Summary
Sitcom guest stars can often disrupt the flow of a show, but when they are handled well, they can make the comedy even funnier. Great guest stars need to fit into the established world of the show, but the truly memorable ones can shake things up and provide hilarious new conflicts. Some sitcoms seem naturally better-suited to facilitating guest appearances than others, and some even make cameos part of their identity.
While all sitcoms need guest stars every now and then to keep things fresh, not all of them consistently choose good options. Big stars can sometimes overshadow the main cast. This is why it’s particularly off-putting when some shows have gratuitous celebrity cameos where stars play themselves. However, some shows like30 RockandCurb Your Enthusiasmare designed to bring the best out of their celebrity stars, leading to some unforgettable cameo appearances.
10 Groundbreaking Sitcom Episodes That Hugely Impacted The Genre
Sitcoms have always been known for their hilarious characters and wild storylines, but several episodes redefined the genre in groundbreaking ways.
10Call My Agent!
The Talent Agency Sitcom Is Overflowing With Talent
French comedyCall My Agentfollows the daily struggles of a talent agency in Paris, and the show’s main characters spend most of their time cleaning up after their pampered clients. This allows for plenty of hilarious guest appearances. Any fans of French cinema will enjoy seeing actors such as Isabelle Huppert, Guy Marchand and Charlotte Gainsbourg in a different environment.
The Artist’s Jean Dujardin,Léon: The Professional’s Jean Reno, and one-time Bond girl Monica Bellucci all play memorable roles.
Even for people with no knowledge of French movies,Call My Agentstill has some familiar faces.The Artist’s Jean Dujardin,Léon: The Professional’s Jean Reno, and one-time Bond girl Monica Bellucci all play memorable roles.Sigourney Weaver even crosses the Atlantic in season 4, showing off her French-language skills and partying at the tomb of Jim Morrison in Paris' iconic Père-Lachaise cemetery.
Arrested Developmenthas one of the best ensemble casts in any sitcom, and an equally impressive group of recurring stars which includes Henry Winkler, Judy Greer and Liza Minnelli. With so much talent already in the mix, the guest stars have to be fantastic just to keep up. Fortunately,Arrested Developmentfrequently finds the perfect actors to come face-to-face with the dysfunctional Bluth family.
Actors like Martin Mull and Carl Weathers seem like they hung around the show for a while, such is their disproportionate impact.
Actors like Martin Mull and Carl Weathers seem like they hung around the show for a while, such is their disproportionate impact. Similarly, Ben Stiller’s flamboyant magician, John Michael Higgins' no-nonsense lawyer and James Lipton’s tricky prison warden only appear in a handful of episodes each.Arrested Developmenthas a fast-paced, wordy style, and it’s important for guest stars to fit the show’s sense of humor immediately.
Friendswas the biggest sitcom on TV for years, and this allowed the show to attract a ton of huge stars. While there were plenty of small roles to go around for character actors and TV stars,Friendsalso boasts an impressive list of Hollywood A-listers. The impressive thing aboutFriendsis that it gives each of these actors a compelling story, rather than just parading them around for the sake of it.]
The cast ofFriendsbecame huge stars, so it never felt like they were being upstaged, even with guests like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.
Danny DeVito’s role as a stripper andBruce Willis’Friendsappearanceprovide examples ofFriendsmaking characters who are just as interesting as their actors. The cast ofFriendsbecame huge stars, so it never felt like they were being upstaged, even when people like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts would walk through the doors of Central Perk. On any other sitcom, these stars would pull too much focus.
AlthoughFuturamais set a thousand years in the future, it features some fantastic cameos from celebrities playing themselves. In the world ofFuturama,the scientific community has developed the technology to keep human heads alive in jars. Nobody seems to care too much about this miracle of science, and many of the heads are confined to history museums, where they endlessly bicker with one another.
One ofFuturama’s best episodes is a reunion for the original cast ofStar Trek,allowing the sci-fi show to pay tribute to one of its biggest influences.
Some of the heads are periodically allowed out to mingle with society, and this sets the scene forhilarious cameos from the Beastie Boys, Lucy Liu and many more. One ofFuturama’s best episodesis a reunion for the original cast ofStar Trek,allowing the sci-fi show to pay tribute to one of its biggest influences. Some guest stars can shine without playing themselves. John Goodman’s evil robot Santa Claus and Sigourney Weaver’s role as the Planet Express ship are both outstanding.
Jerry goes through so many girlfriends onSeinfeldthat it’s possible to make an impressive list of guest stars just based on the actors who play these women. Courtney Cox, Lauren Graham and Teri Hatcher are probably the biggest names on this list.Seinfeldhas many other wonderful guest stars over the course of its nine seasons. Some stars play themselves, like Bette Midler, Jon Voight, and Rudy Giuliani, in an episode which aired just after he was elected mayor of New York City.
Jerry goes through so many girlfriends onSeinfeldthat it’s possible to make an impressive list of guest stars just based on the actors who play these women.
