What Happened To The Cast Of Just Shoot Me!

It was a major staple of NBC’s sitcom lineup back in the 1990s, a solid long-lived sitcom like “Wings” and “Caroline in the City” which — while it may have not set the world on fire culturally like “Friends” or “Seinfeld” — still managed to build up strong and following. “Just Shoot Me!” was its name, and it showed viewers the funny side of life working behind the scenes of a fashion magazine. 

Jack Gallo (George Segal) has been running the “Cosmopolitan”-like Blush Magazine for decades. Issues fly off the shelves, packed with high-fashion photoshoots and articles laden with iffy diet, relationship, and beauty advice. Enter his college graduate, feminist daughter, Maya (Laura San Giacomo) a hard news journalist who is stuck working for Jack after her fiery opinions got her fired from her last journalism job. Maya has long been horrified by her dad’s empire and wants to change the tone and direction of Blush. 

Father and daughter frequently clash over what’s right while Maya tries to be seen as a smart, independent woman while also maintaining a relationship with her dad. Along for the ride are Nina Van Horn (Wendie Malick), a former fashion model with a wild past who now works as Jack’s fashion editor; Elliot DiMauro (Enrico Colantoni), Jack’s playboy lead fashion photographer; and Dennis Finch (David Spade), Jack’s snarky and sex-obsessed assistant. Wild adventures set in, and Maya even dates Ray Liotta.

It’s been over 20 years since “Just Shoot Me!” left the airwaves, and the people who appeared in it have been quite busy since then. Here’s a rundown of what all the show’s major actors have been up to.

“Just Shoot Me!” was an ensemble show, but without Laura San Giacomo’s endearingly off-kilter performance as Maya, the series would be an undeniably weaker one. It wasn’t her first time trying out the comedy genre for size; San Giacomo already had a solid resume behind her when she signed on for the part, with roles in “Pretty Woman,” “Sex Lies and Videotape,” and “Quigley Down Under” behind her. After “Just Shoot Me!” wrapped, she has continued to appear in a wide variety of dramas and television productions.

The actor’s major recurring roles have included Harmony Chase on “Veronica Mars,” Morgan Wilson on “Animal Kingdom,” and Annie Eisner in “Barry.” She played Dr. Grace Confalone across 13 episodes and 9 seasons of “NCIS,” starting in Season 13. She showed up as Rhetta Rodriguez for three seasons of “Saving Grace” and was Elena Medina in the short-lived Audience exclusive series “Full Circle.” 

San Giacomo was a regular during the first season of Disney+’s “The Santa Clauses” as Italian Christmas witch La Befana. On top of all of that, she has guest-starred in multiple shows like “Medium,” “Hot in Cleveland,” “The Mentalist,” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” She has also narrated at least one episode of the long-lived crime docuseries “Snapped.” In the film world, she was Dr. Moreno in “Honey Boy,” and Joanna in “Havoc.” 

George Segal’s storied career spanned from the 1960s to the 2020s, and he kept acting until he physically couldn’t anymore. While ’90s kids might remember him best as Jack Gallo, they might also recall that he was Albert, Mollie’s (Kirstie Alley) ne’er-do-well undercover boyfriend and biological father of Mikey in the “Look Who’s Talking” series. He was Steven’s (Matthew Broderick) dad in “The Cable Guy” and voiced Dr. Benton C. Quest in “The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest.” Those with longer memories will recall him as Nick in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe,” Felix in “The Owl and the Pussycat,” and Gordon in “Where’s Poppa?”

After “Just Shoot Me!,” Segal balanced guest-starring roles in series like “Private Practice,” “Boston Legal,” and “Pushing Daisies” with appearances in “2012,” “Love and Other Drugs,” and “Elsa and Fred.” He landed two long-term roles: Alan Robbins in the two-season TV Land original sitcom “Retired at 35” and the iconic part of Albert “Pops” Solomon in the ABC sitcom “The Goldbergs.” He played Pops for eight seasons and was only stopped by his death on March 23, 2021 at the age of 87. His wife, Sonia Segal, announced that he had passed away due to complications related to heart bypass surgery.

