Favorite "Before They Were Famous" Appearance

[Stanislav]

Two of the most memorable "Twilight Zone" episodes also featured future stars: Bill Mumy ("Lost In Space") as a child with a supernatural power over the people in his town.....

Ah, yes, "It's a Good Life" -- one of my favorite Zones, and one of the creepiest episodes of any TV series ever. Mumy is excellent, as are the adults, whose characters perpetually teeter on the edge of hysteria, trying desperately to maintain a pleasant and agreeable facade so as not to piss off the kid.

 

[PirateJohnny]

In a 1964 episode of Bewitched, Racquel Welch plays an airline stewardess, but her face is not seen. She is listed in the credits. In the Leave It To Beaver episode "Beaver's First Kiss" the mother of the lucky girl is played by Majel Barrett (Mrs. Gene Roddenberry/Enterprise computer voice). This aired on TVLand a few times without being mentioned, when they did things like that. I even emailed them about her appearance.

 

[anotherguyTN]

A few more from MASH and Andy Griffith:

Jack Soo in a couple of appearances as a con artist and local man with a sales cart

Pat Morita as Captain Pak

Also Jamie Farr in the Andy Griffith movie No Time for Sergeants as a pilot, and later on the Andy Griffith Show as a Gypsy

William Christopher on Andy Griffith as a new local doctor

William Shatner was also in an episode of the original Outer Limits as an astronaut who continually stayed cold after returning to Earth.

 

[cd637299]

On "Leave it to Beaver," Ryan O'Neal made an appearance. I cannot recall the episode name, but www.tv.com should have it; I think he played a very young married guy to which the Cleavers were concerned might give Wally ideas.

Also on LITB IIRC Barbara Parkins played a quite attractive babysitter for Beaver, despite Beaver's objections that he was too old to have a sitter.

I wanna say that both were in Season 5.

cd

 

[PirateJohnny]

Gavin MacLeod made two Andy Griffith show appearances, with an ironic connection. In the B&W era, Gavin played a bank robber pretending to be a movie producer making a movie about Andy, "The Sheriff Without A Gun". In the color era when the movie was actually being made, Gavin portrayed Andy in the movie.
Alan Hale and Bob Denver both made appearances on The Andy Griffith Show as well as Buddy Epson, Bill Bixby and Barbara Eden, but not in the same episodes.
Speaking of Buddy Epson, we all know The wizard Of Oz story. Listen closely and you can hear Buddy's voice singing. The way it was recorded it could not be removed from the soundtrack without completely re-recording the song.

 

[bpatrick]

Adam West made at least one appearance on "Maverick";
I've seen a picture of him looking on as Bret and Bart are
involved in a poker game. BTW, James Garner played a
prototype of Bret Maverick in several episodes of "Cheyenne"
before Roy Huggins decided he'd be perfect as a cowardly type
on a certain Western he was creating.

Phyllis Diller made her first national appearance as a contestant
on "You Bet Your Life" in 1957. George Fenneman, who grew up
in San Francisco, apparently saw her act at the Purple Onion and
invited her onto the show; she said her appearance didn't go as
well as she would have liked because she felt intimidated talking to
Groucho. Candice Bergen, age eleven and a half, made what I believe
was her national debut on "You Bet Your Life" in 1958; she and Groucho's
daughter Melinda won $1000 for the Girl Scouts (Groucho and Edgar Bergen
joined in to help the girls, with Fenneman asking the questions, but the
girls did quite well without their fathers' help). And let's not forget William
Peter Blatty's 1961 appearance on the show; he came on disguised as an
Arabian prince (he played the gag at parties to see if anyone could see through
the disguise, and Fenneman invited him to put Groucho to the test). Groucho
wasn't fooled; "You're no more an Arabian prince than I am because I have an
Arabian horse and I know what they look like," Groucho told him. Blatty and his
partner divided the show's top prize of $10,000; he took his winnings to help
finance him while he wrote "The Exorcist."

