TV Tuesday: New Visitors

[yourlibrarian]

Do you recall favorite guest stars that outshone the main cast, or perhaps were such a perfect choice that they became part of the main cast later on? And if so, do we see less of this now that entire seasons are finished before they’re ever shown to an audience?

Comments

[mulhollands]

I was really into watching Scrubs years ago, loved Brendan Fraser's appearance in a few episodes (but now thinking of his character passing away :()

[delphi]

Not necessarily outshining the main cast, but there have been a lot of Doctor Who episodes that I wished at the time could be backdoor pilots for spin-offs thanks to a good premise and great guest stars. One of the first that pops to mind is Hugh Bonneville as (space) pirate Henry Avery.

[jo]

I don't know if this counts as a guest star appearance if they appeared in every episode of one season of the show, but I'm going with it -- Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike in season 2 of Discovery. With honourable mention to Ethan Peck as Spock -- although he appeared in "only" about half of the episodes. Mount was just SO incredibly perfect as Pike that he ended up with his own show! There was an episode of The Ready Room where Mount explained that he initially auditioned for another character on Discovery S1, then got called in to audition for another Captain on S2 called "Parker", and got the role, but was then informed that it was actually Pike. If I recall correctly, at the time he wasn't aware of any existing plans for a Pike-centric show. Probably wrong to say fan reaction to his Pike on Disco led to Strange New Worlds being OK'd, but also probably right to say the overwhelmingly positive response certainly helped.

Pike and co. were by far the best thing about season 2 of Discovery (and Disco in general IMO) -- way more engaging than the Disco cast itself.

[yourlibrarian]

I wonder if it's more likely for celebrity cameos to happen in comedies vs dramas?

[yourlibrarian]

Oh yes, particularly true for long running shows.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, a good example of the guest star spinoff. There have certainly been other cases of characters appearing regularly in a show that ended up getting their own show (Maude from All in the Family for example, not to mention The Jeffersons).

In terms of the character who joins the cast, Spike on Buffy and Castiel on Supernatural spring to mind, neither of which was intended to be a long-running one, but who got the chance because of audience response.

The audience response is something I wonder about now, not only because of completed seasons but because of the irregular gaps between seasons that make it more difficult to secure actors on a long term basis. But thinking again of Buffy, characters might be recurring ones and become popular such as Clem or Doug Judy on Brooklyn 99. But I think a recurring guest star is far more common than someone who joins the cast and then shifts the focus of the show.

[tellshannon815]

Michael Emerson on Lost is the example who comes to my mind as the one who joined the main cast, or Yellowjackets' Liv Hewson whose character was meant to be killed off in season 1 but the producers couldn't bring themselves to do it and Van therefore remains a character.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I think it's still possible for an actor's performance to click for writers and producers so that a role is changed or expanded. Then there's also the cases of when someone is brought in to refresh a long running show as well.

[killerqueer]

Allan Arbus as Dr. Sidney Freedman in M*A*S*H. Sidney is easily one of my favorite characters, his 11 appearances across 251 episodes tying him with Hawkeye for me. Allan Arbus did such a great job with the character and I desperately wish we'd gotten to see more of him. I know they offered him the opportunity to join the main cast at one point and he turned it down and that will always be devastating to me, just like with Michelle Forbes turning down the opportunity for Ro Laren to become a main cast member in TNG. I loved her so much and she's another guest star/character I desperately wanted more of.

[tinny]

Oh, right, I'd forgotten about both Spike and Castiel.

I remember Misha regretting his choice to do a Constantine impression complete with raspy voice for the character. :D He would never have done that if he'd known he'd be a regular.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I remember disappointment around Michelle Forbes not becoming a regular. She also missed the opportunity to anchor DS9.

[yourlibrarian]

Indeed! Of course more minor characters have more chance to shift -- Clem on Buffy didn't come off as cuddly in his first appearance as he later did when paired as Spike's buddy.

[svgurl]

Not "overshadowing" but Smallville had a couple of those. Lois was only supposed to be there for her initial four episodes in s4, as kind of a hint of what was to come, but they ended up keeping her as a regular, though she didn't get to be in more than half the episodes till s8. They also cast Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen and again, he was only supposed to be in the first half of season 6 but he got popular and they brought him back as a guest star in s7. Then when they lost a couple of main cast members, he became a regular in s8-10.

I also heard that the reason Phoebe ended up with Mike in Friends was because the cast liked Paul Rudd and wanted him to stay, but not sure how accurate that is.

[yourlibrarian]

Those are good examples from Smallville -- there's definitely a lot of guest stars who ended up making a permanent home, whether or not Paul Rudd is one of them 🙂

[apachefirecat]

Two that come instantly to my mind that aren't mentioned here so far that I've seen is Lorne on Angel and, of course, the classic guest-star-"steals"-the-show, the Fonz from Happy Days. He wowed audiences so much that he even outlasted the guy who was supposed to be the main character! I know the show lasted for at least one season without Richie, nearly all focus being on Fonz.

[yourlibrarian]

I seem to recall that Lorne was created for Andy Hallett, though obviously a positive response expanded his role. But yes, the Fonz is a perfect example!