The things you learn every day. This is Robert Mailhouse. He had a role in a little show called “Seinfeld”, as a gay man who Elaine tried to recruit for her ‘team’, but most of you probably recognize him as the drummer for the band “Dogstar”, featuring Keanue Reeves.
Discovering the connection of Dogstar, a band all of us no doubt listen to on a weekly basis, reminded me just how connected our world is to Seinfeld. Take for instance, the bizarre amount of overlap between minor players in the Seinfeld universe and Twin Peaks.
Both the parents of Susan Ross, (George’s envelope licking fiance) show up.
Mr. Ross plays Doc Hayward, who performs the autopsy on Laura Palmer.
Mrs. Ross plays Laura Palmer’s mom who freaks out when she sees visions of a mysterious man at the foot of her daughters bed.
A few recurring Seinfeld characters also have smaller Twin Peaks roles:
Sue Ellen Mischke plays Ms. Jones, an assassin who tries to off Harry Truman
Mr. Pitt shows up in one episode, but I can’t remember why or what he does (please refresh my memory)
And a couple of Seinfeld one shots have memorable turns in Twin Peaks
The cable guy who Kramer tries to avoid plays Jacques Renault, an evil Canadian gambler/smuggler
The Old Bag who Jerry stole the Marble Rye from plays a patient who Laura Palmer used to deliver Meals on Wheels to
Now obviously there are a lot of memorable Seinfeld bit players, but for so many of them to turn up during the brief run of Twin Peaks seems a bit more than a coincidence. The shows did overlap, but Seinfeld lasted much longer and many of the characters showed up later in Seinfeld. I don’t know how these things work. Perhaps a casting director brought over his stable of reliable character actors. Maybe a shared Seinfeld Twin Peaks producer happened to owe all these guys favors exactly twice throughout his career, (they all helped him move when he got married, then again after the divorce, perhaps.) Or maybe both the Seinfeld and Twin Peaks expanded universes are so large that coincidences of this sort were inevitable. But I doubt it. Something larger is afoot!
So if anyone has any inside info or theories, please share below. Also, I have the nagging feeling that I missed someone from Twin Peaks, so if you know, please venture it forward. I’ve also always thought that a great blog/photo pool on Flickr would be “Posing with bit players from Seinfeld.” Guys who run into Banya at a baseball game, or The Soup Nazi at the grocery store or The Wiz at The Wiz. They don’t seem to make the convention rounds, so if you have any good stories, once again, please share.
16 responses so far ↓
1 Barry on Apr 1, 2008 at 7:57 pm
The lady in the last photo looks reeeeallly familiar. The safe bet is that she’s been in Law & Order, because everybody who’s anybody has been on L&O. But for some reason she’s also ringing the sci-fi bell for me.
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Reply from Conor Lastowka on April 1, 2008:
She was the grandma in Happy Gilmore, which is unrelated to Seinfeld and Twin Peaks.
2 Kari_Ann on Apr 1, 2008 at 9:04 pm
So the entire time I read your post the song, “It’s a Small World After All” has been running though my head…
And periodically Admiral Ackbar’s “It’s a TRAP!” would shove it’s way in….
And then David Soul’s “Don’t Give Up On Us” is still playing since I read Bill’s last post….
My head hurts.
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Reply from Tim D on April 2, 2008:
I feel for you.
Great. Now I have “I Feel For You” in MY head. Damn these self-inflicted earworms.
3 Kip on Apr 2, 2008 at 6:15 am
I noticed this crossover too. I thought I would one up you, but looking at their resumes, I think you got them all. It is worth noting how almost all the guest stars’ pedigrees seem more focused on the eerie than the comic. Joe Davola played Bernard Goetz, as well as having a small role in the delightfully chilling Todd Haynes’ “Safe.” Kruger of Industrial Smoothing fame, a vet of joyless creepfests like “Thinner” and the bad but fascinating “I’m Losing You.” Wick, the lawyer for the Susan Ross foundation starred in “Short Eyes” about a pedophile’s stretch in the Big House.
Cedric, of Bob and Cedric, the intimidating gay duo, played the sex shop worker in Eating Raoul. Another weird, weird movie.
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Reply from Conor Lastowka on April 2, 2008:
Nice work.
Reply from Geena on April 2, 2008:
I’ll go you one better: One of the executive producers for the show Smallville is named Joe Davola. Everytime I see his name in the credits, I have to chuckle.
Reply from Geena on April 2, 2008:
Update: Turns out they named the Seinfeld character after this guy. So maybe that doesn’t count.
Reply from Conor Lastowka on April 2, 2008:
Right, there was also Alec Berg, one of the shows producers, (I think) who was the guy that gave Jerry hockey tickets, but who Jerry refused to thank. And of course Lloyd Braun, who was an NBC executive.
4 Mario "Asteroid" Panighetti on Apr 2, 2008 at 7:18 am
When I see this many strange coincidences, the only conclusion I can draw is that Seinfeld and Twin Peaks take place in the same universe, and we’re witnessing a series of complicated crossover story arcs where the characters have assumed false names. Really adds a lot of depth to both programs. Or just makes Twin Peaks that much more confusing.
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Reply from MikeP on April 2, 2008:
Or just makes Twin Peaks that much more confusing.
On the other hand, Seinfeld makes a lot more sense this way. Leave it to David Lynch to postulate a world populated entirely by selfish dickheads.
5 Propaniac on Apr 2, 2008 at 8:44 am
So I looked up the old lady, Frances Bay, on Wikipedia, and it noted that in the Seinfeld episode with the Rye, “Bay appeared with her former Twin Peaks co-stars Grace Zabriskie and Warren Frost.” And I think, wow! There were two OTHER TP actors in that episode that Conor didn’t mention in his post?!… wait a second.
Grace Zabriskie, aka Bill Paxton’s mom on Big Love, was Susan’s mom on Seinfeld?!?! I would NEVER have recognized her. I just saw the episode where they go to the Rosses for dinner after the cabin burns down, and DIDN’T recognize her. That’s so weird. BL is the only thing I know her from.
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6 Geena on Apr 2, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Here’s a connection I’ve noticed: Shows made by Joss Whedon and the Justice League animates series.
Amy Acker, who played Fred on Angel, was the voice of The Huntress.
Juliet Landau, who played Drusilla on Buffy and Angel, was the voice of Tala (worst Russian accent EVER).
Morena Baccarin, who played Inara on Firefly, was the voice of Black Canary.
Gina Torres, who played Zoe on Firefly (as well as Jasmine on Angel), was the voice of Vixen.
Nathan Fillion, who played Mal on Firefly (as well as Caleb on Buffy), was the voice of Vigilante (a Western-themed character, no less!).
Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne on Firefly (as well as Marcus Hamilton on Angel), was the voice of two different characters in consecutive episodes of Justice League Unlimited, and then came back again as a different character in the “Task Force X” episode.
Did Joss get some sort of finder’s fee, or what?
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Reply from Conor Lastowka on April 2, 2008:
Also very strange. Have people postulated any theories about that one?
7 Ciaran on Apr 8, 2008 at 6:41 am
I think pretty much every major Lost actor has turned up on CSI at some point. Usually as the killer.
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8 Jeff Fyke on Jul 8, 2008 at 3:59 am
It’s like Special Agent Dale Cooper says: “Fellas, coincidence and fate figure largely in our lives.”
Ain’t it the truth. “That’s a damn fine Snapple, damn fine…”
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