Brad Pitt on Friends. I caught a little of it, not all, and he was funny.
No, no. There’s a stunt casting even better than Ed Asner as Granny Goodness.
Arte Johnson as Vermin Vunderbarr. He even got to say his trademark “Very interesting” line from SNL.
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, actually.
I vote for Friends: Freddie Prinze, Kathleen Turner, Demi Moore, Julia Roberts, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Morgan Fairchild, Tom Selleck, Jon Favreau, Paul Rudd, Donny Osmond, Danny DeVito, Trudie Styler (Mrs. Sting), Brad Pitt, Audra Lindley, Sherilyn Fenn, Terri Garr, Giovanni Ribisi, Elliot Gould, Christina Pickles, Marlo Thomas, Soleil Moon Frye, Michael Rapaport, John R. McLaughlin, Gary Collins, Ron Glass, June Gable , Elle MacPherson, Ralph Lauren, Reese Witherspoon, Bruce Willis, Hank Azaria, Jason Alexander, Susan Sarandon, Denise Richards, Winona Ryder, Gary Oldman, Alec Baldwin, Brad Pitt , Debi Mazar, Selma Blair, Dermot Mulroney, Ron Leibman , Dakota Fanning, Jon Lovitz, Jeff Goldblum, Aisha Tyler , Greg Kinnear, Sean Penn, Tom Conti , Jennifer Saunders, Hugh Laurie, Alison LaPlaca, Rebecca Romijn, Penn Jillette, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller , Obba Babatunde, Shelley Berman, Isabella Rossellini, David Arquette, Charlie Sheen , Peter DeLuise, Larraine Newman, Fred Willard, Brooke Shields, Lea Thompson , Chrissie Hynde, Steve Zahn, Jonathan Silverman, Harry Shearer, Jennifer Grey, Beverly Garland, George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Helen Hunt, Fisher Stevens, Brenda Vaccaro, Jay Leno, Elinor Donahue.
Most doesn’t equal best.
Oh, but their use of these stars was great! Here are a few examples:
Terri Garr - perfect casting as Phoebe’s birth mom.
Giovanni Ribisi - great as Phoebe’s brother.
The 2 residents from the ER: George Clooney and Noah Wyle.
Rachel’s family: Marlo Thomas, Reese Whitherspoon, Ron Leibman, Christina Applegate - Outstanding!
Chandler’s parents: Kathleen Turner and Morgan Fairchild - can’t beat it!
I thought Julia Roberts was great as “Underpants”!
The “ultimate Fighting Champion” was another good episode using 4 big actors: Jon Favreau, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and James Hong.
And the flying fickle finger of fate pokes me in the head. Laugh-In. Not SNL. Brainfart, my apologies.
Gore’s appeared more than once, including as himself (head in a jar) and was described as “Inventor of the environment and First Emperor of the Moon”. His daughter Kristin wrote and edited for the show.
In addition to playing robot copies of herself, Liu also appeared as her own head, including a follow-up episode in which she appears briefly in storage in Bender’s compartment.
Jonathan Frakes also appeared in the Where no Fan… episode, with one line: “Yes! Front row!” The sheer brevity of the cameo cracks me up.
There was an episode of Rossane where the classic TV moms made appearences.
IIRC, and I’m sure I don’t, there was June Cleaver, Mrs. Brady, Mrs. Partirdge, and someone else.
Isabel Sanford.
Friends also did well with Kathleen Turner and Morgan Fairchild as Chandler’s parents. (In fact, they had a lot of well done stunt casts, especially with the characters’ parents.).
Then there’s the stunt casting trick designed to shill for another network program.
My example: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
Fox had just purchased rights to broadcast NFL games and had their broadcast team (Bradshaw and some others) and some NFL players appear as bad guys in one episode.
God, do I still miss that show. I think that’s the last time I watched television regularly.
On one episode Lt. Russert said Tim Russert was her cousin. He made a cameo on a later episode as if he really was.
They always blame the wizards!
–Cliffy
Also the case on King of the Hill as Boomhauer’s sound-a-like baby brother.
As a matter of fact, there was an episode of Deep Space Nine where Alexander Siddig played a suave, sophisticated secret agent. I’m not sure of the title, but I know I saw it.
Our Man Bashir. The good doctor is playing out a Bond-type holosuite program when the returning runabout with most of the command crew on it has a crisis and the transporter malfunctions when they try to beam into the station, causing their physical patterns to enter the holosuite machinery and appear as various characters in the “Bond movie” Bashir is running.
Taye Diggs as Will’s boyfriend (and now married to Grace, who is also pregnant). Last night he sang…I am falling in love.
And kudos to Taye for taking on a gay role.
And here, of course, your own personal remote-controlled, picture-sized color TV, with matching brass knobs! just reach above the bar and press the button right there under the handy laminated imitation masonite WildWest gun rack with the look of real wood, for the channel of your choice!
(hijack)
The last episode of Newhart was probably best, but George Clooney on South Park has got to be up there. He voices the gay dog that says, “arf” a couple times. That is it and they did do a good bit of publicity for it.