Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 June 5

= June 5 =

Why are one-shot guest stars listed sometimes as "starring"?
For example, in the old star trek series it even listed people as featuring including the one-shot people and Doohan, Takei and Nichols. It would also list guest stars as starring in the first season of the Simpsons. I don't understand this. 50.68.118.24 (talk) 21:50, 5 June 2016 (UTC)


 * It certainly is possible for one-shot guests to be the star of the show, meaning they are the central character in the episode. In the case of anthology series, like The Twilight Zone, many of the stars only appear in a single episode, and there is no regular cast.  Of course, it's also possible for a guest star to upstage the regular cast, as on Saturday Night Live.


 * Then again, who gets star billing often has more to do with their reputation, agent, and contract than with the actual importance of their role. StuRat (talk) 22:01, 5 June 2016 (UTC)


 * There was a film (don't remember which, not part of a series) where one actor was "starring" and another "guest starring". I think the first guy had a contract saying he was the only listed as "starring". The next guy demanded something with starring. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:42, 5 June 2016 (UTC)
 * See also http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/339/in-tv-and-movie-credits-what-do-star-co-star-guest-star-etc-mean and http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeGuestStar. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:54, 5 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Things like this have come up from time to time here and it normally boils down to "whatever their contract says" or some such thing. Dismas |(talk) 22:55, 5 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's got to do with contracts and agents and such. In the Lost in Space TV series, Jonathan Harris was listed last, and as "special guest star", even though he was in pretty much every episode. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:41, 6 June 2016 (UTC)


 * In that particular case this actually made sense originally, as it was not intended that his character would appear throughout the series. But yeah, screen credits are just a matter of negotiation. --69.159.60.83 (talk) 18:40, 6 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I scratched my head over the closing credits of an episode of (i think) The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle: the cast included "with / [Name] / [Name] / and / [Name] / [Name] / with / [Name] / [Name] / and / [Name] / [Name]" — yes, two rounds of "with/and". (Why stop there?) —Tamfang (talk) 05:53, 7 June 2016 (UTC)