Television shows come and go quite often and one of the things that producers struggle with is keeping their shows fresh. The obvious answer is to have good writers and a dedicated production team, but sometimes even those things need a bit of a jolt to keep the audience interested. One of these things is guest stars. If a show needed some press, why not cast a movie star for a guest role? Well, now even the lightning bolt of guest stars has fizzled so TV shows have turned to a different kind of guest to instill some life and keep their shows on everyone’s TiVo. Waste this weekend with guest directors.

Before He Was Famous – Jon Favreau – Undeclared, Eric’s POV (2002)

Before Jon Favreau was the comic book feature film household name he is now, he was just a normal actor looking to get into the world of directing.

After starring in and directing his first feature film Made, Favreau turned to the small screen to see if he had what it took to become a big time director. Although not a ton of shows came calling, a little Fox sitcom called Undeclared (created by Judd Apatow) about college freshmen living on campus needed a director for one of their final episodes titled Eric’s POV. The story was simple; Lizzie, one of the lead female characters, agrees to go to her ex-boyfriend Eric‘s birthday. Eric then turns to his stepfather (played by Ben Stiller) for advice. The episode wasn’t widely viewed, it probably isn’t even one of the best in the series and never made headlines, but Jon Favreau did a fine job filling in under the circumstances. It turns out that Eric’s POV was the final aired episode before Undeclared was canceled.

In His Comfort Zone – Quentin Tarantino – CSI, Grave Danger (2005)

After the monumental success and epic story of Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino took a little break from directing for the big screen. He did some smaller jobs like guest directing for Sin City, but one of the more noticeable projects he took on was the two-part season finale of CSI in 2005. Titled Grave Danger, the two hour movie-like story put the CSI gang to the test. One of their own, Nick, was kidnapped and buried alive in a glass casket. Grissom and the rest of the gang then receive a package stating that Nick’s ransom would be a million dollars. With the mayor refusing to pay the ransom, Grissom arranges to meet with the kidnapper who then blows himself up leaving nothing but his own thumb as a the clue to finding where Nick is buried. In true Tarantino fashion (who directed and wrote the episode) the dialogue is wonderful and the violence is poetic. Although he never went full Kill Bill with CSI, QT did in fact create one of the best two-parters in dramatic television.

Branching Out – Joss Whedon – The Office, Business School (2007) and Glee, Dream On (2010)

From cult to mainstream, Joss Whedon is one of the best known directors of our time. With credits like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse, Whedon’s television credits speak for themselves. It’s no wonder NBC‘s The Office and Fox‘s Glee jumped at the chance to have him be involved in their shows. In 2007, Whedon directed two episodes of The Office, the more memorable being Business School where Jim convinces Dwight that he is a vampire. A few years later Whedon and his new friend Neil Patrick Harris hit the small screen together for a memorable episode of Glee titled Dream On. Whedon has already shown his talent and versatility behind the camera so he’s probably just doing all of these shows for fun.