Other game shows with "BTWF" contestants: the original "Name That Tune"
with John Glenn, Eddie Hodges, and Leslie Uggams; Dr. Joyce Brothers and
Barbara Feldon on "The $64,000 Question." And Col. Sanders on "What's My
Line?" when Kentucky Fried Chicken was still a relatively-small chain of franchises
(before he sold out to John Y. Brown); he stumped the panel, with Dorothy Kilgallen
coming closest to guessing his line when she thought he had some connection to turkeys.

I don't know if this counts, but Dick Cavett, recently moved from writer to performer,
was a panelist on "Line" one night in 1965 or '66, before he made his mark with talk shows.
During the Mystery Guest spot, he observed, "The Mystery Guest is probably sitting there
wondering who I am."

 

[azumanga]

I just saw Edward Platt -the Chief of Control (Get Smart)on The Rifleman. Would you believe it? Would you believe Pinky Lee?

I just recently saw an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Edward Platt on ME TV that came on just before Get Smart on a late Saturday night when I can actually watch them.

Platt was also seen in "Destination Space", a busted TV pilot from 1959:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QQXXVB3mNg

And here's a snippet of the final scene (featuring Platt), and the closing credits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SRq8aT6hcs&feature=related

 

[Braves2005]

Robert Redford appeared on a very early episode of Perry Mason as did a pre-"Hazel" Whitney Blake. Adam West also appeared on Perry Mason as did Barbara Eden.

Barbara Eden also guested on I Love Lucy in the country club dance episode where Ricky, Fred and the other men were all after her for dances.

Carroll O'Connor appeared on That Girl where he played an opera singer who had a crush on Ann.

Cloris Leachman played Don's sister on That Girl.

I think that Jodie Foster appeared on an episode of Mayberry R.F.D. (her brother Buddy was a regular on the show) and I know for a fact that she appeared on The Courtship Of Eddie's Father.


Ron Howard played on Dennis The Menace as one of Dennis' friends in the first season of the show.

Marion Ross played a doctor on The Brady Bunch.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Watched an episode of "Highway Patrol" this morning on "ThisTV," starring a very young Leornard Nimoy as a plant worker who comes in contact with a radioactive substance.

Took me about 5 minutes to recognize it was him, but as soon as he opened his mouth, there was no doubt!

 

[landtuna]

Took me about 5 minutes to recognize it was him, but as soon as he opened his mouth, there was no doubt!

I've noticed the same thing over the years. Someone's appearance or make-up might change their appearance but their voice is almost always recognizable.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Cloris Leachman played Don's sister on That Girl.

While I realize her career took off because of her recurring and later starring role as "Phyllis Lindstrom", wasn't Leachman a pretty well established star in Hollywood after her starring role in "Jeff's Collie" (Lassie)?

 

[MHB]

On "Leave it to Beaver," Ryan O'Neal made an appearance. I cannot recall the episode name, but www.tv.com should have it; I think he played a very young married guy to which the Cleavers were concerned might give Wally ideas.

Also on LITB IIRC Barbara Parkins played a quite attractive babysitter for Beaver, despite Beaver's objections that he was too old to have a sitter.

I wanna say that both were in Season 5.

cd

Right, the episode was "Wally Goes Steady."

Wally and then-girl Evelyn went to visit Evelyn's sister and her husband Tom (O'Neal's character). The Cleavers were concerned but Wally learned the lesson on his own that married life wasn't all that glamorous.

And as you say, both that and the Barbara Parkins episode were Season 5.

 

[Hal Erickson]

Mary Tyler Moore played everything from a damsel in distress (BOURBON STREET BEAT, SURFSIDE 6) to a coquettish saloon-hall girl (WANTED-DEAD OR ALIVE) to a spiteful bitch (JOHNNY STACCATO) before someone realized she had comic abilities and hired her as Laura Petrie.
William "Paul Drake" Hopper played a charming but cold-blooded killer on a 1956 GUNSMOKE.
The pre-CABARET Joel Grey played a fatally UNtalented nightclub comic on 77 SUNSET STRIP and a pouty Billy the Kid on MAVERICK.
Long before DOBIE GILLIS, Dwayne "Dobie" Hickman and Sheila "Zelda Gilroy" James were seen as high-school sweethearts on Stu Erwin's TROUBLE WITH FATHER.
Walter Koenig was a vicious street-gang leader on THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR.
The pre-STAR TREK career of DeForrest Kelley is a treasure trove, ranging from his proclaiming "I'm a doctor--not a diplomat" on THE MILLIONAIRE to "I'm NOT a doctor!" on BONANZA.
And let's not forget Elizabeth "Samantha" Montgomery making passionate love to David "Larry Tate" White on THE UNTOUCHABLES.

