# Which of those "before they were stars" roles do you actually remember seeing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2009, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702 "2009-04-20T06:32:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/21 "2009-04-20T13:14:19Z")
I remember Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Burger King commercial from when she was a wee girl. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/22 "2009-04-20T13:16:49Z")
How about Courtney Cox in that Springsteen video? ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/23 "2009-04-20T14:16:51Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I remember Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Burger King commercial from when she was a wee girl. The earliest I remember is her stint as Kendall, Erica’s bad-girl daughter in “All My Children”. And as for Courtney Cox, wasn’t she in Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark” video before “Misfits of Science”? (Either way, I remember both). ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/24 "2009-04-20T14:23:25Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > How about Courtney Cox in that Springsteen video? Damn it! All the way down the thread and the last post is what I came in for. ☹ Remember when she did feminine hygiene product commercials too? I’ve read she was the first person to say “period” on TV when not referring to punctuation. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/25 "2009-04-20T14:34:45Z")
Alec Baldwin on _Knots Landing?_ IIRC, died when [his mother yelled him off a roof](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zrawMQK2tk) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/26 "2009-04-20T14:45:58Z")
A pre-Star Wars Mark Hamill as David Bradford in the pilot of _Eight is Enough_. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/27 "2009-04-20T14:58:57Z")
I remember as a kid watching the **Dating Game** when a contestant with a very distinct, high-pitched foreign accent stole the show by providing clueless and hilarious answers to the lady contestant’s dimwitted questions. Watching it with my younger brother, the episode seemed surreal. Not long after when **Andy Kaufman** appeared as _Latka Gravas_ on the premier of **Taxi** , my brother and I were both: “Hey, it’s that weird guy from the Dating Game!” ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/28 "2009-04-20T15:09:05Z")
I remember Greg Kinnear as the original host of Talk Soup. And Matt Lauer hosting HBO’s Holloywood Minute (or whatever it was called.) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/29 "2009-04-20T15:30:21Z")
I remembered seeing Jamie Lee Curtis guest-star on an episode of “Charlie’s Angels”. I guess she had already done “Halloween” by then, but not being old enough to see an R-rated movie, that was the first I saw her. She had a great scene with Cheryl Ladd in which they were dumped off a booby-trapped bridge into a moat full of alligators - and a wet T-shirt 'gator wrestling scene ensued. Priceless. Scott Baio (was that his name?) appeared as a surly teenager on “Eight Is Enough” for a few episodes in it’s last year, before he hit it big as “the Karate Kid” (and then went back into obscurity once again.) ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/30 "2009-04-20T15:43:11Z")
**Superman** , that would be Ralph Macchio or else not “Karate Kid”. And I remember Ralph as Chooch in Up the Acadamy. And yes, I am ashamed I remember that, let alone _saw_ it. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/31 "2009-04-20T15:48:23Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > **Superman** , that would be Ralph Macchio or else not “Karate Kid”. And I remember Ralph as Chooch in Up the Acadamy. > And yes, I am ashamed I remember that, let alone _saw_ it. Oh, so you were the one who saw that film. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/32 "2009-04-20T16:13:21Z")
> [@Annie](#): > > Alec Baldwin on _Knots Landing?_ IIRC, died when [his mother yelled him off a roof](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zrawMQK2tk) Good one!! I loved Knots Landing. [hj] Gary Ewing is now on Young and the Restless…I have no idea what his name is on Y&R, I just call him Gary.[/hj] I remember Philip Seymour Hoffman (or as Alan Arkin would call him: “Seymour Philip Hoffman”) from when he played one of the goofy storm chasers in the movie _Twister_. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/33 "2009-04-20T16:27:50Z")
> [@riker1384](#): > > To me, Soledad O’Brien will always be the Sun Microsystems Infogal from Nextstep on the Discovery Channel: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYZaz00oUt8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYZaz00oUt8) I remember her on MSNBC circa 1996, back when even fewer people watched MSNBC than do today. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/34 "2009-04-20T16:29:25Z")
I remember a fresh-faced \*\*Tim Robbins \*\*guest-starring on \*Hill Street Blues \*back in the day as Officer Larry Swan. \*\*Jonathan Frakes \*\*and \*\*Brent Spiner \*\*also appeared on the show, although not at the same time as Robbins AFAIK. And of course Spiner also had that role on \*Night Court \*as a member of that family from the Ozarks or wherever it supposedly was. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/35 "2009-04-20T16:29:26Z")
Richard Pryor on an episode of “The Wild, Wild West”. I don’t think he was “famous” at that point in his career. ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/36 "2009-04-20T16:33:54Z")
Also, does anyone else recall \*\*Kathy Bates \*\*playing a patient with Tourette’s Syndrome on _St. Elsewhere_? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/37 "2009-04-20T16:34:43Z")
> [@Sean\_Factotum](#): > > And as for Courtney Cox, wasn’t she in Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark” video before “Misfits of Science”? (Either way, I remember both). When I was a kid, our local cable company must have had some kind of deal with NBC to test market new shows. They’d run a show before its premiere and call us the next day to ask us questions about it. I saw _Misfits of Science_ that way, and recognized her at the time from the _Dancing in the Dark_ video. I vaguely remember [Brent Spiner in the role that made him famous](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLvtoKZfxY). On preview: Bugger. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/38 "2009-04-20T16:40:57Z")
I remember **Phil Hartman** as Captain Carl and **Laurence Fishburn** as Cowboy Curtis on “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”. Heck, I remember **Morgan Freeman** as Easy Reader on “The Electric Company”. ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/39 "2009-04-20T16:41:55Z")
I was pretty suprised to see Richard Pryor show up in an episode of the Partridge Family. I saw it in a rerun so he would have been famous by that time. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702/40 "2009-04-20T16:44:50Z")
Does Harrison Ford count for his supporting roll in “The Conversation?” He was a corporate go-between in the hiring of Gene Hackman and I remember not liking him at all. I guess that means he played the part right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-those-before-they-were-stars-roles-do-you-actually-remember-seeing/493702.md?page=3)