There must be a critical shortage of actors or actresses left on earth, as everyone has been forced to double up on roles:
James Earl Jones. Besides staging those very funny dramatic readings of text messages with Malcolm McDowell for Sprint commercials, the legendary voice of Darth Vader lands on “The Big Bang Theory” (Thursday, 8 p.m., CBS). The guys can’t get Comic-Con tickets, so Sheldon (Jim Parsons) tries to start his own convention. And spoiler alert: Look for a cameo appearance by another “Star Wars” legend.
Nathan Fillion. The funny man is guest-starring on an episode of “Community” (Thursday, 8 p.m., NBC) as the college’s powerful head custodian, which is sure to echo the bloviating, self-important characters he played so well in “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” Then Fillion’s back on regular duty as the charming writer-turned-cop on “Castle” (Monday, 10 p.m., ABC). The series delayed its fashion-murder episode by a week, seemingly to give ABC more time to air gotcha ads of Beckett (Stana Katic) donning a wedding gown.
Liars. In addition to the regular episode of “Pretty Little Liars” (Tuesday, 8 p.m., ABC Family) which will prepare us for Spencer’s (Troian Bellisario) upcoming sleep-deprived, black-and-white film noir episode — the show’s best in years — Lucy Hale guest stars as a wild child on “Baby Daddy” (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m., ABC Family). And over on spinoff “Ravenswood,” Ashley Benson’s Hanna is back in town to confront boyfriend Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) in the first season finale.
Donnie Wahlberg. Poor “Blue Bloods” (Friday, 10 p.m., CBS) star Donnie Wahlberg has to fill two roles this week on his family police drama, performing not only his regular duties as Detective Danny Reagan, but also marking his first time directing the show. The episode centers around the murder investigation of a popular drag queen named Tiffany Lamp. Funny, reeeeal funny.
Jonno Roberts. Who? You’d know if you saw him. Well, maybe. But apparently this actor is in high demand as the potential killer/victim/eyewitness, since he appears in the guest star list on back-to-back nights, first in “Elementary” (Thursday, 10 p.m., CBS) and then on “Bones” (Friday, 8 p.m., Fox), in a gripping episode where the newlyweds decide whether to open a joint banking account. And they wonder why they’ve been relegated to Friday.