Dan Frischman

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Dan Frischman (born April 23, 1959 in Whippany, New Jersey) is an American character actor, noted for his many roles of playing socially inept "geeks" and "nerds". Mr. Frischman's birthdate is often listed as being 1964, as early in his career his acting agent had him practice age fabrication to seem five years younger which made him more eligible for teenaged acting roles.

1 Early Noted Appearance
2 Head Of The Class
3 Kenan & Kel
4 Other Appearances
5 Miscellanea
6 External links

[edit] Early Noted Appearance

He was first noticed in a 17 March 1982 episode of the NBC television series "The Facts of Life". In the episode, titled "Kids Can Be Cruel" Frischman played high school student "Carl 'Rocky' Price" who was picked on by his peers because of his acne and nerd like personality. The students in the episode referred to Mr. Frischman's character as "Pizzaface", because of his pronounced acne blemishes and scars. In the episode the character Natalie Green, played by actress Mindy Cohn, gets angry at her roommate Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel) and sets her up with Mr. Frischman's character "Rocky" as a cruel joke.

[edit] Head Of The Class

Mr. Frischman's first co-starring role was that of Manhattan based high school student Arvid Engen on ABC-TV's late 1980s/ early 1990s series Head of the Class.

Arvid was a bespectacled geek who was an early connoisseur of computer culture as well as a budding scientist. Arvid and his classmates were considered possible geniuses and were placed in the "I.H.P. Individualized Honors Program" for advanced and gifted students. Though they were very intelligent, their social skills were awkward and lacking. During the series run, the class had two different teachers who tried to make the gifted students less socially challenged. Howard Hesseman played the class's first teacher, former hippie and free spirit "Charlie Moore". Billy Connolly played the class's second teacher, comedic realist "Billy MacGregor".

In March 2006, AOL Television began releasing free streaming video content of old television shows via its new site In2TV, including Head of the Class.

[edit] Kenan & Kel

Mr. Frischman's second co-starring role was the character Chris Potter in the 1990s Nickelodeon TV series Kenan & Kel. Kenan & Kel was a spin-off of Nickelodeon's All That a weekly Saturday night 30-minute comedy. Kenan & Kel starred two of All That's biggest stars, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. The show featured Kenan Rockmore, a high schooler who works at "Rigby's", a small grocery store. Kel Kimble is his orange soda-loving best friend. Later in the series, actress Alexis Fields joined the cast as Sharla Morrison, also an employee at Rigby's.

Once again Mr. Frischman played a socially awkward nerd, this time as Chris Potter, Kenan's boss at Rigby's. Kenan's friend Kel would often stop in, and the two friends' behavior was usually a source of aggravation to Chris. Though Chris Potter was in his 30's and held a management position, he lived with his dominating mother, an unseen character, who is frequently mentioned throughout the show. One of Chris' anxieties was a recurring dream that he was being chased by a giant bunny.

Kenan & Kel was produced by Brian Robbins and Dan Schneider, two former actors who co-starred with Mr. Frischman on his previous series Head of the Class. Mr. Robbins played leather jacketed rebel Eric Mardian while Mr. Schneider played overweight computer geek and cynic Dennis Blunden.

[edit] Other Appearances

While at the height of his "Head of the Class" fame, Mr. Frischman appeared as a celebrity guest on different talk shows and variety shows.

On Saturday December 20, 1986, Mr. Frischman and the cast of "Head of the Class" were the celebrity guests on the long running urban music series Soul Train. Musical guests that week were Al Jarreau and Vesta Williams.

On Wednesday July 15, 1987 Mr. Frischman appeared as that evenings guest on NBC-TV's highly rated evening talk show Late Night With David Letterman.

Mr. Frischman has made numerous guest star appearances on many U.S. based television series. Some of the more noted series include Archie Bunker's Place, It's a Living, Newhart, St. Elsewhere, Voyagers!, and Webster.

Mr. Frischman made a short, but memorable, appearance on the 1990s series Seinfeld. In episode 93, titled The Mom & Pop Store (which originally aired on Thursday November 17, 1994 on U.S. television network NBC), Mr. Frischman plays a man who phones Jerry Seinfeld to tell the comedian that he has found his stolen sneaker collection by reading the address labels Jerry puts on each shoe.

On Monday October 24, 2005, Mr. Frischman became a celebrity panelist on I Love the '80s 3-D, a television program that was produced in the by American cable television channel VH1. The show, third in a 1980s nostalgia series, is intended to bring back memories of 1980s fashion, movies and music, showing each topic mostly through the eyes of celebrities who give their opinion on the subjects.