Guest Stars

Wasn’t That Guy Already On This Show?

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Drawing of an old school TV with antenna, a dark orange casing, brown legs, and a grey screen.I was scrolling through Instagram one day, afflicted by the way it insists on showing me posts from people I do not follow, when I happened across a video in which a young person was questioning a TV show’s choice of using an actor that had already guest starred on the show once to guest star again in a different role. They went so far as to question whether or not the casting department should keep a list so things like this don’t happen.

And I thought, “You sweet summer child. You absolute infant. Let me show you the history.”

Because this was the rule not the exception back in the long, long ago, and even the not-so-long ago, and I had no idea (thanks to my lack of watching many current shows) that it has become something not as common in the present tense.

My first thought upon seeing this video, the first example that popped into my mind was Gunsmoke. It was the source of employment for many actors in the course of its 20 years on the air, and had frequent repeat guest stars who showed up in multiple episodes and never played the same character twice.

My dad is currently binge watching this series, so it feels like every time I come into the room, Victor French (18 episodes), Morgan Woodward (19 episodes), Jack Elam (15 episodes), Denver Pyle (14 episodes), John Dehner (12 episodes), and John Anderson (12 episodes) are on. I’m not complaining. I love them all. But binge watching makes it obvious just how much they were on and how many of those episodes were in the same season.

It was commonplace, particularly in long running shows, to have those kinds of repeats. In the case of Hawaii Five-O and Magnum P.I., the location made it necessary to use a lot of the local talent multiple times. Not only are they showing off the unique and diverse culture of Hawai’i, but also, not everyone could be flown in from the mainland.

When you find a good actor, you want to keep them around. Jack Webb had a sort of stable of actors that he would draw from. Tim Donnelly and Marco Lopez, for example, appeared in multiple episodes of both Dragnet and Adam-12. And those guest spots scored both men a regular gig on Emergency!

Which brings me to the next recurring guest star practice that might blow this questioning young person’s mind.

Guest starring is how some actors found their regular gig. Both Ken Curtis and Buck Taylor appeared as different characters on Gunsmoke before landing their regular roles of Festus and Newly, respectively. Harry Morgan appeared as a general before being cast as Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H.

And sometimes you get the flip side of that.

An actor that had been a recurring character coming back later as a different character. On The Monkees, Henry Cordon spent the first season playing the band’s landlord in several episodes before coming back as a completely different character (in another location even!) in the second season. John Orchard was Captain “Ugly John” Black in the first season of M*A*S*H before coming back much later in the 8th season as a completely different character for an episode.

And even though I can’t think of an example off the top of my head (because I’m too lazy to do actual in-depth research), I’m positive I’ve come across instances in which an actor played a recurring character, guested as a different character in an episode, and then resumed their recurring role. Drop me a comment if you think of one.

I suppose what I’m getting at is that this is the nature of the business and our part is to suspend our disbelief and pretend that Ed Flanders is a different guy every time he decides to take on Steve McGarrett.

Let’s have some fun.

Rerun Junkie Guest Star- Dub Taylor

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I adore Dub Taylor. He might have appeared in more movies than TV shows, but he won my heart in reruns. He was perfectly made for westerns with his gruff look that could go sweet or mean depending on the need. That country accent might have sounded a little out of place in the modern day cityscape, but he made it work.

Of his 263 credits on IMDB going back to 1938, surprisingly only one is for a regular character: Wallie Simms on the 1957 series Casey Jones, which starred Alan Hale Jr. as the title character. He had brief recurring stints of a few episodes on Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Tammy, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Little House on the Prairie, and Designing Women. Somehow, no series was able to keep him long, which is a shame.

Even though I think Dub Taylor was tailor made for westerns, two of my favorite appearances of his weren’t set in the Old West.

One was in the Chopper One episode “Downtime”. Helicopter cops Foley and Burdick are grounded while their chopper is undergoing repairs, so their captain puts them in a squad car to patrol, something Burdick used to do more than his helicopter pilot partner Foley. They run across Rudy, played by Dub Taylor, an eccentric thief, who’s good at stealing little things, but not good at not getting caught. There’s a scene in which they have him empty his pockets and it’s like a clown car of stolen goods. He later helps them out by pointing them in the direction of a suspect who planted a bomb on a dam.

I would like to think that if the series had continued, that there’d be at least one episode a season of Burdick and Foley patroling on the ground and running into Rudy. Those episode would have been gold.

The other episode I love him in is the second season episode of The Monkees called “Hillbilly Honeymoon”. It’s Romeo and Juliet meets the Hatfield and McCoys with a Monkees twist. Dub Taylor plays Paw Chubber, whose daughter Ellie Mae is first in love with Judd from the rival Weskett clan, but then falls in love with Davy, earning the ire of Judd. Judd and Maw Weskett kidnap Davy with the intent of turning him into mash for moonshine. Meanwhile, Paw Chubber insists that Davy make an honest woman of his daughter since he caught them kissing. It’s a hilarious episode and Dub Taylor does his part as a menacingly funny patriarch armed with a shotgun.

