Trivia: Making her stage bow at age five in a community production of Alice in Wonderland, Linda Lavin spent the next ten years studying piano under the watchful eye of her stage mother. After majoring in theater arts at William and Mary College, Lavin appeared in stock in New Jersey, then weathered the chorus-audition rounds in New York, making her off-Broadway debut in a 1960 revival of Oh, Kay (1960). Two years later, she reached Broadway in A Family Affair. She went on to play Lois Lane (a la Ethel Merman) in the short-lived 1965 Broadway musical It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, and when that show folded she starred in the off-Broadway production Wet Paint, which earned her a Theatre World Award. The musicomedy review The Mad Show followed, then Lavin was selected by director Alan Arkin to play Patsy Newquist (one of her favorite roles, and one that earned her the New York Critics' Outer Circle Award) in Jules Feiffer's Little Murders (1968). She subsequently played all the female roles in 1969's Cop-Out (another of her favorites) and Elaine Navazio in Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers. From 1968 onward, Lavin made periodic trips to Hollywood. Her work as detective Janice Wentworth during the 1975-76 season of TV's Barney Miller led to a supporting role in the pilot episode of the proposed series Jerry. CBS nixed Jerry but signed Lavin to a development deal, which of course developed into her ten-season (1976-85) hitch as waitress Alice Hyatt in the popular sitcom Alice. Recalling that her counterpart in the 1975 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore was an aspiring singer, Lavin inked her Alice contract on the assumption that the producers would permit her to sing--which they did, on practically every other network program except Alice. Returning to Broadway after her series folded, Lavin won a Tony award for her performance in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, and also starred in Gypsy and The Sisters Rosensweig. She also made a brief return to TV as Edie Kurland in the one-season comedy Room for Two (1992). Linda Lavin was at one time married to actor Ron Leibman.

Trivia: Born to a Syrian-Lebanese family in Brooklyn, Victor Tayback grew up learning how to aggressively defend himself and those he cared about, qualities that he'd later carry over into his acting work. Moving to California with his family, the 16-year-old Tayback made the varsity football team at Burbank High. Despite numerous injuries, he continued his gridiron activities at Glendale Community College, until he quit school over a matter of principle (he refused to apologize to his coach for breaking curfew). After four years in the navy, Tayback enrolled at the Frederick A. Speare School of Radio and TV Broadcasting, hoping to become a sportscaster. Instead, he was sidetracked into acting, working as a cab driver, bank teller and even a "Kelly Girl" between performing gigs. Shortly after forming a little-theatre group called the Company of Angels, Tayback made his movie debut in Door-to-Door Maniac (1961), a fact he tended to exclude from his resumé in later years. His professional life began to improve in 1967, when he won an audition to play Sid Caesar's look-alike in a TV pilot. Throughout the early 1970s the bulging, bald-domed actor made a comfortable living in TV commercials and TV guest-star assignments, and as a regular on the detective series Griff (1973) and Khan (1975). In 1975, he was cast in the secondary role of Mel Sharples, the potty-mouthed short-fused owner of a greasy spoon diner, in the theatrical feature Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. When the film evolved into the weekly TV sitcom Alice in 1976, Tayback was engaged to recreate his "Mel" characterization. He remained with the program for the next nine years. In contrast to his gruff, abusive screen character, Tayback was dearly loved by the rest of the Alice cast, who regarded him a Big Brother and Father Confessor rolled into one. Five years after Alice's cancellation, Vic Tayback died of cancer at the age of 61; one of his last screen assignments was the voice of Carface in the animated feature All Dogs Go to Heaven.

Trivia: Character actor Ernie Sabella has made almost too many memorable turns in film and television to mention. The New York native studied theater at the University of Miami, where he performed at the prestigious Jerry Herman Ring Theatre. He subsequently began a professional acting career that would prove to be prolific both on-stage and in front of the camera. He would appear in production of such plays and musicals as Guys and Dolls, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Chicago, Man of La Mancha, Sweet Charity, and others. Sabella's film and television career began with notable TV guest appearances on shows like Alice and Cheers. He played curmudgeonly boss Leon Carosi in the final season of Saved by the Bell in 1992, and in 1994, he provided the voice for Pumbaa the warthog in Disney's The Lion King. He would continue to play Pumbaa in the Lion King's sequels, and maintained a steady working relationship with Disney, playing Mr. Petrachelli on the hit tween series That's So Raven.