Wendie Malick has always been an incredibly busy actress, and her career has hardly slowed down since she hung up Nina’s iconic pumps. Before she took on that role, she had been in everything from one of HBO’s first forays into comedy as the endearingly neurotic and ever-unobtainable Judith Tupper-Stone in “Dream On” to guesting on “Baywatch” as Mitch Buchannon’s (David Hasselhoff) ex-wife. She’s built up a rock-solid career as a voice actress to boot. Things have continued to go her way since “Just Shoot Me!,” with her tucking many more iconic parts under her belt since then.

Malick played Ronee Lawrence, girlfriend of Martin Crane (John Mahoney), on “Frasier” for 10 episodes in its last season, Lisa Neuman in “The Ranch,” Kathryn in “American Housewife,” Linda in “Young Sheldon,” and Victoria Chase in the long-lived TVLand original sitcom “Hot in Cleveland.” She appeared in the “Finding Father Christmas” series of TV movies and has played Joanna Darrow in the “Darrow & Darrow” series of Hallmark Movies & Mysteries telefilms. In the movie world, she’s popped up in “Racing Stripes” (which also featured David Spade), “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” “Adventureland,” and “Waiting…” 

As a voice actress, she played Principal Folsom in “Filmore!,” Beautiful Gorgeous in “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius,” Burdine Maxwell in the animated “Bratz” franchise, Beatrice Horseman in “Bojack Horseman,” and Eda in “The Owl House.” She also continues to voice Chicha in various “Emperor’s New Groove” projects, including “Kronk’s New Groove” and “The Emperor’s New School.” Her guest-starring roles have included parts in “CSI,” “Law & Order,” “Reba,” and “Pushing Daisies.” More recently, she’s been juggling three roles: Gus in “The Chicken Sisters,” Dr. Julie Baram in “Shrinking,” and Julianne in NBC’s recently-cancelled “Night Court” revival. On top of all of that, she does charity work for Planned Parenthood and Adopt-A-Family. It looks like this busy lady won’t be slowing down any time soon.

David Spade had already made a name for himself on “Saturday Night Live” by the time he entered Blush’s hallowed auspices, and he had “Tommy Boy” and “Black Sheep” behind him too, which made him a well-established face in an already-loaded cast. Spade has continued to work steadily in Hollywood on sitcoms and in film, and on top of that he’s maintained his stand-up career and founded a very successful podcast.

A year after “Just Shoot Me!” wrapped, David Spade moved on to “8 Simple Rules,” where he played Uncle CJ. His next major sitcom role was that of Russell in “Rules of Engagement,” where he worked with fellow “Emperor’s New Groove” veteran Patrick Warburton. In the film world, he appeared in “Racing Stripes” and reprised his role of Joe Dirt in “Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser.” Spade is a familiar part of the Happy Madison troupe of actors and frequently shows up for supporting work in Adam Sandler-produced projects like “The Benchwarmers,” “Grown Ups” and its sequel, “The Do-Over,” and “Jack and Jill.” He has also voiced Griffin in all the “Hotel Transylvania” films and occasionally portrays Kuzco for various Disney projects.

Spade has continued to tread the boards as a stand-up comic, with his latest special “Dandelion” on Prime Video. He also has a podcast with fellow “SNL” alum Dana Carvey, which is entitled “Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade.” The podcast balances interviews with celebrity guests and off-the-cuff ramblings between the two of them.

Enrico Colantoni has parlayed his success in “Just Shoot Me!” into a solid career as a character actor. While still playing Elliott on “Just Shoot Me!,” he landed the role of Mathesar in “Galaxy Quest,” and also played the murderer in “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.” From there, he continued to pick up steam and, much like Wendie Malick and David Spade, has never been idle for long. His next major television role was as Greg in NBC’s thriller “Flashpoint.” He then played Keith Mars, father to titular detective “Veronica Mars,” a role that extended to its revival movie and revival series. After that, he was Carl Elias on all five seasons of “Person of Interest” and Sherman Hollis in the digital series “Carmilla.” 

