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: Known to millions as big brother Mike on the sitcom Growing Pains, Kirk Cameron was a famous face and teen heartthrob in the 1980s. Born in California, Cameron began acting as a child, appearing in projects like the TV movie Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land before landing the role of Mike when Growing Pains premiered in 1985. He stayed with the show until 1992, marrying his onscreen love interest, Chelsea Noble, in 1991. Following the completion of the series, Cameron began to focus on Christian-oriented projects, appearing in the video series Left Behind, a set of movies that take place after the Rapture. Cameron has also been an outspoken proponent of Creationism. In 2004 he returned to his signature role as Mike Seaver for a Growing Pains reunion movie. He had his biggest big-screen success with the Christian-themed drama Fireproof in 2008.

Trivia: Born Arline Golonka (she was named after 1930s film actress Arline Judge) Golonka trained as a singer and dancer from childhood and went professional in a summer-stock troupe while still in her teens. She studied at the Goodman Theatre in her native Chicago before striking out for New York, where she attended classes at the Actor's Studio and made her Broadway debut in the 1958 flop Night Circus. Her later Broadway credits include Take Me Along, Come Blow Your Horn, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; in the latter production, she played a good-natured, empty-headed hooker, a role she'd repeat with variations throughout the 1960s. Before relocating to Los Angeles in 1967 to appear in Penelope, Golonka had accumulated dozens of New York-based film credits, including the 1965 theatrical feature Harvey Middleman, Fireman (1965). Best known for her portrayal of Millie Swanson on TV's Mayberry RFD (1968-71), Arlene Golonka was also a regular on Joe and Valerie (1978-79) and has been seen in such films as Hang 'Em High (1967), The Busy Body (1968) and The In-Laws (1977).

Trivia: Oklahoma-born singer/composer Hoyt Axton was the son of Mae Boren Axton, the highly respected country-and-western artist who wrote Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel." Upholding family tradition, Axton has penned several hit songs for performers other than himself, from the Kingston Trio's "Greenback Dollar" to Ringo Starr's "The No No Song." Axton's film career until the mid 1980s was confined to soundtrack contributions, notably for the 1969 groundbreaker Easy Rider. Switching to film acting in the late 1970s, Axton has appeared in good ole boy character roles in such films as The Black Stallion (1979) and Gremlins (1984). Hoyt Axton also sang the theme song for the TV sitcom Flo (1980-81).