Looking through some IMDB listings just now and noticed that several of the people I was looking up had guest appearances on shows like Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder and the like. It got me thinking there’s a long history of shows that served as almost dumping grounds for actors who were past their stardom, or who never quite made the first tier. Shows like The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, the aforementioned mystery shows, panel game shows like Match Game and so on. I don’t watch much network TV anymore. Are there any of these last hurrah, keep their SAG insurance active, my god I thought they were dead but look they’re on TV sort of shows on these days?
Since REALITY TV stormed the tubular Bastille, the best bet is probably the LAW & ORDER shows. I’ve seen Estelle Parsons, Theodore Bikel, Werner Klemperer and lots of other old timers show up there, usually in small parts as the villain’s parent or a judge.
I know what you mean, but it doesn’t quite have the same cheesiness that a Love Boat segment starring, oh, say, Erin Moran would have had. Possibly because these are basically bit parts, the actors can retain some dignity.
Perhaps the proliferation of outlets means that we don’t have to concentrate the has-beens on one show anymore. I saw Meshach Taylor (Anthony on Designing Women) with a regular gig on a Nickolodeon show the other day.
Well there is still the Hollywood Squares. But the one that popped into my head was Celebrity Texas Hold 'em or whatever it is called. They seem to have a very liberal difinition of the word Celebrity.