As I said, Dub Taylor was made for westerns and appeared in several, such as The Range Rider, Cheyenne, Lawman, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Laramie, The Virginian, Laredo, Death Valley Days, The Big Valley, Cimarron Strip, Lancer, The Guns of Will Sonnett, The High Chaparral, Gunsmoke (including an episode with his son Buck Taylor), Alias Smith and Jones, Bonanza, How the West Was Won, Bret Maverick, Iron Horse, and The Wild Wild West.

He named names on The Roy Rogers Show, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Lloyd Bridges Show, and The Andy Griffith Show; checked in on Dr. Kildare and Emergency!; was wholesome on My Three Sons, That Girl, Father Murphy, and The Partridge Family; got a little silly on I Love Lucy, My Favorite Martian, and The Real McCoys; enlisted with The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and Ensign O’Toole; privately investigated on Michael Shayne, Surfside 6, and 77 Sunset Strip; hit the beach on The Beachcomber and Hawaii Five-O; doubled up on Hardcastle and McCormick, The Odd Couple, and McMillian and Wife; got out there with The Twilight Zone and Salvage 1; lawyered up with law enforcement on Perry Mason, Burke’s Law, and Law & Order; spied with The Man from U.N.C.L.E and went undercover on Mod Squad; and hung out with Burt Reynolds on Evening Shade.

Dub Taylor brings a certain rustic charm to every role I’ve seen him in. He’s as comfortable being goofy as he is being mean. And even the in the smallest guest spot, he draws attention. Dub Taylor can’t help but be a star.

Rerun Junkie Guest Star–William Smith

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William Smith has a great face. Rugged. Handsome. A big, strong guy, it wasn’t hard for him to be imposing. He could be that rough good guy or a nasty bad guy. And anything in between. He had quite a few movie roles and plenty of guest star spots, but not nearly enough regular/recurring roles on shows. A guy like that deserves to be seen on a regular basis.

He was Jimmy Delaney on Zero One; Joe Riley on Laredo; Falconetti in the mini series Rich Man, Poor Man and in the series Rich Man, Poor Man Book II; Brodie Hollister on Wildside; and he had a recurring role as Willie Shell on Emerald Point N.A.S.

I probably know him best as Detective James “Kimo” Carew in the last season of Hawaii Five-O. At that point, the series had undergone several cast changes over the years, the most recent being James MacArthur choosing not to return after Season 11. William Smith was brought in to help fill that void.

Mr. Smith’s first appearance is a memorable one. He’s not a local boy. He’s an ex-cop from Boston tracking a mainland gangster who may have info about who murdered his wife and child. This mainland mobster’s ties with Hawaiian mobster Tony Alika gets James Carew all tangled up with Steve and Five-O. In the end, Carew ends up joining the team and earning the nickname Kimo, which is Hawaiian for James.

Kimo stands out because he’s not local and he has a personal agenda. He shows up with more baggage than just a change of clothes, an unusual introduction for a team member on this show. It stands out. And the way he bullies Tony Alika, played by Ross Martin, stuck with me.

One of my favorite guest appearances of his is in the Season 1 episode of The A-Team called “Pros and Cons”. The episode is a favorite because of Murdock’s antics and the lengths that Hannibal, BA, and Murdock go to get arrested, but William Smith is the whole reason that the A-team get involved in the first place. Mr. Smith plays Jase Tataro, a friend of B.A.’s who’s doing time in a jail that has prisoners fight to the death for fun and profit. The winners of these fights are given a head start to escape. Jase makes it all the way back to L.A. and meets up with his little brother (who is like twenty years younger than he is; there’s some serious late baby action happening there) before he’s captured. Little brother and B.A. convince the rest of the A-Team to go in on a jailbreak.

Mr. Smith and Mr. T are believable buddies, using their brief screen time before Jase is captured to establish their friendship. The next time we see them together, they’re fighting to the death. Jase’s surprise and joy at seeing his friend in the training area quickly disappears with a simple “shhh” gesture from B.A. The actual fight pulls no punches, the two of them selling it until the rest of the team shows up to put an end to this fight club. We already know about B.A.’s toughness and we saw Jase’s in the beginning. It’s a brutal beating between friends. William Smith does a whole lot for what screen time he has.

As a guest star, he spent a lot of time on Westerns like Stoney Burke, Wagon Train, The Virginian, Daniel Boone, Death Valley Days, Alias Smith and Jones, Gunsmoke, and The Young Riders. He also turned up on plenty of cop shows like Mod Squad, Columbo, The Streets of San Francisco, S.W.A.T., The Blue Knight, Dan August, Bert D’Angelo/Superstar, CHiPs, T.J. Hooker, Ohara, Houston Knights, Due South, Hunter, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Nash Bridges.

