During the 1982-1983 season, Thinnes appeared as Nick Hogan in 35 episodes of "Falcon Crest". He later played Roger Collins in the 1991 revival of TV's "Dark Shadows". He appeared on "One Life to Live" as Alex Crown from 1984–85, and as Sloan Carpenter from 1992-95. He also played a lead role in "The Final Chapter," the first episode of the 1977 series "Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected" (known in the United Kingdom as "Twist in the Tale"), and in "The Crystal Scarab", a first-season episode of ' in 1996. Thinnes was once considered by Paramount for the part of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in '.