MONDO MAZZACANE

I think there must be a LOT more than eight million stories nowadays, especially in Toobworld where there are not only televersions for all of us, but also for so many fictional characters.

All of those atmosphere people we see in the background of our TV shows have lives just as rich as the main characters in the foreground. Think of that old lady who watched Mary Richards toss her hat in the air. (Of course, that was in Minneapolis.) Or that blind man at the curb when a car almost hits Oscar Madison in the crosswalk. (Okay, we're back in the Big Apple.) 

They may have had spouses and children who then had lives that reached out and had an impact on the lives of other characters, even the main characters in other shows.

Let's swoop down with the Inner Toob camera and find somebody completely at random. (Ahem - koff koff!)

Oh, look! There's some kind of roof party going on near St. Patrick's Cathedral. See that man walking by himself - he looks to be a good candidate for this experiment. (He has to be or I've got bupkis!)

We'll just zoom in closer.....

It turns out he was at the rooftop ceremony where Jack Donaghy and Avery Jessup were supposed to renew their wedding vows. Most of those gathered were friends of the bride and/or groom. Considering he was a high level executive with NBC and she was a high profile newswoman, those friends who attended were probably power players themselves from all strata of society.

So Our Man In The Light Colored Suit? I'm going to make the claim that he's the state representative Anthony Hanley from the Providence, Rhode Island, area. It could be that Rep. Hanley knew Jack at Harvard Business School; they may have been brother members of the secretive Twig & Plums Society.

Representative Anthony Hanley

Rep. Hanley must have had a brother also serving in the state assembly. That Rep. Hanley couldn't have been the same guy - they didn't look alike. And I don't think the recastaway theories come into play here.

Why would I make such an assumption about a nameless background character? First off, it helps to condense the Tele-Folks Directory; and in doing so, it provides a link between two shows. But most of all, it's because that wedding guest was played by Roy Mazzacane, who also played Representative Anthony Hanley in an episode of 'Brotherhood'. (The other Rep. Hanley was played by Thomas Tynell in an earlier episode.)

And why did I choose Roy Mazzacane's wedding guest out of all those people seated there?

Because I know him, from back in our UConn days, working together on a production of 'The Hostage'.

You didn't really think I'd pick a background character at random, did you?

As Steve McGarrett once said, "Aloha, Suckers!"