He hung out with Raymond Burr on Perry Mason and Ironside; was intriguing on Mission: Impossible, Masquerade, and Search; privately investigated on The Rockford Files, Vega$, Matt Houston, Riptide, Simon & Simon, and Barnaby Jones; went to war on Combat! and checked in on Trapper John, MD; got a little creepy on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Kolchak: The Nightstalker; saw some action on Knight Rider and Airwolf; hung out with Lee Majors on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy; traveled on Movin’ On and B.J. and the Bear; did some lowkey investigating on Longstreet, Murder, She Wrote, Mr. Lucky, and Danger Bay; got a little silly on I Dream of Jeannie and took a vacation on Fantasy Island; went to the dogs on Lassie and martialed some arts on Kung Fu; made some names with Julia, Benson, and Vinnie & Bobby; dealt with caped crusaders on Batman and the General Lee on The Dukes of Hazzard; found some sci-fi fellas on Planet of the Apes, Logan’s Run, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; and even got a little nighttime soapy on The Yellow Rose.

Though William Smith had a certain look which might have landed him more of certain kinds of roles than others, he always brought his best, and the TV Universe is greater for it.

Rerun Junkie Guest Star–Alan Fudge

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Alan Fudge is a face you’ve probably seen because it’s no exaggeration to say that he’s been in just about everything. With 168 credits going back to 1972 on IMDB, his first listed credit is on Gunsmoke, which I feel sets him up perfectly for a career as “that guy”. Of course, this isn’t to disparage his talent. Mr. Fudge always shows up with his best game no matter what role he plays.

Though he often showed up on the same shows multiple times as different characters, he only had a handful of regular and recurring roles. He was CW Crawford on Man from Atlantis; Deputy Commissioner Kimbrough on Eischsied; Dr. Van Adams on Paper Dolls; and Lou Dalton on 7th Heaven, the longest running series of the bunch as the rest were short-lived.

What I appreciate about Alan Fudge is that he doesn’t necessarily look like he should be a bad guy -he sort of has an uptight executive/accountant vibe about him- but he can play a downright nasty individual.

One of my favorite bad guy roles he played was in the Season 2 episode of The A-Team, “Water, Water Everywhere”. He played a rich rancher attempting to push three disabled Vietnam vets off of their land in order to gain access to the spring water on it. Mr. Fudge’s character is already sent up to be a rat bastard. I mean, he has three disabled men beaten up in an attempt to muscle them off their land. But, he chooses to keep his diabolical nature low key, preferring to make him menacing in a quieter way, making him a more challenging enemy for the A-Team. Naturally, our heroes give him his much needed comeuppance, but he makes that comeuppance well-earned.

Even though Alan Fudge can play a fabulous villain, he can also swing completely in the other direction and play a character that you ache for. In the Season 4 M*A*S*H episode “Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler”, Mr. Fudge plays a soldier with a superficial head injury claiming to be Jesus Christ. Dr. Sidney Freedman is called in to determine whether or not the man is faking it. The sincerity with which Mr. Fudge plays Captain Chandler gives the audience little room to doubt that he’s a severely wounded man, and Dr. Freedman confirms our diagnosis. The war has so damaged him that he’s become a savior rather than continue to be a killer. Alan Fudge and Alan Arbus gift us with an incredible scene between the two characters leading to the memorable moment in which Captain Chandler responds to Dr. Freedman’s question of whether or not God answers all prayers with a well-time tear as he says, “Yes. Sometimes the answer is no.” It wrenches the heart every time.

He also has the distinction of showing up on the M*A*S*H spin-off AfterMash, albeit as a different character.

Due to Mr. Fudge’s talent, he appeared on a wide variety of shows.

He got daytime soapy on Santa Barbara, Days of Our Lives, and The Young and the Restless; he got nighttime soapy on Dallas, Falcon Crest, Dynasty, and Knots Landing; and got teen soapy on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Dawson’s Creek.

He sought medical help from Marcus Welby, MD, Trapper John, MD, and Doogie Howser, MD; and checked in for further treatment on St. Elsewhere, Diagnosis Murder, and Grey’s Anatomy.

He got on a first name basis with Lucas Tanner, Kate McShane, Lou Grant, Barnaby Jones, Matt Houston, and Sledge Hammer!; got on a last name basis with Banacek, Kojak, Petrocelli, Delvecchio, MacGyver, Mannix, Matlock, McCoy, Hunter, and Columbo; and took on the dynamic duos of Starsky and Hutch, McMillian and Wife, Simon & Simon, Cagney & Lacey, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and Hardcastle and McCormick.

He continued a classic on Archie Bunker’s Place and brought a couple of other classics into the 80s on The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents; ran into a couple of superheroes on Wonder Woman and The Greatest American Hero; and went out of this world on Alien Nation and Dark Skies.

He spent time with the family on The Waltons, Our House, and Home Improvement; flashed back on The Wonder Years and Quantum Leap; and hung out with Michael Landon on Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven.

He traveled on Movin’ On, took flight on Wings, went north on Northern Exposure, and hit the beach on Baywatch; found trouble in paradise on Hawaii Five-O, Magnum PI, and Riptide; and spent time on the west coast on The Streets of San Francisco and LA Law.

He did martial arts on Kung Fu, rode around with Knight Rider, and fell with The Fall Guy; tangled with the law on The Rookies, Police Story, The Closer, and The District; went to work on The Office, discovered polyamory on Big Love, got introduced on How I Met Your Mother, and experienced heaven on Charlie’s Angels; and took on Jessica Fletcher more than once on Murder, She Wrote.

