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Breakup Breakout: Difference between revisions
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== Comic Books ==
* Rather common in superhero teams:
** ''[[Watchmen (
** There's the [[X-Men]], and then there's [[Wolverine Publicity|Wolverine.]]
*** Arguably this is a bit backwards as Wolverine started off as a solo character in the Hulk and most the major lifting into making him a more fleshed out character happened in the X books; without that he may have very well end up on the scrapheap.
** [[Spider
** Really, name a group whose members stick around after breaking up. One of them will probably be a big (or at least B-list) star, many of the others will languish in obscurity.
* Part of [[Sidekick Graduations Stick]]: The sidekick becomes their own hero. At least in theory. [[Batman]]'s original Robin may be an in universe example as more [[Supporting Leader|people trust]] [[Nightwing]] than they do Batman.
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* The Japanese comedy duo Honjamaka originally started as a troupe of about 10 or 11 comedians, but they only became famous after everybody left except the current two members (Ishizuka Hidehiko and Megumi Toshiaki). On top of that, they both have strong individual careers.
* Rob Riggle and Rob Huebel was a Kansas City-based comedy duo who tried out for ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''. Riggle got picked and despite leaving after one season, has had a strong acting career since then. Meanwhile, Heubel only seems to appear in the occasional short-lived sitcom.
** It happened again to Heubel several years later when he got his biggest break to date as a member of the comedy troupe ''[[Human Giant]]'' featuring himself, Paul Scheer and [[Aziz Ansari]]. The show was critically acclaimed and all three got decent popularity as equals, but the show went on hiatus in 2008. Since then Scheer and Heubel have done well for themselves, but Ansari's popularity exploded after appearing in the film ''[[Funny People]]'', the success of his comedy records and his role on ''[[
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== Film ==
* [[Ben Affleck]] and [[Matt Damon]] were considered this for a while. Used to be that the two of them appeared together in everything - then, each going solo, Matt Damon got the ''[[
* This gets spoofed in the movie ''[[Music and Lyrics]]'', with Hugh Grant's character being the [[Garfunkel|Andrew Ridgeley]] of the Wham!-like band.
* An interesting case for the main ladies of [[Mean Girls]]. After the movie, [[Lindsay Lohan]] looked like she was poised for superstardom...but [[It Got Worse|things did not turn out that way]] and she's been struggling for roles ever since. The other ladies however did well for themselves. [[Lacey Chabert]] got into a really nice voice acting gig -- that she later dropped, [[Rachel McAdams]] managed to get into ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'', and [[Amanda Seyfried]] is currently the media's darling.
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** An [[The Muppet Show|earlier example]] can be fond to, [[Smurfette Breakout|Miss Piggy]], she gained fame quickly, even though she was originally meant to be a minor character next to Rowlf alongside Janice in the Veterinarian's Hospital sketches. While the latter two have made a comeback in recent years, it is still surprising to learn Piggy was never thought of as a major character in the beginning.
* A common theme for [[Nickelodeon]] series with young cast members:
** ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' was rebooted in the late 90's, and brought back most of the Midnight Society members from the original series. However, one of the "new" society members was played by a little-known actress named Elisha Cuthbert, who shot to stardom two years later after being cast in ''[[
** Of the teen cast members who starred on the 90's series ''[[Hey, Dude!]]'', only Christine Taylor (who played Melody) and David Lascher (who played Ted McGriff) had anything close to successful careers. Taylor is arguably more well-known because of her marriage to [[Ben Stiller]] and her steady stream of work over the years, while Lascher disappeared during the 2000's after starring in supporting roles in a handful of teen series (''[[Blossom]]'', ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]''). The rest of the ''Hey Dude'' cast, whether by choice or limitations, never acted again in any professional capacity.
** ''[[Space Cases]]''. Of the main cast, only [[Jewel Staite]] (who played Catalina in the first season) went on to become a greater star (via her roles in ''[[Firefly]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'') after the show finished. Walter Jones (of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' fame) was relegated to bit parts and one-off appearances in various series, and the rest of the cast never bothered to do much after the series ended.
** ''[[Kenan and Kel]]''. Since the end of the show, Kenan has gone on to join [[Saturday Night Live]] and has been a few moderately successful films. Kel hasn't done so much.
