Mandy Patinkin and Science Fiction, together! I'm going to pick this up if I can find it irl at Amazon Chapters, I know it's 2011, but I still don't want to buy things off the Internet, because then you'll have to wait at home for the mail to arrive. It's Alien Nation (1988), and it's so meaningful, Mandy plays an adorable alien and his partner is the awesomest cop evar:
Alien Nation - Pilot - Matt helps Emily at school Mandy Patinkin is an adorkable choir boy AND he's geeklicious.
I think MGG is a Princess Bride fan, and it's my theory that the strange little wave that Dr.Reid does is a reference to the one Inigo did to introduce himself when Westley was still going up that cliff.