He may be a face you recognize from somewhere even if his name doesn’t immediately come to mind, but his talent and ability to play a range of characters makes Alan Fudge one of a kind. And we’re grateful that he’s been gracing us with his presence for decades.

Rerun Junkie Guest Star–Candice Azzara

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There’s something about a pretty woman with a Brooklyn accent that catches the attention. Or at least my attention. Candice Azzara fits this bill perfectly. Her sweet face and sweet voice makes for a perfect combo, especially when she’s a tough cookie.

Of her 89 credits listed on IMDB dating back to 1969, many of them are TV roles, but not too many regular or recurring roles, which is a shame. Her only regular role was as Shirley Balukis on the short-lived 1973 series Calucci’s Department. Her few recurring roles were short-lived as well. She played Millie in six episodes of Soap, Fran Thomopolous in 5 episodes of the final season of Who’s the Boss?, and Angie Spadaro in fourteen episodes of Caroline in the City.

I probably know Ms. Azzara best from Barney Miller. She popped up as different characters three times: a manicurist who stabbed an unruly client in “The Layoff”; the victim of a bus robbery and crash who also happened to be the mistress of one of the other passengers in “Bus Stop”; and the recent wife of a recent lotto winner who wasn’t too thrilled he was giving it all away in “Dietrich’s Arrest: Part 1”.

She also played a money-focused woman in an episode of Murder, She Wrote as well. In the episode “Mr. Penroy’s Vacation”, which also happened to be Ron Masak’s first episode as Sheriff Metzger, Ms. Azzara plays the “wife” of dead man Mr. Penroy. Yes, wife is in quotes for a reason. As it turns out, she’s actually the wife of a train robber who ran out on her. He was in Cabot Cove to get his split of the money, and she was there to make sure she got her cut, too. Fun fact: despite her three appearances on Barney Miller and her onscreen husband Don Calfa’s seven appearances, they never crossed paths on that show. (She did appear with the other Barney Miller frequent flyer Oliver Clark in an episode, though.)

Another favorite guest appearance that found her on the wrong side of the law was in an episode of CHiPs called “Satan’s Angels”, in which Bonnie is taken captive by members of a motorcycle gang, which include William Smith and Mickey Jones. Ms. Azzara is one of their old ladies who forms something of a bond with Bonnie.

She also tangled with the law on Baretta, Kojak, Ohara, Rizzoli & Isles, and N.Y.P.D. (her first listed credit on IMDB); checked in on Strong Medicine, The Practice (a ’70s Danny Thomas series), Trapper John MD, House Calls (reprising her character from the movie version), ER, and E/R (yes, there were two of them and both starred George Clooney); privately investigated on Remington Steele and Tenspeed and Brownshoe; got family friendly on Shake It Up, One Day at a Time, Diff’rent Strokes, The Wonder Years, and Doogie Howser MD; was short-lived on Downtown, Mama Malone, The Two of Us, Roomies, and The Montefuscos; went to court on LA Law and Night Court; showed up on Married…with Children and it’s short-lived spin-off Top of the Heap; named names on Maggie, Pearl, Rhoda, and Alex, Inc.; got a little strange on Medium, Joan of Arcadia, and the ’80s version of The Twilight Zone; and of course, she once set sail on The Love Boat.

I know that actors don’t like to be typecast, and I certainly don’t like to typecast them, but sometimes an actor plays a role so well that you can’t help but associate them with it. Candice Azzara’s gift for playing women with a certain kind of attitude -spicy sweet- is memorable and that’s a fabulous thing. And so is she.

Rerun Junkie Guest Star–Peggy Pope

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When I was writing about Don Calfa and Oliver Clark on Barney Miller, I made the note that I needed to write about Peggy Pope. She was another frequent guest star on the show (she did six episodes) and one of my favorites. Though Ms. Pope doesn’t have the robust guest star resume like some of the other actors I’ve profiled, she more than makes up for it with quality.

Given her talent, it’s unfortunate that her only regular roles were on short-lived series. She was Alice Fisher on Billy with Steve Guttenberg and Elain Fusco on Calucci’s Department with James Coco and fellow Barney Miller frequent flyer Candy Azzara. She also had a short five episode stint on Soap.

As I said, I know her best from Barney Miller and though I usually pick one appearance on a show when I do guest star posts like this, I can’t pick just one for Peggy Pope. She played a variety of wonderfully idiosyncratic characters in her six episodes.

She played a woman who fell victim to a romeo who then robbed her. But this didn’t deter her or her lovelorn ways and when the thief was apprehended, she still pursued a love connection. She then played a cat burglar’s widow who took up the family business after her husband’s demise. She followed that up by playing a woman who reported crimes that were occurring on soap operas. In her penultimate appearance, she held the 12th precinct hostage with a bomb she made in a pressure cooker, demanding a hospital’s nuclear medical department that she felt was responsible for her husband’s intimacy issues be brought to justice. And in her final appearance, she played a woman looking for her husband who’d run out on her and ended up finding a different one with the same name who’d been mistakenly reported as dead. It turns out she liked the reportedly dead one much more than the her actual husband.

