Famous TV Co-Stars Who Reunited On Different Shows

Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, and Lisa Kudrow were two-thirds of the sextet that made up the core cast of "Friends," and by all accounts, they remain close all these years later. That's why, when it's possible, seeing them together is a lot of fun. And, on Courtney Cox's show "Cougar Town," she got to reunite with all three of them at different times.

Lisa Kudrow was the earliest to venture into a co-starring role, showing up as a cruel, but funny, dermatologist on the eleventh episode of the first season. Then, in the first episode of Season 2, Jennifer Aniston showed up for an episode as a new psychiatrist of Courtney Cox's Jules. Finally, in the second episode of season 4, Matthew Perry guest stars as a man whom Jules hits with her car — and is willing to let it go if Jules goes out with him. All three of these reunions were winning in their own ways. Despite only being there for an episode each, for "Friends" fans, each of Cox's co-stars injected some nostalgia into the show, while digging new ground for "Cougar Town."

Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist, and Darren Criss co-starred on "Glee," though Criss had the most screen time. In fact, Gustin, as the Warblers' evil Sebastian Smythe, was only on the show seven times — although that was enough for him to make an impression as a singer. When Darren Criss appeared onscreen singing again, it was on a crossover of Benoist and Gustin's shows "Supergirl" and "The Flash," in the episodes "Star-Crossed" and "Duet," respectively.

Criss played the Music Meister, who crosses space and time looking to trap people in musicals until they learn their lessons. And, apparently, Benoist's Supergirl and Gustin's The Flash were on his list. Both casts had quite a few people who could sing and dance, so the land that the Music Meister creates is full of great songs. The Music Meister turns out to be a good guy, though, and no harm comes to Supergirl or The Flash, despite their extended naps. For fans, it was great to see Criss make beautiful music with Benoist and Gustin again.

On "The Office," B.J. Novak played Ryan Howard, a perennially out-of-reach guy to Mindy Kaling's flighty Kelly Kapoor. Of course, the two of them got together, but Ryan was still completely dismissive of Kelly's needs, even if they were vapid and shallow. In real life, though, Novak and Kaling formed a rock-solid friendship that continues to this day, and one of the ways Mindy and B.J. demonstrated that friendship was when Novak guest starred on the sitcom Kaling created and starred in, "The Mindy Project."

Novak plays Jamie, a guy who dates Mindy, but seems way more attracted to his best friend, Lucy. At least Novak's Jamie isn't as uninterested in Mindy as his Ryan was in Kelly, though he does get together with Lucy in the end. And Novak is such good friends with Kaling that he managed to guest star across Seasons 1, 3, and 5. While Kaling and Novak never got their chemistry quite right on "The Office" or "The Mindy Project," offscreen they're clearly tight.

A small, but exceedingly devoted audience loved seeing Nathan Fillion as Captain Mal Reynolds and Gina Torres as his second-in-command, Zoe Washburne, on "Firefly." While both Torres and Fillion have worked on other shows, "Firefly" remains dear to fans' hearts, even though it was only on the air for one season. In fact, the show's following is so dedicated that they managed to get the group back together for a movie, "Serenity," to wrap up the story. Even though the "Firefly" story is over, it didn't mean Fillion and Torres were done playing together, and they proved it when Torres guest starred on Fillion's show, "Castle."

Torres plays a scheming fashion mogul named Penelope Foster, who's also a cast member on a "Real Housewives"-style show on the Season 5 episode "Reality Star Struck." When a fellow member of the cast, Hannah, shows up dead, Penelope is suspected of the murder. Whether Penelope did it or not, seeing her and Fillion together again was a blast for fans, even if it was under very different circumstances than on "Firefly."

Jon Hamm and January Jones' characters didn't have the best relationship when the two actors starred on "Mad Men" together. Hamm as Don Draper and Jones as his wife, Betty, were married when the show started but they didn't stay that way. That doesn't mean their offscreen relationship was negative though, and to prove it, Jon Hamm did a brief cameo on Jones' show, "The Last Man on Earth."

Hamm played Darrell, one of three guys in hazmat suits who come to the group of survivors' house in Malibu in the Season 3 premiere, "General Breast Theme with Cobras." If they hadn't been so creepy, perhaps Darrell would've been okay, but between the hazmat suits and the large guns, the group is suspicious, so Jones' Melissa shoots one of them before they can shoot her. Unfortunately, when they pulled the hazmat hood off, you can see clearly that it's Jon Hamm that's been shot. His last words, appropriately enough, were, "We come in peace." Too bad they didn't lead with that. Still, it was fun to see Jones and Hamm briefly together again.

William Shatner may be best known for playing Captain James T. Kirk on "Star Trek: The Original Series" but he's starred in numerous other shows, too. For example, he played the title character on "T.J. Hooker" for five seasons from 1982 to 1986, and for four of them, one of his co-stars was Heather Locklear. So it was with great anticipation that fans tuned into Shatner's next show, "Boston Legal," in 2005, for Locklear's two-episode arc as Kelly Nolan, a sexy murder defendant charged with poisoning her elderly husband.

Though it was 19 years since they last appeared on screen together, the pair barely missed a beat in the second season premiere, "The Black Widow." While Shatner's Denny Crane tries to talk her into having him represent her in a very inappropriate way, she shares quips like, "You go back to your office. I'll have a pair of my pants delivered. You can try to get into them on your own time." While the case gets serious, it was still enjoyable for fans to see Shatner and Locklear go head-to-head for a couple of episodes.

On "Parenthood," Mae Whitman played Amber, the daughter of Lauren Graham's Sarah Braverman for six seasons. But before that, Graham had a different TV daughter: Alexis Bledel, who played Rory in "Gilmore Girls." So for fans, it was fantastic to see Whitman act opposite not only Graham, but also her TV sister, Bledel, on the revival "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life." Whitman had a cameo in the second episode, "Spring," as someone Rory interviews about waiting in line for random stuff.

Of course, Lorelai is tagging along on her daughter's quest for interviews, especially because this line is for crodocakes, the latest New York City donut craze. Not only that, she manages to snag a few even though the store's not open yet. When Whitman's unnamed character has to leave before she can get her own crodocakes, Lorelai shares one of hers with her former TV daughter. It's a brief, but heartwarming reminder of what these two shared on their own show.

Tom Selleck and Larry Manetti were co-stars for eight years on "Magnum P.I." Selleck played the title character, while Manetti played Orville "Rick" Wright, the bartender of a local club that Magnum often uses as his office. But when Selleck landed another show, "Blue Bloods," over 20 years later, where he plays the New York police commissioner, he didn't want Manetti guest starring because he was afraid it would be too confusing.

Then, Selleck had a change of heart. Manetti guest starred in Season 13, Episode 18 as Sam Velucci, a man seeking revenge after the fentanyl overdose death of his granddaughter, but he didn't share any scenes with Selleck. "He thought it might confuse the audience because of our relationship on 'Magnum P.I.'" Manetti explained to TV Insider. "But we've been friends for close to 45 years so we went out to dinner together with my wife Nancy every night for the week I was in New York." Despite their lack of screen time together, it was a delight for fans to see Manetti on Selleck's "Blue Bloods."