I think my wife saw a picture of the rock group Journey, and they're kind of aging, and the one guy had dyed blonde hair with black roots, and... my idea was to get a little earring, I wanted to have a dangling earring.

His “I would rather be with the people of this town than with the finest people in the world. He is an alumnus of The Second City. He was the voice of a clueless companion to a lazy robot (Martin Mull) in one episode of the series Dexter's Laboratory and guest-starred on the Adult Swim cartoon Tom Goes to the Mayor.

He was a founding member of the improvisational comedy group Ace Trucking Company. In 2010 he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on the ABC TV series Modern Family as Phil Dunphy's father Frank Dunphy. He is an alumnus of The Second City.