# TV series casting of the soon to be famous

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-casting-of-the-soon-to-be-famous/596866>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 19, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-casting-of-the-soon-to-be-famous/596866 "2011-09-19T21:46:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-casting-of-the-soon-to-be-famous/596866/21 "2011-10-16T18:47:34Z")

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I recently watched an episode of “Cheyenne” from 1957 that had James Garner as the villain, and Angie Dickinson as the damsel in distress. Unless I missed an episode, it’s also the episode showing the closest Cheyenne ever came to committing adultery. And her husband was right there! (but comatose).

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**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-casting-of-the-soon-to-be-famous/596866/22 "2011-10-16T18:56:12Z")

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> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> I remember seeing a long list of actresses who appeared on Seinfeld before becoming famous elsewhere, such as Teri Hatcher, Mariska Hargitay, Lauren Graham, Wendie Malick, Debra Messing, etc. There’s a longer list on [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Seinfeld_minor_characters#Celebrities_or_significant_TV_actors_not_playing_themselves).

This is almost exactly what I was going to post. Jerry and George dated a lot of different women over the course of the series, and a number of actresses who went on to star in other shows appeared as one or two episode love interests or other characters. (Mariska Hargitay played an actress who was auditioning for the role of Elaine in “Jerry”.)

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-casting-of-the-soon-to-be-famous/596866/23 "2011-10-16T19:01:46Z")

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Appearances in minor roles on these shows is often a major factor in the career development of actors. It gives directors and producers an opportunity to see the actors working in actual production, and to find out the work ethic of the actors. Auditions are like first dates, and not necessarily indicative of how a relationship would work out.

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