And Starring: Difference between revisions

When the [[Title Sequence]] includes credits, there is a whole mess of jockeying for position that goes on. The dominant position within the credits sequence is either at the very beginning of the list, or at the very end.

 

 

In the past, this was reserved for either the star of the show, a cast member who is not part of the "primary" ensemble, or a big name doing a cameo. Over time, as stars and their agents learned about the power of marketing, it has become an increasingly important bargaining point.

 

The most extreme form of this is the [[Fake Guest Star]]. Compare [[Billed Above the Title]], when special attention is drawn to the ''first'' actor in the cast list. Very common in [[All-Star Cast]] fare. Contrast with [[My Friends and Zoidberg|And Zoidberg]]

{{examples}}

** [[ADV Films]] also did that for [[Taylor Hannah]]'s role in [[Le Chevalier D]]'eon.

* In ''[[Macross Zero]]'', Akira Kamiya, reprising his role as Roy Fokker from [[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|the original series]], gets this treatment during the end credits.

 

== Film ==

* Well known and quirky British comedian [[Eddie Izzard]] pops up for an extremely extravagant and nearly disturbing musical performance in [[Across the Universe (film)|Across the Universe]]. And then he's never seen again for the rest of the film.

* [[Jeffrey Combs]] always gets the last credit in the title sequence of the ''[[Re-Animator]]'' movies: "And Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West." Funny, since he's the protagonist of all the movies.

* Lea Thompson gets an "And" in ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]] Part III'', her status as leading lady being overtaken by Mary Steenburgen.

** Which makes sense since she's the [[Love Interest]] for Doc Brown, who is gets a little more focus in this movie than Marty.

* The final image of the credits to ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', after all the secondary characters have had clips shown of them with their actors' names, has, at the bottom, "[[Orson Welles]] as Kane". It's a perfect example of the trope, all the more so because it's one of the most famous roles in film.

** This is actually a complete aversion of the trope. Rather than using "And" (or anything else) to draw attention to his credit, Welles deliberately hid it, throwing it in with a list of minor actors.

* The [[Show Within a Show|film within a film]] ''Jack Slater IV'' (in ''[[Last Action Hero]]'') has a intro sequence with an "And Introducing" part for one of the characters. Of course, when the protagonist of ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' enters the film, he gets to meet her. And keeps accidentally calling her by the name of her actress. Oops.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' pushed this about as far as it would go. "Featuring [[Sean Bean]], With Ian Holm, And Andy Serkis as Gollum".

* Much of the large ensemble cast of the movie ''MASH'' is credited as "Introducing".

* Parodied in ''[[Ocean's Eleven]]'', which "introduces" [[Julia Roberts]] . . . eleven years ''after'' her breakout role. ''Ocean's Twelve'' also switches the names of the character and actor (due to a scene where her character [[Actor Allusion|impersonates]] [[Celebrity Paradox|Julia Roberts]]): "Introducing Tess Ocean as Julia Roberts."

* Minnie Driver got an 'And Starring' in the ''[[Phantom of the Opera]]'' [[The Movie|movie]]. Somewhat understandable in that particular case, since most of the major parts were played by Hollywood unknowns.

* ''[[Rookie of the Year]]'': "And introducing Thomas Ian Nicholas."

** Like the ''Se7en'' example below, the latter credit was done because Grossman's identity was meant to be an audience surprise. They even tried to hide his involvement during filming, but some pictures of Cruise in a fatsuit were leaked and the press had a feeding frenzy.

* The 1965 version of ''[[The Flight of the Phoenix]]'' includes several levels of this. The opening credits begin as follows: "An Associates and Aldrich Company Production starring / [[James Stewart]] / [[Richard Attenborough]] / Peter Finch / Hardy Kruger / Ernest Borgnine as Trucker Cobb / in ''The Flight of the Phoenix''". But Borgnine's credit is just the beginning - they continue with "Co-starring Ian Bannen / Ronald Fraser / Christian Marquand / Dan Duryea as Standish". And they're still not done, moving on to "Also starring George Kennedy / Gabriele Tinti / Alex Montoya". And that's still not the end, as they continue with "Featuring Peter Bravos / William Aldrich / and Barrie Chase as Farida". Worth noting, perhaps, that Bravos and Aldrich die in the crash immediately after the opening credits, and Chase only appears in a flashback/hallucination.

* [[William Shatner]] gets it in ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'', with a whopping "And starring William Shatner as Admiral James T. Kirk".

* ''And John Vernon'' (aka [[Animal House|Dean Wermer]]) in ''[[Killer Klowns From Outer Space]]'' for his seven-minute [[One-Scene Wonder]].

* A fictional example from the movie ''[[Shakespeare in Love]]'', in the following dialogue about the death of real-life dramatist [[Christopher Marlowe]]:

'''Philip Henslowe:''' The bill! Ah, vanity, vanity!

'''Ned Alleyn:''' Not the billing - the ''bill''! }}

* [[Johnny Depp]] managed to avoid falling into obscurity after being "introduced" by ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]''.