On the big screen, he picked up the role of Dennis in “Contagion” and played Bill Isler in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” In the television film world, he played music impresario Rene Angelil in the biopic “Céline,” appeared as Speedo Boy in “ZOS: Zone of Separation,” and Gianni Versace in “House of Versace.” More recently, he played Brian in “Station Eleven,” Principal Moretti in “The English Teacher,” Lonny in “Mistletoe Murders,” and Vince in “Allegiance.” As of this writing, he plays Jimi in Crave TV’s “The Trades” and Reed in “FUBAR.” 

Soap queen Rena Sofer was added to “Just Shoot Me!” during its final season to shake up ratings. Unfortunately, audiences didn’t take to the vivacious Vicki Costa and the show was cancelled after Season 7. Sofer rebounded from the blow fairly easily, though her next two prime time series — an Americanization of “Coupling” and the drama “Blind Justice” — didn’t catch on. But Sofer continued to plug away. The same year she landed the part of Vicki she played Miss Desjardin in NBC’s TV movie version of “Carrie.” After “Just Shoot Me!” wrapped, she captured the role of Marilyn Bauer on Season 6 of “24,” and played Heidi Petrelli in five episodes of “Heroes.” 

Sofer recurred throughout Season 7 of “NCIS” as Margaret Allison Hart, and she tackled multiple recurring and guest starring roles on shows like “House,” “Covert Affairs,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Medium” “Royal Pains,” “Bones,” “Two and a Half Men,” and “Criminal Minds.” But Sofer has been most at home in the soap opera world. She played sophisticated jewelry designed Quinn Fuller in over 900 episodes of “The Bold and The Beautiful” and recently has returned to the role that first garnered her attention in the 1990s — brassy music executive Lois Cerullo in “General Hospital.”

Brian Posehn is another “Just Shoot Me!” castmember who got his start as a stand-up comic. His recurring stint as completely out-there mailroom attendant Kevin Liotta led to plenty of appearances for him on the show, but having established himself on “Mr. Show with Bob and Dave” earlier in the 1990s he already had a solid base from which to grow.

After “Just Shoot Me!” ended, Posehn has continued to split his time between television work, time as a stand up and voiceover work. Film roles have included Jimmy in “The Devil’s Rejects,” and he was the minister in Reed (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue’s (Jessica Alba) wedding in “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” On television, he’s likely best known as Brian Spukowski in “The Sarah Silverman Program,” Bert Kibbler in “The Big Bang Theory” and its upcoming spin-off “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” and for his appearances in “W/Bob and Dave.” He has had guest starring roles on shows like “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker,” and for various appearances in “Reno 911.”

His voice-acting work has been wide ranging, with roles including Knuckles the Silly Piggy in “Dave the Barbarian,” Sour Cream in “Steven Universe” and “Steven Universe Future,” Cousin Larry in “Kim Possible,” Gibbons in “Tom Goes to the Mayor,” and “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!,” Glen Maverick in “Surf’s Up,” and Calliope in “Force Grey.” He even voiced Grunt in “Halo 2,” cementing his legacy in a third medium.

Chris Hogan’s name might not be the first one you think of when “Just Shoot Me!” comes to mind, but he had a pretty big role on the sitcom. For seven episodes, he played Maya’s roommate Wally during Season 1, who made her life difficult and drew a bold contrast to her life at Blush. Initially intended to balance out the show so it didn’t become too career-heavy, Wally ended up being ditched seven episodes into the series. 

Hogan landed on his feet after the sitcom changed its premise, however; he played Dirk in two episodes of “The Nanny,” appeared as a regular cast member 24 times on Season 3 of “MadTV,” and appeared in “Monkeybone.” Hogan landed a recurring part on “3rd Rock from the Sun” as Pitman, one  of Dick Solomon’s (John Lithgow) students. His last major recurring part was on “Grounded For Life.” 

More recently, the actor has been working on the other side of the camera and has been selling and producing pilots for television. While he hasn’t managed to get anything on the air as a producer or writer, he had an animated pilot with Fox in 2014, and developed a pilot featuring Cheri Oteri, Chris Parnell, Jenny Slate, and Andrew Rannells around the same time. Hopefully, he’ll get something out there with time.