Have you been spinning the dial, only to see a star in an earlier one-time performance that passed you by? I was flipping the channels this a.m. past the long-gone sitcom Amen (with Sherman Hensley), only to see Halle Berry! According to IMDB, she made a brief appearance in 1991. Who is someone you've spotted recently who had an itty-bitty part back in the day?

Krista Miller (Kate on Drew Carey, Jordan on Scrubs) as a student filmmaker on one of the first episodes of Northern Exposure (on DVD). I knew her by her voice first; she's really young in the episode and her eyebrows aren't "done."

Ben Affleck was on an episode of Almost Home, which was a sequel series to The Torkelsons (what?) - he was taking Dorothy Jane out on a date. I think Olivia Burnett came up to his ribs.

When I first viewed the trailer for Little Miss Sunshine and saw Paul Dano, I shouted "Hey! He was the boy in 'Too Young to Be a Dad' on Lifetime!" I would have been more ashamed if there had been more people in the theatre. He was the main character in the Lifetime movie, but that's a big leap from made-for-TV movies to a Best Picture nominee.

Matthew Perry was on a first season episode of 90210 as a popular rich kid who writes a screenplay about killing his father.

I saw both Cady McClain and Bobbie Eakes, who went on to have long careers in soap operas, in different episodes of Cheers, usually playing the precious daughter of some character or other. Kirstie Alley socked Bobbie Eakes in the episode she was in. It was pretty funny.

Ben Affleck was, of course, also on The Voyage of the Mimi. When I found that out it blew my mind.

Also, love the thread title. Which reminds me, I totally didn't know that Yvonne de Carlo was the lady from The Munsters for the longest time.

Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc were both guest stars (not in the same episode) as boyfriends of the girls on Just the Ten of Us back in the day.

Matthew Perry was also Carol Seavers boyfriend on Growing Pains. In fact, I believe he may have died in a drunk driving incident but I'm not positive about that one.

In a very special episode of Family Ties, a very young Tom Hanks played the mom's alcoholic brother whom I remember they had drinking the vanilla extract to get his buzz.

That was Ben Affleck! I had no idea.

There's an early S1 episode of "Grace Under Fire" where Grace and Nadine go to a frat party. Grace flirts with a handsome too-young-for-her college guy, played by a very young Ben Browder.

While watching The Chris Rock show DVDs I just bought, I didn't realise that before being famous (or more famous), Wanda Sykes was a writer, and appeared on some of his skeches. Kind of cool.

Also, while watching my Star Trek: The Next Generation DVD, who showed up, as Deanna Troi's arranged husband in one episode? Mr. Robert Knepper. He's gone from being the nice painter, to the creepy, serial murder T-Bag in Prison Break. They grow up so fast! Heh.

Teri Hatcher was in the Star Trek=TNG episode "The Outragious Okona" as an ensign.

Drew Carey's Diedrich Bader was an ensign in ST:TNG

Smallville's Allison Mack was in an episode of 7Th Heaven as a teen who cut herself.

The West Wing's Bradley Whitford playing a redneck thug on an episode of The Equalizer circa 1986.

Lucy Liu (then billed as Lucy Alexis Liu) was the sole bright spot of Rhea Perlman's sitcom "Pearl" (where sassy Rhea goes back to college and sticks it to her snooty professor!). She was the token overachieving Asian college student

Todd Bridges did a guest spot on Little House on The Prairie as a runaway the Ingalls take in. He also guest stared in The Waltens in a much similar role.

David Faustino was in LHOTP as a mute orphan.

Sandy! I loved that episode and it made me cry. And think.

Wentworth Miller was on one of the all time worst episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Go Fish.

She was also on ER for several episodes in the fall of 1995, playing the mother of an AIDS stricken baby.

Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey, and David Schwimmer were all re-creation players on Unsolved Mysteries.

Brad Pitt was on a "very special episode" of 21 Jump Street where Doug talks about the fact that his mom committed suicide and that he had attempted it when he was a kid and I am pretty sure was followed by an annoucement about where we could find out more information about dealing with people who are depressed.

