History Main / FakeGuestStar

* It took until the second season of ''Series/HappyDays'' before Henry Winkler (Fonzie) and Don Most (Ralph Malph) were credited in the opening theme, despite Fonzie appearing in every episode, and Ralph missing only one episode in the first season. In the former's case, this could be due to the fact that Fonzie was originally intended as just a side character.

* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' has Harold Frumpkin, the SixthRanger of the main group. He appears in nearly every episode, but is never listed in the show's opening credits with the other children.

** Interestingly played with regarding Creator/KatieCassidy. She is part of the original cast members of ''Arrow'' and gets the regular credit. However, her character is killed off in Season 4, but Cassidy continues to be a part of the Arrowverse, albeit playing a doppelganger of her character, who guest stars in ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}''. When said doppelganger appears in ''Arrow'' Season 5, Cassidy is credited with "special guest star" since she only appears in three of the season's 23 episodes. The next season, she is promoted to series regular again, but instead of simply updating her to regular credit, she gets "with", which makes her kind of a guest star. The singling out carries on until the end of the series; the final season updates her to "special appearance by", the same as Matt Ryan below.

** Creator/AnthonyStewartHead got this treatment after he rejoined the cast for the final season, though he was billed as a Super-Duper Extra Special Guest Star to compensate.
** Creator/AmberBenson in all but her final appearance, despite appearing in almost 50 episodes. She only got billing as a main in her last appearance because Creator/JossWhedon wanted to [[spoiler:kill off someone]] in the first episode that they got their name in the main titles. Joss originally wished to do this with Xander's friend Jesse in the pilot episode, but financial restrictions did not allow for it.
** Creator/ElizaDushku appeared in a key role in over half the third season episodes yet never got billing beyond "guest star".
** Anya (Creator/EmmaCaulfield) appears in ''15'' out of season 4's ''22'' episodes. They got the hint and she received a PromotionToOpeningTitles in the next season.

* Creator/JohnRatzenberger appeared as Cliff Clavin in nearly every episode of the first season (the sole exception being the fourth episode, "Sam at Eleven") of ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', but wasn't in the opening credits until season 2.
** Also, there's Paul. In the final few seasons, he appears in nearly every episode, usually seen sitting near Norm and Cliff and often having speaking roles. Yet, he is never added to the opening credits. In fact, he appears in more Season 11 episodes than Lilith, who remained in the opening credits (though, only for the episodes she appeared in).

* Creator/AmyAcker appeared in all but three episodes of the first season of ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', playing the important, highly recurring role of Dr. Claire Saunders. Despite occasionally appearing in more scenes than some of the regular cast, Acker was still considered a guest star. Creator/ReedDiamond, playing security chief Laurence Dominic, had similar treatment.
** This makes a little more sense in light of Season 2, where both of them are largely written out. Even better, Creator/JossWhedon received early warning that the show would be canceled and brought them back in for the finales, but who knows how much his ''original'' plan involved them.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' started with a fairly straightforward six character ensemble, all of whom were given lead credits, and with all other characters one-shots or recurring guests with one or two appearances over the course of Season 1. Then we were introduced to Antoine "Trip" Triplett (B.J. Britt) who joined the team in the latter half of the first season and was a FakeGuestStar for the remainder of that season and the first half of the second. Bobbie Morse (Adrienne Palicki) was introduced early in Season 2, and was [[PromotionToOpeningTitles promoted to regular]] after the Christmas haitus. Not so lucky was Alphonse "Mac" Mackenzie (Henry Simmons) who appeared in literally every episode of the second season, credited as a guest star for all of them. This might have been a way to [[spoiler: fool viewers into thinking his supposed betrayal then supposed departure would be permanent. He was promoted to regular for the third season]].