Her sweet voice and sweeter face allowed Ms. Pope to play characters that were unsuspectingly devious.

The one guest spot I’m thinking of came on The Golden Girls. She played Gladys Barton, wife to Leonard (played by Gordon Jump) who decided to be an ass about his tree falling into the girls’ yard, leading to Sophia putting an evil eye curse on him. Ms. Pope is only in the episode briefly, but our first encounter with her leads us to believe that she’s helpless in the face of her loud, bullying husband. However, when Leonard returns after suffering a string of bad luck, including flat tires, missing golf clubs, and a boil on his butt, it’s revealed that Sophia’s curse had a lot of help from Gladys, something you wouldn’t suspect from such a meek lady. Well, except for the boil, of course. That was just her good luck.

Ms. Pope also appeared on The Golden Girls spin-off Empty Nest and the Empty Nest spin-off Nurses; got soapy on Knot’s Landing and Santa Barbara; tangled with the law on The Trials of O’Brien, Hill Street Blues, Tough Cookies, and Night Court; found religion on Highway to Heaven and Have Faith; privately investigated on The Outsider, Barnaby Jones, and Hart to Hart; checked in on St. Elsewhere and ER; made a name for herself on Rhoda, Hope and Faith, Amanda’s, and Kate & Allie; found family on Eight is Enough, Too Close for Comfort, and Sisters; went into the office on Nine to Five and Anything But Love; got a little unreal on Bewitched, Mork and Mindy, and the ’80s Twilight Zone; and ran the L&O gamut on Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Whenever Peggy Pope pops up in one of my reruns, I immediately think of an angel. An angel that’s a little off-beat and sometimes a little devious, but still an angel. She’s a delight and we’re all blessed by her work.

Rerun Junkie Guest Star–George Murdock

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I mentioned George Murdock when I wrote about Don Calfa and Oliver Clark on Barney Miller. He is one of those faces that I love to see show up in my reruns because given the kind of reruns I watch, I’m pretty sure I know who he’s going to be in the context of the episode. Mr. Murdock has a knack for playing insufferable, arrogant men of authority. Obviously, he didn’t always play these sorts of characters (and it throws me off when I he doesn’t), but I’d be lying if I said that this isn’t when I like him best.

For all of his 200+ credits on IMDB, he only had a few regular or minor recurring roles on TV. He was Captain Krupnik on No Time for Sergeants; Frank Devon on It Takes a Thief; Cavanaugh on Banacek; Dr. Salik on Battlestar Galactica; Laslo Gaboy on What a Country; The 2nd Elder on The X-Files; Judge Andrew Walker on 14 episodes of Days of Our Lives (a mere blink in soap time, but I think it’s still worth a mention); and he was Lt. Ben Scanlon on Barney Miller.

Scanlon is a great example of the kind of character that Mr. Murdock had a gift for playing. Scanlon worked for internal affairs. He was a cop, so he was technically a good guy, but he spent his time trying to get Barney and the men of the 12th in trouble, so he wasn’t THAT good. He was an insufferable, gruff, irritant and you love to see him get his comeuppance.

The curious thing is that his guest spot as Master Sgt. Reville in the “Group Home” episode which also guest starred Don Calfa came after he’d already played Scanlon in one episode in the previous season. He then proceeded to play Scanlon in every subsequent appearance, including the series finale.

Though Scanlon was a pretty unlikable character in his own way, George Murdock had a challenge in playing Sgt. Reville in “Group Home”. He comes in to report a bombing threat on the recruiting station and finds himself working with Nick. Reville, a WWII vet, isn’t shy about his prejudiced dislike towards the Japanese detective. This character has the potential to be deeply unpleasant, but Mr. Murdock is able to show Reville for the joke that he is. Reville asking why anyone would want to blow up an American military instillation and Nick replying with, “Nostalgia,” is one of my favorite jokes. This might be the first time Nick has dealt with Reville, but not the first time he’s encountered an anti-Japanese bigot.

As I mentioned in the Don Calfa and Oliver Clark post, most of Mr. Murdock’s time is spent building up to the entrance of Don Calfa’s character, particularly his rather disgusting cough. He lays the groundwork for the punchline of Calfa’s character and he does so well.

When Reville leaves, Nick informs him that he also served in the army as part of the Nisei Division, which was made up almost entirely of Japanese-American men who’d been put into interment camps by the US government. There’s no great Coming-to-God moment for Reville -this is a cop comedy after all- but the joke he makes about Nick not caring who won the war has much more friendly tones for the character to leave on than what he entered with. George Murdock runs that gamut beautifully.

One of his other memorable guest spots is in a Season 3 episode of Hawaii Five-O called “The Gunrunners”. Okay, full disclosure, it’s probably only memorable to me because he’s a bit gruff, but he’s not acting like a pompous ass. He’s actually the voice of reason! I went into the episode fully expecting him to be behind the shenanigans in some capacity and…he wasn’t. He wasn’t exactly what you might call a completely good guy -he and his partner (who was behind the shenanigans) were legal arms dealers- but he was pretty good in comparison.

