The last few years of Stargate SG1 added Farscape’s Ben Browder and Claudia Black to the main cast.
The current version of Hawaii Five-O has both Daniel Dae Kim and Jorge Garcia from Lost in the main cast. Kim’s (Jin) been on the show from the start, Garcia (Hurley/Hugo) had a few guest spots then became a cast member this season.
They’ve also had other Lost regulars/guest stars on. Terry O’Quinn (Locke) had a large recurring role. Rebecca Mader (Charlotte) was just on last week’s episode. And I believe William Mapother (Ethan) was on not too long back.
They also have Masi Oka (I hope I spelled that right, he played Hiro) from Heroes in the main cast and had Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) on as a guest. OH HEY, Greg was on Lost too (he played the pilot)!
Sorry, somehow missed your post while looking for them in the thread!
Aniston was definitely in an episode of Cougar Town, Matthew Perry was in one as well. And something like a half dozen people from Scrubs (not counting Cox herself as well as Christa Miller) have shown up. Ted even showed up as the same character. Gooch left him for Hooch!
Oh, Raising Hope had every cast member from My Name is Earl on, first individually, then in a big “reunion” episode, with lots of MNIE references (even though they were different characters). Tim Stack and Patty the daytime hooker were on Raising Hope as the same characters as on Earl. Finally Jimmy and Christine from Yes Dear also showed up (as their same characters), though in Jimmy’s second appearance Christine was oddly replaced by a completely different actress and renamed Kristy.
Producers and directors find an actor who can deliver, show up sober with the lines known and not piss-off the cast and crew tend to get rehired a lot. Being a really good actor can get you a job once in a while, but the others count. Just observe Val Kilmer.
Joss Whedon seems to have a fondness for Summer Glau (appeared in Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse), Nathan Fillon (Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible), Eliza Dushku (Buffy/Angel, Dollhouse), Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Dollhouse), Ginna Torres (Firefly, Buffy) and Felicia Day (Buffy, Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse).
The Hillbillies’ crossovers came fairly late in the series, and were pretty contrived. The casts of the other two interacted naturally, since they lived in close proximity to each other.
Judy Greer, Jessica Walter and Jeffrey Tambor had recurring roles on both Arrested Development and Archer.
Jon Hamm and John Slattery of Mad Men have guest-starred on 30 Rock.
Yeardley Smith and Hank Azaria voiced characters on The Simpsons and appeared in Herman’s Head. Three cast members from that show have guest-starred on Curb Your Enthusiasm: William Ragsdale (Herman) as a doctor, Peter MacKenzie (“Genius”) as an airline passenger, and Ken Hudson Campbell (“Animal”) as a house painter. (Molly Hagan (“Angel”) appeared on the proto-Curb series Seinfeld as a Latvian Orthodox nun.)
If you’re willing to include movies, The Pagemaster was a fantasy movie starring Macaulay Culkin alongside a bunch of Star Trek actors, including Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy, Whoopi Goldberg, and Christopher Lloyd, and also Robert Picardo who would later star as Trek’s Emergency Medical Hologram.
Come to think of it, these may have been the earliest such crossovers ever. Prior to their visiting Hooterville, there was no indication that the Clampetts and Bradleys et al. inhabited the same universe.
Can anybody think of another that was earlier? Or is this too far off topic?
The Star Trek franchises and Gargoyles shared Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, Kate Mulgrew, and Nichelle Nichols. Then again, looking at the Gargoyles full cast listing, everybody was in it.
There was a season two episode of Green Acres where they did a script from Hillbillies as a community play, implying that it was a TV show in their world, as well. Oliver ended up playing Jethro and Lisa played Granny.
I was coming into the thread to bring up Judd Apatow and Joss Whedon. I’ll throw Kevin Smith and the Coen brothers into the pot as well, seeing as how they do the same thing.
There are the occasional guest appearances that come to mind- Diagnosis Murder had the Joe Mannix character for one episode and Ben Matlock for one show to defend one of the DM characters.
Seems to me that Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, and Happy Days had a bit of interaction.
A few more from Arrested Development: David Cross and Will Arnett appeared in The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, and Arnett and Judy Greer voiced characters on Bojack Horseman.
Zach Woods and Tony Hale appeared in Arrested Development’s’s fourth season after both had starred on Veep.
She had a whole troupe of actors she enjoyed working with regularly, including Vivian Vance and Mary Jane Croft. You can do this sort of thing when you own not just your own series but the entire studio where it’s filmed!
