Matthew Perry's Acting Debut Was On A Forgotten Drama That Starred NCIS Actor Mark Harmon
Long before "Friends" and Chandler Bing were even conceived, Matthew Perry landed his first professional acting role alongside "NCIS" star Mark Harmon. The short-lived ABC drama "240-Robert" ran for just 16 episodes from 1979 to 1981 and starred Harmon and Perry's father, John Bennett Perry, as two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies working as emergency response paramedics.
In Season 1, Episode 6, titled "Bank Job," Perry played a boy named Arthur, who asks Theodore Roosevelt "Trap" Applegate III (John Bennett Perry) if he and his partner are doctors. When Trap tells him they're paramedics, Arthur asks him to explain what that means. Perry was just 10 years old when the episode aired in 1979, making the roughly 15-second cameo a fun glimpse of his earliest acting work alongside his father.
Harmon played Dwayne "Thib" Thibideaux on "240-Robert" after guest-starring on multiple 1970s crime dramas, including "Adam-12," as well as the paramedic drama "Emergency!" All of this preceded his best-known role as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the "NCIS" franchise.
Matthew Perry worked with John Bennett Perry more than once
Three years after Matthew Perry's death at age 54, his acting collaborations with his father, John Bennett Perry, offer another way to look back at his career. They also played father and son in an episode of "Scrubs" and in the 1997 romantic comedy "Fools Rush In." The connection extended beyond their on-screen work. Having a father who was a TV actor helped inspire Matthew to pursue his own path in Hollywood, and he moved to California to live with John when he was 15.
Their "Scrubs" reunion came in Season 4, Episode 11, "My Unicorn," a 2004 installment directed by Matthew shortly after "Friends" concluded. He played Murray Marks, who visits his father, Gregory (John Bennett Perry), after the latter is hospitalized for kidney failure. Things get complicated when Murray discovers that Gregory isn't his biological father and declines to donate his kidney to him. The "Scrubs" episode was the first and only directing credit of Matthew's career, while his acting role stands out as a fan-favorite guest appearance on the show.