TV Episodes where two actors who later hit it big guest starred

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

Back in the '60s, Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott weren’t yet sex symbols; they were just twentysomethings acting on the same Lancer episode.

[breezman]

There was an episode of Alice in which Ron Palillo and Jay Leno played a couple of bikers.

[joyfool]

I think some people have a different concept of “hit it big” than I do.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

This EAST SIDE/WEST SIDE episode had a pre-GET SMART Barbara Feldon; future two-time Oscar nominee Melinda Dillon; and Alan Arkin, who is unbeatable in small doses.

[SpoilerVirgin]

I just watched this episode of Hill Street Blues, with Patricia Wettig (only her third credit) and Brent Spiner (whose previous credits were all minor T.V. guest shots). He has a fun role as a very sleazy porn producer.

[bup]

@Richard_John_Marcej

Yeah but what I find odd about Knight being an extra on “Psycho” which came out in 1960, is that he’d already appeared with speaking roles on over six different TV shows, two years prior. A bit of come down from speaking parts on “The Twilight Zone” to opening a door on “Psycho”.

If I were a TV actor doing one-offs, and I got to be an extra in a *Hitchcock *movie, I’d probably do it, if only just for fun.

[ISiddiqui]

The Seinfeld episode “The Implant” had Teri Hatcher and Megan Mullally guest starring before they made it big.

"Seinfeld" The Implant (TV Episode 1993) - IMDb

[Jim_s_Son]

Movies

“Myra Breckinridge” Farrah Fawcett (in bed with Raquel Welch) and Tom Selleck. Also Tony Basil

crew on “The Caine Mutiny”
Lee Marvin, Claude Akins, James Best (Dukes of Hazzard) and Jerry Paris (Dick van Dyke, lots of tv directing)

[Jim_s_Son]

@bup

If I were a TV actor doing one-offs, and I got to be an extra in a *Hitchcock *movie, I’d probably do it, if only just for fun.

But how much did tv bit players get back? James Garner complained that he was so poorly paid for starring (later co-starring) in “Maverick” that he had to borrow Natalie Woods car to go to the Academy Awards. Sure, appearing in a Hitchcock movie would be fun (although he dismissed actors as cattle). But it may have been necessary.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

For drama, they needed a guy to stir up trouble by plausibly bedding a gunslinger’s intended in an episode of Tate, and so cast young Robert Redford, because, c’mon.

For more drama, they also needed a guy who could play a violent Comanche in that episode, and so cast Leonard Nimoy, because, um.

[CalMeacham]

It’s not from a TV show, or even a movie or stage play, but it’s worth repeating.

Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood were apparently fired by the same studio exec, at the same time. Here’s the story (which is available in lots of places):

BURT REYNOLDS has opened up about the moment he and Clint Eastwood were sacked from a movie for very different reasons back in the 1960s.

…

Speaking about the unfortunate incident in the Philippines, the 79-year-old said: “Clint Eastwood and I were fired on the same day.
They told him his Adam’s apple stuck out too far, he talked too slow and he had to get that chipped tooth fixed. I then said ‘why are you firing me?’ and they said ‘you can’t act!’”

Burt, who was told to change his name from Buddy during his first audition, continued: “So we were walking to his truck and I said ‘you’re in a hell of a lot of trouble’… I said ‘I’ll eventually learn to act. You’ll never get rid of that Adam’s apple’.”

'You can't act' Burt Reynolds on why he and Clint Eastwood were fired

The two eventually co-starrede in City Heat (1984), the only movie they both appeared in. I don’t think they were ever on a TV show together. They were both together on the cover of the Time magazine for January 9, 1978, though.

[terentii]

Lloyd Bridges and Dan Duryea alongside Humphrey Bogart in Sahara (1943).

[RobotDevilDog]

A few from MAS*H:

Pat Morita guest-starred twice, shortly before he joined Happy Days. In 1973, on the first of those occasions, a little-known actor named John Ritter also appeared.

A 1977 episode featured Michael O’Keefe (a few years before Caddyshack) and Peter Riegert (a year before Animal House).

[astorian]

@edwards_beard

These are all great replies! Thanks! I have a lot of things to check out tonight. I’m especially interested in finding that Young Indiana Jones with Daniel Craig and Katherine Zeta Jones, as well as the Dan August with Han and Lando.

Wolfman, I would count all four of those in your A Team example. I admit, I had to look up Ogre and Leon, but instantly recognized both. And I love both Ernie Hudson and Michael Ironside as well!

I watched that episode of MASH last night and was very entertained. Even back then Andrew Dice Clay was a ham.

We can expand to small parts in movies as well if you’d like. I know for myself, I recently rewatched Scream 2 and was surprised to see a young Portia de Rossi and Timothy Olyphant in small parts.

You weren’t impressed by my Barnaby Jones episode, apparently.

[Justin_Bailey]

@edwards_beard

As a fan of Breaking Bad, I listened to a lot of interviews people gave surrounding the show. While listening to one interview, Bryan Cranston mentioned that he had guest starred three different times on Murder, She Wrote. Since the show was on Netflix, I thought it would be fun to see what he looked like way back then, and while watching the episode I thought it was funny that the woman playing his girlfriend was Linda Hamilton (from Terminator fame) This was right around the the first Terminator came out.

That Murder She Wrote episode with Linda Hamilton was filmed two years after The Terminator, so I think it’s disqualified.

But since I took one away, I’ll add one too. Seinfeld’s “The Butter Shave” featured a pre-Sex and the City Kristin Davis as Jerry’s Girlfriend and a pre-30 Rock/Archer Chris Parnell as an NBC Executive.

[5_time_champ]

There are probably a bunch from Hill Street Blues

Real life couple Jill Eikenberry & Michael Tucker played married tourists who were robbed several times in one day. This was right before they went on to success in LA Law.

A young Tim Robbins played a rookie cop who was the victim of severe, maybe fatal hazing, at a party by other rookie cops. Mykelti Williams [Bubba in Forest Gump] played the honest rookie cop.

[Don_Draper]

Not too long ago, I happened to see an old “Law & Order” episode (the very first one I recall watching in fact) guest starring Laura Linney as the defendant. Though Linney wasn’t too well-known at the time, I remembered her from the episode when I saw her in other projects (including her break-out performance in the original “Tales of the City” mini-series.)

But I was surprised when I realized Aida Turturro (best known for playing Janice Soprano on “the Sopranos”) was also in the same episode.

[Skywatcher]

@edwards_beard

We can expand to small parts in movies as well if you’d like. I know for myself, I recently rewatched Scream 2 and was surprised to see a young Portia de Rossi and Timothy Olyphant in small parts.

The Outsiders has several names in early roles. C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, and Tom Cruise hadn’t done much else at the time; Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, and Rob Lowe did have some large roles on TV but weren’t really established yet.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

I believe this episode of Studio One In Hollywood counts for Martin Balsam, who was apparently just months away from making it in the movies. Regardless, it had young Steve McQueen as the defendant and young William Shatner as his rookie lawyer.

[psychonaut]

@GargoyleWB

I just found out that pre-fame Michael Keaton was on a couple of episodes of Mister Rogers Neighborhood

With what other then-unknown star?