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<blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 435896" data-attributes="member: 57984">&quot;Special Guest Star&quot; is a vanity title, often negotiated by agents, and sometimes for clients that aren&#039;t that &quot;big&quot;. (It&#039;s fun watching old &#039;70s cop shows, where the status-discrepancy is particularly obvious --- like, say, STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO --- and you recognize all the &quot;guest stars&quot; and the only one you&#039;ve never heard of is billed as the &quot;special guest star&quot;).Dale Robertson was a western character actor, known somewhat in the &#039;50s, but he was no Duke Wayne nor Duke Wayne, Jr.Which again begs the question: Why did Billy Dee Williams never get a title?But DYNASTY was a little odd about its billings. Why did Diahann Caroll never get a &quot;With&quot;?? When she appears near the end of the opening credits, right after the chauffeur and right before Joan Collins, one assumes she&#039;s being given a placing of prominence. But when she gets no &quot;With&quot; billing, it looks like she&#039;s less important than the chauffeur.Is this racism? Is it Doug Cramer&#039;s fault (my vote, but I can&#039;t yet prove it)?<img src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/98801428/photo/diahann-carroll-billy-dee-williams.jpg?s=1024x1024&amp;w=gi&amp;k=20&amp;c=TFPkc_WujPiI6h6Lv2OTIYru37bN1ZJInB0SWH4vxxM=" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 877px" />Also: sometimes &quot;Special Guest Star&quot; is billing used to justify paying a latecomer to the cast more than the original cast (some of whom have favored nation status clauses in their contracts, and no actor can be paid more than them, unless that new actor is billed as &quot;Special Guest Star&quot;).Which is how Heather Locklear wound up a &quot;Special Guest Star&quot; for 7 years on MELROSE PLACE.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Snarky Oracle!, post: 435896, member: 57984"] "Special Guest Star" is a vanity title, often negotiated by agents, and sometimes for clients that aren't that "big". (It's fun watching old '70s cop shows, where the status-discrepancy is particularly obvious --- like, say, STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO --- and you recognize all the "guest stars" and the only one you've never heard of is billed as the "special guest star"). Dale Robertson was a western character actor, known somewhat in the '50s, but he was no Duke Wayne nor Duke Wayne, Jr. Which again begs the question: Why did Billy Dee Williams never get a title? But DYNASTY was a little odd about its billings. Why did Diahann Caroll never get a "With"?? When she appears near the end of the opening credits, right after the chauffeur and right before Joan Collins, one assumes she's being given a placing of prominence. But when she gets no "With" billing, it looks like she's less important than the chauffeur. Is this racism? Is it Doug Cramer's fault (my vote, but I can't yet prove it)? [IMG width="877px"]https://media.gettyimages.com/id/98801428/photo/diahann-carroll-billy-dee-williams.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=TFPkc_WujPiI6h6Lv2OTIYru37bN1ZJInB0SWH4vxxM=[/IMG] [B]Also[/B]: sometimes "Special Guest Star" is billing used to justify paying a latecomer to the cast more than the original cast (some of whom have favored nation status clauses in their contracts, and no actor can be paid more than them, [B][I]unless [/I][/B]that new actor is billed as "Special Guest Star"). Which is how Heather Locklear wound up a "Special Guest Star" for 7 years on MELROSE PLACE. [/QUOTE]

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