Maybe more so than in other shows I have watched.

Do you think it was comon to do this in this era or is it something Hollywood just does?

It was remarked at the time that Jack Webb had a "stable" of guest actors that he would use again and again. Many turn up on Adam-12, too.

It was remarked at the time that Jack Webb had a "stable" of guest actors that he would use again and again. Many turn up on Adam-12, too.

and they trapes over to Walton's Mountain too.

[QUOTE=Tankeryanker;6448704]Maybe more so than in other shows I have watched.

Do you think it was comon to do this in this era or is it something Hollywood just does?[/QUOT

If an actor did well on a series it was not uncommon to see him/her brought back to play other characters on the same series. Allan Melvin is a classic example of this, he appeared in 8 different episodes of The Andy Griffith Show playing 8 different characters.

That said, Webb was an extreme practitioner of this type of casting. There were 98 episodes of Dragnet between 67-70, Virginia Gregg appeared in 14 of them, playing everything from a sales clerk, to an alcoholic wife, to a reporter, to a con woman. Peggy Webber was in 8 episodes, Stacy Harris 8, Jack Sheldon 7.

Jack Webb liked his actors to read their lines from a teleprompter, he felt it made it seem more real so he liked working with people who understood his way of doing thigs.

To me Dragnet was a hybrid, a continuing drama that in some sense played like an anthology series. Friday and Gannon were the same people but different people in each episode. One week they were in personnel, next week homicide, next week bunco, next week community affairs. Each week seemed like a new situation, the audience was starting over so the fact that the same actors were used over and over again never bothered me.

hOLLYWOOD USED TO DO THIS A LOT. I guess it had something to do with SAG card?

Virginia Gregg was everywhere; these character actors of that time worked a lot. And, yes, multiple roles on the same show. Allan Melvin is another great example. Occasionally, they would take top billed roles, such as the adult regulars on Dennis the Menace. When that show ended, Gloria Henry and Herbert Anderson went back to bit parts.

Then there were shows like Highway Patrol and Sea Hunt. To make up for expensive on-location shooting with lots of action, they would use no name actors. Some of these actors went places, such as Leonard Nimoy.

Virginia Gregg was everywhere


She was one of the ones I was thinking of. She went to Walton's Mountain and became that backwoods herb specialist, Ada Corley.