Comedy Central ‘Strangers With Candy’

Guy Blank “Strangers With Candy” starred Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank, a “boozer, user and loser” who returns to Flatpoint High School, at 46, to get her life on track. The show was inspired by after-school specials, and Ms. Sedaris said she and her colleagues were struck by the shows’ typically nonexistent father figures. “We decided to heighten that,” she said, and they came up with Jerri’s father, Guy Blank. “We made him paralyzed and frozen.” And that’s exactly what viewers saw. Blank would be in static poses no matter the situation: a visit to the principal’s office, a family dinner or a one-sided heart-to-heart talk with his daughter. Many actors auditioned but Roberto Gari won. “He could sit perfectly still,” Ms. Sedaris said. The show ran for three seasons on Comedy Central, ending in 2000, but Guy Blank was not around for all of it. “We felt we had to change it, so we killed him off,” Ms. Sedaris said. “He was fine with it.” Blank was eaten by the feral mascots of Flatpoint’s rivals, the Mount Valley Rabid Dogs, in “The Goodbye Guy” episode, leaving Jerri to run the Father-Student Sack Race with an urn of his ashes. Mr. Gari, who played Blank, died in 2008.

Fox 'Glee'

Brad the piano player There are a lot of mysteries on “Glee,” like how does the band in the choir room already know how to play a song that Rachel is suddenly inspired to sing? Just how many sectional and regional competitions are there? And how does the piano accompanist, played by Brad Ellis, know to materialize whenever someone is ready to croon? But one mystery we can clear up: Though he hasn’t had a line since, he sang, just a little, in the pilot episode. “Fans believe I’ve never spoken, and I let them believe that,” Mr. Ellis said. For a man of few on-screen words, he certainly has his fans. Annie Barrett, on Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch blog, wrote: “I feel like ‘Mattress’ was Nameless Glee Pianist’s breakout episode. Never mind that he does not speak. All he needs to do is smile.” Mr. Ellis enjoys his pseudo-anonymity, but he does get recognized. “There was a girl who was so star-struck. She said, ‘You’re my favorite character.’ I said: ‘I’m you’re favorite character? Do you watch the show?’ ” (At least she knew he was from “Glee.” Mr. Ellis said that he is sometimes confused with the actor Dave Foley or Mike Gordon, the bass player for Phish.) “I think I have the right amount of sub-lebrity that I can take.”