** From the cast of ''[[Salute Your Shorts]]'' only Blake Sennett (credited as "Blake Soper") and Christine Cavanaugh had any major notoriety after the show ended. Sennett became a musician and was the co-lead vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band [[Rilo Kiley]]. Cavanaugh became a well known voice actor, performing the voices of lead characters for ''[[Rugrats]]'' and ''[[
* ''[[In Living Color]]'' was an incredibly successful FOX series that launched the careers of several African-American celebrities (including the Wayans brothers, Tommy Davidson, Jamie Foxx and David Alan Grier) who went on to decent (if spotty) careers in film and television. Yet, the two most successful cast members who emerged from the series were [[Jim Carrey|a nerdy white guy with a knack for impressions]] and [[Jennifer Lopez|a backup dancer who left after the third season]].
* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'', for all its controversial storylines and [[Long Runner]] status, is more well-known for being a launchpad for Aubrey Graham (a.k.a. [[Drake]]) than anything else. The only other cast member to make any impact was Shenae Grimes, who landed on The CW's reboot of ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'' after her time on ''Degrassi'' ended.
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* Generation X had a few years of notoriety in the early days of [[Punk Rock]]. Vocalist [[Billy Idol]], on the other hand.....
* Ricky Martin and [[Appeal to Obscurity|Menudo]].
* Averted by Billy Corgan and [[
* Sting and [[The Police]].
** Referenced in a [[Milton Jones]] sketch where he is pretending to hold a police [[Waxing Lyrical|interview]] with Sting:
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* Averted by Crosby Stills & Nash after [[Neil Young]] left. All four of them did this with their previous groups to varying extents (Stills and Young with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby with The Byrds, Nash with The Hollies).
* [[Justin Timberlake]] and N'Sync. After he split from the group, Timberlake went on a decade-plus long rise that hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, with him parlaying his fame into notable guest spots on various shows, investments in tech startups, movies and platinum-selling CD's. Lance Bass became known for being gay and wanting to participate in a space program. JC Chavez's solo career went nowhere. The rest of the members were relegated to appearances on D-list celebrity dancing competitions.
* Inverted in the case of [[Rage Against the Machine]]; Zack de la Rocha left and had one minor single, while the rest of the band got together with Chris Cornell and formed [[Audioslave]], which proved almost as popular as their previous gig. Played perfectly straight with Chris Cornell and [[
* The Chad Mitchell Trio had only one real breakout star, but it was not any of the original members of the group. [[Executive Meddling|Record execs]] felt the 'folk trio' fad was passing, and urged Chad Mitchell to leave the trio and perform solo. Chad Mitchell recorded a few solo albums, but has never had any mainstream success. The guy who replaced him in the Mitchell Trio, on the other hand, was John Denver. Yes, THE John Denver. He went on to become a breakout star while the others in the trio more or less retired.
* George Michael and Wham!, to the point that Andrew Ridgeley is to music what Marty Jannetty is to wrestling.
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* Curious zig-zag: In the early 1990s, there was a band in Kentucky known as Early Tymz. Its members included brothers John Michael and Eddie Montgomery, as well as Troy Gentry. Although Early Tymz was well known in the state, they were all but unknown outside it. John Michael left and began a solo career, which included several big hits in the middle of the decade. Eddie and Troy founded the duo Montgomery Gentry, which has racked up quite a number of moderate hits in the 2000s while John Michael's career pretty much came to a screeching hallt in the 2000s.
* 1980s trio Schuyler, Knobloch and Overstreet (S-K-O) lost Paul Overstreet after their first album. He went on to become a semi-successful solo artist (racking up nearly twice as many hits as S-K-O had), and has written several songs for other artists.
* [[Robbie Williams]] did this to [[Take That (
** Though of course, Take That had already split shortly before Robbie's debut single came out (he himself had of course been sacked from the band some time before), so they weren't likely to be putting up much competition(!) Of course, Robbie's successful solo career does stand in sharp contrast to the failure of the remaining members' post-split (pre-reunion) solo efforts.
* [[Vince Gill]] became incredibly popular in the 1990s, long after he left Pure Prairie League.
* In the same vein, [[Kenny Rogers]] left The First Edition behind to become a successful country/adult contemporary singer.
