Wayne Knight can, in fact, remember a day having gone by without a stranger greeting him with "Hello, Newman..."
"Ah... June 6, 1998 was the day," Knight jokes. "But I was asleep most of the day, so it doesn't really count."
Somewhere on the planet you can bet there is a rerun of Seinfeld or Cheers (or both) being broadcast.
Which means there is a very good chance of Knight or John Ratzenberger being on somebody's television set at this very moment.
While it's their voices currently being featured in the hit film Toy Story 2, they are most often recognized as the prime time's most famous mailmen.
After years of playing Cliff Clavin and Newman, every place is one where everybody knows their names.
One isn't safe at home, either, because mailmen have a tendency to send the actors mail.
"Oh yeah, complaining about 'the chain,' " Ratzenberger nods.
"Cliff's got all these keys to mailboxes and the guy's hoisting beers. 'You know, it's against the rules, blah, blah, blah.' I wrote them back and said: 'Go to any post office and find the nearest bar. There's gotta be a dozen of them in there still with mail bags and keys!' "
Knight acknowledges his Newman was far from a model postal worker but he's still popular amongst the rain, sleet or snow set.
"I think most postal workers enjoyed him -- at least I was showing they were frustrated."
Even if they aren't fans of Newman or Cliff, Knight says there's no point in going postal.
"People mean well. The thing you have to remember is people are meeting you for the first time, so whatever impression you leave with them, they're going to take as who you are," Knight says.
Before you know it, all of their friends and family think the 3rd Rock From the Sun actor is a jerk because of a poor impression he left.
"It becomes a pyramid of jerkdom. Ten years later, there's 100 people who think you're just a big jerk because of the one encounter when you said, 'Get away from me!' "
Ratzenberger provided the voice of Hamm in Toy Story and has been doing voiceover work for more than 20 years. He has been seen in Superman, Gandhi and Empire Strikes Back, but only heard in A Bug's Life, The Simpsons and Captain Planet.
"Superman 2, I also did all the background vocals on that film. The Niagara Falls scenes, when they're lifting up the bus in Times Square -- I wrote the dialogue and recorded the voices," Ratzenberger reveals, providing an example of how creative the low-profile job can be.
"I've got a line, it's a guy on the bus who says, 'Oh my god, who's going to feed my turtle?' It's that last thought before you die. What do you think about?"
Ratzenberger found out firsthand what goes through one's mind in the final moments during a motorcycle accident this spring in Florida.
"I hit the ground at 75 miles an hour and I thought I was going to die. You just think of weird stuff. The ground was swirling under me and I just thought, 'That's kind of a neat pattern.' "
He escaped with some broken bones and, after his hospital stay, Ratzenberger returned to work in front of cameras and behind microphones.
Knight has been spending some time in recording studios as well. His voice has been heard recently in My Favorite Martian, Tarzan, Brave Little Toaster, Toonsylvania and Hercules.
Next fall, Knight will be a regular on an animated television spin-off of Toy Story.
"It's going to be Toy Story 2 to the next level -- which is Buzz Lightyear and the Space Rangers versus the evil emperor Zurg," Knight describes.
Knight joins the Toy Story cast in the sequel as Al McWhiggin, the geeky toy store owner who steals Woody to add him to a museum collection.
Al McWhiggin is one of the few characters from Toy Story 2 who won't be found on toy shelves this holiday season and Knight isn't the least bit disappointed.
"I think they'd use it as a psychological test. Put an Al doll in a room with a bunch of other dolls and if a kid starts playing with it -- segregate him from the rest of society," he laughs.
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