Diff’rent Strokes recycled that, with Arnold and Reggie Jackson. At least it had long been established that Arnold was a hardcore fan. Still, I remember yelling at the TV, “They already did that on the Brady Bunch!”
Star Trek: Voyager had Dwayne Johnson (or as he was then known, The Rock) playing… you’ll never guess… a wrestler! He did his trademark eyebrow-cocking and elbow drop (on Jeri Ryan no less!) and generally only seemed to be in the episode as an in-joke, some cross-promoting for wrestling back in the UPN days.
Boston Legal’s first episode had an absolutely hilarious cameo from Rev. Al Sharpton. But when they did the exact same cameo a few episodes later for a different case it was just lame.
Dharma of Dharma and Greg had this thing developed into a character trait. Rather than be the hippie who constantly talked about meeting famous people, she actually had.
The band was jammin’ and the boys were sitting in the audience. At one point Rerun stood up to dance and a 70’s era tape recorder fell out from underneath his coat. The Doobies, of course, notice this from the stage and stop playing, dumbfounded, and stare at Rerun with looks of disappointment and disapproval. Cut to commercial.
Not to mention Ricky was a noted band leader, later a Manhattan nightclub owner, and at one point was cast as the lead in a major Hollywood movie. Lucy of course went to ridiculous lengths in pursuit of celebrities. “I Love Lucy” had some pretty implausible plots, but famous people appearing as themselves was not that much of a stretch.
On ST: TNG, when Data wanted to learn about ‘humor’ and visited a holodeck comedian played by Joe Piscopo. Newsflash Data: If you want to learn about how to tell jokes - run a computer simulation of someone who is actually funny.
On the flip side, I did like the holo-deck scene in which Data plays poker with four legendary physics geniuses. There was an actor playing a snooty Sir Isaac Newton, an actor playing an amiable Einstein, an actor playing a token 22nd century alien and the RL Stephen Hawking. I always thought that was a cute scene.
“Will & Grace” made a specialty of impossibly lame guest stars on the series. But the lowest moment of the low moments had to be Karen deciding as a lark to become room-mates in a crummy apartment with a flighty party girl - played by Madonna. The material “girl” had no comic timing, couldn’t act well enough for even a broad farcical sitcom, and was 20 years too old for the role she was playing. And Karen stooping to living in such digs? Never. Weirdly enough, the producers had said they had wanted to get Madonna on the show for years and sent her script idea after script idea, only to say they were unsuitable. THIS story however she thought would work!
What doesn’t make sense to me is that Data is a computer himself. So rather than visiting a holodeck simulation of a comedian, couldn’t he just study the programming logic used?
But that just shows what a difficult concept humor is for Data.
He’s an android specifically designed to closely simulate a human being, with an interest in acquiring as much knowledge of human experience as possible. Why wouldn’t that include learning in the same way that humans do?
I can’t believe I’m fanwanking a series I don’t even like.
And I recall a similar stunt on the Bad News Bears TV show, with Johnny Bench.
I can’t hear one of their songs without also hearing “which Doobie do youbie?”
Fortunately, they don’t get that much airplay anymore.
That’s the Dope for you.
All these years later I still remember that. Gah!
I also remember the “concert” in that episode, in which they played to a house of about 20. When I saw them, the audience was a tad bigger.
When the series Veronica Mars had Paris Hilton appear in an episode to boost the ratings, I thought it was a pathetic ploy for such a great show to have to resort to. She appeared as a thinly veiled version of herself. There was just no way to watch it and suspend disbelief. If she had appeared as herself, it might have been less jarring.
In a similar vein, Penn and Teller appeared on Babylon 5, as a pair of hugely popular 23rd-century comedians (complete with the gimmick that one of them never talked).
And I believe that the fourth physicist Data was hanging out with in the holodeck was Zephram Cochrane, the inventor of the warp drive.
Do “We know it’s ridiculously implausible, and that’s supposed to be a joke, son.” guest appearances count? Because The Simpsons had a few (George Bush (the elder) moving to a house across the street from the Simpsons is the first that came to mind, but I’m sure there are plenty more.)
Zoot, zoot!
But the show had established the existence of Rebo and Zooty quite a few episodes earlier (Sheridan had mentioned he was a fan, to Molari’s disbelief). Penn and Teller merely were cast to play existing characters.
But he wasn’t voiced by GHWB.
The Honeymooners once had a lame excuse for getting Jackie Gleason on (Ralph claimed he knew Gleason and could get him to perform at the Raccoon Lodge), but I think that gets a pass for cleverness.
Or Lisa randomly meeting Paul and Linda McCartney on the roof of the Kwik E Mart?
Lisa: When was the last time you worked?
Bleeding Gums: In ‘86 when I did I guest shot on the Cosby Show.
[flashback]
Cosby: Hey, kids! Meet Grampa Murphy.
Child: We have three grampas already!
Cosby: This one’s a great jazz musician.
Child: Oh, they all are.
Cosby : Oh, oh: you see, the kids, they listen to the rap music which
gives them the brain damage. With their hippin’, and the
hoppin’, and the bippin’, and the boppin’, so they don’t know
what the jazz…is all about! You see, jazz is like the Jello
Pudding Pop – no, actually, it’s more like Kodak film – no,
actually, jazz is like the New Coke: it’ll be around forever, heh
heh heh.