The second season of The Big Bang Theory had Leslie Winkle officially upgraded to “major character” status, with a listing in the opening credits, even though she was only in a few episodes. By the third season, they decided it wasn’t working, and so demoted her back to “recurring character”.
Babylon 5 had a lot of these: There were plenty of episodes that didn’t have Dr. Franklin, or Talia Winters, or Zack or Marcus or some of the other minor characters, but the opening (in the appropriate seasons, for some of them) still included them all.
For a good stretch of season 3 of Farscape, the cast was divided between two ships, and any given episode covered only one of them. So most of the characters ended up getting credited for episodes they weren’t in.
It gets really complicated. On Cheers, Bebe Neuwerth was in the credits sometimes, other times, not. Same with Dan Butler on Frasier. I think it was determined by whether the actor had another project at the time and would or wouldn’t be able to appear in many episodes.
I remember an interviews with Ann Morgan Guilbert, Millie (the wacky next door neighbor) on the old *Dick Van Dyke *show. She said they had actually offered to make her a regular, with a credit and everything. She figured out how little clout she’d have as the sixth or seventh lead, and decided to sign only a per episode contract. Although she obviously missed out on residuals, she said she made more for the work she did than she would have with a full-season contract at the bottom of the credits. Richard Deacon was in even more episodes than Guilbert, but he was also only a guest, and appearing in other shows at the same time.
Martin Landau was in every episode of *Mission Impossible *for several seasons, and probably had a bigger part than Peter Graves. But Landau wouldn’t sign a full-season contract, so he was always a “special guest star” while Graves and Barbara Bain got top billing.
Yes, that was the season when Dr. Crusher was (temporarily) written out of the show due to her actress, Gates McFadden, having other commitments (IIRC it was either a pregnancy or her commitment to appear in a stage play, I can’t seem to find a straight answer). Perhaps the producers knew (or hoped) at the time that McFadden would return and wanted to reassure audiences that Dr. Pulaski was only there for a short while - indeed, Dr. Crusher’s absence was explained in-show as a year-long sabbatical/reassignment to Starfleet Medical.
Blossom did this as well. In the opening sequence with Mayim Bialik dancing, they’d add in the names of the major recurring actors who were in that episode. I always liked that.
Indeed it is. What’s hilarious is when the person who has become a main character is still the Guest star.
Case in point. But, in this case, your explanation is incorrect. She didn’t just leave because of a scheduling conflict, but also because she was dissatisfied with how little character growth she was getting (as opposed to what she was promised). She was constantly fighting with one of the producers, and wanted out. The stage play, while a commitment, was only the way she got out of the contract, and even then she had to be convinced to come back the third season.
I don’t know if the producers hoped she’d return, but Patrick Steward definitely did, and, in fact, actually was the one who convinced her to come back on, according to several interviews I saw on YouTube a while back. I think she just liked to have someone fighting for her.
BTW: she was promised the second time to become Picard’s love interest, and look how long it took for that to happen.
Not quite; he got upgraded to a regular-cast starring role – billed second only to Graves – for the second and third seasons (after, y’know, not appearing in various first-season episodes). They then swapped in Leonard Nimoy for the fourth season, rendering the whole thing moot.
(Interestingly, they later did a half-assed job of swapping in a young Sam Elliott; he’d get his name and headshot in the opening credits when appearing in an episode, unless Peter Lupus was also appearing.)
I know this thread is about actors, but I instantly thought of Fran Rebel Kuzui, who was the director for the original Buffy movie, and is credited in every episode of the TV show, even though I don’t believe she did any work on the television show whatsoever.
I believe that was because the producers didn’t have any money to offer her to give up the rights to Buffy (which she owned at the time). So they gave her that credit and the money that went along with it. If the show ran a long time, she’d make big bucks and a lack of upfront payment wouldn’t matter.
Sam Simon has a similar deal with The Simpsons. He has a permanent credit on (and financial interest from) the show even though he hasn’t worked on it since 1993.
Landau was not cast as a regular in the beginning of the show – he was the “Special Guest Star” for the pilot. However, they realized he was a major addition to the show, so they wanted him to be in every episode. But the stars for the first season had been cast, so Landau remained a “Special Guest Star” for the entire season.
My husband and I are watching Veronica Mars on Netflix. it seems on that show the best way to get yourself written out of the show was to be put in the opening credits. Not with everyone of course, but there are certain characters that got a lot more screen time before they hit the credits than they did after.
It’s kind of annoying that this rule applies to Mac and not to Dick.
