Eighteen months ago, a lot of us were startled to find out that one of the typists transcribing sessions of the Television Critics Association's winter meetings was none other than Max Gail, who played Wojo on "Barney Miller."

Now Gail's back at press tour, but this time he's onstage, part of an ensemble cast for ABC's quirky, improvisational midseason comedy "Sons & Daughters."

No one's under any illusions that actors don't sometimes work other jobs between roles -- especially when the gaps are as big as they seem to have been for Gail -- but when a reporter gently questions Gail about that other job, the actor explains that he'd just been helping out a friend.

And thought it might be educational.

"I wanted to come down and see what was happening in the backstage of this process," he says.