Or Fantasy Island, which guest starred most of the same actors but they were au courant not unknown.
The Larry Sanders show had a lot of TV stars playing themselves.
The X-Files Had a lot of stars too, but not all from TV. I can’t remember some of their names. I think they had a few stars from LOST. Peter Boyle was Clyde Bruckman. It had Bud from Married With Children. James Pickens Jr. Giovanni Ribisi who’s doing a TV series in the fall for FOX. Jack Black… who I know isn’t a TV star. I’m sure I’m missing many up-and-comers.
Arrested Development had/has a lot of stars. The new season had John Krasinski and Andy Buckley from The Office.
The OP’s 9 isn’t even in the top 20 as far as shows with future stars go. As stated, the anthology shows out of NYC in the early days of TV have everybody beat.
Shoews like The Tonight Show and Love Boat don’t make the cut because you pretty much have to “be” a star before you get on the show in the first place. Not “up and coming.”
For non-anthology shows, Freaks and Geeks is a pretty good recent example, with most of the cast going on to more work:
Seth Rogen
James Franco
Jason Segel
Linda Cardellini
Busy Phillips
Martin Starr
John Frances Daley
Samm Levine
Lizzy Caplan
Rashida Jones
(Not to mention Judd Apatow & Paul Feig)
I’ve noticed a rather large number of startlingly-attractive actresses in their late 20’s and early 30’s who list an appearance on an episode or two of Baywatch early in their careers… Mila Kunis, for example.
It’s also interesting looking back to the beginning of actress’s careers in the days of black & white TV (Perry Mason, for example) (the TV show, not the actress) and seeing that they played several different characters in one season, back before the days of VCRs…
Kunis was 14 when she auditioned for That 70s show that ran from 1998 to 2006. She appeared on Baywatch in 94 and 95. I don’t think “hotness” was a factor in those Baywatch gigs.
Yeah, I was gonna mention the Toy Story films. Didn’t realize he’d also been in all the other Pixar movies!
And Ben Foster.
Neither did he
Buffalo Bill, which ran on NBC from 1983 to 1984.
Dabney Coleman, who was already an established star.
Joanna Cassidy, who later appeared in several films such as Blade Runner, Under Fire, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
John Fiedler, who played Mr. Peterson on The Bob Newhart Show.
Charles Robinson, Mac on Night Court.
Max Wright, who would later star as Willie Tanner on ALF.
Geena Davis, in one of her early roles.
Meshach Taylor, probably best known for his roles in Mannequin and on Designing Women. P