I seem to recall an '80s cop show that had a “phantom” character appear in the opening credits but it was because the actor died during the show’s run and his credit remained as a tribute (and perhaps his family kept getting a some money because of that). Maybe it was Cagney & Lacey? Maybe this will jar someone’s memory. The credits were in that traditional 70’s/80’s style where they showed a clip of the character for a couple seconds, then freeze framed with the actor’s name.
Not quite the same, but Redd Foxx retained star billing during his months long contract dispute when it was uncertain he would return and the role of Grady (Whitman Mayo) was beefed up to accomodate his absence. Ditto Carroll O’Connor during his much shorter absence (three episodes I believe) from All in the Family (when a “life without Archie” war plan was being devised in case Lear and O’Connor couldn’t come to terms).
Jean Stapleton appeared in the first season credits of Archie Bunker’s Place even though she only occasionally appeared; when her character died between seasons they removed her from the credits altogether of course. I don’t remember whether Paul “Harry Bentley” Benedict was in the credits of The Jeffersons during his extended hiatus from the show.
Lisa Bonet remained in the credits of The Cosby Show when she’d been downsized to just occasional appearances. Cosby held up a photo of her (without her name) during the credits of the first season of her Different World spinoff (which she left and was removed from the credits the next season). I think she was removed from The Cosby Showcredits altogether during the final seasons.
Also I believe Vincent Pastore got listed in credits even after the episode where Big Pussy was whacked by Tony Soprano. He was not listed for any of the following seasons.
Clarice Taylor, the actress who played Cliff’s mother, fought for inclusion in the credits during the time she was making several appearances each year. She argued that she was appearing on the show just as much as Geoffrey Owens (son-in-law Elvin) who was in the credits. It wasn’t just that she wanted to dance with Bill Cosby but she wanted the status and benefits of a regular that Owens manager apparently got for him which came with greater residuals and syndication profits; as it was she got the same ‘guest performer’ residuals that, say, Roscoe Lee Browne received when the one or two episodes he was in aired. Taylor also complained in the press at the time that Cosby should give his guest performers food stamps as it was evidently an amazingly low paying gig considering the ratings.
I don’t know if it was Cosby or the network or both that got mad at her but apparently somebody did. She essentially disappeared from the show after her attempt for regular status, making only a once-in-a-blue-moon appearance. They never killed her off but would refer to her being at home or on a cruise or whatever when her on-screen husband (Earle Hyman) appeared. Hyman made 40 appearances on the show and guest starred on A Different World. Taylor only appeared 19 times on The Cosby Show, only about four of them after she tried to renogiate her contract.
Kevin Hagan played Doc Baker on Little House on the Prairie and it’s spinoff series Little House: A New Beginning (which was basically just the final season of LHOP, now minus Ma and Pa). He was never a regular on the series- always a guest player, even though he appeared in most of the episodes- but he was a regular on LH:ANB. Consequently, he said he earned far more money from residuals for the one year that he was on the follow-up series than he did for the 8 years was on LHOP. He was pissed off about it in his final years, claiming that if Landon had allowed him to be a regular he’d have earned millions from residuals and syndication profits instead of a few thousand dollars per year.
I don’t understand syndication rights/residuals: some stars get rich from them and some don’t. Shirley Hemphill said she was able to live comfortably off of her What’s Happening? residuals and Werner Klemperer earned enough from his Hogan’s Heroes residuals to never have to work again- in an interview shortly before he died he said he earned more from residuals than he did from the series. OTOH, when The Jeffersons seemed to be airing several times per day Isabel Sanford said she didn’t get enough by way of residuals to pay her light bill. (She wasn’t hurting- she’d taken good care of her money while the show was running- she was just irritated at how small a piece of the post-series pie she got.) When Mama’s Family was a lot more popular in repeats than it is now Vicki Lawrence said her residuals averaged about $500 per year. I don’t know if this is bad negotiating on the part of their agents or if shows sell for different amounts or what exactly.
Well I figured there had to be more to it than just another “commitment”, but modern-day sources (or at least the ones I was consulting on the fly) had scant information as to what happened; the Star Trek wiki was surprisingly unhelpful, and Wikipedia just had a book cite. I didn’t want to post something I couldn’t link back to.
EDIT: as for another “phantom actress”, does anyone know if the actress who played the youngest Winslow daughter on Family Matters had any phantom credits, whether during her last season on-screen or after she was written out? I do recall that her character was mysteriously phased out after the producers decided to (sigh) focus more on Steve Urkel.
Nope, the show I was thinking of was an hour-long drama, I’m sure of it. And at least 5 years on from Barney Miller’s heyday. I was too young to get Barney Miller, but I remember liking the theme song.