Trivia: After abandoning plans to be either a minister or a doctor, Canadian-born singer/actor Alan Thicke turned to sports writing, then typed out comedy material for the CBC television network. He moved to Hollywood, where he became a writer and sometime performer on the syndicated Norman Lear series Fernwood 2-Night. He returned to Canada in 1980 to replace talk host Alan Hamel on a popular daytime chatfest. He was successful enough in this endeavor to be invited by onetime network executive Fred Silverman to star in Silverman's first non-network effort, a nighttime variety show titled Thicke of the Night (1983). Despite an enormous publicity buildup, the show was a disaster, for which Thicke adopted a "mea culpa" stance. Also during this period, his marriage to singer/actress Gloria Loring broke up; thus Thicke felt himself a failure on all counts. He has credited his comeback to producer Ilene Berg, who cast Thicke in the 1984 TV movie The Calendar Girl Murders, which proved to skeptics that the man had talent as a straight actor. In 1985, Thicke originated the role of psychiatrist Jason Seaver in Growing Pains, a popular ABC sitcom which ran until 1994. The following year, Thicke showed up as a preening, bombastic talk show host (could this have been an act of attrition for Thicke of the Night?) on the NBC comedy series Hope and Gloria. Additionally, Thicke has hosted the children's series Animal Crack-Ups (1987-1990), and has composed the theme songs for several other TV series, notably The Facts of Life. Although he worked steadily in a variety of less than noteworthy projects, he did score a cameo as himself in the satire Teddy Bears' Picnic, and landed supporting roles in the comedies The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, and the 2012 Adam Sandler laugher That's My Boy.Alan Thicke's son is actor Brennan Thicke, best known for providing the voice of the TV cartoon character Dennis the Menace, and his other son, Robin Thicke, followed his father's musical interests and became a pop star. Thicke died in 2016, at age 69.

Trivia: Though blonde actress Joanna Kerns may be best known for her breakthrough role as Maggie Seaver on the popular 1980s television sitcom Growing Pains, the seasoned actress-turned-director has subsequently made quite a name for herself behind the camera by taking the reigns of such popular small-screen series as Ally McBeal, Felicity, Judging Amy, and Boston Public. Born Joanna Cruisse de Varona in San Francisco in 1953, the talented teen pursued many avenues before eventually discovering her love of acting. Though she would compete unsuccessfully for a spot on the 1968 Olympics Gymnastics team (her sister Donna would later take home the gold medal for swimming), she remained steadfast in her athleticism and subsequently dropped out of high school to tour with the Gene Kelly stage musical Clown Around. It wasn't long before she gained affection for the spotlight, and following a move to New York, the aspiring young actress could be spotted in a Broadway production of Ulysses in Nighttown. A move back to the West Coast resulted in numerous film and television roles, and as her television career continued to take off, the up-and-coming actress married producer Richard Kerns. On the heels of minor roles in such films as Ape (1976) and Coma (1978), roles in Magnum, P.I., The A-Team, and Hill Street Blues made Kerns a familiar face to television viewers, and by the time she accepted the role of loving mother Maggie Seaver, Kerns had also turned heads in Hunter and V. Balancing out her seven-year run on Growing Pains with numerous made-for-television feature roles, Kerns ultimately realized that her small-screen fame would inevitably be short-lived, and that realization eventually led her to step behind the camera as a frequent director for the series. Of course, her prediction did come true, and after Growing Pains went off the air in 1992, Kerns juggled acting and directing in television throughout the 1990s in addition to remarrying Mark Appleton following the breakup of her previous marriage. After helming many of the decade's most popular shows, Kerns brought in the new millennium with a role as Winona Ryder's distant mother in Girl, Interrupted before experiencing something of a family reunion with 2000's The Growing Pains Movie. Kerns' frequent recognition of her Spanish roots has also made her something of a role model to Chicano and Latino youth. In 2007 the sitcom Mom was cast as the mother of Alison, the ambitious television producer Knocked Up by Seth Rogen, and in 2009 Kerns wrote and directed the short The Gold Lunch.

Trivia: Prior to Growing Pains, his only acting experience was in TV commercials. His breakthrough performance as Ben Seaver on Growing Pains earned him two Young Artist awards: Best Young Supporting Actor in a New TV Series and Exceptional Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy. For one season of Growing Pains, worked with then child actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Was the voice of Linus van Pelt in several Charlie Brown movies and TV shows. Is a spokesman for Fresh Start Recovery of Santa Ana, a group that helps individuals address alcohol abuse.

Trivia: After spending three seasons with the Pasadena Playhouse, actor Robert Rockwell made his Broadway debut in Jose Ferrer's 1946 production of Cyrano de Bergerac, a job he landed on the strength of his dueling skills. Signed to a Republic Pictures contract in 1949, he starred in 11 films over a period of two years, including the infamous anti-Communist tract The Red Menace. From 1952 to 1955, he was seen as Mr. Philip Boynton, the stunningly handsome and incredibly naïve biology teacher on TV's Our Miss Brooks. So typecast was he by this role that he had some trouble finding work after the series' cessation, but the TV-Western boom came to his rescue in 1959, when he was cast as two-fisted frontier insurance investigator Sam Logan in The Man From Blackhawk. Active into the 1990s, Robert Rockwell could be seen in character roles in such TVers as Growing Pains and Beverly Hills 90210.

Trivia: Born Suzanne Burce, she began singing on radio while still a child, then entered films in musical roles at age 15; she soon became popular for her appealing screen persona and coloratura soprana voice. Powell played leads in a number of films, usually portraying sweet maidens in the midst of a first love. She peaked around 1954, then as she grew older she was unable to find suitable roles. She retired from the screen in 1958 but appeared in stock, nightclubs, and on TV. In 1973 she starred in the Broadway revival of the musical Irene. Married several times, her husbands have included writer-producer David Parlour and former child star Dickie Moore. She authored an autobiography, The Girl Next Door ... And How She Grew (1988).