** Was attempted by the lead singer of his first group, The Scholars.
* The girl group Choice had a song "Key to My Heart" which appeared on the soundtrack for ''Kazaam''. When it broke up, Sharon Flanagan went nowhere, Chrissy Conway had fair success with Christian rock group Zoegirl, and the third girl? Alecia Moore is now known as [[
* Wild Orchid had a couple albums, and was reasonably successful. Stacy Ferguson left them to become Fergie and join the [[Black Eyed Peas]]. The rest? Some voicework and songwriting, at best.
* When [[Sonny And Cher]] split, Cher went on to have a great career in music and film. Sonny went into politics. He died in 1998, after leading the charge that led to the [[Copy Protection|Digital Millennium Copyright Act]].
* [[Michael Jackson]]. He started as a member of The Jackson 5 and later became the King of Pop.
* Michael Nesmith had (some) commercial and (lots of) critical success after [[The Monkees]] broke up.
* Dave Grohl, who after [[
* After [[Kyuss]] broke up, Josh Homme founded [[Queens of the Stone Age]] and had far more commercial success than Kyuss ever did.
* Subverted by both parties in the case of Dave Mustaine. He was kicked out of his old band, founded [[
* In a rather tragic example, when the shred metal guitar duo Cacophony broke up their two members went onto two very different career paths. Marty Friedman would go on to join Megadeth for a few years as a guitarist before going solo, moving to Japan and becoming a major figure in the Japanese music world. Jason Becker on the otherhand would be diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease and is now unable to speak or play guitar. He still composes however and communicates with his eyes.
* After the Amboy Dukes broke up, their guitarist [[Ted Nugent]] started a much more successful solo career.
* After progressive rock band Hawkwind kicked out Lemmy Kilmister, their bass player, he started up his own band which is far better known. That band? [[
* Possibly inverted with [[Kylie Minogue]] and [[Nick Cave]]'s collabration, "Where The Wild Roses Grow", which helped give Minogue the artistic credibility she lacked, and Cave the mainstream success that had eluded him.
* A band called Y Kant Tori Read emerged in 1988, then broke up after being unsuccessful. The lead singer, [[
* [[
* [[Bjork]] went from being one of the lead singers of The Sugarcubes (which helped put Iceland on the music map) to having a more successful and arguably better solo career. You probably haven't heard from the other lead singer, Einar Örn, lately if you're not from Iceland.
* There was once a band called [[
* Averted by [[The Beatles (
* After White Zombie broke up, [[Rob Zombie]] replaced all the band members except the drummer and renamed the band after himself. None of the other members of the band ever did anything else of note. He then did it ''again'' when the Rob Zombie (band) guitarist and drummer, Riggs and Tempesta, split to form Scum of the Earth, which did not reach nearly the commercial success that Rob Zombie, either the man or the band, did.
** Averted with the Rob Zombie band bassist Blasko, who after leaving Zombie's band became the bassist for [[
* Tina and Ike Turner. At the time of the latter's death he was performing at small casinos. Of course, Ike brought a lot of that on himself, having gone from a rock legend responsible for one of the earliest rock & roll songs ever recorded ("Rocket 88") to becoming synonymous with spousal abuse.
* After [[Eurythmics]] broke up, Annie Lennox started a very successful solo career, while Dave Stewart was limited to producing.
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* The Pozo-Seco Singers were a Texas country-folk trio with a couple of minor hits in the 1960's. After they broke up, group member Don Williams embarked on a solo career. "The Gentle Giant" would notch over 50 hits on the Country Music charts, with 17 of them hitting #1.
* To some extent this happened with Portland indie rock band Heatmiser - bassist Sam Coombs formed the fairly popular and still active duo Quasi, and guitarist/vocalist Neil Gust had the less well-known band No. 2, but the major breakout was the solo career of [[Elliott Smith]].
* Most people don't even know there was a third member of the [[
* The Yardbirds, which helped launch the careers of Eric Claption, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, the latter of which formed [[
* After Cream's breakup, former producer Felix Pappalardi hooked up with blues guitarist Leslie West to form Mountain.
* Ever heard of the Wilde Flowers? Well, they were the founding band of the Canterbury Scene. Those who jumped ship before it broke up founded Soft Machine, and the rest founded Caravan. Soft Machine itself had Daevid Allen as a founder member (he left after the first single to found Gong) and was later home to Karl "Adiemus" Jenkins.