It seems that George Murdock frequently played law enforcement characters, graduating to judges in later years, and therefore showed up on a lot of cop shows including Mod Squad, Adam-12 and The New Adam-12, Ironside (once a season except for the last, playing different characters each time), The FBI, Police Woman, Police Story, Lanigan’s Rabbi, The Streets of San Francisco, Hill Street Blues, T.J. Hooker, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, CHiPs, McCloud, Dragnet ’89, Law & Order, and CSI.

He also showed up in plenty of legal shows including The New Perry Mason, Night Court, Judging Amy, and Eli Stone.

He privately investigated on Banyon, Longstreet, Hec Ramsey, Mannix, 77 Sunset Strip, Harry O, The Rockford Files, The New Mike Hammer and Mike Hammer Private Eye, The Law and Harry McGraw, and Scarecrow and Mrs. King; got soapy on Dynasty and General Hospital; saddled up on Rawhide, Death Valley Days, The Wild Wild West, Cimarron Strip, The Virginian, and Gunsmoke; went to war on Combat! and went wild on Tarzan; got bold on The Bold Ones: The New Doctors and The Bold Ones: The Lawyers; checked in on Ben Casey, Trapper John MD, Chicago Hope, and ER; entertained talking cars on Knight Rider and Team Knight Rider; spied on I Spy and Search; tangled with extraordinary fellas on The Invisible Man and The Six Million Dollar Man; got laughs on Bosom Buddies, Seinfeld, Dave’s World, The Nanny, Malcolm & Eddie, The Gregory Hines Show, and Just Shoot Me!; got a little ESP on The Sixth Sense and The Dead Zone; tangled with wolves on Lucan, magic on The Magician, meddling kids on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, robots on Small Wonder, the Duke Boys on The Dukes of Hazzard, and Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote; went out of this world on The Twilight Zone, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Smallville, and Torchwood; spun off on spin-offs Fish, Benson, and Lou Grant; and he even got animated on Batman: The Animated Series.

George Murdock had a knack for playing a variety of characters, but that gruff voice and demeanor lent itself so well to playing a tough, arrogant irritant that it’s hard to imagine him playing anything else, and yet he does so well.

And we’re all better for it.

Rerun Junkie Guest Stars–Don Calfa and Oliver Clark on Barney Miller

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I could (and probably should) write guest star posts about both Don Calfa and Oliver Clark, and maybe one day I will, but since it’s their work on Barney Miller that thrills me so, I figure that deserves its own post.

Don Calfa appeared on the show seven times; Oliver Clark appeared six times. Funnily enough, their paths only crossed on the show once, but it was a glorious meeting.

Don Calfa’s first appearance in Season 4 sort of set the tone for all of his appearances. He tended to play guys who were operating on their own level and as a result ended up in the 12th precinct. In “Group Home”, Mr. Calfa portrays a man who blames the military conducting experiments in the subway for his various illnesses, so he threatens to blow up a recruiting station. He’s only in the end of the episode for a few memorable moments, but considering George Murdock (who I should also write about) has spent most of the episode building up to his appearance, he makes the most of it. As explained to the police sketch artist, James Cromwell (talk about an all-star guest cast), the most memorable thing about him is his cough. And while his cough was spectacularly disgusting, truly the most memorable thing about him was his obsession with those old military experiments, including blaming them for him getting VD six times.

Another memorable arrest involves Mr. Calfa playing a formerly brilliant thief reduced to a bumbling amateur thanks to a lobotomy. While there are plenty of laughs, there’s an underlying sadness to his situation. He was made so “harmless” that he can barely function. As funny as Mr. Calfa is -and he is because his timing and delivery are impeccable- he never loses that particular thread.

A criminal inspired by the TV Guide…a robber in witness protection up to his old tricks…a displaced resident…an inventor who believes a company is stealing his inventions…Don Calfa portrayed a wide-range of oddities.

Oliver Clark’s appearances were a little more varied. He played a man swindled out of a ticket on a space shuttle (arrested for causing a disturbance when they wouldn’t honor his ticket) and a pharmaceutical employee who isn’t thrilled that the company he works for won’t market his cure for a disease because not many people are affected by it, holding the distinction of being one of the last people to be arrested by the detectives of the 12th in the series finale.

He also played a couple of sex pests, including a groping dentist and a flasher. The latter is one of my favorites of his guest spots. Mr. Clark’s character is a member of a flasher support group and he falls off the indecent exposure wagon with newest 12th precinct addition, Detective Batista (June Gable). His lawyer ends up being a fellow flasher played by Ron Feinberg, reprising his role as Mr. Farber, the flasher who attempted to kill himself via men’s room electrocution in “Snow Day”. He goes from being embarrassed about his lack of willpower to increasingly excited as the episode progresses, even going for a ride on the cell door when Battista opens it to allow him to use the men’s room. He ends up declaring that he’s going to come out of the bathroom nude, but ultimately emerges fully clothed –well as clothed as an overcoat dressed flasher can be– much to everyone’s relief and his own satisfaction. After all, wasn’t it exciting just talking about it? He’s the only one who thinks so. But it’s fun watching his almost Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde progression during the episode.

