i know they come and go and you might not even realize they are there or notice anything about them, but was curious...

in most of the long-time running sitcoms i watch, i notice the background actors sometimes, none more than in Seinfeld. i mean i've seen the shows so many times, i like to look over the shoulder as they say. on Seinfeld they reuse actors over and over and i see non-named actors in different episodes and so fun. they could be staffers, who knows...

but, in one particular episode of Seinfeld, "The Limo", i have always focused on the actions of this one guy, he is so mesmerizing in his similar actions. i never look away from him. i really don't know why. he is the older guy in white coat over the left shoulder of reporter (right-hand side)...




so do you ever notice those bit players in the background?

Yeah. I tend to have an eye for faces so I've always noticed when familiar ones pop up, even in the background. Back in the 90's there was a young looking gray haired man who I kept seeing in shows. I thought he was familiar to me because I had seen him more than once, then I finally realized I recognized him because he actually lived in the condo complex I lived in!

I know you are taking about extras, but the Andy Griffith Show reused the same actors for different roles all the time.

This was common during the classic network era. Same actor appearing multiple times during a season in different supporting roles for the same show.
Or appearing on multiple shows week after week.
There were actors who made a decent living specializing in this. One week an outlaw on Gunsmoke, next week a cop on The Fugitive, week after that an advertising client on Bewitched, etc. etc.
Also, that far back you still had actors under contract to a studio. The studio would cast them over and over in small parts of the shows they produced.

Law and Order series comes to mind.

I remember Jeffrey Tambor was a guest role on Three's Company four times--each time a completely different character even though he looked pretty much the same. One of those occurrences was as a lead role in the pilot for The Ropers. I know that's not what you're looking for, but he was always a background character compared to the others.

MASH had Harry Morgan as a general playing a key episode character a few seasons before he became a Col Potter.

I'm pretty awful at these, unless they're very front and center.

We've started watching the BBC show Toast of the Town and Shazad Latif has a recurring bit role, but I didn't realize it was him until I saw his name in the credits. Now I can't watch without seeing him as Lt Tyler from Star Trek Discovery.

I’m pretty sure M*A*S*H only had about 5 different Asian actors who were interchanged between North Korean soldiers, South Korean civilians, and Chinese people.

i also remember Giovanni Ribisi playing a punk on the street on Friends who dropped a condom in Phoebe's guitar case when she was playing. he came back for it and ran away. then he became her brother later on in series. always thought that was funny...

Never notice the cashier at Monk's Cafe in the Seinfeld series seemed to be always played by the same actress. Then I read an article online about well-known extras and Ruth Cohen was mentioned as being noteable for appearing in most Seinfeld episodes other than the core four. Cohen appeared in 101 of the 180 episodes - three of those episodes she actually had a few lines ("The Doll" and "The Gum" were two episodes where she spoked) - she was credited on-screen for two of those three episodes. After reading that article, whenever I watch an episode of Seinfeld now and there is a scene at Monk's Cafe - my eyes tend to go right to the cashier's area to see if she is there.

Ruth Cohen IMDB Page - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1131118/#
Ruth Cohen Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Cohen

Yup. L&O is the king of seeing recent TV personalities in starting roles. Far too many to count or list.

My friend was "the Forensics Guy" in an episode of Chicago Fire