The Sci-Fi Acting Collective

[USS Triumphant]

This is sort of a duplicate post from another thread in a separate forum, but I wanted to discuss it by itself, and it is more suited for that in here:

When I used to play the Kevin Bacon game, I noticed a trend. After what happened to the original cast (who did end up typecast and in career limbo for quite a while), it seems like the newer casts have been a little smarter about networking: if you see one Trek actor get anything like a regular gig on a show, keep an eye out for other members of their acting collective to show up as guest stars, or even on occasion in other recurring or regular roles. And the collective seems to have expanded to embrace some of the actors from other series sci-fi/fantasy (and strangely, CSI and Boston Legal, when it was on) as time has gone on and Trek people have overlapped with them.

A few examples:

1. Look up the cast of the cartoon Gargoyles at IMDB. If you're not already familiar with it, you may be surprised.

2. Stargate: Oh let me count the ways - Recurring roles or guest spots for Marina Sirtis, Jolene Blalock, Armin Shimerman, Dwight Schultz, Erick Avari, Colm Meaney, Morena Baccarin, Erica Durance, and others that I'm almost certainly forgetting. Semi-regular role for Lexa Doig. Regular roles for Claudia Black, Ben Browder, Jewel Staite, and Robert Picardo.

3. Boston Legal had William Shatner and Rene Auberjonois as regulars, and the following as guest stars: John Larroquette, Armin Shimerman, Ethan Phillips, Michelle Forbes, Scott Bakula, Elizabeth Dennehy, April Grace, Jeri Ryan, and a ton of other more minor Trek actors.

And that's just a very few. If you look for it, you'll see what I'm talking about.

I'm trying to figure out if there's a new game to be made out of this, or if it's just an interesting sidenote. Or maybe it doesn't mean anything, actors have been doing this all along, and I just notice it more with these actors because of the shows they're tied into....

 

[Mistral]

I think you've just been doing too much LDS.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I think you've just been doing too much LDS.

Learning Disabilies School? Or Latter Day Saints?

As far as I know, I've never done a Mormon.

 

[Maestro]

BSG: Nana Visitor, Michelle Forbes, Dean Stockwell, Lucy Lawless

 

[USS Triumphant]

BSG: Nana Visitor, Michelle Forbes, Dean Stockwell, Lucy Lawless

And some of the connections are pretty circular instead of direct, which makes me wonder if they are part of what I'm seeing, or just complete coincidence. Like this: Nana Visitor was on Doogie Howser with Neil Patrick Harris. Then she was on DS9 with Colm Meaney and Armin Shimerman. They were both on Stargate, which also had Morena Baccarin and Jewel Staite - both of whom were on Joss Whedon's Firefly. Joss Whedon created Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog with Neil Patrick Harris last year.

A friend of mine pointed out while I was typing this that what I'm seeing may just reflect the rising power of SAG through the years.

 

[Maestro]

Six Degrees of Richard Dean Anderson?

 

[Mistral]

I think you've just been doing too much LDS.

Learning Disabilies School? Or Latter Day Saints?

As far as I know, I've never done a Mormon.

I have and while enthusiastic, they're not very creative.

 

[auntiehill]

^Because it's hard to cut loose while wearing the magical underwear.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You want to talk acting collective, go up north. From watching Stargate (any version), Andromeda or nuBSG it would seem that the entire acting population of Canada is maybe a couple dozen people.

And as for a Trek connection: One of these Canadian collective actors (Roger Cross) appeared on an episode of ENT. Thus linking the entire collective to Trek in that manner.

 

[teya]

3. Boston Legal had William Shatner and Rene Auberjonois as regulars, and the following as guest stars: John Larroquette, Armin Shimerman, Ethan Phillips, Michelle Forbes, Scott Bakula, Elizabeth Dennehy, April Grace, Jeri Ryan, and a ton of other more minor Trek actors.

Jeri Ryan was on David Kelley's "Boston Public" for 3 years, so I think it's more likely she got the Boston Legal gig that way...

