Bob Crane

“I turned down more offers to be Jack Paar or Johnny Carson or Steve Allen before the people on the 'Donna Reed Show' gave me a chance to earn while I learned.”

“Once I started tossing quips at Shelley Berman and he got more and more incensed. Finally, during a commercial, he exploded, 'I didn't come here to be a straight man,' and walked out.”

“I can't sit still. It drives me up the wall.”

“People used to think I was out of my mind.”

“I don't go for the wild stuff like bell-bottoms.”

“I work best under pressure. At home I look at a script for about 10 minutes then I get distracted bymy records, or my tape, or my videotape machine, or Scotty.”

“I enjoy life. That doesn't mean I don't care.”

“Believe it or not, Jack Lemmon was my inspiration. I saw him in 'Mr. Roberts' at the Stratford theater. I was just 21 or 22 at the time and I thought some day I would like to be an actor.”

“All in the Family' changed everything.”

“Well, I take my drums everywhere I go so I can play them for relaxation.”

“I was doing a show in Bridgeport, Conn., and getting offers for more money from Boston and other cities in the east. But I figured I would hold out for New York. Then one day, I got a call out of the blue from Hollywood from KNX.”

“I always had acting in the back of my mind.”

“The way I look at it, you've got to quit your TV series before they'll consider you in movies.”

“I'd like to do movies. The kind of comedies Jack Lemmon does.”

“You know what they say: You go on the road and you're out of the business. Out of sight, out of mind. I can't afford that sort of thing.”

“Whenever anyone asks me what I did in the service, I just tell him I was a member of the famed 'Remington Raiders.'”

“Wit is a comic's defense weapon.”

“If someone's winning an argument wih me, I throw a funny line at him and run.”

“I really always wanted to be an actor, I guess, but I did enjoy being a disc jockey here in Los Angeles.”

“I like Johnny Carson because he doesn't hold anything back when he's going for a laugh. Johnny will do anything, say anything, to get his laugh.”