Law & Order Episodes

A guest role on a TV show can do wonders for a flagging career. Diane Holloway reports.

WHEN the Emmy nominations were announced recently, the names of Steve Buscemi, Polly Bergen, Robin Williams and Cynthia Nixon were not called out.

Yet they all received Emmy nominations for spectacular performances. And we probably won’t hear any of their names announced during the telecast awards show on September 21.

Why the lack of hype for these major stars? Because their categories of competition are “guest actor” and “guest actress”. For nearly two decades, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has been bestowing Emmys to guest stars. The nominees tend to be big-name stars, and their brief appearances on ongoing series generate heightened interest.

It might be an exaggeration, but some experts credit scandal-ridden pop star Britney Spears with saving the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Her quick spot generated tons of publicity for the ratings-challenged show - and helped Spears make a well-groomed, mainstream appearance. She didn’t land an Emmy nod, but she had a major impact on the show.

Guest starring certainly seems to be a win-win prospect. Actors usually get juicy, against-type roles to play, and the shows benefit from the publicity and audience response.

One of the biggest headlines generated from the recent TV critics gathering in Los Angeles was the revelation that Katie Holmes will sing and dance on an upcoming episode of Eli Stone. Holmes, perhaps best-known as Mrs Tom Cruise these days, might be a wonderful hoofer and warbler, but we’ve never seen it. Her guest spot gives her a chance to do something different.

Holmes isn’t the only big name on the small-screen horizon: Michael J. Fox will appear in a trio of episodes of Rescue Me. And comedy-drama Chuck has lined up a long roster of guests, including Nicole Richie, John Larroquette and Michael Clarke Duncan.

As far back as The Love Boat, veteran stars have been reviving their careers with TV guest spots. Long-running dramas ER and Law & Order boast dozens and dozens of famous actors.

Dick Wolf, creator-executive producer of Law & Order, once bragged that he has hired every New York actor with a Screen Actors Guild card at least once. Broadway and off-Broadway stars play criminals, defence attorneys and judges. Tennis legend Billie Jean King popped up for about 10 seconds last season as a judge, and Oscar winner Julia Roberts played a supporting role a few seasons ago - back when Benjamin Bratt was on the show and she was dating him.

Obviously some of this is pure stunt casting, done less for dramatic or even comedic effect than for hype. Brad Pitt set off screams in the studio audience when he guest-starred with Jennifer Aniston on Friends. Elizabeth Taylor provided baby Maggie with her first and only word (”daddy”) on The Simpsons, which also has featured guest voices by Michael Jackson and at least a hundred others.

Some series, especially those that are long in the tooth, depend on guest roles to keep them fresh - especially when an actor can be cast against type. A prime example? Late in its run, Will & Grace guest-starred Bobby Cannavale, known for playing macho thugs and cops, as a gay guy.

Glenn Close found her Emmy-nominated experience on The Shield so enriching that she helped create her own starring vehicle, Damages. She just earned her second lead actress Emmy nomination for that suspense thriller show.

“We’ve got some of the best writing coming out of television,” Close said in Los Angeles recently. “Some people say we’re in a new ‘golden age’ of TV. You don’t get this calibre of writing in feature films.”

Other guest stars who have parlayed brief roles into starring vehicles include Elizabeth Reaser, who played the physically deformed Ava on Grey’s Anatomy and now heads into new comedy-drama The Ex List; Anthony LaPaglia, who somehow turned an over-the-top comic guest spot on Frasier (as Daphne’s drunken brother) into the steely faced lead on Without a Trace.

Some actors aren’t looking for full-time series work. They just want a worthy vehicle to test their acting chops and keep them in the public eye.

Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker took chilling turns in multiple episodes of gritty police drama The Shield and ER. Writers gave him a lot to chew on, and the actor turned in performances of sheer brilliance. Both shows, not coincidentally, saw spikes in the ratings results during his tenure.

These guests might not get showcased on Emmy night, but they’re welcome additions on lucky shows.

 

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