 

[USS Triumphant]

Jeri Ryan was on David Kelley's "Boston Public" for 3 years, so I think it's more likely she got the Boston Legal gig that way...

Okay. But who says her gig on Boston Public wasn't somehow the result of John Larroquette or Armin Shimerman being on The Practice first?

 

[Maestro]

Her tits.

 

[intrinsical]

Chuck's another example. Robert Duncan Mcneil's produces and directs, Adam Baldwin's a regular. Tony Todd and Scott Bakula has had semi-recurring roles.

There's still a Hollywood stigma to be associated a scifi production. For example, Edward James Olmos didn't want to be in BSG if there were aliens. I guess this made the scifi writers and actors form their own little niche social network.

 

[AviTrek]

Filming location plays a large part also. You see a lot of actors filming in Vancouver show up on other shows filming in Vancouver because there is a limited supply of actors in Vancouver available for guest star roles.

Also, Sci Fi channel loves to do stunt casting and bring in "known" science fiction actors for their shows.

The only case I can think of where a science fiction network was actually used was Leverage. Jonathan Frakes was directing an episode(he works with the producer a lot), and he suggested bringing in Brent Spiner and Armin Shimerman for roles in the episode. I'm sure there are other cases, but that's the only one I know where someone explicitly said they went out to get people they've worked with for parts.

 

[Maestro]

Chuck's another example. Robert Duncan Mcneil's produces and directs, Adam Baldwin's a regular. Tony Todd and Scott Bakula has had semi-recurring roles.

There's still a Hollywood stigma to be associated a scifi production. For example, Edward James Olmos didn't want to be in BSG if there were aliens. I guess this made the scifi writers and actors form their own little niche social network.

Actually, I believe his issue was that he didn't want it to devolve into "forehead of the week." Which makes me think he's seen a little bit more Star Trek than he is perhaps willing to let on.

 

[fishingforships]

If you play a lead role in a syfi t.v. show you're pretty much typecasted for a role in that genre. I love watching Star Trek and seeing some random alien with ton's of makeup on and suddenly figuring out he's a lead roll in another series. And yes when I was a kid I watched the Gargoyles cartoon sometimes and couldn't get over the voice of Riker and Troy being there, along with various others on occasion.

 

[Mistral]

Michael Dorn and Mark Hamill also did time together on the Batman series-linking Trek to Star Wars.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Chuck's another example. Robert Duncan Mcneil's produces and directs, Adam Baldwin's a regular. Tony Todd and Scott Bakula has had semi-recurring roles.

There's still a Hollywood stigma to be associated a scifi production. For example, Edward James Olmos didn't want to be in BSG if there were aliens. I guess this made the scifi writers and actors form their own little niche social network.

Actually, I believe his issue was that he didn't want it to devolve into "forehead of the week." Which makes me think he's seen a little bit more Star Trek than he is perhaps willing to let on.

Indeed. EJO doesn't have a problem with aliens, as such. In fact, he almost played one - he was up for the role of Kruge in ST III. I think Leonard Nimoy wanted him for the role, but Harve Bennett overruled and said that Christopher Lloyd was his preference.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

If you play a lead role in a syfi t.v. show you're pretty much typecasted for a role in that genre. I love watching Star Trek and seeing some random alien with ton's of makeup on and suddenly figuring out he's a lead roll in another series. And yes when I was a kid I watched the Gargoyles cartoon sometimes and couldn't get over the voice of Riker and Troy being there, along with various others on occasion.

It's not that you're typecast. I have a friend who works as a tv actress, and she says everyone wants a scifi gig because it translates into jobs for years and years, because SF fans are very consistent - they watch numerous genre shows, they are loyal to actors and will actually tune in just to see an actor from another show on a new show. WHich means it behooves producers of shows to use actors who are known from other SF shows.

 

[fishingforships]

That I did not know, I thought that they were kinda forced to work in scifi because that was what producers knew them from, so they thought that was all they could do. I guess everything always comes down to money in the end. Actors want the steady work, producers want loyal fans to watch, it works out for everyone!