What do Creed Bratton, Peggy Lipton and Jay Ferguson have in common?
They all share office space in Southern California.
No, wait, that's not quite it.
This is better: They all share a connection to "The Office," the Emmy-winning NBC sitcom.
Based on an inventive, much-laurelled BBC mockumentary series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the American version of "The Office" stars Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson and others, including Bratton, who plays a fancifully eccentric version of himself.
Though usually a supporting player, the 66-year-old Bratton is getting a nice tan in his own corner of the California sun as the main antagonist in "Blackmail," an "Office" web series on the show's network site. In one webisode, he slyly drops in his real name, William Charles Schneider.
To watch the rest of the hilarious webisodes of "The Office, click HERE.
With each webisode, you hear a few bars of the show's catchy, award-winning instrumental theme, written by Jay Ferguson.
Small town, Southern California. If you went back 40 years, you'd find Bratton and Ferguson as fellow travelers in L.A.'s incestuous music scene.
Bratton at the time was lead guitarist in the Grass Roots, one of the bigger singles acts of the late '60s and early '70s, their hits including "Midnight Confession," "Temptation Eyes" and "Sooner or Later."
Meanwhile, Ferguson was with Spirit, singing lead on the group's only Top 40 chartbuster, "I Got a Line on You." Later, he and Spirit bassist Mark Andes formed the group Jo Jo Gunne, named for a Chuck Berry song. The band had one modest single, 1972's "Run Run Run." Ferguson later cracked the charts as a solo with 1978's "Thunder Island."
And Peggy Lipton? Where's her cubicle in this set-up?
For one, and it's a sizable one -- she's the mother of actress Rashida Jones, the former "Office" cast member whose father is famed producer and composer Quincy Jones.
(Rashida, seen in this year's "I Love You, Man," is currently in the cast of NBC's "Parks and Recreation.")
Long before she showed up in David Lynch's addictive TV hallucinogen, "Twin Peaks," Lipton had been a breakout star of the series "The Mod Squad."
This was an early Aaron Spelling box-sploitation number with Lipton, Clarence Williams III and Michael Cole as a trio of troubled youths working undercover for "the man."
During her time on the show, Lipton had lived with record executive and producer Lou Adler, though he was still married, on paper anyway, to actress and sometime singer Shelley Fabares.
To dovetail with her "Mod Squad" popularity, Lipton cut a self-titled 1968 solo album, produced by Adler on his Ode label. A single from the album, Laura Nyro's "Stoney End," got its share of airplay, though it didn't crack the Top 40.
(Three years later, Barbra Streisand had her first contemporary pop hit with the song.)
Adler also produced Spirit's "I Got a Line on You" on Ode and some early recordings by the Grass Roots, when the group was on Adler's former label, Dunhill.
Time for a question involving a TV actor and a much-covered song.
"Never Can Say Goodbye," a hit for the Jackson 5, Isaac Hayes, Gloria Gaynor and the Communards, was written by what star of "Amen" and "That's My Mama"?
Let's go, people. If this were an office party, you'd be quick enough to dance on your desk, wouldn't you? You, with the face like a paper cut, whattya got?
That's right, Clifton Davis.
Here are more in the same vein. Get them all right and you could win "My Name is Barbra, Fool: Streisand Bitch-Slaps Funk Classics."
1. Who became an overnight singing star in 1957 with a televised version of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'"?
2. John Sebastian, the writer and singer of the "Welcome Back, Kotter" theme, was the lead singer for what '60s group?
3. Busy film and TV composer Mark Mothersbaugh was a key member of what New Wave band?
4. What group performed the "Friends" theme, "I'll Be There For You"?
5. Variously performed by Phoebe Snow, Aretha Franklin and Boys II Men, the theme song of "A Different World" was written by Bill Cosby, Stu Gardner and what female cast member?
6. What prolific TV composer had hits with his themes from "The Rockford Files," "Hill Street Blues" and "Magnum, P.I."?
7. Before embarking on a highly successful music career, she was a cast member of "Good Times," "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Fame."
8. The theme to "The Simpsons" was written by this former leader of the '80s group Oingo Boingo."
9. He not only created "Jeopardy!," he composed one of its musical themes.
10. What '50s-'60s teen idol wrote the theme for "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson"?
Answers tomorrow. Yesterday's answers.
1. What were the names of the two principal families in "Soap"? (Tates and Campbells)
2. What "Happy Days" role was played by both Gavan O'Herlihy and Randolph Roberts? (Chuck Cunningham, forgotten oldest kid)
3. What "Good Times" regular co-wrote and sang "Movin' On Up," the theme song of "The Jeffersons"? (Ja'net DuBois)
4. What city was the setting for "One Day at a Time"? (Indianapolis)
5. Who played Ewing clan matriarch Miss Ellie from 1978 until 1990? (Barbara Bel Geddes)
6. What series was a spin-off of "Diff'rent Strokes"? ("The Facts of Life")
7. What famous actor's father played Doug Lawrence on "Family"? (James Broderick, father of Matthew Broderick)
8. What was the name of Fred Sanford's dead wife? (Elizabeth)
9. What was the name of the family on "Eight is Enough"? (Bradford)
10. What was Carol Brady's maiden name? (Tyler)
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