This past week’s TV programming was anything but dull with a lot of great guest stars showing up in some of my favorite shows.
Starting the week off was the appearance of actor Robert Knepper in the Sunday night episode of Breakout Kings on A&E. Knepper reprised his Prison Break role of Theodore “T-Bag†Bagwell in that episode, showing just how nasty that character could truly be. Besides appearing in Prison Break, he had a recurring roles in Carnivale and Stargate Universe, appeared in the final season of Heroes and had roles in the box office films Hitman, Transporter 3 and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
In that same episode, actress Rebecca Field played one of T-Bag’s victims who actually survived the encounter. She is best known for her role in October Road, but she has also appeared in episodes of Dollhouse, Drop Dead Diva, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, Lie to Me, CSI and Hawthorne.
On Monday night’s episode of Stargate Universe, actress Kathleen Quinlan and actor French Stewart showed up as a senator and a doctor working with the IOA sent to the ship Destiny via the communication stones to ascertain the likelihood of retrieving those trapped on the ship before it’s too late. Quinlan obviously has a long resume of film and TV appearances starting with her role in the classic flicks American Grafffiti through countless 70’s and 80’s series to box office films like Apollo 13 and more recent TV roles in Family Law, Prison Break and House.
As for Stewart, he is best known for his role on the popular comedy 3rd Rock from the Sun, but he also appeared in the original Stargate film as well as roles in the TV shows CSI, Less Than Perfect, Bones and The Closer.
Then over on Chuck, actor David H. Lawrence XVII showed up as the manager of Large Mart, Buy More’s rival at the mall. His character Marvin and his staff kidnapped Big Mike, bargaining his life for the life of their store’s pig mascot named Kevin Bacon. Lawrence is probably recognizable to many viewers as Puppet Master Eric Doyle on Heroes, but he has also appeared in episodes of Lost, Raising the Bar, CSI and The Unit.
Later that night on Castle, while a lot of very familiar faces – like Jane Seymour, Corbin Bernsen, Rebecca Budig and Cameron Mathison – were featured; there was also actress Tina Majorino, who appeared as the personal assistant to a murdered soap opera writer, but turned out to be the murderer. Majorino has been acting since she was a child, appearing in the films Corrina, Corrina, Waterworld and later in Napoleon Dynamite. She also had recurring roles in Veronica Mars and Big Love as well as being a series regular on the short-lived series The Deep End. The other under-the-radar guest star appearance was fromSex and the City’s David Eigenberg — who played Miranda‘s significant other in the TV series as well as the two movies.
Lastly, there was Friday night’s episode of Merlin in which actor Harry Melling appeared as Gilli, a young man with magical abilities who comes to Camelot to take part in the legendary tournament that has one rule: there are no rules and the last man standing wins. Melling is best known for playing Dudley Dursley, Harry Potter’s bratty cousin in nearly all of the Harry Potter movies. This is one of his first roles outside of the Harry Potter franchise as an adult.
It will be interesting to see who shows up in my favorite shows next week.
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