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RSSElliot as a bad guy? This week's familiar faces . . .
Really this is worse than when Chip from Kate & Allie started popping up a villian in all those crime dramas. Henry Thomas, the sweet little Elliot in the movie E.T., was the man behind the kidnap/prostitution ring -- the man who Vivian mistakenly let go -- on Without a Trace. Far less traumatizing was Catherine Dent as the mom who had just been released from prison. Dent is Danny on The Shield.
He was fairly disguised but his voice is so distinctive. Shella recognized that was George Segal as Dell's grandfather on Private Practice. Segal was Jack on Just Shoot Me and many remember him from his Academy Award nominated role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Mal recognized Gina Torres was Simon Elder's ex-wife on Dirty Sexy Money. Torres is so one of our favorites. She was Cheryl last season in Standoff, Anna Espinosa in Alias, Julia Milliken on 24 and Zoe in both Firefly and Serenity.
John Sloan, the husband of the annoying neighbors Lilly and Marshall became friends with on How I Met Your Mother, starred in last season's short-lived FOX comedy Happy Hour. Douglas recognized Kristen Schaal, who was Mel, the obsessed fan in the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, was the wife of the annoying couple. Schaal also played one of the switchboard operators on Mad Men.
Michael Cudlitz is Mark Rawls on Life. He was Frank last season in Standoff. Titus Welliver is the man who committed the crime Crews was convicted of. Welliver was Silas Adams on Deadwood and can currently be seen as Lionel in the movie Gone Baby Gone. Jude Ciccolella was the husband who confessed to a crime he didn't commit to protect his wife on Life. Ciccolella was Mike Novick on 24 and plays Dr. Raymond on Everybody Hates Chris.
All this week's bonus points must go to Louis and Angie who recognized Caroline Lagerfelt as Serena's grandmother on Gossip Girl. Louis remembered that Lagerfelt played Spike's mom on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angie remembered that she was David Silver's mom on 90210. You guys make me so proud.
Kevin recognized that Lauren Stamile is doing double duty on two medical shows. She's Rose, the nurse who McDreamy kissed on Grey's Anatomy and Elliot's terminally ill patient on Scrubs. I agree with Kevin, that's not too shabby.
Annie recognized Phil Lewis, who plays Mr. Moseby on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, is Hooch on Scrubs. Annie remembered that he also just played the loan officer Marshall and Lilly met with on How I Met Your Mother. That Mr. Moseby gets around.
David Clennon was Phil's dad on October Road. We just saw Clennon as the man who received his deceased daughter's heart on Grey's Anatomy and he was Dr. Martin Cole on TNT series Saved. Of course, I'll always remember him as Miles Drentell on Once & Again and thirtysomething. Veronica Cartwright was Phil's mother. She was Valerie on Invasion, Jack's mom on Will & Grace, and Cassandra Spender on The X-Files. Jessica Tuck appeared in flashbacks as Nick's mom. Tuck was Gillian on Judging Amy.
Have you seen a familiar face? Write me at amytvgal@zap2it.com and let me know. I'll post familiar faces every Wednesday.
Amy Amatangelo, TV Gal ®
Thanks Amy. I still love the column and don't care if it was later than usual. In a little while, we won't have much tv to rave/rant about. Yeah I know supposedly there will be some programming, but I could care less about an American Gladiators remake. Just glad you have something to write about at all and keep up the great work. Yay for Samantha Who and Christina Applegate getting a Globe nod today!
Do you even read your comments? Readers plead for you to make better and more consistent posts and this is what you give us...old updates on actors that have been on shows/movies we have seen before? Officially, I am done with TV Gal. I was thinking about this stuff days ago.
Get off her back already! What's there to write about anymore; most everything is in reruns. Is she supposed to run a 'Where Have I Seen Them Before', "oh yeah, when I saw this episode the FIRST time!"
You people are ridiculously needy. Don't you remember a few months ago, when we only got our Monday fixes of TV Gal??
I emailed her regarding a hunch I have on 'LOST', and she was kind enough to read it and send me back TWO emails!
Keep your chin up against these haters, Amy.
I love the column, Amy! It's one of three that I make a point to read regularly. Keep up the good work.
Grant Shaud, Miles Silverberg on Murphy Brown, was Steve Kaiser on Pushing Daisies this past Wednesday.
Didn't you claim to be done with her in yesterdays blog? Be done already and go away.
I love your blogs. Keep up the great work!
Oh, I love Gina Torres, but unfortunately I don't watch DSM. How did she look? Can anyone tell me? Didn't she just give birth not long ago!? Wow!
Amy, I don't mind the column being late; as a mother of a 19-month-old, I know stuff comes up that interferes with work. Thanks for the great columns. Although, I do have to agree a tiny bit that I believe I prefer the once-a-week with more content in the one column altogether. Still, I do enjoy the blogging we get to engage in after each of your posts (except for the really negative ones - I don't understand why people have to yell at other people about the shows they like or that they think others should be watching - it's all OPINION and PREFERENCE people - or at you, Amy, for that matter....) Hope all is well, Happy Holidays!
Thanks Amy. I guess Im one of the few who like the 3 times a week. Keep it up. Great work!!! I guess some people have WAY to much time on there hands that they have to post hatefull comments on here.
The character of Steve Kaiser on Pushing Daisies this week had a such a distinctive voice and I just couldn't place it, and I finally realized that he played the "devil" on an episode of the Drew Carey Show.
Amy, I enjoy having TV Gal around, so keep up the good work!
I still love Journeyman, depsite the news that it was essentially canceled by NBC. :-( This week's episode of Journeyman had a lot of familiar faces.
We have already mentioned that Jack's girlfriend Theresa is played by Lisa Sheridan, who was Larkin on "Invasion". Also, we saw the return of Joel Gretsch (Papa V***er), who plays Agent Tom Baldwin on "The 4400". Dan's co-worker Nancy Stokes is played by Alyson Reed, who was Ms. Darbus, the drama teacher in the High School Musical movies.
Then we saw John Aniston (AKA Jennifer's father) as the elder Mr. Almbacher. Aniston has played Victor Kiriakis on "Days of Our Lives" for almost 20 years. Also, going way back to the 1970s, Robert Pine (who played the present day Dennis Almbacher) was Sgt. Getraer on the long-running series "CHiPs".
By the way, the very talented Jessica Tuck was recently in High School Musical 2, playing Sharpay and Ryan's mom. Also, one of her first professional acting jobs was the role of Megan Gordon on "One Life to Live" in the late 80s.