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.

Trivia: Educated at the University of Pennsylvania, actor Philip Sterling made his first Broadway appearance in the 1955 musical Silk Stockings. Sterling was later spotlighted in such New York stage productions as Summertree, An Evening with Richard Nixon and Broadway Bound. In films from 1969's Me, Natalie, he has generally been cast as father figures or corporate bigwigs. His more notable film roles include Mr. Lipman in Joan Micklin Silver's Hester Street (1975) and Hollywood mogul Joseph Schenck in the 1980 TV movie Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess. In addition, Philip Sterling has made numerous appearances in episodic television; in 1975, he co-starred with Wayne Rogers in the summer-replacement series City of Angels.

Trivia: From a show business family, raspy-voiced comedienne Florence Halop played a bit in Junior G-Men (1940), a Universal serial starring her more famous brother Billy Halop and The Little Tough Guys. She also appeared in Nancy Drew...Reporter (1939) but spent the remainder of the 1940s in radio. A popular and extremely busy television actress, Halop went on to guest star in everything from I Love Lucy to St. Elsewhere but scored her biggest success as the sharp-tongued bailiff in the hit comedy series Night Court. Florence replaced another former radio actress, Selma Diamond, who died of throat cancer after only one season; tragically, the same exact fate befell Halop, who, in turn, was replaced by standup comedienne Marsha Warfield.