How often have Vulcans appeared on comedy television shows as themselves?

Question

In the skit "Mrs. Invisible Man" Carol Burnett's character laments:

With my luck it had to look like it's father.

She receives a delivery from the pharmacy of a drug that may render the baby visible, but the father insists on trying it first.

The drug works and the father emerges from the other room, and it's Leonard Nimoy in full Spock character.

As a follow-on to How often have Daleks appear on comedy television shows? I'd like to ask

Question: How often have Star Trek Vulcan characters appeared on comedy television shows as themselves?

These should be the actual actors themselves in full character only.

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Answer 1

That... might be the only time that's happened. There's a number of reasons why this is likely unique

1. Variety shows like The Carol Burnett Show have fallen by the wayside (the show ended in 1978 and was briefly revived in 1991 before ending again). There's not really any shows like it that have tried this format like it was used in the heyday of classic TV.

2. Variety shows were a good way (back in the day) to plug your own material. Mark Hamill, for instance, appeared on The Muppet Show in 1980 to help boost The Empire Strikes Back. I suspect Nimoy was allowed to do this spot on Burnett's show (Star Trek and Burnett's show ran on different networks) so Trek's producers could get the free publicity from it (this happened in 1967, or around TOS season 2). Obviously Star Trek no longer needs much publicity.

3. Copyright has been tightened up considerably. While any of the Vulcan actors out there could probably still do something like this (it's terrible... but you just can't stop watching it for some reason), CBS/Paramount has sued people for copyright violations. Most notably Tim Russ (Tuvok from ST:VOY) helped make a fan film with Walter Koenig (Chekov from TOS). (IMDB lists Nimoy in that Burnett episode as appearing as himself, not Spock) CBS has made official fan-film rules that say this

   The fan production must be a real “fan” production, i.e., creators, actors and all other participants must be amateurs, cannot be compensated for their services, and cannot be currently or previously employed on any Star Trek series, films, production of DVDs or with any of CBS or Paramount Pictures’ licensees.

In other words, you can't have T'Pol, Tuvok or any of the remaining actors who have portrayed Spock to show up as their Vulcan counterpart in a TV show (cameo or not) without Paramount approving it first. They can absolutely appear as themselves and make Star Trek in-jokes.

The closest instance would be Leonard Nimoy voicing a Spock doll on Big Bang Theory (BBT was shown on CBS, owned by Paramount).

Answer 2

Honorable mention for the puppet of the Vulcan character Spock (not, as far as I know, voiced by actor Leonard Nemoy who originally portrayed the character) has appeared several times as Spock in parodic form in British comedy caricature puppet show Spitting Image.