25 Reasons 'The Good Wife' Had the Best Guest Cast Ever

Dylan Baker has earned three Emmy nominations for playing Colin Sweeney, an accused wife killer who first appeared in Season 1′s thirteenth episode, “Bad,” and returned often enough to be dubbed Alicia’s creepiest client (“I like you, Mrs. Florrick,” he once told her. “You feed my Mary Poppins obsession”). When the audience knows a recurring character well enough to find a cutaway shot to him scowling in a courtroom funny, you’ve done your job. (Credit: John Paul Filo/CBS)

How do you make opposing lawyers quickly feel like three-dimensional characters? You have them exploit whatever they can about themselves in the courtroom. For Fox’s Louis Canning, that’s his illness (cue the eyeroll from Alicia). Over the years, as Fox has earned four Emmy nominations for the role he first played in Season 2, we’ve seen many sides of Canning (and even his alleged deathbed). But like all great recurring characters, he continues to bring out the best — and worst — in Alicia, including that awesome fake cry Julianna Margulies performed in the series’ penultimate episode when Alicia imagined what Canning expected to see when he told her Peter was accused of having a longtime affair. (Credit: Michael Parmelee/CBS)

On most shows that take us inside the courtroom, you don’t even know the judge’s name, let alone that she prefers you always use the phrase “in my opinion” (Ana Gasteyer’s Judge Patrice Lessner) or his position on gun control (Denis O’Hare’s Charles Abernathy). Because they’re truly characters, we can find them punishing the lawyers either amusing (David Paymer’s Judge Richard Cuesta keeping score in Peter’s current trial) or infuriating (pretty much every interaction Christopher McDonald’s Judge Don Schakowsky has ever had with Alicia). (Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/CBS)

It turns out you can still be fierce (Martha Plimpton’s Emmy-winning role, attorney Patti Nyholm) and extremely competent (Tim Guinee’s Mr. Mom investigator, Wiley) even when you have to bring your baby to an emergency hearing or take a call from the State’s Attorney through a talking lion toy. (Credit: John Paul Filo/CBS)

You can also be as eccentric as attorney Elsbeth Tascioni (Emmy winner Carrie Preston) and extremely respected. She carries ridiculously large bags and has made some ridiculous entrances, but her brilliance is never questioned (even after she’s busted singing along to “Call My Maybe” while falling for Kyle MacLachlan’s Josh Perotti). (Credit: Jeff Neumann/CBS)

Nancy Crozier (Mamie Gummer) was one of Alicia’s greatest adversaries. Young, bright, and deceptively naive, she was actually a cobra whose bite made even the audience sit up a little higher in their chairs. (Credit: David Giesbrecht/CBS)

State’s Attorney Glenn Childs (Titus Welliver) was the original foe we loved to hate. His legacy has lived on, though, in that office, in the high-ranking members of the Democratic party who’ve screwed Alicia and Diane, and most recently, in AUSA Connor Fox (Matthew Morrison), who’s taking the last crack at Peter. (Credit: Jeffrey Neira/CBS)

Christine Baranski’s Diane didn’t need a man in her life to be a great character, but we’re sure glad she found Kurt McVeigh, Gary Cole’s ballistics expert. Their flirtatious cross-aisle verbal sparring grew into a still passionate relationship befitting a man who’s willing to sacrifice his most valuable commodity — his word — for the love of his life, and a woman who means it when she vows to make him happy every day of his life if he’ll forgive her. If we were told only one romance could survive the finale — Diane’s or Alicia’s — we’d pick this one. (Credit: David M. Russell/CBS)

It was fascinating to see R.D. (Oliver Platt), an approachable and politically conservative businessman who loved a civilized argument with a worthy opponent, in scenes with Diane. He respected her, and used her as the devil’s advocate — eventually making her question whether his retainer was worth the sale of her soul. (Credit: Jeff Neumann/CBS)

Were we supposed to like David Hyde Pierce’s Frank Prady, a political commentator-turned-State’s Attorney candidate who insisted to opponent Alicia that he wanted to run a campaign? We wanted to trust him (he’s played by David Hyde Pierce after all), but in the world of ‘Good Wife’ politics, you could never be sure. (Credit: Jeff Neumann/CBS)

Caitlin (Anna Camp) was a promising young lawyer who wanted to leave her burgeoning career to focus on her fiancée and their planned family. For some viewers, that’s as divisive a decision as Alicia standing by Peter at the start of the series. Alicia tried to talk Caitlin out of it — you can have it all — but Caitlin said she wasn’t sacrificing anything; she was choosing what she wanted. Her generation has nothing to prove, Caitlin said. Of course, years later we learned that Caitlin is now a single mom, back at work, and wondering if she ever should have left. Is the moral that nothing can guarantee a happily ever after, or that she’ll be fine, just like Alicia was? (Credit: Jeffrey Neira/CBS)

