TVSquad

So who saw this past Sunday's episode of The Wire? If you did, then you probably saw the quick little cameo by Richard Belzer as a bar patron near the end of the episode. After I watched it, one question came to mind: was he playing John Munch? According to this NPR article, he was. However, the basis for the logic was subtle and only a serious TV buff would have picked up on it. Not even I caught it and I'm a huge Wire and Homicide fan.

At one point during his conversation with the bartender (as Clark Johnson's character Gus Haynes walked by) Munch mentioned that he owned a bar once. Now if you recall, in the later seasons of Homicide, Munch did own a bar. Here's where it gets interesting though. Do you remember who he owned the bar with? Detective Meldrick Lewis... played by Clark Johnson. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, here's the real point of this post. With this appearance on The Wire, Belzer has now played Munch on eight different programs. That's insane! The only other characters to come close to that are Norm and Cliff (George Wendt and John Ratzenberger) from Cheers with seven distinct appearances each. Read on for more...

(S07E19) Anthony Anderson has been playing a lot of heavy characters these past two years, and I'm not talking about his wait weight. Ba-Da-Dum! Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

Seriously, Anderson is known for his comedic roles in television shows such as All About the Andersons and movies like Scary Movie 3 (and 4) and Harold & Kumar go to White Castle (hilarious scene). I mean, he was in Kangaroo Jack for crying out loud. However, we have seen Anderson's serious side over the past two years. Last year and this, he portrayed villain Antwon Mitchell on the FX show The Shield. On this episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit he portrays Lucius Blaine, Elliot Stabler's (Chris Meloni) replacement partner.

Wait, where's Stabler's original partner, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay)? Well, jump on through and we'll catch you up.