* Soft Machine vocalist/guitarist Kevin Ayers left after the band's first album and went on to found a whole series of self-named bands. The breakup of the first one these, Kevin Ayers and the Whole World, freed their young bass player and occasional guitarist Mike Oldfield to begin the pioneering experiment in multi-instrumentalism that would become ''Tubular Bells''.
* Another Soft Machine alumnus, Robert Wyatt, has gone on to a respected solo career.
* Dance House Children was a sorta-techno band in the early 90s, consisting of brothers Ronnie and Jason Martin. After two albums, Jason Martin left to start the shoegazing/indie rock band [[
* In the early 1980s, there was a New Wave band in New York called the Breakfast Club. Its drummer, for a while, was a young woman from Michigan named [[Madonna|Madonna Ciccone]]. She left (recommending her boyfriend and later producer, Stephen Bray, as her replacement) for bigger and better things. The band had one hit single "Right on Track" in 1987, and then broke up the next year. While two of the members of that later lineup, [[American Idol|Randy Jackson]] and E. Doctor Smith, later distinguished themselves, the others have not.
* After country music band Boy Howdy broke up in the mid-1990s, [[Lead Bassist]] Jeffrey Steele tried a solo career that never panned out. However, he quickly made up for that as an in-demand songwriter for other people, including lots of cuts for [[
* Inverted by the alt-country bands [[Music/Giant Sand|Giant Sand]] and [[
* [[Britpop]] group Theaudience had a handful of minor UK hits in the late 90's but broke up after only one album. After the split, the band's singer, [[
* The British synthpop group D:Ream had a handful of hits in the early 90's, including a #1 single in the United Kingdom with "Things Can Only Get Better" in 1994. After the band's split, their keyboardist [[wikipedia:Brian Cox chr(28)physicistchr(29)|Brian Cox]] became well known as a physicist, professor and presenter of several popular BBC programmes on astronomy, to the point where being a member of a band that had a #1 single is now a footnote in his biography.
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* Inverted with The Radicalz: [[Eddie Guerrero]], [[Chris Benoit]], Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn. Yes, the first two went on to become major stars. Guerrero died. Benoit killed his entire family and himself. Malenko retired in the early 2000's and is still respected for a wrestler of his build and skill. Saturn disappeared, was homeless for quite awhile, and is just now granting public interviews.
* [[Stone Cold Steve Austin|"Stunning" Steve Austin]] and Brian Pillman of the Hollywood Blondes. Austin became six time [[WWE]] champion and the only man to win the Royal Rumble [[Rule of Three|thrice]].
** To be fair, the main reason for this was Pillman's untimely death at age 35. At the time, both Pillman and Austin were both very over high mid-carders (Austin being only a few months into developing the foul-mouthed, beer-swilling, [[Anti-Hero
* The Thrillseekers: [[Chris Jericho]] and [[Lance Storm]]. Not a total example. Jericho is the more well-known of the two outside of wrestling, but Storm was certainly not a terrible wrestler himself.
* America's Most Wanted - One would go on to form an even greater tag team known as [[Memetic Mutation|BEER! MONEY!]] The other was IWC phenomenon [[Professional Wrestling/Memes|Braden Walker.]]
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* This has happened with Curt Hawkins and [[Zack Ryder]] as the latter was been established as a hot new heel on [[ECW]] with his memorable [[Catch Phrase]] and [[Ear Worm|theme music]], while the former completely disappeared from WWE television and returned to FCW. Hawkins would later return as part of a very unmemorable tag team with Vance Archer which would later break up with Hawkins going nowhere on Superstars while Archer got released. However, it was during that short period of time that it would like Hawkins might have a shot at surpassing his partner as ECW went off the air and was replaced by NXT, [[Demoted to Extra|leaving Ryder stuck on Superstars as well]]. However, Ryder would become an underground hit when he debuted his [[Web Original]] series, [[Z True Long Island Story]]. With a huge following on the IWC, Ryder would eventually [[Heel Face Turn|turn face]] and get featured on both RAW and Smackdown as a result (Ryder recently defeated [[Dolph Ziggler]] at the WWE TLC PPV for the United States Championship), all while Curt Hawkins will occasionally make cameos on the show if he's lucky.
