Trivia: A former band clarinettist and vocalist, Hal Linden studied drama at the American Theatre Wing. His big Broadway break came in 1958, when he was engaged to understudy Sydney Chaplin in the musical comedy Bells are Ringing; Linden played Chaplin's character, Jeffrey Moss, a handful of times on Broadway and on a full-time basis in the touring company (reportedly, he also showed up in the 1960 film version of Bells are Ringing, though the "official" starting point of his film career was 1979's When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?) During the 1960s, Linden's time was occupied by his stage work in musicals like Wildcat, The Apple Tree and Illya Darling; from time to time, he'd pop up on a Manhattan-filmed TV series like Car 54 Where Are You? or The Defenders and was a regular on the CBS daytime drama Search for Tomorrow. In 1974, Linden won a Tony award for his work in the Broadway musical The Rothschilds. The next year, Barney Miller, a sitcom for which Linden had lensed a pilot in 1972, was picked up as a mid-season replacement by ABC. Linden would play harried Greenwich village police captain Barney Miller from 1975 through 1980, collecting five Emmy nominations, but-astonishingly -- no actual awards. Hal Linden's subsequent TV series work has included hosting stints on the ABC informational weeklies Animals, Animals, Animals and FYI, and top-billed starring roles on Blacke's Magic (1988), Jack's Place (1992) and One of the Boys (1994); he co-starred in the latter with another perennial Emmy Awards bridesmaid, Suzanne Pleshette.His less than extensive big-screen resume includes A New Life, Killers in the House, and Time Changer.

Trivia: The son of a singing waiter, Ron Carey attended Seton Hall University, then embarked on the catch-as-catch-can life of a standup comedian. A huge hit on his first Jack Paar Show appearance, Carey was an enormous flop on his second Paar gig -- the victim, he'd later insist, of overpreparation. After two years away from show business, Carey rebuilt his confidence with nightly appearances at the Improvisation, a New York nightspot which showcased up-and-coming comics. Traveling westward to Hollywood, Carey appeared in dozens of commercials and secured supporting roles on the 1970s TV sitcoms The Corner Bar and The Montefuscos, then played a one-shot role on the last 1975 episode of Barney Miller. Executive producer Danny Arnold decided to use Carey as a Barney Miller regular, and at the beginning of the series' second season, he settled into the role of Levitt, a street cop who aspired to become a plainclothes detective. During his Barney Miller run (which lasted until 1982), Carey became a member of Mel Brooks's movie stock company, appearing in such Brooks yuckfests as Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977), and History of the World Pt. I (1981). In 1989, Ron Carey starred in the short-lived sitcom Have Faith, playing Father Vincent Paglia -- an ironic turn of events, inasmuch as Carey had once intended to become a priest.