This season I’ve noticed two actors who appear on more than one show:
• Allison Janney is on both Mom (as a co-star) and Masters of Sex (in a smaller, but recently featured role).
• Michiel Huisman is on both Nashville (in a featured role, but one that has been downplayed this season) and Treme (more prominently); he did both shows last season, too.
Does HBO film earlier than the network shows, perhaps?
Are there other actors who have had recurring roles (not just cameos) on more than one show during the same season?
Richard Anderson, as Oscar Goldman, was for a good long while simultaneously the second-billed castmember on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.
I just posted another reply to a thread about movie/TV production which is relevant to this.
Oftentimes, shooting schedules are set up based on the availability of actors. Especially for a bit character, you may try to schedule all of their scenes in one particular week (or whatever) so that they’re not having to come out to the studio every couple of weeks. So it’s possible for someone to spend a short period of time early in the shooting schedule for series A and then a short period of time late in the shooting schedule for series B, even if both series air at the same time.
And, of course, we shouldn’t forget that many shows are shot on the same lots. If all you have to do is change makeup and walk across the parking lot, you could be all over the place.
For my purposes, playing the same character doesn’t count; that happens often enough to be unremarkable, IMO.
It’s fairly unusual, though, right? I watch a decent amount of TV, and don’t recall the last time I noticed one actor playing different recurring characters on different shows in the same season.
Even though KITT was a voice role, I think that counts; good one!
Heather Locklear - way back when - did it appearing as Stacey Sheridan on TJ Hooker and as Sammy Jo Carrington on Dynasty (I had to look up the character names). I remember a fuss being made over it at the time.
Well, as a guest appearance, sure. But as the second-billed castmember?
That said, 30 ROCK had solid recurring roles for two of Liz’s boyfriends: Jon Hamm while MAD MEN was making him a star, and Jason Sudeikis while still on SNL.
It happens pretty regularly, and the frequency is increasing because cable shows tend to have shorter seasons and don’t need to I’m the start of their season in the fall.
Alison Brie was - is - on Mad Men and Community. John Slattery spent a season on Desperate Housewives after the first season of Mad Men. Michael Gladis is on something called Eagleheart in addition to Mad Men. Jared Harris did Fringe overlapping with his time on Mad Men. Elizabeth Moss of Mad Men did a mini-series called Top of the Lake. And Jon Hamm has been in demand all over, with several episodes on 30 Rock , Childrens Hospital, and A Young Doctor’s Notebook, though not all full-length commitments. None of that includes voice work for cartoons, which several have also done.
I chose Mad Men as an example to search through, but I’d be surprised if most cable shows don’t show the same pattern. A TV historian could find examples from the beginning on.
In 2004, Stephen Culp appeared in recurring roles on JAG, The West Wing, Star Trek: Enterprise and ER. According to the Wikipedia article, he was the first actor to appear in 4 shows simultaneously. I remember this very well (although I had to do some research to remember his name), because I regularly watched three of the four shows at the time.
Margo Martindale is playing Mrs. Miller on The Millers and the Russian spy master “granny” on The Americans and is pretty much stealing every scene she is in while doing both.
Scott Foley has been good at this. This year he has been a regular on Scandal and starred in a (justifiably) short lived series The Goodwin Games. (Which has recently popped back up to fill slots of canceled shows.)
Before that, he appeared on the last episode of season 4 of True Blood and then more regularly in season 5. In-between he was in 15 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Not sure what constitutes “a” season here.
Beau Bridges is also on Masters of Sex while appearing on The Millers. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both The Millers and Mom are sitcoms on CBS while Masters of Sex is a drama on Showtime, as Showtime is owned by CBS Corp.
I’m sure it’s a lot easier for an actor to get scheduling concessions when the shows are for the same network.
It happens for movies as well, some actors who do both have scheduling details written into their contracts to allow them the time to do location shoots when necessary.
It’s pretty unusual for people you’d actually notice, but if you look at IMDB for a lot of small-time actors, you’ll see that they do an episode here and three episodes there. They might play “Waitress #3” and “Woman in Line at the Supermarket” but they’re there.
If we’re counting voice roles, Katey Sagal was on Futurama while also appearing on camera in 8 Simple Rules (2002-2005) and Sons Of Anarchy (2008-2013).
From 1999-2003 there were at least 2 actors from “OZ” that were also featured in “Law and Order: SVU” each year.
Christopher Meloni played Chris Keller on “OZ” and Elliot Stabler on “Law & Order: SVU” From 99-2003.
Dean Winters played Ryan O’Reilly on “OZ” and Detective Brian Cassidy on “Law & Order: SVU” from 99-2000.
J.K. Simmons played Vern Schillinger on “OZ” and Dr. Emil Skoda on “Law & Order” and “Law & Order SVU” in 2000.
B.D. Wong played Father Ray Mukada on “OZ” and Dr. George Huang on “Law & Order: SVU” from 2001-2003.
Further, both J.K. Simmons and Dean Winters also went on to shill for rival insurance companies.