Actors in Other Roles: Not Everyone Stayed in Sunnydale

[Halting Hex]

7 hours ago, illdoc said:

Trying again: https://tvline.com/2022/07/21/sarah-michelle-gellar-wolf-pack-cast-teen-wolf-paramount-plus/

So, between Smidge and (theoretical, if it gets made) castmates Chloe Rose Robertson and Tyler Lawrence Gray, the producers of Wolf Pack are going for the record as far as "three-named cast members", is that it?  Okay…Holly Marie Combs is probably looking for a new gig, anyhow.

Somewhat un-thused, I admit.  I've managed to see exactly zero seconds of Teen Wolf and I wasn't exactly howling for a spin-off.  But I wish Sarah well.  After all the projects that she's signed onto that fizzled on the launching pad, anything that can get going will get a cheer from me.

(Three-named actors are fairly thin on the ground on this series.  John Patrick White [Pete, Beauty and the Beasts] is the only one that's leaping to mind.  Huh.)

ETA:  this actually sent me to looking at an image page for JPW, and apparently he's become an attorney, or at least he was one.  Here's his picture from the site of Sidley Austin LLP, the international law firm (offices in Chicago, DC, and Hong Kong):

He seems to have left the firm, though; the pic comes up in image-searches, but he's not listed any longer.

Perhaps he's working for Wolfram & Hart instead?

Edited July 22, 2022 by Halting Hex

[paulvdb]

5 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Somewhat un-thused, I admit.  I've managed to see exactly zero seconds of Teen Wolf and I wasn't exactly howling for a spin-off. 

Just to clarify: Wolf Pack is made by the same people and about werewolves but as far as I know not a spin-off of Teen Wolf. There is a Teen Wolf movie coming up. And the news about SMG on Wolf Pack was announced at a Comic Con panel for that movie so I can see how people might think that Wolf Pack is a spin-off.

[Halting Hex]

So, I never had much interest in the series Monk, the long-running procedural starring Tony Shalhoub as a hyper-phobic ex-detective.  But my DVR glitched, I had a lot of space and I said "what could it hurt to look?"

So it turns out that the episode (8.04, "Mr. Monk is Someone Else") is a perfect example of why Döppelgängland is so great.  Many TV shows, when they get lazy or out of ideas (hey, it's season 8, okay?  BtVS ran off the rails a bit before that, IMO), have episodes where an actor plays a double role, hamming it up as a guest-star who just happens to completely resemble the regular.

Now, in sci-fi/fantasy you can pull this off:  Captain Kirk is split in two, so we get an examination of the various parts of his psyche.  A villain has shape-shifting powers, confusing the heroes.  We're in an alternate dimension, and the Halliwell sisters are evil here!  And so on.

But in the mundane world, what do we get?  Monk just happens to have a look-alike, who is a contract killer, so when the hit man gets run over by a bus, the FBI (Reed Diamond of Homicide: Life on the Street) asks Monk to impersonate "Frankie" and stop the planned "hit".

Of course this is stupid beyond stupid, because Noted Whack-Job Adrian Monk can't credibly pretend to be anyone other than Noted Whack-Job Adrian Monk and not only would this crap have a very high risk of "Jimmy Barlow" (the guy who hired "Frankie") whacking Noted Whack-Job Adrian Monk, and then hiring somebody else to kill the guy "Frankie" was contracted for and probably killing a bunch of innocents trying to find out who squealed on him.  But of course, Monk completely pulls it off, which really isn't so hard, as Tony Shalhoub is not, in fact, Noted Whack-Job Adrian Monk but an actor and it's not exactly hard for him to put on different clothes and say scripted lines.  It's rather his raison d'être, to paraphrase Spike.

So why did I keep watching (well, skimming, only stopping occasionally)?  Because the lead guest-star was Eric Balfour, playing the gangster's weaselly son, "Lenny".  Balfour actually didn't have much to do and his idea of characterization was apparently limited to wearing a hat.  Well done, Balfour.  Sigh.

