Trivia: Actor Ted Knight dropped out of high school in order to enlist for World War II service. During the postwar years, Knight studied acting in Hartford, Connecticut. He became proficient with puppets and ventriloquism, which led to steady work as a TV kiddie-show host. Knight spent most of the 1950s and 1960s doing commercial voice-overs and essaying minor TV and movie roles (he was the nonspeaking cop who handed Norman Bates a robe at the end of Hitchcock's Psycho [1960]). Just barely making ends meet with TV guest spots and cartoon voices, Knight was rescued professionally in 1970 when he was cast in the role of vainglorious TV anchorman Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Three years into the series, Knight threatened to quit because of the one-note stupidity of his character. He was assuaged when the MTM producers "humanized" him with an understanding girlfriend (played by Georgia Engel) -- and it didn't hurt that the actor later won two Emmy awards for his portrayal of the clueless Ted Baxter. When MTM left the air in 1977, Knight attempted to headline a sitcom of his own. After a couple of false starts, he struck pay dirt in 1980 with Too Close for Comfort, playing a comic-strip artist with two nubile daughters. Too Close left the network for syndication in 1984, then matriculated into The Ted Knight Show in 1985. Though gravely ill, Ted Knight valiantly taped a years' worth of episodes before succumbing to cancer at the age of 62.

Trivia: Originally planned to be a schoolteacher. Spent two seasons with the New York City Opera Company, performing in such productions as Carmen and The Mikado. Performed as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Made her Broadway debut in 1960 in Do Re Mi. Played Maria in the 1962 Broadway production of The Sound of Music. Was an original cohost of Good Morning America. For five years, she headed the Ray Bolger Endowment for Musical Performances at UCLA. Regularly performs as a cabaret singer.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the early '80s.

Trivia: After starting out as a free-form stand-up comic in San Francisco and New York, Dick Gautier was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Elvis-like rock star Conrad Birdie in the 1961 Broadway production Bye Bye Birdie. Gautier was also half of an informal, improvisational comedy team with straight man Peter Marshall. In films since 1972, Gautier is better known for his television work on such series as Mr. Terrific (1967), Here We Go Again (1971), The Liars Club (1974), and especially Get Smart (1965-70), in which he played Hymie the Robot. Get Smart co-creator Mel Brooks later concocted a starring TV vehicle for Gautier, the 13-week Robin Hood spoof When Things Were Rotten (1975). In the 1980s, Gautier embarked on a sizeable career as a voice-over actor, lending his voice to memorable characters in the animated G.I. Joe (as Serpentor) and Transformers (as Rodimus Prime), and as stock characters in shows like Smurfs and The Addams Family. Gautier died in 2017, at age 85.