Law and Order is also a big one with so many people cropping up on there in bit parts where you are surprised they don't aren't actually the killer or anything.

TheCustomOfLife


Cady McClain played Peter O'Toole's daughter in one of the great movies of the 1980sMy Favorite Year, which was involved an aging movie star appearing on a takeoff of My Show of Shows. Also, Anthony Geary and Phil Carey, Luke Spencer on General Hospital[i] and Asa Buchanan on One Life To Live[/i][/i]One Life To Live[/i], respectively, played a gay couple on an All In The Family episode.

Speaking of Grace Under Fire, I saw Penny Johnson Jerald (Lady MacPalmer in 24) playing a sassy neighbour to the titular character. I also saw her on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but I don't remember the role.

I knew about McConaughey, but not the others. That's kind of cool.

Anyway, Ryan Phillipe guest starred in an episode of Due South as a kid whose dad was a bank robber, long before he was Mr. Reese Witherspoon.

Ryan also played the first gay teenager in soap history on One Life To Live.

I too love the thread title! I'm a huge Follies fan, and had a small hand in preparing the orchestra material for the recent NYC concert.

Very true, although to be fair he wasn't an unknown by this point -- he had already starred on Bosom Buddies and was kind of a big deal on TV.

thirtysomething was great at giving people small guest-starring parts a few years before they hit it big: Faith Ford as a loopy receptionist, Tim Stack as a series of irritating guys interrupting a Saturday-night date, Kevin Pollak as a guy in a bookstore, Marg Helgenberger, Courtney Vance as a tough teenager, Angela Bassett, Stanley Tucci as a project manager, Patricia Arquette, Patricia Heaton as a doctor.

A practically embryonic-looking Christian Slater (he was that young) was in an ep of LA Law back when it was a good show (read: in the '80s).

A very young Helen Hunt played Kristy McNichol's friend in an episode of Family.
Also on that show, Tommy Lee Jones guest starred as Meredith Baxter's lover for an episode.

"It may not be Milla Time but it sure is vanilla time!!" Can't believe I still remember that line 20-odd years later.

A pre-Fonz Henry Winkler made an appearance on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a rather pathetic guest at one of Mary's disastrous parties — introducing himself to all the other guests by mentioning he was fired from his job earlier that day.

As was Shane West.

I was recently watching early episodes of "Boy Meets World" and spotted a few young stars: Keri Russell, Mena Suvari, Brittany Murphy, and Shane West among others. It's kind of weird, actually, because I don't think any of the "regulars" have had much of an acting career since...

In watching syndicated I Love Lucy reruns, there have been lots of people who appeared on the show. Off the top of my head, a very young Richard Crenna (later Colonel Trout from the Rambo movies--among other things) appeared with Janet Waldo (the voice of Judy Jetson), who was pregnant (and covered up) at the time, in an ep where the pair had respective crushes on Lucy and Ricky. I also remember seeing Ellen Corby (AKA Grandma Walton) playing a long-lost teacher of Lucy's or something in one ep. She looked so different with dark hair!

I also recall a very, very young Richard Dreyfuss playing a young warlock in an ep of Bewitched.

Channel surfing earlier I caught a rerun of Married With Children and who do I see? David Boreanaz, looking all young and slim in a leather jacket and jeans.

I was re-watching my "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" DVDs and ran across an ep where Robert Beltran (Chakotay on ST: Voyager) was playing the main villan of the episode. He winds up falling out of the Planet building and Superman saves him. Awesome early 90s special effects y'all!

Robert Redford made an early splash as a handsome "death" in an episode of The Twilight Zone that I still love.

And I first saw David Caruso in a bad miniseries about the 1896 Athens Olympics called, I believe The First Olympics. I ran across it recently on cable, and discovered both the miniseries and Caruso were worse than I recalled -- but at least he didn't have sunglasses.

Brad Pitt also was on thirtysomething, played the babysitter's boyfriend.

He was also on an episode of The Brady Bunch when he was a kid. So was Rita Wilson - I think she was the girl who gave Bobby Brady his first kiss.

