--- title: John Travolta Lands Major TV Role in Decades description: The actor will star as defense attorney Robert Shapiro in 'American Crime Story' canonical: https://time.com/3658353/john-travolta-television/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-07T20:17:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:22:47.250Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: John Travolta Lands Major TV Role in Decades og:description: The actor will star as defense attorney Robert Shapiro in 'American Crime Story' og:url: https://time.com/3658353/john-travolta-television/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7822dbf403ca65e1/698778abe53abaee3b4d6e6e/john-travolta.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Actor John Travolta poses at the photocall of "The Forger" during the 39th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Toronto, Canada on Sept. 12, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Travolta Lands Major TV Role in Decades twitter:description: The actor will star as defense attorney Robert Shapiro in 'American Crime Story' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7822dbf403ca65e1/698778abe53abaee3b4d6e6e/john-travolta.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Travolta Lands First Major TV Role in Decades by [James Hibberd, Natalie Adams / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## James Hibberd, Natalie Adams / Entertainment Weekly Jan 7, 2015 8:17 PM CUT  Actor John Travolta poses at the photocall of "The Forger" during the 39th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Toronto, Canada on Sept. 12, 2014. Actor John Travolta poses at the photocall of "The Forger" during the 39th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Toronto, Canada on Sept. 12, 2014.Hubert Boesl—AP by [James Hibberd, Natalie Adams / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## James Hibberd, Natalie Adams / Entertainment Weekly Jan 7, 2015 8:17 PM CUT After 36 years, John Travolta is returning to television. The iconic actor has been cast in FX’s O.J. Simpson miniseries _American Crime Story_. Travolta will star as defense attorney Robert Shapiro in his first series-regular TV role since his breakout 1975-79 sitcom _Welcome Back, Kotter._ Travolta joins a cast that includes David Schwimmer as O.J. Simpson’s attorney Robert Kardashian, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson, and Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark. Travolta will also have a producer credit on the 10-part drama, which is expected to be the first season of the true crime anthology series. The project is written by executive producers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, directed and executive produced by Ryan Murphy (_American Horror Story_), and based on the book _The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson_ by Jeffrey Toobin. The miniseries will chronicle the 1995 Simpson murder trial from the perspective of the former NFL star’s lawyers. FX says the story “explores the chaotic behind-the-scenes dealings and maneuvering on both sides of the court, and how a combination of prosecution overconfidence, defense shrewdness, and the LAPD’s history with the city’s African-American community gave a jury what it needed: reasonable doubt.” _This_ [_article_](http://insidetv.ew.com/2015/01/07/john-travolta-american-crime-story/?hootPostID=1b0233407c0b48491f95afacc54d1815 "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3658353/john-travolta-television/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3658353/john-travolta-television/"},"headline":"John Travolta Lands First Major TV Role in Decades","datePublished":"2015-01-07T20:17:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:22:47.250Z","description":"The actor will star as defense attorney Robert Shapiro in 'American Crime Story'","url":"https://time.com/3658353/john-travolta-television/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7822dbf403ca65e1/698778abe53abaee3b4d6e6e/john-travolta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Hibberd, Natalie Adams / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7822dbf403ca65e1/698778abe53abaee3b4d6e6e/john-travolta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Actor John Travolta poses at the photocall of \"The Forger\" during the 39th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Toronto, Canada on Sept. 12, 2014.","caption":"Actor John Travolta poses at the photocall of \"The Forger\" during the 39th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Toronto, Canada on Sept. 12, 2014.","creditText":"Hubert Boesl—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3658353/john-travolta-television/","name":"John Travolta Lands First Major TV Role in Decades"}}]}] ```