Hubris & TV Trivia

Maybe no one else will care about this type of thing at all, but it's my blog, not yours, so whatever. I got the urge to write a sort of tribute article to the "hey, it's that guy/gal" actors of the world. You know what I mean - I'm talking about the people who seem to pop up as guest stars in half of the shows on the current tv line-up, or those that make a living waiting for the call to come back to the Law & Order again and again. In fact, once you've watched enough Law & Order, you can predict from the initial interviews who's going to be a person of interest later on just from the fact that you recognize him or her. Sad, but true. Because of my excessive tv viewing, the eccentric breadth of some of that viewing, a decent memory, and my tendency to watch weekly dramas that focus on a rotating cast of characters (Law & Order, Bones, Cold Case, House, Without A Trace), this happens so much more to me than with most people I know. My sister used to make fun of the frequency with which I would exclaim "hey, it's that guy!" during our daily viewings of whatever we happened to be watching (she was the one responsible for getting me into One Tree Hill and The O.C. on SoapNet). On one memorable occasion, I was looking at the guy playing Nathan's uncle on One Tree Hill and wondering to myself why he looked so familiar. Turns out he played Starbuck's husband on Battlestar Gallactica. I'm not sure of a whole lot of other people who view either of those shows enough to make that pathetic connection aside from one of my old college roommates whom I turn to for opinions on both Gossip Girl and the latest BSG incarnation, Caprica.

I just really like seeing people I recognize pop up on more than one of my favorite shows. But these are people that, even now, wanting to give them tribute, I'm going to need to go look up their names. They're just not the kind of people that have famous names, and that just makes it even more fun. Or they're people that become famous for one show and then pop up on reruns of something else, from the days before they got that role. I like the trivia aspect of it all, the hoarding of knowledge that may or may not ever come in handy. Ahhh, that's what it is. I'm a trivia hoarder. Do I get my own show on A&E now?

Honorable Mentions

Before I get to the actor and actress that take my prize for favorite guest roles, I have a few other random people that have come to my attention recently. For one, although I'm focusing on tv and he's known mostly for his myriad of movie roles, no list would be complete without Stephen Tobolowsky. Everyone knows who he is, even if they don't know his name, I guarantee it. I was in that category until I watched the documentary Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party, and forever after I am on the hunt for him to turn up so that I may identify him. It's like my own private game, a spin-off of "hey that guy" if you will, called "hey, it's Stephen Tobolowsky". But since I seem to be the only one who's seen that documentary, I think I'm the only one playing. My roommate from law school and her boyfriend would probably play with me, if I could still hang out with them. Anyway, prior to his stint in Glee as the disgraced former glee club teacher, Sandy Ryerson, I would explain who he was by referencing Groundhog Day. Ned Ryerson, bing! (Um, I would like to point out that until my final read-through of this entry to check for errors, I did not catch the fact that the last names were the same on both of those roles. Genius. For Ryan Murphy, obviously, not me.) Given his ridiculous amount of credits, I very much doubt that he cares one way or the other whether anyone knows his real name. I just spotted him on a rerun of The Closer the other day and barely recognized him with the abundance of facial hair he was sporting. Sprouting. Whatever.

Speaking of Glee, there have been a couple of fantastic cross-overs between that and one of my other favorite shows, True Blood. Artie played a very small part as a coroner's assistant and fangbanger on True Blood in season 1. And the football coach was (is? Can't keep track of who's dead/undead on that show) one of Eric's minions at Fangtasia. He's also done some of the typical serial shows - Cold Case, Without A Trace. One of the judges from sectionals, the blonde, was on True Blood's second season as the wife of an anti-vampire church leader. The counselor from Glee was also in an episode of House that I just saw during a reruns marathon. Also, Taub from House had a few recurring spots on Law & Order as a defense attorney that McCoy would go up against named Randy Dworkin. I remember the DA (then Fred Thompson) asking McCoy on one of his visits, "What's a Randy Dworkin?" His character was just a funny and clever attorney who would come up with some of the most ridiculous arguments in chambers, and deliver long soliloquies at arraignments, to the chagrin of the presiding judge (I wish I could remember some of his crazy stories, but one quote I found online involved him objecting to the judge announcing the case as "The People of New York" vs. his client, as being prejudicial, since he didn't think the people had anything against his client). He was memorable, even before I knew him as Taub, and for a series that has as many actors coming and going as Law & Order, that's saying something.

