Another great “Murphy Brown” guest star was Paul Reubens (ex-Pee Wee Herman) who kind of made a comeback on this show. He played the mopey shnook nephew of the network president who forces Murphy to take him on as her new personal assistant. Then he turns out to be Murphy’s perfect secretary, and is so devoted to her that, in an effort to make her look good, he lowers all the other anchor chairs on the set of FYI (thus making Murphy look much taller than all of them).
[Comic Book Guy voice] Funniest. Murphy. Brown. episode. ever. [/Comic Book Guy Voice]
I loved John Turturro’s appearance on an episode last year of Monk as Monk’s brother Ambrose. Ambrose has his own set of neuroses, some of those being agoraphobia and hoarding, and Turturro did a good job of really acting like he was Monk’s brother. Shalhoub and Turturro had worked well together before, in Barton Fink, so I enjoyed seeing them hook up again.
It was a back to school episode and they had a flashback to a slumber party at Kate’s house. Kate and Jenny decide to “practice kissing”, as they lean in, the camera pans around and you see Drew, Ryan Stiles, Dedrich Bader and the crew all staring with smiles on their faces.
That reminds me of one of the most inspired guest spots ever: Emma Thompson as herself (sort of- she plays a closeted lesbian lush version of herself) on Ellen. In the episode she comes out, Sean Penn (as himself) comes out*, and ultimately Emma is outed as
a native of Dayton, Ohio
Hysterical episode.
*No, in real life neither is gay, but they both played themselves. Penn’s self outing was hysterical also.
Richard Chamberlain’s appearance as Mr. Wick’s mother on The Drew Carey Show.
Richard really camped it up. He played the role, uh, straight up. You can tell by the reactions of the other cast members that it probably took a LOT of takes to get one where no one was fully cracking up.
Oh, also on Scrubs, Michael J Fox as a talented surgeon suffering from OCD. It was quite an episode, since although the OCD was played for laughs in the beginning, you see at the end where MJF, tortured over some difficult surgery, is caught in a cycle of handwashing and turning on and off a light switch that he knows is crazy, yet is unable to stop.
Penn and Teller have done a lot of guest spots, but the one I thought best(I’ll admit I’m prejudiced because I like the show) was their guesting on Babylon 5, playing Capt. Sheridan’s favorite comics, Reebo and Zooty.
I saw this originally in Scotland whilst visiting my auntie – and three days later was down to London to see Derek Jacobi in a play called ‘God Only Knows…’
Laura Metcalf’s appearance on “Fraiser” as Fraiser’s ex-wife. Best.episode.ending.ever.
Tom Hank’s three appearances on “Family Ties” as Elysee’s brother Ned Donaldson. Particularly the one where he punches Alex while drunk. That was some fine acting.
While Robert Donner (best known as Exidor from Mork & Mindy) isn’t exactly a major star, he had a guest-shot I loved on The Jeffersons that for some reason I still laugh at when I think of it. George (aka Sherman Hemsley, now co-starring with Sherilynn Fenn in the new Mr. Ed) is for some reason visiting a mental institution and Donner is an annoying patient in a trenchcoat filled with multicolored pens who keeps pestering George with “Wanna buy a pen?” When George finally agrees to buy one, it becomes a routine:
George: Alright! I’ll take the red one.
Exidor: NO! You can’t have the red one!
George: Then I’ll take the blue one…
Exidor: NO! You can’t have the blue one!
(etc etc)
Jack Riley, who played the narcissist Mr. Carlin on The Bob Newhart Show, had two great cameos as the same character. The first was on St. Elsewhere (in which he convinces a male amnesiac in the psych ward that he [the amnesiac] is Mary Richards from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, causing a hilarious moment when Betty White [who played a recurring serious character on the show] enters). The second was on Newhart, when Dick & Joanna encounter him when going to marriage counselling. Carlin is obnoxious to them and the psychologist apologizes to them, explaining that “the poor man’s mind was totally destroyed by some quack in Chicago”.
John Stewart on News Radio where he played Andy Dick’s identical twin. Stewart really can’t act, but it was a funny concept.
The episode of Friends where Brad Pitt played a childhood friend of Monica and Ross who had come for Thanksgiving dinner. It really showed off Pitt’s comic timing.
