Trivia: A trained dramatic actor, Shelley Berman rose to fame in the 1950s by becoming the first "sit-down" comedian. Berman's calculatedly self-pitying nightclub monologues concerned his tiltings with the minor frustrations of everyday life. His specialty was the "telephone" monologue; seated on a stool and holding an imaginary receiver, Berman invariably cast himself as the victim of Ma Bell bureaucracy and thick-headed unseen "second parties." He tended to wear his neuroses on his sleeve, and was well-known for his unpredictable temperament; in one notorious TV-special appearance of the 1960s, Berman was interrupted in mid-monologue by a ringing offstage pay phone, whereupon he stomped backstage and tore the offending phone off the wall. A busy TV guest-star, Berman showed up frequently on the Paar/Sullivan/Allen variety show circuit of the 1950s and 1960s, and played seriocomic roles on such TV series as Peter Gunn, The Twilight Zone and The Girl From UNCLE. He also played a recurring role on the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1977), and was co-producer of the 1970 summer replacement series Comedy Tonight. Berman's film credits include The Best Man (1964), Divorce American Style (1967) and Son of the Blob (1970). Dropping out of public view due to profound personal problems (not least of which was the death of his son), Shelley Berman staged a comeback in the 1980s with appearances in such films as Teen Witch (1989) and Elliot Faumann MD (1990).

Trivia: After a few seasons' work as a model in the Chicago area, golden-haired Angel Tompkins began showing up in supporting roles on such TV series as Dragnet. In 1970, Tompkins was honored with the "most promising newcomer" Golden Globe Award for her performance as Elliott Gould's mistress Helen Donnelly in I Love My...Wife (1970). Her nude scenes as gangster moll Clarabelle in Prime Cut (1972) earned Tompkins a three-page spread in Playboy magazine; around the same time, she was cast as telemetry specialist Gloria Harding on the TV weekly Search. She spent much the mid-1970s headlining such tickle-and-tease exploitationers as The Teacher (1974). Some of her best work during this period can be found in Little Cigars (1973), an underrated crime caper which cast her as the "brains" behind a gang of crooked midgets! Briefly retiring from show business in 1976, Tompkins made a comeback in the John Sayles-scripted terrorfest Alligator (1980); since that time, she has been seen as one of psycho killer Carrie Snodgress' victims in Murphy's Law (1985), and in a self-mocking cameo in Amazon Women of the Moon (1987).