In the end, Monk turns his gun on the nefarious Barlows, the FBI goes in and Balfour and the rest are marched off…but not before the FBI taunts them by telling them that "Frankie" is actually dead and calling Monk by name in front of them.   Yeah, that's smart.

And thus endeth my interest in ever watching another episode of Monk.  But, to be fair, once you've seen The Eric Balfour Episode, what's left?  (Seriously, it's at least 8 seasons, so 175+ episodes. What are the odds?)

Tony Shalhoub was in The Siege with Mark Valley, who was on Boston Legal with Christian "Balthazar" Clemenson

Ted Levine was, of course, putting the lotion in the basket in The Silence of the Lambs, with Anthony Hopkins, who was in The Human Stain with Gage Petronzi

and Traylor Howard spent several seasons of Two Guys, a Girl, a Pizza Place, Several Other Locations, and Nathan Fillion Downstairs dating said Nathan Fillion, so that's that.

[Halting Hex]

So, apparently last year they did a new season of Leverage, which turned up on my ION station today.  (All the eps "originally aired" on the same day, so I assume that Leverage: Redemption was originally streaming, rather than broadcast.)

It being several years, some of the cast had moved on; Timothy Hutton is no longer the lead.  (Noah Wyle is in his place.) But Aldis "Kid in a Demon Mask" Hodge is back again, and so is Christian Kane.

And, while I was checking out the cast list, my Guide gave some of the actors' birthdays, and so I see that Kane is only 48.  Which, some (reasonably) quick subtraction tells me, means that back in 1999, when Angel debuted, Christian was only 25.  (Likely 24 when they filmed the pilot.)

So…"Lindsey" is four years younger than "Cordelia", even though, as far as the characters go, he was a successful attorney and she had only graduated high school that spring.  Huh.  Casting is fun, isn't it?

Ironically, Kane would have been pretty much the proper age to play Riley Finn, who was only a junior, but might have spent a few years on active duty before being assigned to UC-Sunnyhell/The Initiative.  But Christian wasn't "Teutonic" enough to get that part, I'm guessing.

Spoiler

Sad to think that if Lindsey is really Kane's age, he dies before he turns 30.  But of course Angel pretty much got every single human on that series killed, so why should one more matter, right?  Just so long as Connor/Spike/Lorne/the Blue Meanie and even fucking Harmony get to go on living their happy demonic lives, who cares about a bunch of worthless humans, right? [/still very bitter, still hating Angel.  Sorry.]

[lembergwatcher]

Sorry, but Christian Kane is 50.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0437283/

[Halting Hex]

Entirely possible (he wouldn't be the first actor to shave a couple of years), but other sources give the 1974 birthdate, which is the one my guide used.  Until we get a squint at his Social Security card, it's just a guess, I guess.

[lembergwatcher]

Started watching Perception TV series recently... Probably due to my years-long "infatuation" with Rachael Leigh Cook (God, why couldn't those dopesmokers at Team Joss cast her as friggin' Anya?..). 
 

Episode nr. 3 and familiar faces started to pop up:
 

Edited September 17, 2022 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

Is Emma C really the problem with Anya?  I'm not thrilled that she stopped using her lower register after Fear, Itself, but overall I think she did a decent job with what she was given.

And unless somebody wishes vengeance upon Joss, even Anya can't turn shit, er, scripts into gold.  JMO.

[illdoc]

Did anyone know SMG was in a just-released Netflix movie (see last line of article)?! https://tvline.com/2022/09/18/sarah-michelle-gellar-cruel-intentions-reboot-series-nbc-cancelled/

[Halting Hex]

I keep forgetting to mention this and now it's almost old news, but Aldis Hodge (kid in a Demon Mask, Fear Itself) is playing Hawkman in Black Adam, so he's gone from being punched by SMG to being punched by her Southland Tales co-star, Dwayne Johnson.

(Also, a black Hawkman?  Guess Thanagar finally decided to something about those police brutality complaints, huh?)