His first appearance on the show in the Season 2 episode “The Layoff” is very different from his other appearances. Mr. Clark tends to bring an almost nervous quality to most of the characters he plays on the show, however his turn as a fur thief shows him as one cool customer with an answer for everything. He’s so confident that he even makes a love connection with a fellow 12th precinct detainee played by Candy Azzara.

The one episode in which Don Calfa and Oliver Clark cross paths brings in the oddity of Mr. Calfa’s characters and the nervousness of most of Mr. Clark’s characters.

In the Season 4 episode “Hostage”, Don Calfa plays Leo Bedell, an armed robber looking at life for being a habitual criminal. He makes his one phone call to his brother Vern, played by Oliver Clark, who chooses to throw away his own life away in order to help Leo break out of the 12th precinct. Vern enters the squad room under the pretense of being Leo’s lawyer and when Leo gives the word, Vern shakily pulls a gun out of his bag. The two brothers then proceed to take everyone in the squad room, including Barney, the detectives, Levitt, Inspector Luger, a ventriloquist and his dummy, and the woman the dummy insulted, hostage, eventually locking them all in the cell.

The Bedell brothers then spend the episode trying to figure out how to escape the mess they’ve made as there are 137 uniforms downstairs. Both men are jumpy as hell, but where Leo is committed to the plan, Vern’s dedication wanes (“If you’re going to lose your enthusiasm, give me the gun.”). Ultimately, Vern decides that it’s hopeless and gives the gun to Barney (“Wrong person!”). Oliver Clark and Don Calfa don’t look very much alike, but with their interactions and their chemistry, you totally buy that they are two brothers of the non-criminal mastermind variety. They play off of each other beautifully, working that chemistry to the very end. It’s really a shame that the two men weren’t in more episodes together.

But the combined twelve episodes Don Calfa and Oliver Clark appeared in on Barney Miller are pretty good compensation.

Rerun Junkie Guest Star: Vito Scotti

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When it comes to talking about guest stars, you can’t have that conversation without talking about Vito Scotti. Honestly, it’s a crime that it’s taken me this long to write about him. There was a period of time in which it felt like he popped up in everything. And given how many of his 253 IMDB credits are TV guest spots, he kind of did.

For all of his TV work, he didn’t have many regular or recurring roles. He was Geppetto on the short-lived Geppetto’s Workshop and Luigi Basco on Life with Luigi in six episodes of the short-lived series, having replaced J. Carroll Naish. He also had recurring roles as Gino Mancini on To Rome with Love; Mr. Velasquez on Barefoot in the Park; and he was Captain Dominic Lopez on the first season of The Flying Nun and Captain Gaspar Formento on the second.

Being of Italian descent and working at a time when racist casting was all the rage, Mr. Scotti found himself often playing “ethnic” roles. Italians, of course, but also Latinos, Russians, Middle Easterners, Native Americans, and yes, even Asians, the most glaring example being that of the Japanese soldier who thought World War II was still raging in not one, but two episodes of Gilligan’s Island (the Rashomon episode brought him back for everyone’s versions of what happened the first time he was there). Not only is Mr. Scotti in yellow face for the role, but the character is so embarrassingly stereotypical that it’s really kind of cringe-worthy.

Thankfully, Mr. Scotti appeared in two more Gilligan’s Island episodes as a different, less offensive, more fun character better suited for his talents. Dr. Boris Balenkoff popped up in Season 2 in “The Friendly Physician” and then returned in the Season 3 episode “Ring Around Gilligan”. In the first episode, Dr. Balenkoff seems like the castaways’ savior. He transports them to his own private island, apparently rescuing them. However, Dr. Balenkoff has other plans. It seems he’s what one might consider a mad scientist and the island is his lair and he’s keen on swapping around the minds of the castaways (for example, the Skipper ends up in Mrs. Howell’s body and vice versa). The castaways are able to get away thanks to Ginger and Igor swapping selves and the Professor (in Mary Ann’s body) getting everybody back to where they belong. When the castaways leave the island, Dr. Balenkoff and Igor have been swapped into the bodies of a cat and dog.

Dr. Balenkoff obviously recovers because he’s very much himself the next time he visits the castaways. In this episode, he uses his latest machine to turn the castaways into robots in order to train them to rob a bank. Of course, since Gilligan is involved, this does not go as well as Dr. Balenkoff hopes.

One of my other favorite Vito Scotti guest spots has him playing a doctor yet again, this time of the medical variety, but still with questionable intentions. In The Monkees episode “Case of the Missing Monkee”, Peter stumbles upon a plot to kidnap a scientist, which causes Peter himself to be kidnapped. Naturally, the other three Monkees going looking for their friend at the hospital where he’s being held by Dr. Markovich and Bruno. Dr. Markovich wipes Peter’s memory so he can’t reveal the plot (I guess you can’t take the mad scientist entirely out of the man), but the remaining Monkees rescue Peter, restore his memory, and thwart Dr. Markovich’s evil scheme. It’s an all around fun and funny episode. Vito Scotti would later have a small role in The Monkees movie Head.