* The 1985 schlock-horror film ''The Stuff'' gave "Starring" to Michael Moriarty, credited Paul Sorvino with "as Col. Spears", listed Danny Aiello as "Guest Star", used "introducing" for child actor Scott Bloom, and, most bizarrely, enclosed Patrick O'Neal's credit in a box. Garrett Morris received no special annotation.

* ''Witchery'' referred to one of its actresses as a "special guest star", which prompted [[Obscurus Lupa]] to comment "is she in the movie or not?"

* The 2009 film of ''[[Astro Boy (film)|Astro Boy]]'' has "and [[Nicolas Cage]] as Dr. Tenma".

* The 2009 version of ''Day Of The Dead'' has "And Ving Rhames".

* ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'' names almost every actor with a speaking part, "and [[Bruce Willis]]".

* [[Samuel L. Jackson]] has been credited this was a couple of times in recent years. "And ... as The Octopus" in ''[[The Spirit]]'' as well as "And ... as Nick Fury" in ''[[Iron Man]] 2''.

* The comedy ''[[Paul]]'' has "and Seth Rogen as the voice of Paul" on the trailers. The poster is simply "and Seth Rogen as Paul". [[Captain Obvious|Rogen voices Paul]], an alien who has escaped from Area 51 in an otherwise live-action cast.

* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'' has "and [[Sean Connery]] as Professor Henry Jones".

* [[Christopher Walken]] received the "Introducing..." credit for [[The Anderson Tapes]] and has rarely missed out on a coveted "And..." since.

* * ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' and ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'' has "and [[Jackie Chan]]".

* On the posters for ''[[Precious]]'', they say "and introducing Gabourey Sidibe", since that was her first major film role.

* The comedy anthology film ''The Ten'' credited the main cast in alphabetical order, but then went back to the beginning with "And [[Jessica Alba]]."

{{quote|And introducing... *drumroll* Jennifer Hudson}}

 

== Live Action TV ==

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by JMS in one of the commentary tracks. When G'Kar and Londo appear in the credits, he refers to them respectively as "God" and "Demigod".

** The two rotated every season for the first four years, then switched every episode in season 5.

** There's also "Crossroads, Part II" in which, instead of being billed with the rest of the main cast, Katee Sackhoff appears in a special credit, "Katee Sackhoff as Starbuck", right before the episode's end credits. This is repeated in "Sometimes A Great Notion" with "Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh". In both cases, it was done to preserve a surprise.

** And now ''[[Caprica]]'' has "And Polly Walker" concluding its main cast list each episode.

** The ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' opening titles have at the end "and David Hewlett as Dr. McKay". During his [[Promotion to Opening Titles]], the credits also include "with Paul McGillion as Dr. Carson Beckett" in the second-last place.

** After she was promoted to a regular in the middle of season 1, the credits for ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' now end with "and Ming-Na".

** This is the show with a [[Grammar Nazi|split infinitive]] in its [[Opening Narration]].

** Leonard Nimoy's "Also Starring" was actually a promotion from "Co-Starring" in the two original pilots (though he was still listed "As Mr. Spock"). Also note that Shatner's name is larger than Nimoy's and Kelley's. Apparently this was contractually obligated.

* ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' was notorious for [[Promotion to Opening Titles|its revolving door-style notion of what makes a "main character"]], yet no matter how often the names changed in the opening sequence the first and last spots always remained the same starting with Jennifer Garner and ending with "and Victor Garber". When Lena Olin joined the cast it became "with Lena Olin ... and Victor Garber", then it went back to "and Victor Garber" after she left.

* [[Masked Rider|"And introducing FERBUS"]]

* For most of the 1970s and 1980s, [[The Announcer]] on ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' would introduce only the host (Chuck Woolery until 1981, Pat Sajak from 1981 onward), who in turn would introduce the co-host (Susan Stafford until 1982, [[Lovely Assistant|Vanna White]] from 1983 following a few substitutes). Starting in the 1990s, the opening spiel was changed to end in "...the stars of America's game, Pat Sajak and Vanna White!" and they walked out together.

* The opening credits for The Osbournes go through the four family members, ending with "And [[Ozzy Osbourne]] as 'The Dad'"

* ''[[The Suite Life On Deck]]'' has "And Phill Lewis."

* ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'' has "And Jason Dolley",who plays the eldest son, rather than one of the two parents as is more typical for family sitcoms (though Eric Allan Kramer gets a "with" credit). This is probably because of his years of long and loyal service to the Mouse House.

* ''[[Batman]]'': "And Yvonne Craig as Batgirl."

* ''[[The King of Queens]]'' had "And Jerry Stiller as Arthur" as the final credit in the opening sequence. He was also the only cast member to have their character name included in the credit.

== Western Animation ==

 

* The opening sequence for ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' finishes with, "Co-starring John Moschitta as Blurr."

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': On the series, Harry Shearer gets the "And", while Marcia Wallace and Phil Hartman, despite being near-regulars (at least until Hartman's death), always get "Special Guest Star". In the movie, Shearer is credited last out of the regular show cast, Albert Brooks gets the "And", followed by assorted smaller roles, and Tom Hanks gets the final cast credit.

[[Category:Title Sequence]]

[[Category:Credits Tropes]]