[illdoc]

SMG's new series: https://tvline.com/2023/01/11/smg-wolf-pack-sarah-michelle-gellar-character-explained/

[Halting Hex]

So Smidge had her Wolf Pack premiere event, and looked lovely:

The Daily Mail snarked that it was "surprising" that FPJ was with her (Freddie doesn't hit many events, it seems), but someone else got it even worse from them:

They wrote that Marsters was "unrecognizable" which was rather harsh, IMO.   You can't expect 62 to look like 42. Frankly I think JM's letting the gray come in makes him appear more like Spike than any time since he washed that bleach right out of his hair, post-show.

[Halting Hex]

So Pedro Pascal's new video-game adaptation, The Last of Us, is apparently a big hit for his pals at HBO.  (Despite Pedro having basically called down The Great Roofie Spirit upon himself and forgetting he'd been cast. [Okay, just took a sleeping pill and woke up with no memory of the night before, but still.]) And he's hosting Saturday Night Live tonight!

It's been a long road, but our Eddie is doing well it seems.  Although it looks as though it's been a very long road, too:

Okay, so 23 years is 23 years.  And some of the dirt and lines are just makeup; he still looks pretty good in civvies.

Really, the only down note is that Pedro got stuck with Coldplay as his musical guest.  Ugh.  I bet they could have gotten Stretch Princess for, like, half the price…

 

[Halting Hex]

And Pedro has now gone on to be a presenter at the Oscars.  Which might be a bit odd as he's currently starring in two TV series, but whatever.  I'm still spun that they devoted part of the telecast to commercials for individual movie studios; I found that rather tacky.

But congrats to Pedro, anyways.

[illdoc]

(Cable) Movie news:  The Comedy Central original movie Office Race, starring Beck Bennett (Saturday Night Live) and Joel McHale (Animal Control), will premiere Monday, Sept. 4 at 8/7c. The film follows an “unambitious office worker (Bennett) who goes to great lengths — specifically 26.2 miles — to defeat his exercise-obsessed, micromanaging boss (McHale).” The cast also includes Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), Kylie Bunbury (Big Sky), Erinn Hayes (Childrens Hospital), J.B. Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother), among others.

[illdoc]

Not quite "another role" but ... https://tvline.com/news/alyson-hannigan-dancing-with-the-stars-cobie-smulders-reaction-himym-1235042964/

and https://tvline.com/lists/dancing-with-the-stars-season-32-cast-full-list-dwts/alyson-hannigan-2/

Edited September 13, 2023 by illdoc

[Halting Hex]

So I'm watching people react to viewing Erin Brockovich, and I keep wondering about that smirky defense attorney who tears Erin (Julia Roberts) to pieces on the stand at the start of the film, when she's trying to win a judgement against the guy who drove into her car. 

Who is this guy?

It turns out that's Pat Skipper. Charmed  fans may know Pat from the classic "Morality Bites" episode where he tried to have Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) burnt at the stake…

…but of course we know him better as Ben's boss from Tough Love.

Would not have thought that would be the nicest role, but it goes to show…something.

[Halting Hex]

So apparently TNT gives Charmed the occasional late-afternoon slot to go ahead with the morning ones, and so just before dinner I caught the last half of "Brain Drain", episode 4.07 of that series.

Not only is this episode infamous for being rather similar to Normal Again  (and thus forcing that ep to be pushed back from its intended 6.08 slot all the way to 6.17), not only is the lead demon played by Alastair Duncan (Collins, This Year's Girl/Who Are You/Sanctuary), but I also spotted Whitney Dylan (Lysette, The Zeppo) in a minor role.

BtVS  actors were hardly rare on Charmed, but a double-dose is a bit unusual.

[lembergwatcher]

Dancing With the Stars

[lembergwatcher]

Caleb & Felicity. They must be discussing the ways Caleb's gonna purify the girl...

Waitress, 2007.

[lembergwatcher]

Some oldie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZMqHHuQ3a4