Dabbs Greer

Rerun Junkie Guest Stars–Dabbs Greer

/ Kiki Writes / Leave a comment

I like to say that I see Dabbs Greer once a week on my reruns and the best part is that I’m not really joking. The man has 319 credits listed on IMDB, the first once being an uncredited appearance in the 1939 movie Jesse James. His last credit is an episode of Lizzie McGuire in 2003.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the man did everything in between.

Probably best known as Reverend Alden on Little House on the Prairie, he also had recurring roles on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Picket Fences, Maybe It’s Me, Hank, and Gunsmoke. However, he often showed up on shows more than once even if he wasn’t playing the same character. Dabbs had multiple appearances on The Rifleman, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Perry Mason, The Fugitive, The FBI, and The Loretta Young Show.

He joined Dick Van Dyke on both the Dick Van Dyke Show and Diagnosis Murder. He stopped by Mayberry multiple times on The Andy Griffith Show. He went to both The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

He was a doctor suffering from an aortic aneurysm on Emergency!, a family man in need of help in Gomer Pyle: USMC, a drunk on Big Valley, a moonshiner on Charlie’s Angels, and a doctor up to no good on The Incredible Hulk.

Dabbs Greer had the kind of long and varied career that a lot of actors dream of. He was never really a star, so to speak, but as a character actor who was in everything, he was instantly recognizable. And he could do just about anything. Sitcoms like The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Empty Nest, Petticoat Junction, Rosanne, and Ann Jillian were no problem. Do you like private investigators? He was on Mannix, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, and The Rockford Files. He also did cop dramas like The Streets of San Francisco, Adam-12, Mod Squad, The Rookies, and Chopper One. He covered all of the westerns, including Laredo, Laramie, and The Virginian. He even went out of this world with The Invaders and The Greatest American Hero.

And if all of that isn’t enough, he played the minister who married two famous sitcom couples:  Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mike and Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch. Then came back twenty years later and married Bobby Brady and Tracy Wagner on The Bradys. Because Dabbs Greer was unstoppable.

I think that’s what I like best about him. That he is such a familiar, constant presence on my rerun viewing. I don’t really have any favorites where he’s concerned because I always enjoy when he pops up on my TV. Sometimes he’s a good guy, sometimes he’s a bad guy, sometimes he’s just a bit part, sometimes he’s the episode.

But he’s always there.

The ever-present Dabbs Greer.

The Guest Star Game

/ Kiki Writes / 1 Comment

Star Cluster

I watch a lot of reruns, as you may know. Most of the time, my TV is tuned to Me-TV for my rerun junkie needs. Because I watch that station so much during the day, it’s not unusual for me to see the same guest star faces several times during the day. Some actors got around A LOT and some were kept very busy by television.

As such, I’ve developed my favorite guest stars, faces I’ve love to see pop up on my shows (but that’s another post). And since I’ve gotten so good at recognizing the faces that other people might not notice, it’s led me down the road to other thinky thoughts.

For example, one weekend I was bored off of my rocker and as I was watching my reruns I suddenly wondered who had been in the most shows that were on the current Me-TV fall line-up. My guess was Virginia Gregg because that woman was in EVERYTHING. It’s not uncommon for me to go a couple of weeks in a row and see her pop up somewhere at least once a day.

Then my thought went a little further. How many guest stars would it take to represent the current Me-TV fall line-up?  What’s the fewest number I could come up with?

And so the game was born.

I started off with the guest stars I thought I saw all of the time: Virginia Gregg, J. Pat O’Malley, Dabbs Greer, Kevin Hagen, Vitto Scotti, and went from there, adding and researching new names as I came across them. It turns out that Vitto Scotti was in more of the shows than Virginia Gregg, but the two of them combined covered most of the line-up. After that it was just filling in the blanks.

So far the game stands at 11 as my lowest. Eleven guest stars cover 65 shows.

Some shows are harder than others to find one of my familiar faces on and oddly, some of the shows were surprising in their difficulty.

But the game continues. I’m sure that if I pay attention and keep researching, I’ll be able to get that number down under ten. I’m just sure of it.

And when the schedule changes in the spring, like I”m sure it will, I’ll start the game all over again to account for the change.

Okay, yes, this is a pretty geeky timewaster, I admit that. It’s taking rerun junkie to a new limit.

I’m an overachiever.