History Main / OpeningCreditsCastParty

You might never see them all in one place during the show itself. They move in their own circles and follow separate storylines. Yet there they are every week, all these people that are somehow connected to each other, standing there self-consciously with fixed grins and arms around each others' shoulders for a big gang portrait, like they're at a family reunion and someone broke out the video cameras. Are we looking at the actors, or the characters? It's kind of hard to tell.

* Certain later seasons of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' showed a shot of Mike and the Bots waving to us from the viewport of the Satellite of Love. But then, MST has NoFourthWall, so it's kind of a trope subversion (as well as a parody of a similar shot at the end of the credits for ''BabylonFive'').

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* The sister show of ''BeverlyHills90210'', ''MelrosePlace'', had one of these at the very earliest stages (i.e., pre HeatherLocklear), with the huge, unwieldy cast marching down the eponymous street arm in arm in an intimidating phalanx of put-on camaraderie. The shot appeared both at the start of the credits and at the end, too, just to remind you that you really did see something that false in the opening titles.

* The early seasons of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' followed the family around the dinner table. In later seasons the opening had to be changed due to the [[TheOtherDarrin replacement of a main cast member]]. They forfeited the OpeningCreditsCastParty in favor of a montage of [[ThroughTheYearsCredits time-progressed photos]] of each cast member as they were credited.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[SarcasmMode Totally not staged for the opening credits.]]]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/FriendsCastParty_1144.jpg]]

[[quoteright:250:[[BeverlyHills90210 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beverlyhills_9662.jpg]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:250:Hey c'mon, we're about to put on a show!]]-]

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beverlyhills_9662.jpg]]
[[caption-width:295:Hey c'mon, we're about to put on a show!]]

[[BeverlyHills90210 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BH90210cast_300x225.jpg]]

[[AC:LiveActionTelevisio]]

* Most openings of ''DetectiveConan'' / ''Case Closed'' feature really big Cast Parties - the detective kids, the Mouris, the Tokyo Police, Hattori and Kazuha, FBI, end so on.

* Similarly, the opening credits of ''Popular'' featured the entire main cast at a photoshoot together, despite the premise of the show being that the two main groups of characters hated each other, and the unpopular, brunette clique weren't exactly the photoshoot types. Bonus points for including the two 'parent' characters who, as the show went on, were rarely seen outside of the opening sequence.
* ''LawAndOrder'' and some of its spin-offs routinely end their opening credits with the four main principals striding purposefully down a corridor together, presumably because that's where the courthouse vending machine is.
* ''It's a Living''/''Making a Living'' started off its credits with its waitresses all joining up to merrily walk arm in arm toward the big steel skyscraper atop which sat the luxury restaurant they worked in. The show's troubled history and revolving door cast meant this artificial scene was reshot more than once.

* The beginning and end of the ''GrowingPains'' opening credits showed the Seavers standing together outside their house for a family portrait. The reprise changed every year, as the characters went back into the house leaving one of them to mug for the camera.
* ''FullHouse'' gives everyone their own introduction shot. But by the end of the credits, they're all goofing around and having a picnic together.
* After the first season, ''FamilyTies'' avoided having everyone posing awkwardly together by having an anonymous hand working on a ''painting'' of the Keatons posing awkwardly together.
* The opening of ''{{Friends}}'' has the characters goofing around a fountain in the park. The odd part isn't that the characters are all together (they almost always are in the show itself), it's that they're apparently having a late-night party in the middle of a deserted park... that has a ''couch''!

* Certain later seasons of ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' showed a shot of Mike and the Bots waving to us from the viewport of the Satellite of Love. But then, MST has NoFourthWall, so it's kind of a trope subversion (as well as a parody of a similar shot at the end of the credits for ''BabylonFive'').
* The opening of ''LizzieMcGuire'' has the main cast playing with a ball in front of an abstract background.
* The early seasons of ''Roseanne'' followed the family around the dinner table. In later seasons the opening had to be changed due to the [[TheOtherDarrin replacement of a main cast member]]. They forfeited the OpeningCreditsCastParty in favor of a montage of [[ThroughTheYearsCredits time-progressed photos]] of each cast member as they were credited.

* ''TheCosbyShow'': The first season was a photo montage, but subsequent seasons had increasingly complicated dance numbers featuring the cast dancing to various musical takes on the theme song.
* ''Martial Law'' climaxed its season one opening credits with the cast walking purposefully towards the camera (which had to be redone ''twice'' - the first time because Tammy Lauren left, and the second time due to Arsenio Hall joining).
* ''ThreesCompany'' showed the entire cast spending the afternoon together. Even though there is no explainable reason why the three main characters, plus Larry, plus their land lord and his wife, plus the creepy lady who Jack hates would all be hanging out with each other.

* A rare animated example (as it's too sedate to be called an ActionHoggingOpening): ''GarfieldAndFriends''. Because the two featured segments (''Garfield'' and ''U.S. Acres'') were very strongly segregated, this was usually the only place the characters from both of them could be seen together.

* The opening of ''[=~Charlie's Angels~=]'' originally included the three angels, Jill, Sabrina, and Kelly, walking together toward the camera partway through the credits--the premise being that the three left police work together to work for Charles Townsend. When Jill was replaced by Kris (Cheryl Ladd), this was reshot with Sabrina and Kelly walking together, and Kris coming in from the side to join them. And so on.
* The sprawling cast of ''Soap'' required ''three'' cast pictures in the opening credits -- the Tates, the Campbells, and all of them together. This had to be redone more than once because of cast changes, resulting in different gags: first a fight breaks out among the characters, then another version had the ceiling collapse on them as they stiffly pose, then a return to the fight idea.

* ''FamilyGuy'' mocked this at one point with their fake ad for 'Shoving Buddies', the new show coming this fall on the FOX network. It had the cast doing this, just this, for about 5 minutes.

* A rare animated example (as it's too sedate to be called an ActionHoggingOpening): ''GarfieldAndFriends''. Because the two featured segments (''Garfield'' and ''U.S. Acres'') were very strongly segregated, this was usually the only place the characters from both of them could be seen together.
* Most openings of ''Detective Conan'' / ''Case Closed'' feature really big Cast Parties - the detective kids, the Mouris, the Tokyo Police, Hattori and Kazuha, FBI, end so on.

* ''Skins'' starting in series two has the cast playing around and having fun. Of course, so they won't be like those American teen shows they add the sex, drugs, drinking, and drama so it would be more in character for them.
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* ''HowIMetYourMother'' does this with stylized still photos from an evening at [=MacLaren's=] Pub.

* "Skins" starting in series two has the cast playing around and having fun. Of course, so they won't be like those American teen shows they add the sex, drugs, drinking, and drama so it would be more in character for them.

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* FamilyGuy mocked this at one point with their fake ad for 'Shoving Buddies', the new show coming this fall on Fox. It had the cast doing this, just this, for about 5 minutes.

* ThreesCompany showed the entire cast spending the afternoon together. Even though there is no explainable reason why the three main characters, plus Larry, plus their land lord and his wife, plus the creepy lady who Jack hates would all be hanging out with each other.

Supertrope of the JusticeLeagueShot, where the Gang of Five poses in a heroic V. Compare the TeamShot, where the gang are posed together at the end of an anime.

* ''MartialLaw'' climaxed its season one opening credits with the cast walking purposefully towards the camera (which had to be redone ''twice'' - the first time because Tammy Lauren left, and the second time due to Arsenio Hall joining).

*No one's mentioned ''TheCosbyShow''? The first season was a photo montage, but subsequent seasons had increasingly complicated dance numbers featuring the cast dancing to various musical takes on the theme song.