Friday, September 19, 2014

1990s Flashback! Five ‘90s Stars Who Guest Starred on ‘Mad Men’

Mad Men” may be set in the 1960s, but the critically acclaimed AMC drama definitely makes us nostalgic for the ‘90s. The series’ Season 7 premiere, “Time Zones,” featured a face that’s very familiar to Millennials. Yep, that was “Party of Five” alum Neve Campbell playing the widow who snuggled alongside Don Draper (Jon Hamm) on the red eye back to New York.



Campbell -- whose breakout role as Julia Salinger on the 1990s teen drama led to roles in a slew of  the  big screen ‘90s flicks like “The Craft,” “Scream,” and “Wild Things”--  told  Yahoo TV that her guest star stint on “Mad Men” could signal her more permanent return to TV: “This is the first time, I think, really since ‘Party of Five’ that I've been open to returning to television properly,” she said.  And although she wouldn’t dish on the future of her “Mad Men” character Lee Cabot, Campbell’s got plenty of company when it comes to “Mad Men” cameos.

Here are five more 1990s TV stars who’ve gone back in time for a guest role on “Mad Men.”

Bess Armstrong

Actress Bess Armstrong, who played sensible, breadwinning mom Patty Chase on ABC’s 1994 drama “My So Called Life,” turned up in the “Mad Men” Season 5 episode “Far Away Places,” playing Jane Sterling’s (Peyton List) acid-dropping shrink Catherine Orcutt. While Roger Sterling’s (John Slattery) trip is the one viewers go on in the episode (the ad exec hears flute music when he opens a liquor bottle, hallucinates an image of Don, and time travels back to the 1919 World Series), there’s no bigger trip than seeing Angela Chases’ mom as an LSD party hostess.


Dennis Haskins

 It was a brief cameo, but diehard “Saved By the Bell” fans couldn’t miss it: Mr. Belding -- er, actor Dennis Haskins -- played a test kitchen scientist (official title: Head of Desserts for General Foods) for Cool Whip in the Season 5 episode “Lady Lazarus.” His character’s name was credited as Phil Beachum, but he’ll always be Belding to us!


Linda Cardellini

Lindsay Weir is all grown up! “Freaks and Geeks” star Linda Cardellini scored a multi-episode arc as Don Draper’s seductive neighbor Sylvia Rosen on “Mad Men’s sixth season, and the role even earned her an Emmy nod. In  an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cardellini compared the two retro-themed shows: “[‘Mad Men’] is a very different vibe from something like ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ where the scripts are incredible but it’s a lot looser,” she said. “When it comes to something like ‘Mad Men,’ it’s very precise, and you may not even understand the part that you’re playing in the bigger picture.”


Harry Hamlin

Harry Hamlin made a name for himself as new ad agency partner Jim Cutler with a recurring role on “Mad Men.” But the former “L.A Law” star wasn’t exactly sure what he was getting into when he signed on to the show. Hamlin told GQ that he was given virtually no info on is character, but he took a leap of faith: “I didn’t know that I was going to be Jim Cutler, who is actually on the door of Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough.” He said. “Or that I would be wearing glasses the whole time.”



Ted McGinley
Back in the day, Ted McGinley played Jefferson D’Arcy on “Married With Children,” but two decades later he played a married swinger on the “Mad Men” episode “To Have and To Hold.” McGinley’s character, Mel, was the head writer on Megan Draper’s (Jessica Pare) soap opera of the same name. Given Mel’s swinging status, perhaps sex-starved Peggy Bundy would like his number!

The final season of "Mad Men"  is set to air on AMC next spring.


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