Beyoncé Knowles in Obsessed, out next month.

8. Omar Little The makers of The Incredible Hulk know talent when they see it, and they knew Michael K Williams was the man to play "a bystander". His fortunes have picked up since, though, with roles in several films, including an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, starring Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortensen.

9. Lester Freamon This month Channel 4 broadcasts feature film Endgame, the story of the fall of apartheid, with Clarke Peters playing a young Nelson Mandela. He can also currently be found in Damages playing Dave, and will join co-star Wendell Pierce next year in David Simon's Treme.

10. Marlo Stanfield Viewers of Heroes will have spotted Jamie Hector in the role of escaped criminal Knox. Knox has evolved the power to turn other peoples' fear into superhuman strength, resulting in a scene in which he punched a cowardly man in the chest and his fist came out the other side. Genius.

11. Avon Barksdale Wood Harris will soon begin filming his first major lead role as Sweetwater in the film of the same name, telling the story of the first black basketball player to be signed by the NBA. Those desperate for more Avon can find him playing for laughs in comedy crime caper Next Day Air.

Cheers 1982-1993

Cheers. Photograph: Rex Features

1. Norm Peterson Among George Wendt's highlights since Cheers closed are his prominent role in six episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and his cameo as Norm Peterson in The Simpsons. He also appeared as an unnamed film producer in the Spice Girls film, Spice World, arguably one of the best films the Spice Girls made that year.

2. Frasier Crane The spin-off show, Frasier, became one of the most successful sitcoms ever, finally coming to an end in 2004, 20 years after Kelsey Grammer's first appearance in Cheers. Fresh from blueing up to play Beast in the third X-Men film, he sought sitcom gold again as veteran news anchor Chuck Darling in Back To You, about two newsreaders who used to be a couple. (In America it's now illegal to make a sitcom without a pun in the title.)

3. Cliff Clavin Now Pixar's mustachioed mascot, John Ratzenberger has appeared in every film they've made, voicing Hamm the piggy bank in Toy Story, the Abominable Snowman in Monsters, Inc and villainous The Underminer in The Incredibles. Their huge success has made him a very wealthy man, which in no way explains why he campaigned for John McCain in 2008.

4. Diane Chambers Shelley Long has developed a penchant for films that do exactly what they say on the tin. She has been to the White House in The Brady Bunch in the White House, gone on a honeymoon with her son in Honeymoon with Mom and been white and gone to the hairdresser in A Couple of White Chicks at the Hairdresser.

5. Sam Malone You can currently find Ted Danson playing former billionaire Arthur Frobrisher in Damages. He prepared for the role, in which he fights an epic battle of wills with terrifying super-lawyer Glenn Close, by butting heads with Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm and, in Saving Private Ryan, fighting the Nazis.

6. Woody Boyd Woody Harrelson had a busy few years after Cheers ended, with leading roles in Natural Born Killers, Kingpin and The People Vs Larry Flint. Then came 10 years in the wilderness. Now, he has been rediscovered as Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, and we'll see him back as a star at last, with forthcoming ﬁ lms including The Other Side, Banraku and Pinkville.

7 Carla Tortelli Rhea Perlman has had cameos in both Becker and Frasier, although George Wendt was sadly unable to find space for her in Spice World. She does, however, star in Beethoven's Big Break, released last month, the 11,479th installment in the Beethoven saga. The twist in the tale is that, this time, something happens to the dog.

Thirty-something 1987-1991

Thirty-something. Photograph: Rex Features

1. Elliot Weston Timothy Busfield, under the pen name Danny Concannon, became the best investigative journalist who ever lived. Unfortunately, being the best in the world is a basic requirement for any West Wing character and didn't stand out so much as it would have in a show like EastEnders. He went on to make the leap, with Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry, from the West Wing to Studio 60

2. Nancy Weston Anyone can become president in America, and the makers of Prison Break chose Patricia Wettig. Eventually blackmail forced her to resign, helped along by the fact that she was also playing a less supporting role as former mistress/businesswoman Holly Harper in Brothers & Sisters. She also played Dr Judy Barrett in Alias, but it had nothing whatsoever to do with her husband being the producer.

3. Hope Murdoch Steadman Mel Harris's biggest recent project was unsuccessful telenovella Saints & Sinners, a contemporary re-imagining of Romeo & Juliet. She played feuding matriarch Sylvia Capshaw, whose surname is subtly similar to Capulet in that half of it is the same.

4. Michael Steadman Married to Patricia Wettig, Ken Olin has popped up as David McNeil in Alias and David Caplan in Brothers & Sisters, as well as executive producing several series of both. He also directed three episodes of The West Wing.

5. Ellyn Warren Now a highly successful writer, director and producer, Polly Draper writes, directs and produces Nickelodeon's The Naked Brothers Band, which stars her children and their friends as 10-year-old rock stars. It's one of the network's most popular shows, which just goes to show that what children really want is naked brothers. And bands.

6. Melissa Steadman After finally picking up an Emmy as Melissa, Melanie Mayron moved behind camera to tell people where to stand and when to look sad. She directed the 2002 film Slap Her ... She's French, as well as episodes of Dawson's Creek, Tell Me You Love Me and co-star Polly Draper's series The Naked Brothers Band. She still makes some time for acting, with a small role as Patty Bloom in fashion world drama Lipstick Jungle.

7. Gary Shepherd Did you ever look at Peter Horton and think, "He'd be amazing as a dead detective sent back from hell by Satan to capture evil spirits at loose on earth"? So did the makers of Brimstone, reinventing him as walking cliche Ezekiel Stone. When that folded, fittingly, after 13 episodes, he found himself starring opposite Geena Davis in The Geena Davis Show, after initially auditioning unsuccessfully for the title role.

Deadwood 2004-2006

Deadwood. Photograph: HBO

1. Sol Star John Hawkes found a new home in sitcom Eastbound & Down. He plays the brother of fading, deluded baseball star Kenny Powers, who returns home to discover he's not as popular as he imagined. Will Ferrell created it, telling you everything you need to know.

2. EB Farnum Ever thought to yourself "There aren't enough shows about psychic people in America"? Then you'll love William Sanderson's new job as Sheriff Bud Dearborne in True Blood, a show about a barmaid who can read minds in a world full of vampires, from Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball.

3. Cy Tolliver Powers Boothe continued on the path of darkness as power-grabbing vice president Noah Daniels in 24, wresting power from President Wayne Palmer and then ordering a nuclear attack. Liking what they saw, the Republican party chose Boothe to narrate a campaign ad for John McCain.

4. Al Swearengen The extraordinarily brilliant Ian McShane can now be found playing King Silas Benjamin in the new US drama Kings, a contemporary take on the biblical story of King David. The New Yorker has heaped praise upon his performance in it. McShane has also voiced evil snow leopard Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, Captain Hook in Shrek the Third and a viking in SpongeBob SquarePants.

5. Doc Cochran This year sees master of creepiness Brad Dourif acting his guts out in a glut of horror films including Chain Letter ("If you don't forward it, you die"), The Kentucky Fried Horror Show ("Time to get greasy") and the sequel to Rob Zombie's Halloween ("Oh God, not another film called Halloween. Why? Why? Seriously why?").

6. Seth Bullock (not pictured) After Deadwood, Timothy Olyphant wandered into the latest series of legal drama Damages as suspiciously friendly Wes Krulik. He also found time to star in the 2007 film Hitman, about a hitman called Hitman, based on the videogame Hitman, about a man called Hitman who works as an assassin ...