Often cast as cowboys, heavies or jilted suitors in supporting roles, Bridges played leads in several low-budget entries for Lippert Pictures ("The Limping Man" 1953, "Deadly Game" 1954) and one of Katharine Hepburn's brothers in the stagy but more prestigious "The Rainmaker" (1956), but it took a move to TV to make him a household name. Over the course of four decades Bridges would try his hand at eight TV series, but his most successful and best-remembered was his first, "Sea Hunt" (syndicated, 1957-61), with the star as ex-Navy frogman turned underwater troubleshooter Mike Nelson. Waterlogged fare would continue to surface in his credits in future years ("Around the World Under the Sea" 1966, "Scuba" 1972) while the actor followed up with series including the dramatic anthology "The Lloyd Bridges Show" (CBS, 1962-63), with the star as a journalist sharing stories from his files each week, and "The Loner" (CBS, 1965-66), which capitalized on his fierce squint and leathery persona.
An incredible number of TV-movies and miniseries would keep the now silver-haired Bridges busy in the 1970s and 80s, many of them forgettable, but some ("Haunts of the Very Rich" 1972, ABC's landmark "Roots" 1977) very good indeed. Bridges displayed a game willingness to parody his stolid authority roles and his occasionally hammy (but always succulent) acting style in the outrageous Abrahams-Zucker genre spoofs "Airplane" (1980) and "Airplane II: The Sequel" (1982). He also enjoyed himself immensely in later series like "Paper Dolls" (ABC, 1984), as a power-crazy executive, and TV-movies such as "Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean" (CBS, 1990), as the hotelier's feckless husband Harry. Bridges continued in spoof vein as a bumbling admiral in Abrahams's "Top Gun" parody "Hot Shots" (1991) and its sequel "Hot Shots, Part Deux" (1993). He was the father of actors Beau and Jeff Bridges, who appeared on "The Lloyd Bridges Show" and who later acted with their father in credits ranging from "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" (1988) to "Blown Away" (1994) and the series "Harts of the West (CBS, 1993). Before his death, Bridges had completed roles in the comedy spoof "Jane Austen's Mafia" and starred with son Beau in "Meeting Daddy" (both 1998).