Copyright © 2018 by Ralph Robert Moore.

Return to lately 2018.

There is something comforting about a list.

Whenever over the decades Mary and I would relocate to a new region of America, driving on highways for weeks, pulling down white bedsheets checking for dark bugs, once we decided on a new state we'd usually take a couple of months off to get to know the area, become a part of it, dining in the neighborhood restaurants, learning how the natives pronounced different words, shopping at the local supermarkets, driving around the streets, attending annual festivals in local parks, auditoriums, church parking lots.

We'd always find something wonderful we had never seen before. A frozen cow's head (it's surprising how large they are-it takes two hands to lift them out of the bin, rotate their heavy heads, holding them by their cold ears, so their blind eyes stare up at you); dead ducks hanging from their pierced limp necks on hooks, defeathered and preserved with soy sauce; thin blood on halibut steaks fresh off fishing boats bobbing outside the shop; big orange bags of live crawfish lifting their tiny red claws through the mesh; moussaka made with sliced potatoes rather than eggplant.

America is so wide. We should always indulge ourselves. Never order the least expensive appetizer on a menu. That's just so wrong.

After we spent a couple of months taking it easy in our most recent new home, waking up when we wanted, rolling sausages around in skillets, watching them brown, frying eggs, staying up late watching movies, fixing drinks, smoking pot, we'd get serious about looking for jobs. Because everyone needs to have a job.

And the queer thing was, each new area we moved to, where we eventually found work was always-always-at a building we never paid any attention to that we just happened to pass several times a week buying food, or going to a Blockbuster to rent more movies, or a dentist's office because we had a toothache, or a library to check out stacks of books once we were granted a library card for our new town after proving our residency with utility bills sent to our new local address.

We were passing by our soon-to-be jobs, which is to say our future, repeatedly, without realizing it.

A pattern.

I love patterns.

We may not understand patterns, their significance, but to me it's enough that we at least become aware of their nose under the tent of our day-to-day lives.

Nothing is chaos. Everything is ordered. It's just that we don't perceive the order. Chaos Theory should really be called Complexity Theory.

Mary and I have ten TV shows we watch over and over, one episode a day (except that since The Office is usually a half hour show, we'd watch two episodes a day).

In this order:

Dexter
Breaking Bad
The Sopranos
Six Feet Under
The Office (U.S., up to where Michael leaves the show)
True Blood
Banshee
Fargo
Quarry
Mad Men

To us, these are the ten best TV series produced so far.

Since all these shows combined (with two episodes of The Office each day) come out to 626 hours, that means that we return to each of the ten show's episodes about once every two years. Like a planet orbiting the sun from a farther distance than our Earth, roughly equivalent to the time it takes Mars to go around the sun. Which is a nice frequency rate. By then, we've forgotten some of each episode's details, but still remember great scenes about to be re-experienced.

After rewatching our shows so many times, we have noticed a pattern.

There's a crossover of actors from one TV series to another among the ten shows.

The most obvious example is Michael C. Hall. He appears in both Six Feet Under and Dexter.

But there's a wide array of cross-overs that are far less obvious.

Dean Norris, for example, is probably best known for playing DEA agent Hank Schrader in Breaking Bad. But he also played Detective Shea in the first season of Six Feet Under, and Leon, a driver, in the second season of True Blood.

Colin Hanks was a priest on Mad Men, a police officer on Fargo, and a serial killer on Dexter.

Are you beginning to understand what I'm talking about?

Over time, I collected a partial list of actors who appeared on one of our ten shows, searching on IMDB to see if they also appeared on any other of our ten shows. And a surprising number of them did.  

Because there are hundreds and hundreds of actors on these ten shows, easily over a thousand total, I've just barely 'scratched the surface'. Each day, I'm discovering a new crossover.