Seinfeld’s celebrity guest stars are always fun to watch when they portray themselves, but the show has an impressive batting average when it comes to comedic actors playing small roles.Seinfeldmakes one-off charactersbetter than most other shows.Philip Baker Hall’s no-nonsense library detective and Larry Thomas' Soup Nazi became iconic with very little screen time. It’s also a joy to see series co-creator Larry David pop up sometimes, whether he’s playing George Steinbrenner, Frank’s cape-wearing lawyer, or just a voice in the crowd calling for a marine biologist.
The Big Bang Theoryprides itself on its nerd culture credentials, so it’s important that the show has the celebrity appearances to back it up. Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard often geek out over getting the chance to meet their idols, and their excitement makes the celebrity cameos even funnier. However, stars like Carrie Fisher and James Earl Jones aren’t just there for fan service. They also get entertaining and funny moments. It’s worth noting that theStar Warsactors had never met face-to-face until they appeared onThe Big Bang Theorytogether.
Star Warsactors Carrie Fisher and James Earl Jones had never met face-to-face until they appeared onThe Big Bang Theorytogether.
As well as showing off some pop culture icons,The Big Bang Theoryhas several unforgettable cameos from famous scientists. Since most of the main characters are scientists themselves, it’s fun to watch them interacting with people like Bill Nye and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Stephen Hawking has one of the show’s best cameos. He is referenced many times before he eventually appears, and one of the first things he does is flag a mistake in Sheldon’s work.
The Simpsonshas a long tradition of brilliant guest stars, with many celebrities playing cartoon versions of themselves. There are too many memorable guest stars from the 35 seasons of the show to list, but some fan favorites include Leonard Nimoy, Ringo Starr and reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon.Not all celebrity guest stars play themselves, however.Meryl Streep’s role as Jessica Lovejoy and Johnny Cash’s performance as a mystic coyote are enjoyable even though they don’t draw too much attention to their voice actors.
The Simpsonshas a long tradition of brilliant guest stars, with many celebrities playing cartoon versions of themselves.
The Simpsonshas announced some season 36 guest starsalready, with John Cena making his debut and Tom Hanks returning to the show for the first time sinceThe Simpsons Movie.Most excitingly, a roster of baseball stars are set to appear in an episode titled “Bart’s Birthday”. This could be a sequel of sorts to season 3’s “Homer at the Bat,” in which Mr. Burns stacks the power plant’s company softball team with talents such as Jose Canseco and Wade Boggs.
Since its first season,Curb Your Enthusiasmhas been a great place for stars to make fun of themselves. Following Larry David’s lead, scores of Hollywood actors have played the role of pampered, obnoxious elites. David Schwimmer and Lin-Manuel Miranda are particularly good at this. Other actors are there to be the straight man who makes Larry’s antics look even more bizarre than usual, like Wanda Sykes and Michael J. Fox.
Martin Scorsese has a memorable cameo directing Larry in a gangster movie, and Shaquille O’Neal forms an unlikely friendship with Larry.
Some ofCurb Your Enthusiasm’s best episodeswork so well because Larry David manages to bring great performances out of people with very little acting experience, if any. Martin Scorsese has a memorable cameo directing Larry in a gangster movie, and Shaquille O’Neal forms an unlikely friendship with Larry after being accidentally tripped by him at a Lakers game.Curb Your Enthusiasm’s guest appearances reveal a hilarious truth about their stars.
As a TV show about making TV shows,30 Rockhas plenty of celebrity guest appearances. Jerry Seinfeld, Buzz Aldrin and Al Gore have all dropped by Studio 6H for memorable cameos playing themselves. The show also has great comedic actors popping up in minor roles, like when Carrie Fisher shows up as Liz Lemon’s idol, or when Matthew Broderick plays an incompetent government employee.
As a TV show about making TV shows,30 Rockhas plenty of celebrity guest appearances. Jerry Seinfeld, Buzz Aldrin and Al Gore have all dropped by Studio 6H for memorable cameos playing themselves.
30 Rockwas well known for getting creative with some of its guest appearances.For example, in the live shows, the script requires Liz to be in two completely different scenes back-to-back. With Tina Fey unable to rush between the two locations in time, Julia Louis-Dreyfus steps in as Liz for the scene.30 Rockalso gets real stars to appear in its hilarious fake movies. This is how Jim Carrey stars as the amphibious holiday character Leap Dave Williams.
1Extras
Each Episode Of Extras Is Named After A Celebrity Guest
Ricky Gervais’Extrashas existed in the shadow ofThe Officefor a while, especially since the latter show got its wildly successful American remake. However,Extrasis just as hilarious, and this has a lot to do with its incredible raft of guest stars. Gervais plays a struggling actor who takes on work as an extra while he waits for his big break. His character often gets into awkward situations with the big-name stars appearing alongside him in the movies he works on.
Ricky Gervais’Extrashas existed in the shadow ofThe Officefor a while, especially since the latter show got its wildly successful American remake.
Thebest guest stars inExtrasinclude a foul-mouthed Kate Winslet and an insecure Orlando Bloom. These self-parodies work brilliantly, either because they are so unexpected or because the actor is on the joke about their public persona.David Bowie’s guest appearance is the most unexpected of all, as is his impromptu serenade about Gervais' stubby nose. On this occasion, Gervais is the one who allows himself to be the butt of the joke.
