Learn TV’s Extended Family Trees, Courtesy of Omnipresent Parents Stephen Collins, Blythe Danner, and More

This week’s Smash included a side story about Karen’s (Katharine McPhee) family back in Iowa, and Karen’s mom was played by Becky Ann Baker — who was also the mom on Freaks and Geeks and will be seen as the mother in HBO’s upcoming Girls. This makes Karen Cartwright a TV sibling to Sam and Lindsay Weir, and Lena Dunham’s new character! Once casting directors find an actor who fits a certain parental image (be they loving, goofy, or tightly wound), they cast them again and again as guest moms and pops on different TV shows (and a few films), which makes for some interesting intra-series family trees. Thanks to Stephen Collins, The Office’s Andy and Private Practice’s Addison are long-lost siblings: Do they share neurotic recessive genes? Let’s explore these and other long-lost families that came to light with some recent casting.

Pop Culture Offspring: Rachel (Lea Michele) on Glee; Ruxin (Nick Kroll) on The League Family Dynamics: Rachel and Ruxin are two peas in a pod. They’re both deeply competitive — Rachel with the rest of New Directions, Ruxin with the other members of his fantasy league — and are often convinced that they’re not being treated fairly. They are full of cockamamie schemes, they’re both pretty selfish, and they’re convinced, rightly or wrongly, that they’re better than most other people. Oy, what a Thanksgiving nightmare.
Pop Culture Offspring: Karen (Katharine McPhee) on Smash; David (Christopher Egan) on Kings; Lindsay (Linda Cardinelli) and Sam (John Francis Daly) on Freaks and Geeks Family Dynamics: A budding star, a future king, and the two most perfectly depicted TV teens ever. You could do a lot worse than having Becky Ann Baker as your mom: She’s relentlessly supportive of both Broadway and Dungeons and Dragons, though it’s tough to stand out when one of your brothers is destined for the throne. (This is probably why Lindsay is rebelling.)
Pop Culture Offspring: Ava (Maya Rudolph) on Up All Night; Hank (Mark Feuerstein) and Evan (Paulo Costanzo) on Royal Pains Family Dynamics: Winkler won’t be on Up All Night until later this season, but his character is described as a beloved children’s book author — which makes Ava jealous. He plays more of a sneaky sleaze on Pains, so perhaps his offspring are all destined to rebel. Fame-obsessed host or slightly nebbishy duo, Winkler offspring all have the classic Fonz-style panache. It’s a dominant gene.
Pop Culture Offspring: Reagan (Christina Applegate) on Up All Night; Will (Eric McCormack) on Will & Grace; Huff (Hank Azaria) on Huff Family Dynamics: In real life, Blythe Danner is mother to one of the most beautiful people in the world. Her onscreen kids aren’t too shabby, either, though there must be some kind of family tradition of having slightly nutty BFFS: Reagan’s always at Ava’s beck and call, Will has Grace (and Jack, and Karen), and Huff’s sidekick Russell never goes anywhere without some hookers and blow. What did you teach those kids about companionship, Blythe?
Pop Culture Offspring: Phil (Ty Burrell) on Modern Family; Amy (Monica Horan) on Everybody Loves Raymond; Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) in American Wedding Family Dynamics: Fred Willard is the go-to guy if you want to prove a character’s goofy lineage. Where did you learn how to have so much confidence despite being, well, not stupid exactly … but definitely a little bit off? Where did you learn to be so self-assured, despite near-constant foibles? Where did you learn to find a partner who not only tolerates but seems to enjoy your weird habits? I learned it from watching you, Dad.
Pop Culture Offspring: Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman) on Bored to Death; Patrick (Holt McCallany) on Lights Out; Titus (Christopher Titus) onTitus; Chelsea (Jennifer Bini Taylor) on Two and a Half Men Family Dynamics: Stacy Keach sure does sire some damaged kids: an anxious writer, a boxer who doesn’t know when to retire, a high-strung mechanic, and someone sad enough to date both Charlie and later Alan on Men. Jonathan seems like the odd duck out here, because he is: Keach plays his biological, but not his sociological, father.
Pop Culture Offspring: Andy (Ed Helms) on The Office; Addison (Kate Walsh) on Private Practice; Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia; and Matt (Barry Watson) Mary (Jessica Biel), Lucy (Beverly Mitchell), Simon (David Gallagher), Ruthie (Mackenzie Rosman), and David and Sam (Nikolas and Lorenzo Brino) on 7th Heaven Family Dynamics: What is it about Stephen Collins that makes his children want to be high achievers? Andy went to Cornell, Addison went to Columbia, and Dennis (and Dee, briefly) went to Penn; Matt and Addison are doctors, Lucy’s a minister, Andy’s a successfulish manager, Dee and Dennis co-own a small business — even the 7th Heaven stragglers have it together. Except for Mary, of course, who has been the family black sheep ever since she TP-ed the gym back in high school. But every type-A family has a rebel.
Pop Culture Offspring: Leslie (Amy Poehler) on Parks and Recreation; Tara (Toni Collette) and Charmaine (Rosemarie De Witt) on The United States of Tara; Eli (Jonny Lee Miller) on Eli Stone; Jake (Skeet Ulrich) and Eric (Kenneth Mitchel) on Jericho; Pepper (Rebecca Romijn) and Kathy (Brooke Burns) on Pepper Dennis Family Dynamics: Pamela Reed’s kids march to their own drummers. Song-and-dance prophetic lawyers (that’d be Eli), unlikely survivalist leaders (Jake), artists with casual attitudes about psychopharmacology (Tara), plucky news anchors (Pepper), even pluckier politicians (Leslie) — these are people who do their own thing on their own terms, regardless of how sternly society might frown upon their choices.
Pop Culture Offspring: Ted (Josh Radnor) on How I Met Your Mother; Kellie (Cynthia Watros) on The Drew Carey Show; Carter (Noah Wyle) on ER; Alex (Michael J. Fox), Mallory (Justine Bateman), Jennifer (Tina Yothers), and Andrew (Brian Bonsall) on Family Ties Family Dynamics: The Gross siblings are freakishly unlucky in love, whether they got the hippie Keaton dad or a more distant, less helpful Mosby one. Ted’s habitually, almost tragically single; Kellie had an acrimonious divorce before a tortured romance with Drew; Carter is possibly the unluckiest rich person ever; and even the well-scrubbed Alex can’t resist cheating.
Pop Culture Offspring: Zeek (Craig T. Nelson) on Parenthood; Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) on The Closer; John Sr. (Michael Gross) on ER, making her grandmother to Carter (Noah Wyle); Trey (Kyle MacLachlan) on Sex and the City; Cliff (John Ratzenberger) on Cheers Family Dynamics: When Hollywood needs a WASPy, disapproving, overly proper older lady, there’s only one phone that rings: Frances Sternhagen’s. Her TV brood struggles with intimacy (Zeke, Brenda, Cliff, Trey, John Sr.), honesty (Trey), maturity (Trey, Cliff), with leaving the nest (Carter, Cliff). Just tell them you love and support them, and set those kids and grandkids free!
Let’s Explore TV’s Extended Family Trees, Courtesy of Frequent Guest Moms and Dads