Special guest stars, as I may have told you in the past, pose a problem for television shows, particularly whodunits.
If you recognize the actor or actress's face when the police are questioning an individual, you know that the police are going to be revisiting that person later. Faces you and I know don't just randomly appear to be questioned by police in one scene and then passed on, never to be seen again. No, if you know the face, the odds are good that they were involved in a crime (or will soon become involved after the fact). From a storytelling aspect, it's an issue — any surprise or shock is greatly reduced.
Looked at from the opposite end, from the position of the producers, putting a face that we know on television makes us more inclined to either tune in (if we know in advance), or stop our incessant channel-flipping when we spot them. Special guest stars are, in that way, a boon. I hope — I supremely hope — that the producers take into account the problems and not just the benefits when nabbing a special guest star.
Last night's Law & Order featured an appearance by Robert Iler as a "special guest star." Okay, maybe they didn't name him as such, but I'm sure that when people were flipping the channels at 10:08 last night (or thereabouts) they noticed "that kid from The Sopranos, you know, AJ, Tony's son."
Anyone who recognized Iler, even if not by name, knew he was instantly involved, somehow, in one of the criminal activities the cops were going to be investigating that evening. No, he may not be a "big" star, but the odds that he was going to be doing Law & Order solely to be the son of the guy who committed the murder were slim to none.
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