"Reunion"/"Callback" episodes in TV shows.

[agent817]

This has been a trend for a long time. I want to know what shows have done this. To elaborate on what I mean, here it goes: You see this on shows where there is a guest star that has the lead's former co-star appear, or even references to the creator's past work. A few examples I can think of are the Raising Hope episode that had the My Name is Earl reunion. The funny thing about that was that most of the main cast had appeared in episodes before, while that was Nadine Velasquez's only appearance on that show.

A couple of other ones I can think of are when Nash Bridges had Philip Michael Thomas and Tommy Chong appear, as they were former co-stars to Don Johnson and Cheech Marin, respectively. In fact, they both appeared in the same episode, though PMT appeared in future ones. Also, Ed O'Neill appeared in an episode of 8 Simple Rules as a former flame of Katey Sagal's character. I wasn't surprised to see something like that, especially how there was a Three's Company reference in an earlier episode as a callback to John Ritter's (RIP) old show.

Any other examples?

[Jiren]

Spin City has Christopher Lloyd make an appearance and they make time jokes

3rd Rock had william Shatner reference "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" with Lithgow say "The same thing happened to me" referening "Twilight Zone: The Movie"

[James Fabiano]

The Timmverse/Andrea Romano was GREAT at this.

Jason Hervey and Fred Savage as Hawk and Dove.
ANY TIME Adam West appeared in a Batman cartoon.
Royal Flush Gang = Teen Titans.

[realist]

While not exactly what you are looking for in terms of former castmates, I remember an episode of "Boy Meets World" where Fred Savage played a professor who got into it with Cory Matthews, played by real life younger brother, Ben Savage.

[Milkman Norm]

Scrubs had an episode where Stephen Furst, Ed Bagley Jr, Eric Laneuville and William Daniels all guest stared as doctors.

[karl100589]

The Simpsons did this with Sideshow Bob. Bob's brother was played by David Hyde Pierce (Niles in Frasier) while his dad was played by John Mahoney (Martin in Frasier).

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

This happens a lot in sitcoms.

Speaking Spin City, Meredith Baxter played Michael J Fox's characters mother in a two parter. Michael Gross was in Fox's last episode as a regular on Spin City.

Greg Garcia, the creator of My Name is Earl, Yes, Dear, Raising Hope, likes to use actors again. On his most recent show, The Guest Book, his Raising Hope actors Martha Plimpton and Shannon Woodward guest starred, and Nadine Velazquez had an episode as well.

What I like About You with Jennie Garth's 90210 co-stars Jason Priestly and Luke Perry guest starred in separate episodes.

The Middle had several of Patricia Heaton's Everybody Loves Raymond co-stars come guest star. Ray Romano, Doris Roberts and Monica Horan. Brad Garrett is the only living main cast member who didn't appear. There wasn't any issues from what I've read between Heaton and Garrett, just never found a spot I guess.

[King Boo]

Hot In Cleveland had all sorts of people from all of the women's shows show up as guest/recurring characters. John Mahoney and Peri Gilpin from Frasier, Bonnie Franklin from One Day At A Time, Laura San Giacomo from Just Shoot Me and a bunch of the women from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, including MTM herself.

There was a bunch more, too. It was always neat, especially since the main cast's collective resumes allowed to have little pop-ins from so many shows.

[agent817]

Sept 8, 2019 12:30:11 GMT -5 realist said:

While not exactly what you are looking for in terms of former castmates, I remember an episode of "Boy Meets World" where Fred Savage played a professor who got into it with Cory Matthews, played by real life younger brother, Ben Savage.

I wasn't even the least bit surprised to see that happen. I mean Summerland, as in that short-lived WB series that starred Lori Loughlin, had Danielle Panabaker appear, who is the real-life sister of Kay Panabaker, who was a part of the main cast.

Just like how I remember on 7th Heaven when Jeremy London had appeared on episodes, Jason appeared in one. Or even in the final season of One on One as Ray J was on that show, and who better to play his sister than his own sister, Brandy?

[Cyno]

One of my favorite gags in Airplane II is William Shatner's character looking through the periscope on the Moonbase and seeing the USS Enterprise.