Of the ten shows we watch, so far Six Feet Under has the most crossovers, with nine actors appearing both on Six Feet Under and at least one other series in the ten shows. Quarry has the least crossovers, with only one (but in fairness, the show only lasted one eight-episode season).

The actors tied with the most crossovers (three shows each), are Colin Hanks, Dean Morris, and Bob Odenkirk.

The most unusual crossover has got to be Joseph R. Gannasoli, who played two different characters on the same show, The Sopranos. He was Jimmy Altieri, a bakery shop customer in season 1, with a brief walk-on role, then came back in the later seasons as Vito Spatafore, a member of the Sopranos crime family whose secret gay life is discovered, and then has to flee New Jersey.

In researching this list on IMDB, I've checked about one hundred actors' careers so far, scrolling down through their TV and movie appearances for crossovers. That in itself is a fascinating experience, seeing some of them getting more and more roles over the years, the decades, and some of them fewer and fewer jobs. Sometimes, years passing between assignments.

It can't be easy being an actor. Being someone who is not you. Over and over again.

Here's my list of actor crossovers so far:

DEXTER

Michael C. Hall/Dexter Morgan/Serial Killer
   Six Feet Under/David Fisher/Funeral Director

Erik King/Sgt. Doakes/Police Sergeant
   Banshee/Dr. Tim Hubbard/Psychologist/Season 4>

Keith Carradine/Special Agent Frank Lundy/FBI agent/Seasons 2 and 4
   Fargo, Season 1/Lou Solverson/Retired cop, diner owner

Colin Hanks/Travis Marshall/Serial Killer/Season 6
   Fargo/Gus Grimly/Police Officer/Season 1
   Mad Men/Father John Gill/Priest/Season 2

Steve Stapenhorst/unnamed/Instructional video narrator/Season 6
   Mad Men/Hunt Schilling/Client/Season 2

BREAKING BAD

Anna Gunn/Skyler White/Wife
   Six Feet Under/Madeline/Nate's love interest/Season 4

Dean Norris/Hank Schrader/DEA Agent
   Six Feet Under/Detective Shea/Detective/Season 1
   True Blood/Leon/Driver/Season 2

Bob Odenkirk/Saul Goodman/Attorney
   Fargo season 1/Bill Oswalt/Police officer
   The Office/Mark/Real estate company manager/Season 9

Jesse Plemons/Todd/Criminal
   Fargo/Ed Blumquist/Butcher/Season 2

THE SOPRANOS

Michael Imperioli/Christopher Moltisanti/Mobster
   The Office/Sensei Billy/Sensei/Season 9

Matt Servino/Dwight Harris/FBI Agent
   Banshee/Brock Lotus/Sheriff's Deputy

Edoardo Ballerini/Corky Caporale/Liaison for contract killers
   Quarry/Karl/Hit Man

Paul Schulze/Father Phil Intintola/Priest
   Mad Men/Unnamed/Hobo/Season 1

Joseph R. Gannasoli/Vito Spatafore/Mobster
   The Sopranos/Jimmy Altieri/Bakery Customer/Season 1

SIX FEET UNDER

Michael C. Hall/David Fisher/Funeral Director
   Dexter/Dexter Morgan/Serial Killer

Peter Macdissi/Olivier Castro-Staal/Art Teacher
   True Blood/Luis Patino/Vampire/Season 4

Kathy Bates/Bettina/Ruth's Friend
   The Office/Jo Bennett/Business owner

Rainn Wilson/Arthur Martin/Funeral home intern
   The Office/Dwight Shrute/Salesman

Anna Gunn/Madeline/One night stand/Season 4
   Breaking Bad/Skylar White/Wife

Jenna Fischer/Sharon Kinney/Girlfriend/Season 5
   The Office/Pam Beesly/Receptionist

Dean Norris/Detective Shea/Detective/Season 1
   Breaking Bad/ Hank Schrader/DEA Agent

Anne Dudek/Allison Williman/Daughter of deceased serial killer/Season 3
   Mad Men/Francine Hanson/Next door neighbor

