History Main / NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'' had ErnestBorgnine in "Yesterday's Heroes" as a BadassGrandpa, surely he did something...

You're watching one of the various ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' shows, the story is starting to pick up, and as the detectives start going through the usual RedHerring suspects, they interview the victim's mom and it's AngelaLansbury. Or their poolboy is [[Series/{{Lost}} Ian Somerhalder]]. Or [[Series/{{Lost}} William Mapother]]. Or "Trey" from ''[[Series/TheOC The O.C.]]''. Even though the detectives pass them over at first, you just know that they're going to be [[ChekhovsGunman important]] in the episode, because they wouldn't have paid to cast a well-known actor in a throwaway role. It is very common that the most recognizable actor is the guilty party.

* We could fill this page entirely with ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' examples. It's pretty much S.O.P. for L&O shows: if the feature guest star isn't the defense attorney, the victim, or the first suspect, he's the perp. On ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', though, it's often obvious who the killer is right from the start as the show is about how the detectives will catch them, rather than whodunnit.

** Yep... another ''LawAndOrder: Criminal Intent'' entry. They interview the woman who ran the prime suspect's foster home, Whoopi Goldberg (with short hair, no less). Guess who's behind the whole thing?

** Also averted in an episode of ''SVU'' in which Karen Allen is the murderer's wife, but played straight in an earlier episode of the original ''LawAndOrder'' in which Allen is the killer.

* WilliamAtherton guest stars in a 1985 episode of ''MurderSheWrote''. [[spoiler:[[TypeCasting Unsurprisingly]], he did it.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' blatantly points out this trope when they have an episode of ''Series/CSIMiami'' playing. With the main characters questioning who committed this crime, then nodding to the audience when the title of "Special Guest Star" pops up in the opening credits.

** CSI is very guilty of casting actors that are go-to TV bad guys as the eventual killer. It's pretty simple to pick out whodunnit if you've watched enough TV (especially 90's dramas like ''Series/TheXFiles''. More than once they've cast two "that guy" actors in an episode, and more likely then not they both did it.

** Creator/MalcolmMcDowell deserves to be far more then the average perp when he appears on ''CI'', and indeed, [[spoiler:not only is a {{Chessmaster}} par excellence, he [[KarmaHoudini gets away with his crime in the end]]]].

** Also been subverted quite a bit as [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Robert Picardo]], Debi Mazar, [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Dan Castellaneta]] and [[PulpFiction Phil LaMarr]] have all popped up as being allies rather than killers.
*** Robert Picardo was also in an episode of ''PushingDaisies'' as a detective. He hadn't committed any crimes there either. Though [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Ethan Phillips]] also appeared and WAS the guilty party.

You're watching one of the various ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' shows, the story is starting to pick up, and as the detectives start going through the usual RedHerring suspects, they interview the victim's mom and it's AngelaLansbury. Or their poolboy is [[Series/{{Lost}} Ian Somerhalder]]. Or [[Series/{{Lost}} William Mapother]]. Or "Trey" from ''TheOC''. Even though the detectives pass them over at first, you just know that they're going to be [[ChekhovsGunman important]] in the episode, because they wouldn't have paid to cast a well-known actor in a throwaway role. It is very common that the most recognizable actor is the guilty party.

* It was an example of this that led many to believe that WWE NXT might be rigged. Of the six rookie Divas, only two were given any kind of storyline outside of competing for NXT, Kaitlyn and Aksana. (Interestingly, these two are most often considered the two worst of the six.) Aksana, who was born in Lithuania, was given an angle where she had to marry her pro Goldust to obtain a green card, and Kaitlyn was in a love triangle with her pro, Vickie Guerrero, and Vickie's boyfriend, Dolph Ziggler. Aksana stayed in the competition until her storyline marriage with Goldust was over, than was eliminated almost immediately after. This left Kaitlyn as the only Rookie with any type of storyline. When she eventually won the competition, it appeared that WWE forced Kaitlyn into becoming the Girl I Recognize, making her the only one visible outside of NXT (which is a web-only show) and thereby leading fans to vote for her (since she was the only one they probably knew anything about).

*** not entirely as Ricky/Raviv Ullman, Maggie Grace and Dana Delaney were also present as [[Spoiler:Perp, Victim and Shooter of Lewis Black respectively]] it was basically Ullman's "Look at me, I'm not chained to Disney, I have range." casting Reel

* Many viewers of the 2011 film version of ''TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'' guessed that the traitor was [[spoiler:Bill Haydon]] on the basis that he was played by [[spoiler:ColinFirth]], while the other suspects were played merely by recognizable British character actors.

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}: In just the course of one season of 24 episodes, roughly half involve examples of reasonably well known actors and actresses as the only recognisable potential suspect, with the majority of those being played straight by them performing the crime.

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}: In ''Rat Race'', [[spoiler: Molly Price, who played a large role in ThirdWatch as well as numerous other tv shows and movies, showed up very early in the episode as a secretary. She did it.]]

* Lampshaded on ''TheSimpsons'':

* ''FamilyGuy'' blatantly points out this trope when they have an episode of CSIMiami playing. With the main characters questioning who committed this crime, then nodding to the audience when the title of "Special Guest Star" pops up in the opening credits.