Trivia: Supporting actor Philip McKeon got his start as a child model appearing in magazines, newspapers, and television commercials. He is best remembered for playing Tommy, the son of the title character in the long-running sitcom Alice (1976-1985). His younger sister, Nancy McKeon, is a successful television actress.

Trivia: After eking out a modest living as a piano teacher in Alabama and Florida, Polly Holliday switched to acting, spending ten seasons with the Asolo State Theater in Sarasota. In 1973, Holliday headed for New York, where she was cast in Murray Schisgal's Broadway play All Over Town; her director was Dustin Hoffman. All Over Town led to the tiny but pivotal role as a testy secretary in the Dustin Hoffman-Robert Redford feature All the President's Men (1976)--which, in turn, led to Holliday's being cast as wise-cracking waitress Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry in the TV sitcom Alice (1976-80). Rising to nationwide fame by virtue of her oft-repeated catchphrase "Kiss mah grits!", Holliday earned four Emmy nominations and one Golden Globe Award. In 1980, she was spun off into her own weekly series Flo, which lacked Alice's staying power and was cancelled after a single season. She went on to briefly replace Eileen Brennan on TV's Private Benjamin (1983), and to play Captain Betty in the pilot episode of Stir Crazy (1985). Her film roles of the 1980s included Gremlins (1984), in which she was eminently hissable as Margaret Hamilton clone Mrs. Deagle. Polly Holliday's more recent work has largely been confined to the Broadway stage; in 1989, she received a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Sister Woman in a revival of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Trivia: The son of an amateur musician, Jerry Reed spent his formative years laboring in the cotton fields of Georgia, teaching himself the guitar in his spare time. At 18, Reed was hired by Capitol Records as a staff songwriter. One of his first compositions, "Crazy Legs," proved to be a hit for C&W star Gene Vincent; likewise, Elvis Presley scored successes with Reed's "Guitar Man" and "U.S. Males." After army service, Reed established himself as one of the most highly sought-after studio guitarists in the business. He made his mark as a singer in his own right with his best-selling 1967 rendition of "Guitar Man." Reed went on to win a Grammy award for his 1970 chart-topper "Amos Moses"; his later number-one hits included 1971's "When You're Hot, You're Hot" and 1982's "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)." He augmented his recording fame as a regular on the TV series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, then as star of his own summer-replacement variety weekly, 1972's The Jerry Reed When You're Hot You're Hot Hour. By 1977, Reed had pretty much put his recording activities on the back burner in favor of his blossoming film career. He made his movie bow in Burt Reynolds' W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), then went on to co-star as Cletus in Reynolds' two Smokey and the Bandit outings, composing the musical score for both films. Reed was elevated to second billing in the Reynolds-less Smokey and the Bandit III (1983), but only after the film had been unsuccessfully previewed with Jackie Gleason playing both Smokey and the Bandit. Jerry Reed made his film directorial debut with 1981's What Comes Around.

Trivia: After making his acting debut onstage, bald, heavily mustached Canadian character actor Graham Jarvis began showing up in bits in such films as In the Heat of the Night (1967), Alice's Restaurant (1970, as the music teacher) and What's Up Doc. He is best known to TV addicts as Charlie Haggers, the unctuous husband/manager of would-be country singer Loretta Haggers (Mary Kay Place) in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976-77), and as officious-vice principal Dyrenforth in the syndicated version of Fame (1985-87). Of his many TV-movie credits, Graham Jarvis' convincing turn as John Ehrlichmann in Blind Ambition (1982) features prominently.

Trivia: Owl-eyed, adenoidal character actor Marvin Kaplan became an English teacher after studying at New York University and Brooklyn College. Following World War II service, Kaplan attended playwrighting classes at USC, which led to his participation in community theatre. It was Katharine Hepburn who selected Kaplan for the small but telling role of the hapless court stenographer in Adam's Rib (1949). He continued accepting movie and TV supporting parts in the 1950s, usually playing bookish, bespectacled milquetoasts. He is best known to TV sitcom fans as Henry Beesemeyer on the weekly yockfest Alice (1976-1985). Two generations of cartoon fans remember Marvin Kaplan as the voice of Choo Choo on the Hanna-Barbera series Top Cat, a role he has continued to reprise on such animated series as Yogi's Treasure Hunt and Wake, Rattle and Roll into the 1990s.