Dr. Katz was in an episode of South Park (the one with the giant “snake” thing - those black pellets that you light and they grow and turn into a long tube of ash.) He was Mr. Garrison’s psychiatrist. The animation of him was in the same exact style as the original show, complete with the squiggly outlines.
In the short-lived animated series The Critic, Jon Lovitz voiced the lead character, Jay Sherman, whose catchphrase was “It stinks.” During the run of the show, Sherman was featured prominently in an episode of The Simpsons. But after the show was canceled, he reappeared very briefly as a mental patient whose only line was “It Stinks,” to which a nurse/orderly/doctor replied, “Yes, Mr. Sherman, everything stinks.” I seem to recall another Simpsons episode in which he was one of several characters voiced by Lovitz (Marty, the director of “Streetcar!”, Marge’s art teacher…) who were in Moe’s Tavern simultaneously.
I have no memory of this and would like a cite.
I don’t mean to be snarky. I just hate everyone right now.
Don’t forget the episode in which Auschlander, Westphall, and Craig went to the bar Cheers. Carla was tending bar, and Norm (IIRC), was Dr. Auschlander’s accountant.
*EDIT - Although, Cheers was still on the air, so this wasn’t exactly true to the spirit of the OP.
Well here is a cite, not much of a cite, but a cite.
In an early episode of Friends, Rachel and Monica go to a hospital and meet two doctors who were played by George Clooney and Noah Wyle. While the character were not named as Doug Ross and John Carter they were essentially the same characters the two actors played on ER.
There must be hundreds of spin off shows where characters from the original have made an appearance. And if we list them all we’ll be here all month.
Much more interesting, and a lot rarer is when a character shows up in a totally different show.
Best example I can think of is the entire cast of Cheers (sans Frasier) making a cameo in The Simpsons.
Shame it never actually happened, but there was a plan to have Sam Beckett Quantum Leap into Magnum P.I. It would have been the best cross over ever, if it had come together.
To answer your first question: Nary a clue. I just remember reading about it in TV Guide some months after Action had gotten the axe. As for why it was cancelled, it was a brilliant show and it was on Fox, that’s pretty much the kiss of death.
As mentioned earlier, it’s already been done.
Phylicia Rashad appeared as Claire Huxtable in a dream sequence on Blossom, where Blossom wishes she had a mom to explain mom-stuff to her and Claire draws a diagram of the female reproductive system on a pink sheet cake with icing.
I prefer this version. It basically connects almost every show ever with St.Elsewhere, and Homicide: Life on the Street.
However, since 99% of St.Elsewhere was merely the made-up world of an autistic boy, then we can therefore conclude that every tv show ever is all inside little Tommy Westphall’s head.
You would not believe how freaking hot this sounds to me…
pant, pant, pant
The biggest example, in numbers at least, has to be that third (or fourth - or fifth) Gambler made for TV movie with Kenny Rogers where they had a bevy of former western stars from '60s television appearing in character throughout the program. They had (among others) Brian Keith from The Westerner, Gene Barry from Bat Masterson, David Caradine from Kung Fu, Cuck Conners and Johnny Crawford from The Rifleman, James Drury and Doug McClure from The Virginian, Jack Kelly from Maverick, Hugh O’Brian from Wyat Earp and Clint Walker from Chyenne (and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head).
Oh boy.
Mandy Patinkin’s character, Dr Jeffrey Geiger, from Chicago Hope turned up in Picket Fences when a character from that show took her relative to Chicago for a consultation at the hospital.
Except, of course, that *Friends * was set in New York and *ER * in Chicago. I agree that it was meant to suggest that, though. But the Doug Ross I remember would have had sex with both roomies, then later done Phoebe.
Except that this happened while CH was still on the air.
Did anyone read the OP?
Carl Reiner appears as Alan Brady from the Dick Van Dyke Show in an episode of Mad About You.
I don’t remember this either, and IMDb can be inaccurate. I have the whole series on DVD, so I can check when I get home tonight. Moonlighting’s producer Glenn Gordon Caron had been a writer on Remington Steele before Moonlighting began, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility even though the shows were on different networks.