Helen Slater visits “Smallville” and other reasons to love TV

I love the idea of meta-casting, but how do you distinguish that from a cameo? I'd call Ricki Lake's appearance in Hairspray a cameo, just like John Waters'. Is it really "casting" if they don't do anything more than show up? Well, I guess you could say John Waters just showed up, but Ricki was playing critic/agent to the new version of her Tracy Turnblad self. Yeah.

Meanwhile, meta-casting I'd like to see:

Rachel Griffiths as a therapist on State of Mind (who takes Lili Taylor's clients)
Michelle Pfeiffer as an ABA ethics investigator on Damages (who has a dangerous liaison with Patty Hewes)
Alison Folland as a conservative talk show host on The L Word (who blasts The Chart)
Angelina Jolie as a fall-to-earth rescuer on Lost (will Juliet go or stay?)
Debra Messing as Jackie's nurse on The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman

ETA- Dean Cain(Lois and Clark) is going to be on this season of Smallville as well.

Dukes of Smallville- Tom Wopat showing up on Smallville with The Car and getting in through the window.

Christopher Lloyd on Spin City during the Mike Fox days.

In the Sci-Fi Channel series "The Invisible Man" episode Exposed-

One of the prisoners that Darien releases, and vaguely recognizes, is played by Adam Storke. This is an reference to Vincent Ventresca's previous series, "Prey". Adam Storke played one of the homo-superior who was captured and left in a cell.

I know more but I'm blanking out...I feel so ashamed.

"Bad jokes are us, ur me."

I think this falls into the category of meta-casting. Maybe.

There was an episode of St. Elsewhere in which we learn that the character, Warren (Byron Stewart) is, in fact, Warren Coolidge from The White Shadow. We learn this when Warren sees a character played by Timothy Van Patten and thinks he's Salami -- one of Coolidge's friends/teammates on The White Shadow. (Salami, of course, was played by Timothy Van Patten.)

This twist provided a little exposition for Warren and was certainly fun for White Shadow  fans, of which I was one. (Both shows were Bruce Paltow shows; hence the connection.)

I gotta say, maturity suits Helen Slater well.  She looks way hotter than I remember her being in Supergirl.

Lisa

i can't wait for the new season. i especially want to see what lex is going to do. he' s my fave male character and chloe is my fave female character. clark's character is too pathetic for me to like anymore. i always enjoyed lex's character much more than clark's anyway. even though last season's finale raised a lot of question about who's coming back. lana or chloe. i hope chloe does.

"The road to darkness is a journey,  not a light switch." – Lex Luthor, "Ryan"

I always loved the quick scene in the movie Maverick where Mel Gibson is in a bank that gets robbed by Danny Glover, his Lethal Weapon 1,2,3 co-star.  Danny's mask comes off and they have a old-time double-take at each other before dismissing the deja vu.

Classic.

The one that comes to mind is Richard Hatch, the original Captain Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica, playing Tom Zarek (underground resistance leader, considered by many a murderer, etc.) on the new BSG.

I also know that Adam West has done voice-over work for some of the Batman cartoon series.

And didn't Clark's mother from the original Superman movie play the dying old lady that leaves Lex Luthor her inheritance in Superman Returns?

"Out of the box is where I live." -Starbuck

Actually, this isn't about casting.  In Stakeout, Emilio Estevez and Richard Dreyfuss are trying to guess which movie the other is quoting.  EE quotes, "This was not a boating accident!"  RD of course said that in Jaws (his response in Stakeout was to deadpan, "No idea.")  So is that meta quoting?

Also, didn't the series end of Newhart have Bob Newhart waking up with his wife from his previous sitcom to find out that Newhart was all a dream?  I'm really not sure what catergory that fits in.

That wasn't her...That was Canadian actress Jackie Burroughs...

And, Helen Slater on "Smallville"??? Sooo cool! :)

Jennifer Aniston - Dirt. Definitely meta-casting.

Are these two considered meta?: 

Mary Stewart Masterson - L&O SVU (Detective Elliot Stabler was the bully in Some Kind of Wonderful).

Kate Walsh and Sandra Oh - Grey's Anatomy & Under the Tuscan Sun.

"Mary Stewart Masterson - L&O SVU (Detective Elliot Stabler was the bully in Some Kind of Wonderful)."

I don't think that was him, although they do look a little alike now that they are older.

Along that line, though, I'd love to see Mary Stuart Masterson in anything again with Mary Louise Parker.  They haven't been in anything together since Fried Green Tomatoes, right?  Maybe she'll show up on Weeds with some honey! 

Brad Pitt in a Thanksgiving episode of Friends.

And one that I can't believe no one else has mentioned - Anne Heche in an episode of the last series of Ellen, playing the ex-girlfriend of Ellen's current girlfriend Lauri!

Alexis Denisof as a jeweler? He has a scene where he puts a necklace around Tina's neck?

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MELKOR: Got the shinies!
UNGOLIANT: Not enough shiny. Want more shiny!
MELKOR: You can't have 'em.
UNGOLIANT: Grar.
MELKOR: Eeek! *runs*
FEANOR AND SONS: We're gettin' our shinies back.

How about:

On Gilmore Girls, two later producers were from Buffy (Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson) who created a character for Danny Strong (Jonathan from Buffy) and named him Doyle (nod to Doyle from Angel??). 

Also on GG, Rory and Lorelai were talking to each other on the phone about going out at a later hour and one of them says something about the only people out that late are Spike and Drusilla.

Again from GG, Paris makes a comment to one of the news staff about someone being like Russ Tamblyn who happens to be the dad of Amber Tamblyn who was Alexis Bledel's costar in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

In Bring It On with Eliza Dushku (Faith, BtVS) (and Claire Kramer Glory, BtVS) one of the cheerleaders says: Can we just beat these Buffys down so I can go home?