* Even if he had moderate success, Billy Gunn hit superstardom in comparison to what happened to Bart Gunn from The Smoking Gunns. He also outlived Road Dogg in the WWE even if they later reunited in [[TNA]].
* In a "rivals" version of this, [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.]] and Psicosis. They debuted together, feuded all through Mexico, Japan, ECW, WCW... then 2001ish WCW released all their Luchadors except for Mysterio (and Juventud Guererra). Mysterio later got scooped up by WWE and eventually became a World Champion. Psicosis, on the other hand, got a short WWE run and nothing to show for it. When they met in a Royal Rumble, Mysterio just kinda backhanded Psicosis out of the ring. Mysterio's still a major superstar. Psicosis isn't as big in his native Mexico as Mysterio is in the US.
* And of course probably the biggest example would be [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], who was once part of the Nation of Domination, before rising to new heights which ultimately led him to Hollywood.
** However, [[Mark Henry]] has recently won the World Title, putting him in a clear second place.
* [[The
** A strange subversion here in that the WGTT actually has more drawing power than either Haas or Benjamin separately. Now that Benjamin has also been released from WWE, there's a lot of hope that the team will reunite.
*** Which they did, in [[Ring of Honor]]. [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]].
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*** That worked to his disadvantage, as he [[Never Live It Down|forever became associated with the gimmick.]] Even years after the breakup, Kenny Dykstra was still the butt of Spirit Squad chants and jokes.
* Averted with The Acolytes/APA, as Ron Simmons (AKA Faarooq) was already a former WCW Champion prior to the team's creation. However, after the APA's second breakup in 2004, Bradshaw reinvented himself as the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] [[John Bradshaw Layfield]], when he held the WWE title for almost a year.
* Played straight with Legacy, though not in the way people expected. Ted DiBiase was initially planned to be breakout with him turning face against [[Randy Orton]] and he had starred in the [[Direct to Video]] sequel to [[The Marine]]. The plans got derailed when Orton's popularity caused him to be booked as a face against DiBiase and Rhodes. After Wrestlemania, Ted was given [[Ted
* The American Males: Marcus Bagwell would turn on his tag team partner Scotty Riggs to join the [[New World Order]]. The newly rechristened Buff Bagwell would become a capable hand in the nWo and would enjoy a run in the upper-midcard upon the group's dissolution until WCW was bought out by WWE. Scotty Riggs would join The Flock as a job guy for Raven and toil in obscurity upon that group's dissolution.
* Inverted with [[Lay Cool]]. Michelle McCool was already a big player in the women's division when the team formed but Layla was mostly just there as another heel diva. She started out as Michelle's sidekick but was [[Ascended Extra|eventually promoted to an equal]]. When they split it was played straight since Layla retired Michelle and became the top face on Smackdown, until an Injury took her out.
* Another example that includes Layla - Extreme Expose. The dance trio on ECW included her and [[Kelly Kelly]] who is now arguably the most popular diva on the roster. The other girl, Brooke Adams, who got released just after they split. She's in TNA now though so maybe she'll subvert the trope.
* In 2004, the tag team "Los Guerreros" was broken up after Chavo Guerrero attacked his uncle Eddie. Their feud culminated at the Royal Rumble, with Eddie winning. About a month later, both of them became successful at No Way Out, with Chavo winning the Cruiserweight Championship and Eddie winning the WWE Championship. Chavo never quite became as successful as his uncle in the long run (Eddie was already more popular anyway), but was nevertheless a good wrestler.
* Averted with the Funk brothers, Terry and Dory Jr. While Terry is more well-known than Dory Jr. for his [[Ten
* One odd example that's not born from either a tag team or a rivalry. In 1989 a midcarder for [[New Japan Pro Wrestling]] named Keiichi Yamada was reinvented, giving him a gimmick based on a Go Nagai anime that was getting ready to air. Today, Jushin "Thunder" Liger is one of the most celebrated, accomplished and innovative wrestlers in history while the anime series his gimmick is based on, Jushin Liger, is practically a footnote known more for spawning his gimmick than anything else.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Even though twin brothers Yun and Yang debuted together in the ''[[
* Founding members of id Software, [[John Romero]] and [[John Carmack]], are an interesting case. On one hand, John Romero is far more well-known than Carmack. However, since Romero's split from id, compare [[Daikatana
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