Ed Begley, Jr./Hiram Gunderson/Ruth's lover
   The Office/Unnamed/Erin's father/Season 9

THE OFFICE

Jenna Fischer/Pam Beesly/Receptionist
   Six Feet Under/Sharon Kinney/Girlfriend/Season 5

Rainn Wilson/Dwight Shrute/Salesman
   Six Feet Under/Arthur Martin/Funeral Home Intern

Kathy Bates/Jo Bennett/Business Owner
   Six Feet Under/Bettina/Ruth's Friend

Michael Imperioli/Sensei Billy/Season 9
   The Sopranos/Christopher Moltisanti/Mobster

Bob Odenkirk/Mark/Real estate company manager/Season 9
   Breaking Bad/Saul Goodman/Attorney
   Fargo/Bill Oswalt/Police officer/Season 1

Ed Begley, Jr./Unnamed/Erin's father/Season 9
   Six Feet Under/Hiram Gunderson/Ruth's lover

TRUE BLOOD

Peter Macdissi/Luis Patino/Vampire/Season 4
   Six Feet Under/Olivier Castro-Staal/Art Teacher

Stephen Root/Eddie Gauthier/Vampire
   Fargo/Burt Canton/Dentist/Season 1

Zeljko Ivanek/Magister/Vampire
   Banshee/Jim Racine/FBI Agent

Dean Norris/Leon/Driver/Season 2
   Breaking Bad/Hank Schrader/DEA Agent
   Six Feet Under/ Detective Shea/Detective/Season 1

BANSHEE

Matt Servino/Brock Lotus/Sheriff's deputy
   The Sopranos/Dwight Harris/FBI agent

Erik King/Dr. Tim Hubbard/Psychologist/Season 4
   Dexter/Sgt. Doakes/Police sergeant

Zeljko Ivanek/Jim Racine/FBI agent
   True Blood/Magister/Vampire

FARGO

Keith Carradine/Lou Solverson/Retired cop, diner owner/Season 1
   Dexter/Special Agent Frank Lundy/FBI agent/Seasons 2 and 4

Colin Hanks/Gus Grimly/Police officer/Season 1
   Dexter/Travis Marshall/Serial killer/Season 6
   Mad Men/Father John Gill/Priest/Season 2

Bob Odenkirk/Bill Oswalt/Police Officer/Season 1
   Breaking Bad/Saul Goodman/Attorney

Brian Markinson/Bruce Gold/Crooked businessman/Season 1
   Mad Men/Dr. Arnold Rosen/Physician

Stephen Root/Burt Canton/Dentist/Season 1
   True Blood/ Eddie Gauthier/Vampire

Jesse Plemons/Ed Blumquist/Butcher/Season 2
   Breaking Bad/Todd/Criminal

Ray Wise/Fargo/Paul Marrane/Mysterious stranger/Season 3
   Mad Men/Ed Baxter/Ken Cosgrove's father-in-law

QUARRY

Edoardo Ballerini/Karl/Hit Man
   The Sopranos/Corky Caporale/Liaison for Contract Killers

MAD MEN

Colin Hanks/Father John Gill/Priest/Season 2
   Fargo/Gus Grimly/Police officer/Season 1
   Dexter/Travis Marshall/Serial killer/Season 6

Brian Markinson/Dr. Arnold Rosen/Physician
   Fargo/Bruce Gold/Crooked businessman/Season 1

Anne Dudek/Francine Hanson/Next door neighbor
   Six Feet Under/Allison Williman/Daughter of deceased serial killer/Season 3

Ray Wise/Ed Baxter/Ken Cosgrove's father-in-law
   Fargo/Paul Marrane/Mysterious stranger/Season 3

Steve Stapenhorst/Hunt Schilling/Client/Season 2
   Dexter/unnamed/Instructional video narrator/Season 6