Why is an actor ‘in’ a movie but ‘on’ a show?
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I want to say it’s because just because an actor is on a show doesn’t mean they are in EVERY episode. The same reason for why we say “so and so is in episode #” because they are actually in the episode. Just because someone is on a show doesn’t mean they are in every episode. Most shows, there will be a filler with only side characters.
We say “on” a show when its still in production, but we say “in” when they’re in a movie, or when the show is complete.
If the show is still active, it could be imagined that the show is in motion and they are on it. But if the boat isn’t moving anymore, then they’re in it.
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Prepositions are weird. While we like to think they go by their literal meaning, it doesn’t always work that way. Thus we have variations such as “different to” (more common in British English) versus “different from” (more common in American English, but may be changing). Or consider the German “zu Hause” as opposed to the English “at home”, even though the German word “zu” can usually be translated as “to”.
In this case, it’s not clear if the choice was documented. More likely, news reporters and magazine writers, when exposed to these new media, used what felt right to them and one of the terms in each case won.
[This article](https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/10/why-are-you-on-a-tv-show-but-in-a-movie-several-hypotheses.html) proposes that “in a movie” comes from being “in a theater”, but you can’t say in TV because no one is physically in a TV set. On the other hand, one might say “I’m in TV” to mean “I’m in the television business”.
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Movies evolved from photography (cameras, film). Objects are “in” a photograph. Television evolved from radio (broadcast, commercials). A song is “on” the radio, “on” the air. Those conventions predate movies and TV and I’m guessing they are carryovers
“In” as in “in a moving picture”, which derived from “in a picture”, as in “Dan is in that picture.” “On” as in “on TV”, as in “Dan is on TV in “The Phil Silvers Show.” The “on “ from “on TV” got extended to TV shows.
‘On a show’ implies that the show is still live, being made currently and not in the past. They would probably be thought of as ‘in’ a show after the show was done being made. I have no proof but it tracks with my brain and my cat seems to agree.
Prepositions have almost no logic to them. You sit at a table, in a chair, on a couch, in a house, at home, in the street, on the sidewalk, in a car, on a boat… none of it really makes sense, but if someone gets it wrong, it’s obvious.
I think of it as a ship and a dingy. You go inside the big box office movies and your just on the smaller by design show
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