Markie Post had an unlikely rise to fame in the Eighties

She appeared twice on The A-Team before landing her biggest role on a hit show.

Fans of sitcom history get a kick when they catch The A-Team episode "Hot Styles" because it features Markie Post as a model donning a range of loud Eighties fashions.

It shows a rarely seen wild side of Post, most famous for portraying a serious, strait-laced lawyer who sported an endless series of skirt suits on Night Court from 1984 to 1992.

For Post, two appearances on The A-Team (in her first, she played an impostor nun) were part of her unlikely rise to fame in the Eighties.

Post grew up in a family where her physicist father and brother set the tone for academic pursuits as the brightest future to pursue.

Attempting to follow in their footsteps, Post did study physics in college, but "did quite poorly in it. I was intimidated by my father. He’s the dearest man in the world, and he tried to help me through math and equations. But constantly muttering ‘It’s so easy!’ didn’t make it easy for me."

By chance, Post took an acting class and liked it so much, she started looking at Hollywood as a potential career path.

Rather than put all her eggs in one basket by trying to become an actor, though, Post also put her school-book smarts to good use in generating a steady paycheck.

She told the Courier-Post in 1986 that she tried out to be a contestant on a game show and did so well, she got hired as a game-show researcher instead.

"I took all the tests and passed all the tests," Post said. "I beat everyone flat. So, they gave me the chance to be either a contestant or a researcher with a steady job. I chose the job."

Once she got started working behind the scenes on game shows, she continued to get gigs like buying "unusual prizes" on The Price Is Right and eventually working as a producer on Double Dare!

Working on game shows got Post thinking about acting more and more, though, and in the late Seventies, she made her first appearances on shows like CHiPs and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Through the start of the 1980s, her acting career was picking up, with bigger roles offered and even some work on the big screen, leading to her joining the cast of The Fall Guy in 1982.

You’d think that would’ve been a huge moment for Markie in her career, but she got bored quickly with The Fall Guy, always looking for more exciting roles to play on other shows.

"I am very functionary on the show," Post told The Times and Democrat in 1984. "I am like the tape at the beginning of Mission: Impossible. But, on occasion, they bring me into the caper and that makes it more exciting."

That’s why Post was easily persuaded to leave The Fall Guy when the sitcom Night Court sought a new female lead in its third season.

Post had guest-starred in Night Court’s second season, and producers were so impressed, they decided to make her one-off character a regular on the show the next season.

Saying yes to Night Court was clearly a good call made by the unlikely TV star — she started earning $400,000 annually for her sitcom work as the show became more popular. "Audiences are crazy about our show," Post said.

Post enjoyed a prolific acting career that spanned three decades before she passed away in 2021, proving to her father that pursuing a creative career like acting could be a smart move after all.

And though she didn’t get the gift of understanding physics from her father the way her brother did, her brother did give her the gift of a memorable stage name.

Post told United Feature Syndicate in 1982 that her brother struggled to say her name — Marjorie — when they were younger. When he tried, it came out "Markie," and the nickname stuck. She went by Markie from that point on.

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23 Comments

DerekJ 28 months ago
Er, no. In Markie's first A-Team appearance, she played an actual nun (Face's ex).
UTZAAKE 29 months ago
The six paragraphs about Markie Post transitioning from The Fall Guy to Night Court are spot-on. The former starred Lee Majors and Doug Barr, with Heather Thomas as the primary female player. The latter had an ensemble cast where everyone had their moments to shine.
MikefromJersey 29 months ago
I don't think Markie ever looked better than when she appeared on "Cheers" as Diane's friend.
Breathtaking.
Shelley Long was a good sport because she looked like a skinny 15 year old next to Post.
Many leading lady stars would never have agreed to be upstaged like that.

Leonardo da Vinci would have ditched the Mona Lisa for Markie Post if Markie had
lived back then. The Mona Markie would have looked far better hanging in a Paris
museum.
AlF 29 months ago
Man, I had it for her... She was eye candy on Night Court! I was envious of Rush Limbaugh when he recounted time spent with her and the Thomason (?) family.
StrayCat 29 months ago
Markie Post a true beauty of the late 70's and into the 80's. I recall her appearance on Buck Rogers where she greatly improved a crappy series, if only for a couple of episodes. Then came Night Court where she came into her own.

One episode of Night Court always remained with me. It was the one where some character made a remark about Christine (Post) having implants. She took offense over that and opened her vest, thrust out her chest and said: Factory originals, bub.
DethBiz StrayCat 29 months ago
I will give you that Buck Rogers turned into a crappy series with Season 2.
AgingDisgracefully 29 months ago
Markie was inducted into The Fabulous Babe Hall of Fame WITHOUT the "mandatory" five year wait.
RobertM 29 months ago
She was also in an early 1980's miniseries called "The Gangster Chronicles".
McGillahooala 29 months ago
Markie Post was an entertaining actress. She seemed to put everything into her roles. Funny lady.
Andybandit 29 months ago
I really liked Markie in Night Court and Chicago PD as Bunny. I don't remember her in any other roles.
BrittReid 29 months ago
Markie also worked on Card Sharks. I always liked her work.
Runeshaper 29 months ago
Great story! And $400K back then was an even larger chunk of change so good for Markie (-:
daDoctah 29 months ago
She also starred in a pilot for a retconned "Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl" as Electra-Woman, now divorced (her ex had run off with her former sidekick), alcoholic and living in a trailer.
LenVishnevsky daDoctah 29 months ago
Please tell me this is true! I would binge that today.
daDoctah LenVishnevsky 29 months ago
Look no further. Here's the roughly 14-minute "proof of concept" pilot where everyone can see it:

rory49 daDoctah 29 months ago
omg, that actually had some really funny lines! Thanks for un-earthing it!
MichaelPowers daDoctah 27 months ago
And it was really funny. That pilot shoulda been picked up!
cperrynaples 29 months ago
Clarification here: Markie worked on the Alex Trebeck Double Dare, not the Nickelodeon version!
LoveMETV22 cperrynaples 29 months ago
Thanks for the clarification. And a remembrance to both Alex Trebek as well as Johnny Olson.
MrsPhilHarris LoveMETV22 29 months ago
Two weeks on the show and he is up to $5,700!
That’s not a lot for game shows today but still a lot of money for most of us.
LoveMETV22 McGillahooala 29 months ago
Adjusting for inflation and considering it was broadcast in 1976-1977. His winnings in todays 💲's.
he would be $28,634 (1976) or $27,305 (1977) richer. Annual inflation was higher in 1976. Hopefully he won in 76 LOL.
I haven’t watched a game show since that Howie Mandel show with the suitcases. Seems to me winnings were quite high.
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