As Seen on TV

This week, glamorous movie stars will descend from the Hollywood hills to walk the red carpet as they have for the last 84 years.

Yes, the elegant celebrity of the movie star continues to stun, as it has for generations. From Grant to Hepburn, Clooney to Streep, constellations marked by fame and grandeur pepper our skies.

For those of us focused on the smaller screen, though, this time of year brings up one unfortunate truth.

TV stars do not shine nearly as bright.

Despite the increasing validity of television as an art form equal to movies, television actors lack the presence and cultural ubiquity of movie stars.

Plenty of fantastic actors and actresses are on television. They play their parts with just as much talent and finesse as their Oscar-hungry peers.

Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad” carefully walks the line of likability as his complex and socially poignant character, Walter White. Elizabeth Moss has developed Peggy Olson into an interesting, dynamic character throughout the last few seasons of “Mad Men.”

Yet, like many capable TV actors, Cranston and Moss do not enjoy the same status as many movie stars.

I think it all comes down to accessibility.

The familiarity we have with shows and their characters keep us from putting television actors on the same pedestal as movie stars.

Movie stars transcend their screens. TV stars are limited by them.

Television is serialized by its very nature. It is an everyday enterprise. We form relationships with the characters who we tune in to watch every week.

The ongoing plot lines and character developments more intimately engage us. We gain an invested interest in outcomes and feel a part of it all.

Going to the movies is an event. We go to see an actor play a character. But when the movie’s over, Ryan Gosling goes back to being Ryan Gosling. A movie star.

TV stars are more bound to their characters. We watch television to see a character played by an actor. The character holds the identity, not the person playing him or her.

When we see Jon Hamm on the red carpet, it’s not Jon Hamm. It’s Don Draper in a Jon Hamm costume.

Movies have stars. Television has characters.