“The greatest role he would be offered was that of Charles Nelson Reilly. Self-dramatizing by nature, he knew the depth, intelligence and heart of his character, and he had no need to bluff. Still, as he related in his solo show, he was astonished by his own success in the part. Never in his wildest dream would he have imagined that he — an oddball kid from the Bronx — would have appeared, by his own count, more than 100 times on ‘The Tonight Show’ and been able to circle his name 38 times in the TV Guide listings for a single week. For an actor who had been told by a TV executive when he was starting out that a ‘queer’ like him didn’t stand a chance, his prevalence on the air must have been intoxicating.”