Randy Shepler's Brush with Stardom

We all know Randy Shepler to be a down-to-earth, dedicated teacher who has a lasting impact on his students. In honor of his birthday, I'd like to share a story that reveals a different dimension of Randy - a brush with stardom...

When Randy was in Junior High, the Sheplers decided to vacation in California during summer break. One afternoon Randy was eating lunch at Jack in the Box when a stranger approached him, asking if he would like to be on TV. This stranger turned out to Sherwood Schwartz, a big time TV producer. Randy eagerly spent the next few days studying lines for the new TV pilot and running scenes in front of the camera. Soon the family vacation ended, and it was time to go home. At the end of the summer the Sheplers were notified that the show was picked up, but Randy's mother would not let him return to California. Sadly, the role of Peter Brady was passed along to Christopher Knight.

This amazing facet of Randy's life would have been forgotten, if not for my cousin, David Garrison. You see, Dave is one of the directors for Ripley's Believe It Or Not and happens to play poker once a month with the then owner/editor of Teen Beat Magazine, Mike Burwasser. Eventually, they had one of those conversations about family, and Dave told him he had a cousin in Denver. Mike recalled that a kid from Colorado named Randy Shepler was the original Peter Brady. He happened to shoot a few cover shots in case the show went big. Well, that friend-of-a-friend conversation eventually made it back to me. I've been waiting for this moment for years.

Randy is now 40 years old and we happen to have several Teen Beat publicity posters upstairs with his signature. Please stop in to wish Randy a happy birthday and to receive your copy of what could have been.

Randy has other glossies available upstairs with his signature.
(Click on photos for a larger image.)