I remember watching Nia Long, Melina Kanakaredes (?), Ian Ziering on Guiding Light. I remember watching Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore, and Parker Posey and Jordana Brewster on As the World Turns.

How fun! My love of this song comes from the version used in Postcards from the Edge. I watched the clip the other day on YouTube; I love Shirley MacLaine's rendition.
Reverse whoozis: in watching an early Law & Order: Criminal Intent the other day, I spotted Haviland Morris, the gal who played Jake Ryan's girlfriend in Sixteen Candles. "She's perfect. Practically impossible to cut up."

Melissa Sue Anderson gave Bobby his first kiss (and maybe the mumps); Rita Wilson was the cheerleader who wasn't Greg's girlfriend in the episode where he was the cheerleading judge.

Rita Wilson was competing for a cheerleading spot with Marcia, to be judged by Greg. I don't remember who gave Bobby his first kiss. Friedrich from "The Sound of Music" (sorry, don't remember actor's name) showed up as Marcia's date Doug Simpson in the "Ow, my nose!" football-injury episode.

Ooh, speaking of "Sound of Music", in "Cyrano de Brady" (Peter gets Greg to feed him lines when he's wooing a hot blonde) -- the hot blonde is Gretl (Kym Karath.)

I loved George Clooney on Facts of Life. He was the first to... "de-flower" her, right? And she was the first of the FOL girls to get some, if I recall correctly.

Oops! Thanks for the correction. I also liked Courtney Cox as MJF's girlfriend on Family Ties. She was so different from Ellen, yet good for Alex at the same time.

George wasn't Snake. George was George the handyman. The guy from Fast Times at Ridgemont High was Snake (I think).

Jack Nicholson was on the old Andy Griffith Show. I think he played a young crook; I definitely remember him on the witness stand in a trial. And William Christopher, who played Father Mulcahy on M*A*S*H*, also had a one-spot episode on AGS as the new, young, golf-playing doctor in town.

Watch the movie Malice next time it's run on TBS or TNT, or premium cable. The girl mouthing off to the dean is none other than Gwyneth Paltrow.

Joaquin Phoenix [then known as Leaf] was in the "Murder, She Wrote" episode called "Off to Slay the Wizard". He was also in the short-lived series based on the film "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" but that doesn't show up on tv so I don't think it counts for the purposes of this category. Nor does Leonardo diCaprio playing Phoenix's role in the tv adaptation of the film "Fatherhood..."

But it does count that diCaprio played the Seaver's 'foster child' in the last season of "Growing Pains"!

Shannen Doherty was a Girl Scout selling cookies in the movie Night Shift, with Michael Keaton and Henry Winkler. Although that was a movie, so maybe it doesn't count.

Adam Sandler played one of Theo's friends on some episodes of The Cosby Show.

Meg Ryan, Ming-Na, Jason Biggs, Kerr Smith, and Lauryn Hill also were on ATWT early in their careers.

That gorgeous hunk of a man -- I mean, that actor, Eddie Cibrian, is best known to prime-time audiences from "Third Watch" and "Invasion", but to me he will always be Matt Clark, the psycho rapist on The Young and the Restless who framed Nicholas Newman for shooting him.

Actually, the role of the youngest brother in the TV series "Seven Brides" was River Phoenix. The show also had a pre-MacGyver Richard Dean Anderson as the oldest brother and a pre-"Thirtysomething" Peter Horton as another brother.

Marisa Tomei and Jada Pinkett were both main characters on A Different World (different seasons).
Blair Underwood guest starred as a student that was being sent off to war but I don't remember if this was before he became famous.

America Ferrera was in an episode of Touched By An Angel. She was a high school student with OCD and an illiterate father.

Heh, I just thought of another one. Before seeing dead people in The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment was on Walker, Texas Ranger, as a kid, who had AIDS, thanks to his druggie mom (and had a bunch of bad guys after him, for some reason.) "Walker told me I had AIDS." Hee!

Speaking of that show, I also remember Mila Kunis appearing in an episode of Walker, before doing That 70's Show. It was a while back, but she was part of a group of troubled teenagers, that Walker was mentoring before, once again, some bad people showed up.