The success of the show made Downey a pop culture celebrity, leading to appearances on "Saturday Night Live" in 1988, WrestleMania V in 1989 in which he traded insults with Roddy Piper and Brother Love on "Piper's Pit", and later roles in movies such as "Predator 2" and "". He was also cast in several television roles, often playing tabloid TV hosts or other obnoxious media types. Downey notably starred in the "Tales from the Crypt" episode "Television Terror" which utilized several scenes shot by characters within the story, a format which became popular in horror films a decade later with the found footage genre.