Dowdsy McDowds
Sally was here
Simple enough question here, I'd like to know who your favourite special guest star in a television series has been and why?
There are a few categories of SGS' so if you want to pick one for each category feel free. The categories I'm thinking of are;
Popular stars at the time whose appearance would perhaps spike interest in the show, such as George Clooney and Noah Wyle from ER popping up in Friends as a pair of doctors (though not the doctors from ER) or Johnny Depp appearing in the final episode of British sketch-show The Fast Show.
Self-parodying performances. The British show 'Extras' was pretty much centred on this as actors such as Sir Ian McKellen and Daniel Radcliffe took the piss out of themselves, but then there's also James Woods in Family Guy, Tom Jane and Carl Weathers in Arrested Development and Al Gore in 30 Rock to name a few.
Finally, there are long-running appearances throughout a popular show as a character in that universe, such as Brian Cox in Deadwood, John Lithgow in Dexter or Glenn Close in The Shield.
(If anyone can think of more kinds of categories, let it be known! These are just the only ones I could think of at the moment.)
My pick would fall into the long-running appearance category, and it is Forest Whitaker in season 5 of The Shield.
In season 5, Forest Whitaker was introduced as an Infernal Affairs investigator, Jon Kavanaugh, whose purpose it was to take down Vic Mackey once and for all. His progression through the series was astounding as he started off looking shaggy, overweight but very friendly. The friendly veneer was his way of attempting to get people to open up to him by playing the 'good cop/bad cop' shtick single-handedly as he unearthed more and more dirt on Mackey.
After an IA sting on Mackey backfires immensely, Kavanaugh who had been nothing but a picture of calm and precision in his job, explodes in a scene of rage as he destroys a hotel room he has been working from that shows a complete flip-side of this character.
Over the course of the season, Kavanaugh loses weight, shaves his head and grooms his beard, subsequently starting to resemble Mackey outwardly as the obsession now manifests itself in a physical form.
Knowing the Strike Team of which Mackey is a part of are a tight bunch, he targets Mackey's wife Corrine as a weak link and plays the 'good cop/bad cop' routine with her several times as he gets more and more obsessed with Mackey. This obsession ultimately proves fruitless in bringing Vic down, but some of Kavanaugh's actions lead him to cross the line he swore he would never do with some terrible consequences after the fact.
There are a few categories of SGS' so if you want to pick one for each category feel free. The categories I'm thinking of are;
Popular stars at the time whose appearance would perhaps spike interest in the show, such as George Clooney and Noah Wyle from ER popping up in Friends as a pair of doctors (though not the doctors from ER) or Johnny Depp appearing in the final episode of British sketch-show The Fast Show.
Self-parodying performances. The British show 'Extras' was pretty much centred on this as actors such as Sir Ian McKellen and Daniel Radcliffe took the piss out of themselves, but then there's also James Woods in Family Guy, Tom Jane and Carl Weathers in Arrested Development and Al Gore in 30 Rock to name a few.
Finally, there are long-running appearances throughout a popular show as a character in that universe, such as Brian Cox in Deadwood, John Lithgow in Dexter or Glenn Close in The Shield.
(If anyone can think of more kinds of categories, let it be known! These are just the only ones I could think of at the moment.)
My pick would fall into the long-running appearance category, and it is Forest Whitaker in season 5 of The Shield.
In season 5, Forest Whitaker was introduced as an Infernal Affairs investigator, Jon Kavanaugh, whose purpose it was to take down Vic Mackey once and for all. His progression through the series was astounding as he started off looking shaggy, overweight but very friendly. The friendly veneer was his way of attempting to get people to open up to him by playing the 'good cop/bad cop' shtick single-handedly as he unearthed more and more dirt on Mackey.
After an IA sting on Mackey backfires immensely, Kavanaugh who had been nothing but a picture of calm and precision in his job, explodes in a scene of rage as he destroys a hotel room he has been working from that shows a complete flip-side of this character.
Over the course of the season, Kavanaugh loses weight, shaves his head and grooms his beard, subsequently starting to resemble Mackey outwardly as the obsession now manifests itself in a physical form.
Knowing the Strike Team of which Mackey is a part of are a tight bunch, he targets Mackey's wife Corrine as a weak link and plays the 'good cop/bad cop' routine with her several times as he gets more and more obsessed with Mackey. This obsession ultimately proves fruitless in bringing Vic down, but some of Kavanaugh's actions lead him to cross the line he swore he would never do with some terrible consequences after the fact.
