Famous TV Co-Stars Who Reunited On Different Shows

There's nothing better than co-stars clicking on a TV show. You can savor their chemistry over and over again through the seasons of a series. And when the series ends, at least there are often reruns to keep you company. But there's rarely new content to enjoy when a TV show ends. That's why when famous TV co-stars reunite on new shows, it's so exciting for fans and the stars, alike.

New series bring new characters and new storylines, but while their names and plot lines may vary, it's still a thrill to see old co-stars again on different shows. Whether it's co-stars reuniting on a different show with their chemistry intact, a famous guest star turning the tables on long-running good vibes by pretending they hate a former co-star on a new show, or something else entirely — this is acting after all — co-stars seem to enjoy revisiting their relationships in new series. Here are 15 pairings of 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."

When Seth Green left "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," fans mourned for his character Oz, and Alyson Hannigan's Willow. After all, they had a very cute high school and early college romance. Of course, Alyson Hannigan got a new love interest on that show in the form of Amber Benson's Tara that fans everywhere loved, but Oz was still missed. So it was with great anticipation that fans looked forward to their reunion on "How I Met Your Mother" Season 8, Episode 11, "The Final Page: Part One," where Alyson Hannigan co-starred as Lily Aldrin.

Seth Green guest starred as Daryl LaCourt, a former friend of Lily and Marshall's (Jason Segal) from college — although the term friend is used lightly. That's because Lily and Marshall can't stand Daryl, although Daryl remembers Lily and Marshall as his best pals. Although Seth Green and Alyson Hannigan didn't share the same connection they did on "Buffy," fans still loved seeing them back together.

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.

Kaley Cuoco may have gained fame and fortune from co-starring on "The Big Bang Theory," but before that, she was one of the kids on "8 Simple Rules," where Katey Sagal played her mother. While Cuoco didn't need a mother as a regular on "The Big Bang Theory," she did need one for the Season 10 premiere, "The Conjugal Conjecture." So she got her former TV mom on "8 Simple Rules" to guest star.

In that episode, Cuoco's Penny asked her whole family to attend her and Leonard's (second) wedding, including Sagal as her mother, Susan. Susan is embarrassed because her son — Penny's brother, Randall (Jack McBrayer) — was in jail for making meth. She gets to have several funny exchanges with Randall and her husband, Wyatt (Keith Carradine), during her brief appearance on the show. Still, the best part of the episode is the reunion of Sagal and Cuoco, who have a long history on and off-screen.

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.

Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas famously played TV detectives James Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs on "Miami Vice" for five seasons from 1984 to 1989. According to Showbiz CheatSheet, NBC wasn't sure Johnson was the one for the job, but then he and Thomas read together and there was no denying their chemistry. That was a big part of the reason people loved the show, so it was no surprise they wanted to recapture that dynamic for Johnson's follow-up, "Nash Bridges."

"Nash Bridges" shared some noteworthy similarities with "Miami Vice," specifically that Johnson played a cop in both. That made it an easy dynamic for Thomas to work into. In Season 2, Episode 22, he played Cedrick Hawks, and before you even see him, you know something's coming when you hear a reference to the "Miami Vice" theme play on the soundtrack. Soon the pair are smiling and hugging and, for a moment, it's as if no time has passed at all. Hawks apparently enjoyed his guest-starring role so much, he came back four years later in Season 6, Episode 14, "Out of Miami." 

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."

When "The George Lopez Show" ended, it broke a lot of hearts, including those of the cast members. They were expecting to get a seventh season when the show abruptly came to an end in 2007. So it was with great joy that Lopez's co-stars — Constance Marie, Valente Rodriguez, Luis Armand Garcia, and Belita Moreno — returned for a guest spot on Lopez's new show, "Lopez vs. Lopez."

In Seaon 1, Episode 6, "Lopez vs. Christmas," the foursome show up as guests at the Lopez family's Christmas celebration, which Marie called an "emotional" experience. "We had been waiting for a reboot of the original 'George Lopez Show' for many years," Marie told MySA.com. "But this is the next best thing. Honestly, I think it's better because it's real life mixed with fiction." Marie, who played Angie, Lopez's wife, on the old show, said her "Lopez vs. Lopez" character was a mix of Angie and herself in real life. "It's... such a beautiful thing to witness," she said about the reunion. No doubt fans would agree.

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.

On "The West Wing," Bradley Whitford was Josh Lyman and Allison Janney was C.J. Cregg, two of the most serious people on the planet. It's understandable; they're part of the president's inner circle, and there's no time for amusement. But things were very different when Whitford guest starred on Janney's sitcom, "Mom."

Whitford played Adam's (William Fichtner) best friend, Mitch. When Adam invites him over to Bonnie (Janney) and Christy's (Anna Faris) house for a visit in Season 4, Episode 9, "Bad Hand and British Royalty," Bonnie is expecting great things. After all, she hasn't met a lot of her boyfriend's friends before, and if Mitch is friends with Adam, he must be pretty great. But Mitch and his wife, Leanne (Nicole Sullivan), proceed to get very drunk. Plus, Mitch hits on Bonnie and gets in bed with Christy. Not good. 

He reprised his role as Mitch in a Season 6 episode, "Big Floor Pillows and a Ball of Fire," and both times, Bonnie is frustrated, disgusted... and kind of understanding of Mitch's plight. Yet, while Bonnie hated Mitch, fans enjoyed seeing the strange twist on Whitford and Janney's chemistry.

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.

Ray Romano starred with Patricia Heaton on the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" for nine years. During that time, there were a lot of sitcom hijinks, especially due to Ray Barone and his family, but Heaton's Debra Barone ultimately loved him. So fans were excited to see the pair back together when it was announced that Romano would co-star on Heaton's new show, "The Middle."

The two-part third season starter, "Forced Family Fun," included a flashback to Mike (Neil Flynn) and Frankie's (Heaton) honeymoon camping trip that happens to be crashed by Romano's Nicky Kohlbrenner. Nicky knows Mike from high school and ruins the pair's honeymoon by overstaying his welcome. While her character was unimpressed, Heaton found it to be a positive, if odd, experience. "It was really a lot of fun to have my two TV husbands," Heaton told Showbiz CheatSheet. "It's one of those weird 'Twilight Zone' kind of Hollywood moments that you live for." There's even a joke about an "alternate universe" that would see Ray and Frankie together instead of Mike and Frankie. For fans, it was hilarious fun.

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.

Yet another matchup of famous "Friends" co-stars shows the trend of famous co-stars on new shows taken to the maximum. Reese Witherspoon played Jennifer Aniston's spoiled sister Jill when she guest-starred on "Friends" over two decades ago. In Season 6's "The One With Rachel's Sister" and "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry," Jill seeks Rachel out after her father cuts her off, but Jill sees other things she can take, like Ross. Apparently that two-episode arc solidified Witherspoon and Aniston's friendship because they've starred on Apple TV+'s "The Morning Show" together since 2019.

On the soapy melodrama, they're antagonistic, playing rival news anchors on a morning show, but they love one another in real life. In fact, Witherspoon still gives Aniston credit for making her feel comfortable on the set of "Friends." "I was terrified but Aniston was so sweet to me," Witherspoon recalled to Today. Aniston clearly feels the same way about Witherspoon, and all these years later, fans still get to see them on "The Morning 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."