Why were so many actors with speaking parts not listed in the closing credits? Some of them had sizable roles and a great many of them went on to become big TV stars. (Hal Linden, Jean Stapleton, Katherine Helmond, Richard Mulligan, all appeared, none of them are listed in the closing credits. Found them on IMDB.)
shareTrue... Just watched one that features Tom Bosley (billed) & Dana Elcar (unbilled)
shareI saw the "Stop Thief" episode on MeTV tonight. Roger C. Carmel and Alan Munson both appeared and are not credited. An episode I saw last week had Ossie Davis billed, yet he doesn't appear in it. Ossie does appear in "Stop Thief."
shareWait, do you think they could predict who would be a big star, from an appearance on a 50's, 60's TV show?
shareI have never understood that either. A lot of the shows from then and in the 50's would have a voice over in the end saying something like, "Also appearing in tonight's episode ......". I think a lot of the shows were shot on a tight budget so if they had billed the actors maybe they would have had to pay them more. I am sure a lot of the actors were willing to forego billing to get the exposure to further their careers since a lot of them were starting out. Maybe it was an issue of paying residuals. Maybe someone knows the answer to this mystery.
shareThere can be many reasons why an actor is not billed. Sometimes in older shows they had not achieved any fame yet, sometimes it's because they are more famous than the part calls for so they would have to be paid more than the part pays if they were billed. There are many examples of this, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope did a cameo in the audience in the movie "Greatest Show on Earth." Often actors appear for friends of theirs and will use an assumed name when doing so. Sometimes they will be billed lower than their status merits, again this often involves low budget works produced by friends. Trees Lounge (1996) is another example, Samuel L. Jackson was billed something like 31st though he was already 4th billed in Pulp Fiction and routinely makes many, many times the entire budget that Trees Lounge had. One of his best friends, Steve Buscemi wrote, produced, directed and stared in Trees Lounge.
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I realize your question is over three yrs old, but I will answer anyway because this is a question that kept me wondering for a long time, so I went on a quest to find it. I couldn't figure out why it was so important for the audience to know the name of the Key Grip, Assistant Art Director and the Production Secretary and not the cast. I got several different answers but only one that was consistent. The answer is because of union contracts.
TV's shows even to this day are given a very limited amount of time and space for credits. The union for the screen workers is (and always has been) so strong and influential that it was in their contract to have the name of the people who worked behind the scenes (Like the postions lised above) on screen. Since they only had time and space for a given number of credits the workers names took precedent. The producers hands were tied because if they refused, they would no longer have laborers and hiring non-union labor was not an option because nobody is/was willing to cross a picket line.
Great information, makes senses.
shareThanks emgee.. That makes a lot of sense.
shareA lot of the "guest stars" on the show weren't actually stars at the time. People like Hal Linden and Jean Stapleton, for instance, were Broadway stars--or at least well known names--at the time but TV and movie audiences seldom saw them. OFten they'd pick up some extra cash between jobs on Broadway by doing some of the many TV shows that were being shot in New York at the time, but because they weren't really known TV or film performers, they seldom got billed.
'To Serve Man'--It's a cookbook!!!
This show had for the most part a Jewish cast produced by Jews. They were sensitive to that.
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