It Was So Good To See You (Week of August 21) 

Each week it is always fun to see the familiar faces who guest star on my favorite shows. This past week was, once again, packed with some great actors and actresses.

Over on The Glades on Sunday night, there was actress Kayla Ewell, who starred as a bartender and night manager to a beach-front diner while actor Johann Urb played one of her presumed boyfriends.

As most TV viewers will recall, Kayla appeared in The Vampire Diaries, but she has also been in the day time soap The Bold and the Beautiful as well as episodes of Freaks and Geeks, The O.C., Entourage and Boston Public. She also recently appeared in the made-for-TV movie Keeping Up with the Randalls.

Whereas, Johann most recently starred in the short-lived series Eastwick, but also appeared in Dirt as well as the box office films 1408 and 2012.

Meanwhile, on Drop Dead Diva, actresses Leslie Grossman and Kali Rocha appeared as a sorority sister of Deb and Stacy and an avarice plant grower respectively.

Leslie is best known for her role in the cult-favorite Popular as well as the half-hour comedy What I Like About You and the short-lived series 10 Things I Hate About You.

While Kali is known for her recurring role as the demon Halfrek on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, she has also made appearances in episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Sherri as well as the box office films Meet the Parents, Buried, Meet the Fockers and The Object of My Affection.

Then over on Monday night’s shows The Closer and Warehouse 13, there were more great familiar faces.  For The Closer, actress Roxann Dawson appeared as a Phoenix detective whose daughter was tragically murdered; while actors Yancey Arias and J. August Richards appeared on Warehouse 13 as former co-workers of Myka (Joanne Kelly) at the Secret Service.

TV viewers will remember Roxann for her role in Star Trek: Voyager, but she has also appeared in episodes of Without a Trace, Any Day Now, The Division and the short-lived The Lyon’s Den. She is also now an accomplished TV director.

Meanwhile, Yancey has appeared in the short-lived remake of Knight Rider as well as episodes of Numb3rs, CSI, The Division, NYPD Blue and Charmed.  He also appeared in the box office films Live Free or Die Hard and The Time Machine.

Whereas, J. August is best known for his role in Angel as well as the short-lived series Raising the Bar and guest-starring roles in CSI: Miami, Grey’s Anatomy and The Mentalist.

Then over on Wednesday night on Royal Pains and Necessary Roughness, actress Madeline Zima appeared as the sick nanny to a “scared of everything” little boy on Royal Pains and actress Alyssa Diaz appeared as female boxer who kept freezing during fights on Necessary Roughness.

Madeline is best known for her roles on The Nanny, Heroes and Californication; but she has also appeared in episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, Ghost Whisperer and Gilmore Girls.

Meanwhile, Alyssa is best known for her role on the new series The Nine Lives of Chloe King, but she has been in As the World Turns, CSI: Miami, The Unit, Greek and Southland.

Lastly, on Thursday night, it was a mini-The Pretender reunion over on the USA Network. First there was actor Michael T. Weiss appearing on Burn Notice as a kidnapper who got tricked up by Michael while actress Andrea Parker appeared on Suits as a CEO of the accounting firm used by the law firm. Michael and Andrea, of course, appeared on The Pretender (for which Burn Notice star Jeffrey Donovan appeared as Michael’s character Jared’s brother).

Michael has also been in Crossing Jordan and Blue Bloods as well as providing his voice to animated shows such as Justice League and The Legend of Tarzan.

Meanwhile, Andrea appeared in the half-hour comedy Less Than Perfect as well as Pretty Little Liars, CSI: Miami, The Mentalist and JAG. Andrea has recently joined ABC’s Desperate Housewives, a show that stars another Pretender alum, James Denton (he was Mr. Lyle to her Miss Parker).

As always, it will be a lot of fun to see who shows up next week.  Who did you recognize on your favorite shows this week?  Please share.