Apr 2, 2008

Self-Deprecating TV Cameos

What's more fun than celebrities playing themselves on TV? Celebrities playing unflattering versions of themselves on TV! And it's one thing to make fun of yourself via voice acting, but it's another to appear as yourself in person, so no Simpsons guest stars or Futurama heads in jars. And since a few shows specialized in unflattering cameos, I only allowed for one per show.

#4. Carl Weathers, Arrested Development: Apollo Creed, Action Jackson, the muscular guy from Predator who didn't go into politics. In the 80s, Carl Weathers was everywhere. In the 2000s, he was making fun of himself on Arrested Development:





#3. Christopher Hewett, Ned & Stacey: Largely remembered as the show that stole the mechanic from Wings, or as that show Debra Messing was on before Will & Grace, Ned & Stacey was actually a pretty decent show. Ned is an advertising exec who finds out he's going to be denied a promotion because he's not a family man. Stacy is looking for a cool apartment. The obvious solution, of course, is a fake marriage. If this sounds like cliched sitcommery (or worse, a little like 1987's I Married Dora), you're probably right. But the show was occasionally very clever, and even featured the talents of future oscar winner Charlie Kaufman in its writing staff.

And for those of you wondering who Christopher Hewett is, the title of the episode in question, "Saved by the Belvedere," should be a giveaway. Ned's putting together a commercial for a product called "Cappuccino in a Can," and decides that he needs TV's Mr. Belvedere to pitch it. Ned tracks him down, and finds that he's poor, living in a ratty apartment, and possibly in possession of massive amounts of stolen property. And when they begin filming the commercial, it becomes apparent that Hewitt has lost his mind. He refuses to read his lines for the commercial because the set doesn't exactly match his TV kitchen. Strangely, though everyone (except for possibly Hewitt himself) seems to be aware that he's an actor who played Mr. Belvedere on TV, no one ever uses his real name. They all address him as "Mr. Belvedere."

Ned & Stacey is long gone, cancelled after two seasons, so it's been forever since I've seen the actual episode, but I think in the end they fire Mr. Belvedere and replace him in the commercial with Tony Danza.

#2. Clive Owen, Extras: From the series finale of Extras, I'll let the clip speak for itself (warning: strong language):


It was tough choosing between this and Patrick Stewart's appearance, which was also very, very funny.

#1. David Duchovny, The Larry Sanders Show: David Duchovny actually appeared on three episodes of this, the greatest TV series ever to have a complete DVD release. Over the course of his appearances, he and talk show host Larry Sanders
(Garry Shandling) become friends, and Duchovny develops what can only be described as an uncomfortably deep affection for Larry.

Skip ahead to about 1:20 in the middle clip, the other two are all Duchovny.




I'm also fond of: Geoffrey Owens (Elvin from The Cosby Show) on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Keith Hernandez on Seinfeld.

1 comment:

Stigg said...

Is it strange that I never saw any of those cameos and never saw any episodes of the top 3?