Mr. Scotti did manage to play other roles besides mad scientists and doctors. He appeared in Westerns like Sugarfoot, Laramie, Cheyenne, Bonanza, Rawhide, The Rifleman, Laredo, The Virginian, Daniel Boone, and Gunsmoke; got family friendly on Bachelor Father, The Real McCoys, Lassie, My Favorite Martian, Bewitched, Happy Days, Who’s the Boss, and Charles in Charge; stopped by Miami to visit The Golden Girls and its spin-off Empty Nest; hit up the big names on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, The Donna Reed Show, and The Andy Griffith Show; laughed it up on The Odd Couple and Mad About You; enlisted with Hogan’s Heroes and CPO Sharkey; privately investigated on Mike Hammer, Peter Gunn, Surfside 6, Shaft, Charlie’s Angels, Vega$, and Hart to Hart; popped up on Make Room for Daddy and Make Room for Granddaddy; checked in on Dr. Kildare and Trapper John, MD (okay so he couldn’t entirely escape doctors); found adventure with The Bionic Woman and BJ and the Bear; tangled with the law on CHiPs, Police Woman, Adam-12, Get Christie Love, and Baretta; traveled to Fantasy Island and got some Northern Exposure; hung out with Jack Lord on Stoney Burke and Hawaii Five-O, Raymond Burr on Perry Mason and Ironside, and Ross Martin on Mr. Lucky and The Wild Wild West; spied on Get Smart, The Man from UNCLE, and The Girl from UNCLE; met icons Zorro and Batman; got creepy on Thriller and The Twilight Zone; got kooky on The Addam’s Family and The Munsters; pestered Columbo six times; and his final role was on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries that I’ve probably seen an unhealthy number of times.

It should be no surprise that many of the shows I listed featured Mr. Scotti more than once in various roles. They knew a good thing when they saw it and he was very much a good thing.

Vito Scotti was a frequent flyer when it came to TV guest roles and as such, it’s no trouble to catch him in one of his many appearances. His brilliant talent is always a spectacular addition to any show.

Rerun Junkie Guest Stars–Ron Masak

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When Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley) left Cabot Cove, there were some big law enforcement shoes to fill. Enter Ron Masak as Sheriff Mort Metzger.

Arguably the role he’s most recognized for, Ron Masak brought life to the New York City cop learning the ins and outs of a small town with a high murder rate on Murder, She Wrote. His interactions with the citizens of Cabot Cove while he tries to help Jessica Fletcher solve murders add a touch of humor to the rampant killings. And maybe it should be no surprise that he ended up fitting in so well. He had guest starred as two different law enforcement characters earlier in the series.

In addition to the role of Charlie Wilson on the short-lived series Love Thy Neighbor and a small recurring role of Woody on Webster, quite a few of Ron Masak’s 122 credits are on the small screen.

Mr. Masak has several memorable appearances on TV shows, sometimes in only a scene or two. One of my favorites is on Barney Miller. In the episode “Horse Thief”, a handsome cab owner has his horse stolen. In order not to lose any business, he steals a police horse. Mr. Masak plays the officer with the missing horse. The character is funny, odd, and maybe a little overzealous. In the end, he and the horse thief end up on the same side because as it turns out, the handsome cab owner took a different horse…which means another officer took his horse…and he uses spurs.

One of my other favorite guest spots is a second season episode of The Monkees called “Monstrous Monkee Mash” in which he plays The Count. Are the Monkees getting into shenanigans with horror characters like a Count Dracula-ish vampire, his niece, a mummy, and a wolfman? Absolutely. It’s a funny episode, bits of which have firmly implanted themselves into my brain. It’s also noteworthy to mention that the Monkees were a little more out of control during the second season, which could frustrate guest actors. However, Ron Masak kept up, kept his cool, and pulled off a fun and funny vampire. He would have made a fitting mentor for Vampire Davy Jones if he hadn’t been vanquished.

I will admit that his appearance blew my young mind when I realized it was him because until that moment, he’d always been Sheriff Metzger to me. Him appearing on a ’60s show didn’t seem possible to my young self.

Some other ’60s shows Ron Masak appeared on include The Flying Nun, Get Smart, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, and The Good Guys.

He spied on Mission: Impossible, took a trip to the Twilight Zone, and visited the Land of the Lost; privately investigated on The Rockford Files, Magnum PI, Longstreet, Barnaby Jones, Mannix, Remington Steele, and The Law and Harry McGraw (a Murder, She Wrote spin-off in which he played yet another cop character); checked in on Marcus Welby MD, Medical Center, and E/R; visited Mayberry RFD and rode the Supertrain; tangled with the law on Police Story, Police Woman, Ironside, The Feather and Father Gang, She’s the Sheriff, McMillan & Wife, and Columbo; lent his voice to The Real Ghostbusters; hung out with some names on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Quincy ME, and Alice; he had Good Times and Diff’rent Strokes; leapt into action on Emergency! and Wonder Woman; enjoyed some Love, American Style; and got unexpectedly soapy on The Yellow Rose, Falcon Crest, and The Bold and the Beautiful.

Ron Masak made an impression on every show he guested on, be it a recurring role or only one scene. He had a way of taking a character, making it memorable, and adding a bright spot to every episode he was in.

And we’re lucky to indulge in his shining light.