Ten TV Reunions That I Loved

When I say TV reunion a lot of things come to to mind. There are reunions on talk shows for instance. There are also reunion movies or new series where the original cast will reunite for something new. But I wanted to talk about a specific kind of “reunion”. It was announced that Katey Segal would appear on Big Bang Theory this season premiere as Penny’s mother. Of course, Segal already played the mother for Kaley Cuoco’s character on 8 Simple Rules making this a reunion for the two from that series.



It’s always fun when two actors who appeared together in one show reappear in another, usually as different characters. Not only is it cool to see the two together, but to see the difference in the character interactions of these very different characters can be quite striking. Of course these are not a new thing we’ve had plenty from Robert Reed reuniting with Defender’s co-star E.G.Marshall on The Brady Bunch to Johnny Galecki reuniting with Roseanne co-star’s Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert on Big Bang Theory to Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell appearing together in Prison Break and Flash as very different characters. Another variation on this is when two celebrities who are related in real life appear on their relatives show, like when Missy Gold’s sister Tracy appeared on an episode of Benson (at the same time she was in Growing Pains).


Here are some of my favorite TV reunion’s either from previous cast mates or relatives that I love. This list is in no particular, and only covers times when the actors appared as a totally different character so some obvious choices may be missing.



Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd on Spin City

This was a favorite of mine, for very obvious reasons. Yes in one episode Christopher Lloyd reunited with Michael J Fox (do I really have to tell you what they starred in?). They even had a few gags calling back to that fantastic movie. It’s always strange to see Lloyd play a regular guy (for the most part). And yes Family Ties co-stars Meredith Baxter and Steven Gross also appeared in other episodes of Spin City.





Bill Cosby and Robert Culp on The Cosby Show

Not going to lie, I never watched I Spy. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the reunion that took place on one episode of The Cosby Show. The cute thing  is the name they gave Culp’s character, Scott Kelly. On I Spy Culp played Kelly Robinson and Cosby was Alexander Scott. Gotta love little nods like that. And yes there was an even bigger reunion on “Cosby” but I never saw that one.





William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy on T.J.Hooker

This one was great. For those who may not know, T.J.Hooker was a police show that William Shatner starred in for a few years in the 80’s (alongside Heather Locklear). This episode reunited Shatner with Nimoy, and is a good episode. The part I love is that the character that Nimoy plays is very emotional in the show, I wonder how intentional that was? As you can imagine, that is quite a change of pace from their relationship on Star Trek.





Kirk Cameron and Candace Cameron on Full House

As I said this isn’t quite the same, but very often we’ll have two actor’s who are related and one happily appearing on the others show. In this case Kirk Cameron appeared on his sister’s series Full House. Of course, Candace Cameron got her start on several episodes of Growing Pains so this seemed fair. This one was really cool, especially since Kirk Cameron at this time was huge on Growing Pains so it’s always a little weird to see him play DJ’s cousin here.





Betty White and Mary Tyler Moore, Cloris Leachman, Valerie Harper, Georgia Engel on Hot in Cleveland

This was just a sweet, sweet episode. Hot n Cleveland seemed to have the market cornered on reunions from Valerie Bertinelli reuniting with Bonnie Franklin to Carol Burnett appearing alongside Betty White. But the episode that even got me to watch was this one, where the ladies from The Mary Tyler Moore show reunited. This was really bittersweet because, to be fair, this could be the last appearance by these ladies especially Moore and Harper who are battling their own illnesses.





Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson on Last Man Standing

Yeah even though I don’t watch this show it was another one I couldn’t pass up. How could I, it was Jill and Tim Taylor back together! Course, Richardson was playing a different character who in a neat switch was awesome with tools. I think the idea was that the two would butt heads but they have to much chemistry for that to work. The episode was littered with in jokes and references to Home Improvement which were great! And yes Richard Karn and Jonathan Taylor Thomas have also appeared on Allen’s show.





Ted Danson and George Wendt on Becker

Gotta love role reversals. In one episode of Becker, we George Wendt as the bartender at an airport when Becker wanders in for a drink. This wasn’t the only Cheers reunion on this show, as both Kelsey Grammar and Rhea Pearlman also appeared in different episodes.







Jerry Stiller and Anne Mera on King of Queens

Of course Anne Meara would appear on King of Queens, they were husband and wife in real life. But did you know they also performed together on variety shows? Yeah they never really had a show but they did do a lot of appearances together, until variety’s decline. So having them reunited on King of Queens was really cool. And yes there son Ben Stiller appeared in one episode also.







Eric McCormack and Debra Messing on The Mysteries of Laura”

Not really sure if this was a good show, but you knew if Debra Messing had he own series it was only a matter of time before Eric McCormack would show up for a Will & Grace reunion. Since Laura is a very different character then Grace Adler, it was a very interesting change of pace.






Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston on Friends

It was only a matter of time, when the two were married, for Brad Pitt to appear on Friends alongside his wife. And of course, in the episode Pitt’s character hates Rachel. It’s not the best episode but seeing the two work off each other was fun to watch. It is kind of sad in hindsight. By the way there have been many Friends reunions since the show has been off the air including Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow appearing with Courtney Cox on Cougar Town and Jenifer Aniston and Courtney Cox reuniting on “Dirt”.






This is kind of an exception but I felt I had to mention one last one:

Seined cast on Curb Your Enthusiasm.



So, how do you get me to watch a show I would normally never, ever watch? Have an episode where not only does the cast of Seinfeld reunite but they even stage a “reunion” episode. Larry David was of course the co creator of Seinfeld and a few years ago he decided to make this Seinfeld reunion the arc for that year. I did watch it, and yes I loved it.






As I said, there are so many more of these I could be here all day. So comment and let me know the one’s you got a kick out of. And yes I know that Flash’s Grant Gusten and Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist appeared on Glee (though were they ever on the same time? I can’t find any evidence of that). I looked at a few clips, Glee was…weird.