 

[firepoint525]

Cheryl Stoppelmoor appearing on an episode of The Partridge Family, years before she was Cheryl Ladd on Charlie's Angels. Couldn't really blame her for using her married name, now could we?

Bruno Mars as an Elvis impersonator in Honeymoon in Vegas. He was about seven years old at the time!

Took me about 5 minutes to recognize it was him, but as soon as he opened his mouth, there was no doubt!

I've noticed the same thing over the years. Someone's appearance or make-up might change their appearance but their voice is almost always recognizable.

Casey Kasem in an episode of Hawaii 5-0!

 

[FreddyE1977]

John Ritter playing a burglar in a Kojak episode.

He also did an episode of the original Hawaii Five-O around that time.

One of my favorite old "Five-O" episodes had Andy Griffith miscast as a villain
(albeit an attractive, roguish one)

 

[tlyle]

A few more from MASH and Andy Griffith:

Jack Soo in a couple of appearances as a con artist and local man with a sales cart

Pat Morita as Captain Pak

Also Jamie Farr in the Andy Griffith movie No Time for Sergeants as a pilot, and later on the Andy Griffith Show as a Gypsy

William Christopher on Andy Griffith as a new local doctor

William Shatner was also in an episode of the original Outer Limits as an astronaut who continually stayed cold after returning to Earth.

William Christopher was also a fellow marine of "Gomer Pyle".

 

[Laura151]

Richard Dreyfuss as a teenage boy on an episode of The Big Valley-this was years before American Grafitti.

 

[KeithE4]

Lucille Ball had a small part in a Three Stooges short.

As did Walter Brennan, as a train conductor in Woman Haters (1934) - their first short after leaving Ted Healy for the final time. He was also in the Stooges' Restless Knights (1935). Brennan's movie career goes back to the 1920s.

Lucy's appearance was in Three Little Pigskins (1934).

Speaking of the Stooges, Moe & Shemp Howard's first screen roles together were in the film Spring Fever (1919), staring baseball Hall-of-Famer Honus Wagner. They were touring as a vaudeville act at the time, three years before joining childhood-friend Healy's act in 1922 (Larry Fine joined them in 1925). Moe had been a child actor in New York under his real name Harry Moses Horwitz, but this was Shemp's first film appearance.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Also Jamie Farr in the Andy Griffith movie No Time for Sergeants as a pilot, and later on the Andy Griffith Show as a Gypsy

He was on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" a few times as the guy who brought coffee and donuts to the writers' office.

Ed Sullivan was the WML mystery guest who Dick Cavett asked, "I wonder if (he) knows who I am."

I think Ron Howard appeared on Red Skelton's show when he was only about 4 years old.

Here's one that's been forgotten...Jerry Seinfeld on "Benson", playing the comedian hired to write jokes for the governor.

Just thought of a couple others...Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert were castmembers on the Taco Bell/Mug Root Beer/Etc. Dana Carvey Show. (Boy, these flow from one to the other, don't they...Dana Carvey played the Daniel Stern "JAFO" character on the TV version of the movie "Blue Thunder".)

 

[Ultimajock]

I might also add Claude Akins to the list of future stars who appeared on "Superman" episodes; he also appeared on an "I Love Lucy" episode set in Florida.

Two of the most memorable "Twilight Zone" episodes also featured future stars: Bill Mumy ("Lost In Space") as a child with a supernatural power over the people in his town, and William Shatner as an airline passenger convinced he sees an alien-looking man outside his window.

...Claude Akins also appeared on the second episode of Branded, and Charles Bronson appeared on both Alcoa Presents/One Step Beyond and The Twilight Zone...