Just today I saw an episode of the Partridge Family with Rob Reiner as a biker.
Rob Reiner and Teri Garr were in an episode of “That Girl”.
Does Mickey Mouse Club count? Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling and Christina Aguilera were all on it when they were kids.
A young John Travolta was on an episode of Emergency.
A young Kurt Russel was jungle boy on Gilligan’s Island.
I’ve heard thats why stars have the motto “The toes you step on today may be connected to the foot you have to kiss tomorrow”.
I think we can count Lee Van Cleef for this episode of LUKE AND THE TENDERFOOT, but even if we can’t, it had a pre-I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF Michael Landon as well as a pre-You Know What Leonard Nimoy.
As were edge-of-fame Rich Little and pre–Laugh In Ruth Buzzi.
Actually, Carrey had alreadystarred in his own primetime TV series before that – the lamentably forgotten Duck Factory(1984).
But it’s true he wasn’t a household name, even so. A couple of years after the release of Earth Girls are Easy, when it was playing on Comedy Central, the promotional ads didn’t even mention Carrey or Wayans by name, but they mentioned Goldblum.
Mary Martin was a name before Larry Hagman was Major Nelson or JR Ewing, but I think we can still count him for this episode of DIAGNOSIS: UNKNOWN, which also gave us Tom Bosley before he was Howard Cunningham or Father Dowling.
(That is, if Bosley’s stage work in the 1950s doesn’t count.)
Back in the '80s, this episode of SPENSER: FOR HIRE featured William H. Macy before he was starring in stuff and earning an Oscar nomination, as well as Patricia Clarkson before she was starring in stuff and earning an Oscar nomination, as well as Angela Bassett before she was [del]the one true Storm[/del] starring in stuff and earning an Oscar nomination.
This episode of TAXI, “Memories of Cab 804”, featured young Tom Selleck and younger Mandy Patinkin: one as the handsome businessman charming a woman he just met, and the other as a high-strung father-to-be with a wife in labor.
Casting 'em the other way around would’ve been interesting but weird.
I just started to watch all of Foyle’s War on Netflix. I’ve seen an episode or two out of order before. The first episode has both Rosamund Pike and James McAvoy. Both had worked before but were not known at the time.
ETA: Episode 3 of the 1st season also has David Tennant and Sophia Miles years before they were both in the Girl in the Fireplace episode of Doctor Who as well as becoming a couple in real life. In Foyle’s War I don’t think they were on screen together.
Now in episode 3 of season 2 there is Laurence Fox (Inspector Lewis) and Emily Blunt.
The 1955 Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode “Safe Conduct” featured future Hogan’s Heroes co-stars Werner Klemperer and John Banner.
“The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” episode, Memo from Purgatory (1964), was based on an autobiographical story by Harlan Ellison. James Caan starred as Jay Shaw, the Ellison character, and Walter Koenig co-starred as Tiger, the tough leader of a gang.
Davison played Tristan Farnon in “All Creatures Great and Small”, starting in 1978. He was perfectly cast, of course, looking and behaving like a “debauched choirboy” (as Siegfried said). I don’t know how well-known that made him in the UK, but if it was as great as his reception in the USA, Doctor Who was just a follow-up.
A pre-Modern Family Eric Stonestreet and pre-Heroes/Star Trek Zachary Quinto both guest-starred on an early episode of CSI. (“Anatomy of a Lye” from season 2.) I don’t think they had any scenes together but interestingly, Quinto’s character was named Mitchell (the name of Stonestreet’s partner on MF.)
The show Powers That Be had David Hyde Pierce and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the cast, pre-Fraiser and 3rd Rock.
One of my favorite episodes of Cheyenne (a 50’s Western) had him coming this close to committing adultery with Angie Dickinson, while her comatose husband was in the next room. Then they had to deal with trouble caused by three murderous Army deserters, led by James Garner (who played various roles in at least a couple other Cheyennes before starring in Maverick).
Not exactly on topic, but I remember Robert Urich (most famous for Vega$ and Spencer:For Hire) on some old talk show, complaining about the time he shot series pilot that starred him and Tom Selleck. He said the studio execs decided not to proceed, because they didn’t think the two of them together could carry a show.
Speaking of James Garner, I just saw a first-season episode of The Rockford Files (titled The Big Ripoff) that had Jill Clayburgh and Suzanne Somers as guest stars.
Tobey Maguire from the Spiderman movies guests on an entire episode of Eerie Indiana in the early 90’s.