Old faces, new roles

Tami Taylor or Rayna Jaymes? I can't tell either.

If you watch a lot of TV shows, it's only a matter of time until the characters and actors start overlapping each other. This can be a very confusing time.

For example, last night I watched an episode of Sarah Chalke's new show, How to Live with Your Parents , and couldn't help wonder what happened to her and J.D.? Also, didn't she used to be a doctor? What happened to her medical career? And who knew her step dad is Ray Romano's brother? Chalke also recently guest starred on Grey's Anatomy as a patient's mother, not a doctor.

I loved watching all five episodes of Friday Night Lights in a short time a couple of months ago. While I was doing this, I also followed Nashville and Hart of Dixie on hulu plus. It's confusing to watch three shows at once with the cast of three FNL actors and actresses in it all at once.

It leaves a wide gap between the years between when FNL went off the air in2010 and now. How did coach Taylor's wife go from her job at a college in Philly to being married to the mayor of Nashville and a huge country music star? Just last week Connie Britton's character in Nashville lectured her pre-teen daughter and it was JUST like watching her FNL character lecture teenage daughter Julie Taylor. (Bonus: read how Connie Britton has only gotten better with age.)

And Jason Street, the second coming of Payton Manning quarterback who was paralyzed in the series debut, he can walk again! And he became a lawyer! And he lives in the same town where Summer Roberts from The OC became a doctor. And that town is run by East Dillon quarterback's Vince Howard's dad, Lavon Hayes, who is now clean.

Some actresses play very similar roles. On Gilmore Girls, Lauren Graham plays a single mother to a perfect child. On Parenthood, she plays a single mother to less than perfect children. If you've ever wondered what kind of mother she'd be without Rory, Parenthood's your answer.

All of these shows came out years apart. It's me who is just now getting to many of them. But sometimes actors play multiple roles in the same season. Last fall, Ted Danson had roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Damages, Bored to Death and CSI.

From 1999-2003, Chris Meloni had roles in both Oz and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing a convict in one and a detective in the other.

On the other side of the spectrum, Meloni's SVU castmate actor Richard Belzer has played character John Munch in at least eight TV shows: Homicide: Life on the Streets; Law & Order; Law & Order SVU; X Files; The Beat;; Law & Order: Trial by Jury; The Wire; and Arrested Development.

Arrested Development's father-son duo played by Jason Bateman and Michael Cera appear together in Juno, but with Bateman's character potentially adopting Cera's character's son.

In a slightly different twist with actors who play different characters in the same series, Jeffrey Tambor plays two roles on Arrested Development, George Bluth, Sr., and his twin Oscar.

Which of your favorite actors and actresses play in multiple shows you enjoy watching?