True Blood is going to get a couple more shout-outs in this entry, so I probably should have warned you to just stop reading at the beginning if you're not a fan. In that vein (ha! blood joke! sorry), the latest season has added a couple more fantastic people. Before he was the hot, hot werewolf, Alcide on True Blood, Joe Manganiello was Owen from One Tree Hill. Happy casting news, indeed. And thank god he moved to a network where nudity is allowed and encouraged. The new vampire King of Mississippi was also a pleasant surprise, as he has been on several episodes of Law & Order (the original, Criminal Intent and SVU), most frequently as a priest, for some reason. Priest to Vampire King. He was also in the film, Milk. Awesome. This is what I love - the disparity, the range!

That Girl

Or woman, if you're offended by that kind of thing. Whatever. In the last couple of years, in many of my favorite shows, the same people keep turning up again and again, and they are really the reason I wanted to write this, although I've done a decent job straying into long tangents as usual. Anne Dudek is a name I'm now determined to commit to memory. It was definitely her long stint on House that first caught my attention. I just watched reruns of several of her episodes during a marathon and became upset that she wasn't still on the show. She might have improved this season, even as a ghost. Certainly couldn't have made it any worse. During that same time, I was getting into Big Love. Suddenly, there she is, as Albie's conniving partner-in-crime-wife. I heard about her time on Mad Men, though that is one show I have yet to get into. I catch reruns of Numb3rs every once in a while, and there she was. Recently, I was watching reruns of Bones and she turned up there, too. Now I keep seeing her in the promos for Covert Affairs. I tried watching a little of that show, but Piper Perabo's acting is painful. As much as I'd like to support Anne, I just can't do it. She was even featured on one of my favorites websites, Go Fug Yourself. I have to admit, it was that entry as well as the Bones appearance within a couple days of each other that probably spurred me to write this. Now I'm just waiting for them to find a role for her on True Blood, and the circle will be complete.

That Guy

Sadly, I'm not sure that Zeljko Ivanek will ever be a name I can commit to memory, but I certainly will try. Goodness knows he's earned the attempt. Look at his credits! The man has been in nearly every major show over the last 10 years! Wait, has he been on Lost? Shit, he has. That man has the best agent in the universe. Too bad that man didn't assign him a name that was easier to remember. He'd be more famous than Cher. Where did I first see him? Probably Law & Order. He was in an episode that was partially about gay marriage. He was on 24 and Oz, neither of which I watched, but probably other people would recognize him from that. He's done one-episode spots on Cold Case, CSI, Bones, ER, Numb3rs, and Lost, in addition to way too many others. But the conflation of roles that made me really sit up and take notice of him happened during my last year of law school. He had a great episode of House, I think a sweeps week episode. I was still watching Heroes then, and it was just starting to jump the shark. Before my roommate and I finally gave up on it, Ivanek appeared in several episodes. I was also watching Big Love around that time, and suddenly Ivanek was on there, as Nikki Grant's former husband. Most of his episodes came in the next season I think. The same thing happened with True Blood - he popped up as the Magister, but outside of one episode in that season where he disciplines Bill, his big arc didn't occur until this season. It's just a trick of memory, because I've researched the dates, but I swear it felt like he showed up on every show I was watching within a matter of weeks. But research does confirm that all of that happened from 2008-20010, in a span of one or two seasons (and since HBO runs their series during off times of the major networks, it's possible that I've seen that man more frequently over the past couple of years than I have some of my extended family).

That's the magic of these people, though. They seem to be everywhere. It's like when you learn a new word, and suddenly it seems to be thrown into every conversation and magazine article you read for weeks afterwards. Or you start thinking you'd like to own a Prius, and it seems like you can't drive to the supermarket without seeing 3 of them. I'm sure there's a technical psychological term for it that I learned sometime in my past, but I can't remember that now. I'm still trying to commit Zeljko Ivanek to memory.