Trivia: Howard Hesseman's early credits have sometimes been hard to trace, mainly because he often billed himself as "Don Sturdy." The mustachioed, prematurely balding Hesseman was a founding member of the San Francisco-based improv troupe The Committee. During his decade-long tenure with this aggregation, he was featured in such films as Petulia (1968) and A Session with the Committee (1970), and showed up on such TV series as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Dick Cavett Show. Through the auspices of his Committee cohort Peter Bonerz, Hesseman played a recurring role on TV's The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78), playing the unsuccessful producer of such TV disasters as "The Nazi Hour." His screen roles in the 1970s included a showy part as a harried TV-commercial director in the opening sequence of The Sunshine Boys. In 1978, Hesseman achieved celebrity in the role of counterculture deejay Dr. Johnny Fever (aka Johnny Caravella) on the popular sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Following WKRP's cancellation in 1982, he spent two seasons playing Ann Romano's third (and presumably final) husband Sam Royer on the weekly One Day at a Time. From 1986 to 1990, he starred as urbane high school teacher Charlie Moore in TV's Head of the Class. During all this activity, Howard Hesseman continued showing up in feature films, playing such roles as smarmy promoter Terry Ladd in This is Spinal Tap (1984) and child star Patty Duke's manipulative manager/guardian John Ross in the TV biopic Call Me Anna (1989). Over the following several years, Hessman would remain active on screen, appearnig on shows like That 70's Show and Crossing Jordan, and in movies like The Rocker.

Trivia: Character actor Gregory Itzin's tall and conservative appearance seemed to call for, even demand, sober and distinguished parts, such as those of corporate heavies, cutthroat attorneys, etc. It was with immense irony, then, that Itzin took his cinematic bow on a completely loony note -- as one of the proselytizing cultists karate-chopped by Robert Stack at the airport in the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker classic Airplane! For a time, Itzin seemed to take this as a cue and placed a strong emphasis in his career on comedies, such as the 1982 Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (as one of religious crusader Melvin P. Thorpe's minions) and episodes of Murphy Brown and Night Court. The late '80s, however, saw Itzin turn toward more straight-faced material; he tackled small roles in the Gary David Goldberg melodrama Dad (1989) and Steve Kloves' justly praised seriocomedy The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989). In the 1990s, Itzin's diversity broadened further, with periodic contributions to the domestically themed prime-time dramas ER, Murder One, and (expanding into the fantasy realm) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Itzin extended his heavy emphasis on television work into the 2000s, with a particularly high profile in 24, as Vice President (then President) Charles Logan. In 2007, the actor received renewed attention (not all of it positive) with his portrayal of Dr. Greg Jameson, the physician who treats psychopath victim Lindsay Lohan, in the critically despised torture-fest I Know Who Killed Me. Itzen continued his role on 24 throughout 2010, and took on a small supporting role in actor/director George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March (2011).