* In an episode of ''StrongMedicine'', a flood of patients from a train derailment caused by a car on the track was followed by a frantic and confused young woman coming into the hospital. Nothing special, except that it was Delia Fisher from ''MySoCalledLife''. She did it, but she didn't know she did it.

** Another episode guest starred [[{{Psych}} Andy]] [[InvaderZim Berman]]. He did it.

* It was an example of this that led many to believe that WWE NXT might be rigged. Of the six rookie Divas, only two were given any kind of storyline outside of competing for NXT, Kaitlyn and Aksana (Interestingly, these two are most often considered the two worst of the six.) Aksana, who was born in Lithuania, was given an angle where she had to marry her pro Goldust to obtain a green card, and Kaitlyn was in a love triangle with her pro, Vickie Guerrero, and Vickie's boyfriend, Dolph Ziggler. Aksana stayed in the competition until her storyline marriage with Goldust was over, than was eliminated almost immediately after. This left Kaitlyn as the only Rookie with any type of storyline. When she eventually won the competition, it appeared that WWE forced Kaitlyn into becoming the Girl I Recognize, making her the only one visible outside of NXT (which is a web-only show) and thereby leading fans to vote for her (since she was the only one they probably knew anything about).

* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' was usually pretty good at averting this trope... whenever a famous guest star appeared, he/she was either a relative of the victim (like RobinWilliams, [[MysticRiver Marcia Gay Harden]] or [[{{Lost}} Terry O'Quinn]]), or his identity as the killer was made intentionally clear from the beginning and the episode actually focused on the detectives' attempt to ''prove'' that he was guilty (like [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Elijah Wood]], [[Film/ReservoirDogs Steve Buscemi]] or [[LethalWeapon4 Chris Rock]]).

** MalcolmMcDowell deserves to be far more then the average perp when he appears on ''CI'', and indeed, [[spoiler:not only is a {{Chessmaster}} par excellence, he [[KarmaHoudini gets away with his crime in the end]]]].

** "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," where Malcolm [=McDowell=] was the guest star. In the episode, one of his models is killed. [[spoiler:Just do the math once you see his BerserkButton.]]

* The ''NeroWolfe'' series played with, or possibly completely inverted, this trope: The supporting cast stayed mostly the same from episode to episode, but except for a small core cast the actors played different roles in different stories - so while you can nearly always recognise "the guy" (or "the gal"), it's of no use to you in jumping to the solution of the case.

* Happens so often on ''Series/{{Castle}}'' that lately they've taken to casting at least two familiar faces an episode, so even though you know one of them did it, they at least keep you guessing between which. For the most part it seems to enjoy zigzagging this trope.

** As opposed to the ''Castle'' ep below, Miss Farrell ''did'' do it in "The Man in the Mud" ... but the episode also had [[Series/{{Lost}} Tom Friendly]], [[MySoCalledLife Delia Fisher]], and Joey Lawrence's little brother to choose from.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' did this once or twice, with [[Series/{{Scrubs}} Carla]] starring as the perp in one episode, and another person playing a... suspect (but not the killer) in another. (Names and ep. titles would be appreciated)
** Also been subverted quite a bit as [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Robert Picardo]], Debi Mazar, [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Dan Castellaneta]] and [[PulpFiction Phil LaMarr]] have all popped up as being allies rather than killers.
** Robert Picardo was also in an episode of ''PushingDaisies'' as a detective. He hadn't committed any crimes there either. Though [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Ethan Phillips]] also appeared and WAS the guilty party.
** "One Man's Treasure": You got [[{{Entourage}} Mrs. Ari]] and [[MadMen Miss Farrell]] over the corpse of a two-timer. So one of them did it, right? Nope, turns out to be [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Principal Wood]], only slightly unrelated to his two-timingness.

** Averted again in "Rashomama" when Ray Wise, who has played [[TwinPeaks a killer]] and [[{{Reaper}} the Devil himself]] was only a suspect for a short time. The same episode also had soap opera actress Rachel Miner and BigLove star Amanda Seyfried. Which, if either of them did it? Well, [[spoiler: they both participated, with help from two others.]]

** Another episode had [[spoiler: Barry Bostwick]] as the killer. Also doubles as StuntCasting, as [[spoiler: the original murder took place after a midnight showing of ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' in the late 70s.]]

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' had a late first season episode that guest starred [[Series/{{Firefly}} Adam Baldwin]], [[Series/{{Angel}} Julie]] [[{{Dexter}} Benz]], and [[MelrosePlace Doug]] [[DesperateHousewives Savant]] (albeit this was the season before the later show started). [[spoiler: Subverted in the fact that NONE of them are guilty - the murder of the week was actually a suicide.]]

* This is generally averted on ''Series/CriminalMinds'', which makes frequent usage of HeyItsThatGuy actors as supporting characters, but rarely has them turn out to be the Unsub, except in the cases where a well-known actor is cast specifically to play a major villain whose identity is shown from the beginning of the episode.

** Yet another episode featured JeffreyCombs. As a [[ReAnimator coroner]]. He was barely even a suspect.