Though he came to the show with credits, it’s his portrayal of the stoic, imposing Lemond Bishop that was Colter’s big break. “Mike Colter is such an amazing actor, and everybody’s catching on now and stealing him from us, which we take as a personal affront,” ‘Good Wife’ co-creator Robert King joked to Yahoo TV last year. (Colter’s ‘Jessica Jones’ character, Luke Cage, get his own Marvel series debuting Sept. 30 on Netflix.) “While this guy can play the very grim drug kingpin, it’s always fun to see how there’s a real human side underneath that because he’s a dad. Being a dad myself, I shovel some of my issues into [Bishop]. It’s just like you got a guy who’s split right down the middle. And obviously, Kalinda’s got front row seats for that.” (Credit: Jeffrey Neira/CBS)

The actor’s slap-me dry delivery was way more palatable as Mike Kresteva, Peter’s political rival, than it is as Oscar on The Odd Couple. Damn you, Go On!
(Credit: David M. Russell/CBS)

New York is not just the home of Law & Order franchise guest stars, it’s the home of Broadway stars, and many have had memorable turns on The Good Wife, including Renée Elise Goldsberry (ASA Geneva Pine), who just received a Tony nomination for her role in Hamilton, and Laura Benanti (Sweeney’s latest wife, Renata), who just earned her fifth career Tony nomination for She Loves Me. (Credit: CBS)

On a show with Alicia and Diane, you’d expect nothing less, but let’s appreciate the juicy roles for women such as Rita Wilson (Diane’s old attorney friend Viola Walsh) and Vanessa Williams (the businesswoman/donor who broke Eli’s heart).
(Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/CBS)

We all know where Alicia gets her love of wine — from her mother, Veronica (Stockard Channing) — and why she turned out okay (she had her brother, Owen, played by Dallas Roberts, to commiserate with). It was nice to see them return recently when, for at least a moment, there was a lightness to Alicia that matched theirs. (Credit: John Paul Filo/CBS)

Another welcome return: Eli’s daughter, Marissa, who is the only person we like to see outwit Eli and is second only to Gary on ‘Veep’ when it comes to our favorite body man (or woman). We still wish she was working for Alicia. (Credit: David M. Russell/CBS)

Eli was always at his best when he was maneuvering against someone. It didn’t matter whether it was a savvy teen mean girl (Dreama Walker’s wicked Becca), Peter’s manipulative mother (Mary Beth Peil’s delicious Jackie Florrick), or a more accomplished peer (Margo Martindale’s imposing Ruth Eastman). (Credit: CBS)

After the shocking death of Will Gardner (Josh Charles), much of the audience, like Alicia, felt hollow. But Matthew Goode’s Finn Polmar, the ASA who’d been opposite Will when he was shot dead in court, filled us up again with a simmering promise of sexual tension. Even though Goode was ultimately billed as a series regular, you sensed he was just passing through (on his way to Downton Abbey). He left because he knew he couldn’t work closely with Alicia and not have things get “sloppy” between them. He left us wanting more (i.e. Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Jason). (Credit: Paul Sarkis/CBS)

Could it be the series’ happiest ending is reserved for Jackie and nap-loving firm relic Howard Lyman (Jerry Adler)? (Credit: Thomas Concordia/CBS)

Who wasn’t surprised to see Linda Lavin as Joy Grubick, Cary’s pretrial services officer? She was by the book, but even when she wouldn’t cut him a break for going half a mile over the state line, there was something calming in her slow-talking voice that made it difficult to get angry with her. (Credit: CBS)

Clarke Hayden (played by Nathan Lane, who was nominated for an Emmy for his guest turn) was a court-appointed trustee whose job was to trim the fat at Lockhart/Gardner. He eventually grew close to Cary (Matt Czuchry) — who, in the backstory Lane created for the character in his own mind, reminded Clarke of his son who’d died of an overdose — and got to put David Lee (Zach Grenier) in his place. With the rat race tearing so many characters down, it’s nice to see the firm build someone up. (Credit: Jeffrey Neira/CBS)

Some people loved the NSA story arc, some people thought it dragged on a bit too long, but everyone can agree how fun it was to see Silicon Valley’s Zach Woods recur as Jeff Dellinger. And let’s not forget about his former cubemates, led by Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie. (Credit: CBS)

Just when you thought you’d seen every quirk on ‘The Good Wife,’ we were introduced to Elsbeth’s ex-husband, Mike Tascioni (Will Patton), who shares custody of their absurdly chill Chihuahua mix (played by a one-and-a-half-year-old rescue dog named Louie). “We’ve been interested in the idea of emotional support dogs, and it made sense to us, as we built the Mike character, that he might benefit from one,” ‘Good Wife’ executive producer Craig Turk told Yahoo TV. “Then it felt like high-strung Elsbeth might benefit, too. And if you begin to imagine what the dog in that situation would feel like… you get Tom. I named him Tom because, when writing the Mike character for the first time, I described him as hero-worshipping Atticus Finch — so, the ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ connection.”
(Credit: David M. Russell/CBS)

Sorry, Marc Warren. (Credit: Jeffrey Neira/CBS)