Their fans may have to do a little channel zapping. But they have not seen the last of all the VR 5 cast members, even though that Fox series still resides in a never-never land with several un-aired episodes.

Michael Easton, as recently noted, is about to reappear in the dual roles of good and evil twin brothers in the upcoming syndicated series Two. And Anthony Head - well, viewers are probably seeing more of him than ever because he and Sharon Maughan started appearing regularly again this month, once more portraying the cute but sophisticated couple who discovered romance and each other across their cups of Taster's Choice coffee.

If you've noticed them lately, however, you can see a new regular in their act. He is Trevor Eve, portraying Maughan's ex-husband. He is not really helping this relationship along at all, although McCann/Erickson, the agency that created these sleek pitches, insists he is doing his part to help sell a lot of coffee.

Meanwhile, the Taster's Choice commercial is in its 13th episode, which means it has run longer than many new series. It may also mean that Head has become the counterpart of Lindsay Wagner, who has been spending her post-Bionic Woman era pitching Fords while a series and a few TV movies went down the drain faster than one could say "Pass the sugar" - or in her case, "Check out this transmission. "

So far, Head has been taking this philosophically. He had not expected fame to come in this form, he told an interviewer last year. "But it gives me instant recognition. And that's not a bad commodity for an actor to have. "

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The last time most viewers saw Anthony Head he was in a happy albeit slightly befuddled state of mind. And small wonder. Sharon Maughan, the pretty lady who so willingly shares her Taster's Choice coffee, had just kissed him warmly, all the while hinting there was some more mystery from her past that would manifest itself the next time they get together to stir and sip.

Before that happens, however, there will be other mysteries surrounding Head, courtesy of Fox's unusual new VR.5 series. The first of them will come into view at 8 p.m. Friday when he makes his initial appearance on the show in an episode that may best be described as weird. But it is relatively tame compared to what will happen the following week when things really get quirky.

And meanwhile, viewers may have a little trouble recognizing him because these days Head bears little resemblance to his somewhat sophisticated but often perplexed Taster's Choice hero.

Instead he is emerging as the enigmatical Oliver Sampson, a shadowy representative of the even more shadowy Committee, a strange organization that keeps track of series star Lori Singer's Sydney Bloom character as she moves inside and outside the murky virtual reality world that has taken a fierce hold on her life.

This, Head insists, makes him neither a bad guy nor a saint.

"What you see of me is Sydney's concept of me," he says. "She sees my dark side, but there is a good one as well. I'm kind of in the middle of this plot. I can't answer all her questions, but I am recruiting her and I know more about her father and her past than she does. "

This gives him an interesting balance with Michael Easton, one-time stud of the NBC Days of Our Lives soap opera and now Sydney's loyal friend (since the series is slated for a first-run of 13 weeks it may be late April before we see where that plot angle will go).

"Michael and I are kind of the ying and the yang of this story," Head says. "We both have Sydney's interest at heart, but in different ways. But you won't find out about that too quickly because this is a series that develops. It's not all thrown at you at once. "

Head is not exactly a stranger to roles like this. He saw his share of bizarre things during his association with the syndicated Highlander series and, before returning to the United States from his native England, he portrayed the hardly normal Dr. Frankenfurter in a stage version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

But neither of those parts quite prepared him for "VR.5 and the Sampson role he decided to accept after seeing three scripts.

"All of them had rich ideas," he says. "The chemistry is very important in this and the chemistry here is in the writing. "

A different kind of chemistry, the one he has with Maughan, will take place in May. That's when their next Taster's Choice spots are scheduled to go into production.

Head looks on those assignments with a certain amount of amusement. "As an actor you always think of things that may make you famous," he says. "I never thought that thing would be a commercial.

"There's nothing frustrating about that, though. It gives me instant recognition and that's not a bad commodity for an actor to have, is it? "

Page created May 1999. Original material © Betsy Vera (bentley@umich.edu). This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.