5 Sitcom Costars Who Reunited on Other Shows
When Sam Malone showed up to visit on the original Frasier, fans got a thrill seeing old-favorite characters reunite for a one-off episode. But several sitcoms have done those types of cameos one better, casting familiar costars as entirely new characters to add a dose of barely earned nostalgia. Sometimes the ploy works and sometimes it doesn’t, as you’ll see in these five examples of classic sitcom costars who reunited on new shows.
Kevin James and Leah Remini
When James tried to reboot his sitcom career with Kevin Can Wait, he soon discovered he didn’t have much chemistry with his new TV wife Erinn Hayes. With little thought to public reaction, James and his producers decided “Why not have Hayes’ character die — off camera — before we start a Season Two?” That’s just what they did, enlisting James’ former TV wife, King of Queens’ Remini, to rekindle some comedy sparks. The ham-fisted move caused outlets like Esquire to declare Kevin Can Wait had “impressively reached an all-time low.”
Don't Miss
Hayes got a measure of revenge when she was cast on Kevin Can F**k Himself, a show satirizing sitcoms starring overweight oafs with beautiful yet ultimately disposable wives.
Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan
Arthur and McClanahan played longtime pals and neighbors on Maude in the 1970s, then reunited for The Golden Girls in the 1980s. The latter show has a convoluted casting history, with McClanahan and Betty White (also costars on an earlier sitcom, Mama’s Family) originally slated to play each other’s eventual roles. “I loved playing scenes with her,” McClanahan told Entertainment Weekly about working with Arthur. “She taught me, by watching her, even back during Maude, to be outrageously courageous as a comedienne, to go out on a limb, to go farther than I’ve ever dreamed of going.”
Johnny Galecki and Sara Gilbert
Galecki and Gilbert had an on-screen/off-screen romance during their Roseanne days before Gilbert reconsidered her sexuality. Even though they broke off the relationship, “there’s just an indescribable chemistry between us,” Gilbert told Yahoo! Entertainment. “It’s something you can’t buy and you can’t bottle. … It’s very rare, and you have it with certain people and you don’t have it with others, and we’re just so fortunate that we have it.”
That chemistry is one reason why Big Bang Theory producers enlisted Gilbert to play Leslie Winkle on the long-running sitcom. But the magic wasn’t there this time around, reported Entertainment Weekly, and Gilbert’s character was eventually written off.
Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance
The antics of Lucy and Ethel are legendary — the I Love Lucy chocolate conveyor belt scene remains a classic — so it’s no wonder Ball enlisted real-life pal Vance to join her post-Desi sitcom, The Lucy Show. Because the original show required Vance to look frumpier and older, the actress negotiated a hipper wardrobe and a character that bore her own name, Vivian.
The second partnership didn’t end well, with Vance demanding more money, more time off and more creative control as the series progressed. Both actresses felt betrayed by the other, and Vance eventually left the show.
Henry Winkler and Scott Baio
As the teen stars of Happy Days aged, producers decided to add a younger cast member to appeal to the kids — Baio as Chachi, nephew to Winkler’s Fonz. The two actors were reunited with Ron Howard, the actor who played Richie Cunningham, on Arrested Development. While we never saw the show’s narrator Howard, Winkler and Baio both played incompetent lawyers charged with helping the Bluths stay out of trouble. While Winkler’s Barry Zuckercorn has a certifiably ludicrous name, few sitcom characters have had a more sublimely ridiculous moniker than Baio’s Bob Loblaw. (Say it out out loud.)
