NBC/Byron Cohen; Colleen E. Hayes/Starz; ABC/Randy Holmes; NBC/Chris Haston; Giovanni Rufino/The CWToday's fabulous Tater Tops category is Best Guest Star, which is devoted to those visiting actors who stop by a TV show for a short while but make a big impact. Nominated this season are two one-off appearances and three recurring characters:
• Nicole Richie, whose kicky appearance on Chuck as Heather Chandler revealed heretofore unknown secrets about Yvonne Strahovski's Sarah Walker, and whose celebrity star power helped elevate Chuck in the eyes of wary media watchers who weren't sure the series had the ability to go the distance.
• Feel free to mentally replace Kristen Bell as Uda Bengt on Party Down with Kristen Bell as Elle Bishop on Heroes or Kristen Bell as the voice of Gossip Girl on Gossip Girl. Bell is all-powerful, ubiquitious and someday will be generally acclaimed as our glorious overlord.
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character this season on Grey's Anatomy, dead Denny Duquette may be controversial, but JDM's radioactive star power is unquestionable. Now, tell us, isn't there a TV series pilot out there somewhere that needs a broody, badass leading man? The question isn't why is JDM in so many shows, but why isn't he in more shows?
• Amy Ryan as Holly Flax on The Office. Do we even need to explain, or should we just link to this?
• Michelle Trachtenberg is Blair's semi-sociopathic archnemesis Georgina Sparks on Gossip Girl. What's not to love?
Who do you think should take the Golden Tater? Vote inside:
Tater Tops 2009: Best Guest Star
Who's your pick? Who'd we miss? Would you have preferred Wallace Shawn's Cyrus Rose as our Gossip Girl pick, or maybe Eric Stoltz for Grey's Anatomy? Any other guest-star favorites from the year past, maybe from 30 Rock, aka stunt casting central? Post in the comments!