Not quite the same, but Donald Faison and Zach Braff have done quite a few things together after Scrubs ended.

Also not quite the same, Ray Palmer (The Atom) joking that Kara Danvers (Supergirl) looked like his cousin during one of the Arrowverse crossover episodes. Of course, Brandon Routh previously played Superman in Superman Returns and is set to also portray a Superman based on Kingdom Come in the upcoming Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover.

Sara Gilbert played a recurring character early in Big Bang Theory's run that had a couple of flings with Leonard. Leonard's actor, Johnny Galecki, also played Darlene's boyfriend/husband on Roseanne. Laurie Metcalf is also another Roseanne actor who had a recurring role on BBT, playing Sheldon's mom.

[Pgarodactyl]

First one to pop into my head was the My Name Is Earl reunion on Raising Hope.

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

as an aside to Ed O'Neill was has the ex of Katey Sagal in 8 Simple Rules, and I think she also played Kaley Cuoco's Mother in The Big Bang Theory

Seth Green guest starred in How I Met Your Mother meaning he and Alyson Hannigan have worked together for 4 decades running (which sounds crazy since they both seem so youthful)

Pam Dawber guest starred (and came out of retirement after 14 years) to appear alongside Robin Williams in his short lived series The Crazy Ones

Tim Daly and Steven Weber guest starred (separately) in Monk, and both worked with Tony Shalhoub on Wings

I guess Curb Your Enthusiasm counts with Seinfeld as an whole season plot point revolves around a new finale for the show

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

Jenna Fischer's show Splitting Up Together had a mini Office reunion when Angela Kinsey guest starred.

Tim Allen's Last Man Standing sitcom has had several former Home Improvement co-stars come in for multiple appearances. Jonathan Taylor Thomas appeared for several eps and directed a few too. Patricia Richardson came on with several references to their previous series together, including the classic bumpers that would go to commercial. JTT also appeared in Richardson's episode as her son Randy, an unrelated cameo from his previous character. Richard Karn also appeared as well.

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

George Wendt and Kelsey Grammer appeared in episodes of Becker (not sure if anybody else from Cheers popped up)

Leah Remini was originally supposed to be this with Kevin Can Wait, but they ended up ditching the wife and making her a regular.

Chuck had a couple with Summer Glau and Adam Baldwin interacting, and Zachary Levi and Eric Roberts (hey remember Less Than Perfect) did too, also had Steve Austin and Stacy Keibler interacting in one episode

Surprised Brooklyn Nine Nine hasn't done with Homicide (though a B99 episode was clearly influenced by an episode of Homicide)

and Dean Stockwell guest starred in Enterprise opposite Scott Bakula.

[IgnahtaSempria]

My favourite episode of "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" is "Chill of the Night" for this exact reason. In it, Batman finally discovers the identity of his parents' killer, Joe Chill, and the Phantom Stranger and the Spectre make a wager on whether Batman will kill him (Spectre) or spare him (Stranger).

First of all, The Phantom Stranger and the Spectre are voiced by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, the respective voices of Batman and the Joker in the 90's animated series.

Then, later in the episode, Bruce is sent back in time and runs into illusory versions of his parents that I believe the Spectre conjured up to help convince Bruce to kill Chill. Thomas and Martha Wayne are played by Adam West and Julie Newmar, respectively Batman and Catwoman in the 60's live action series.

[Convoy]

This is cheating, but they had a few Boy Meets World reunions on Girl Meets World. The best ones were bringing back one-off or ancillary characters from the original show. A good example is bringing back the kid that played the orphan Tommy as an adult.

[Joe Neglia]

Final ep of Newhart

[Bo Rida]

Castle was full of references to firefly and several of the cast showed up.

[Citizen Snips Has Left]

An episode of the short-lived Andy Richter Controls the Universe had Conan O'Brien show up as his crazy new boss.

Quite a few Deadwood actors showed up on Justified to cause Raylan problems.

[G✇JI☈A]

Anthony Michael Hall appeared on “Community” ... I don’t think it was played up, but there was Clarke (Chevy Chase) and the original Rusty Griswold back together on screen.