IN: Allen was born in New York City, son of Billy (Carroll Abler) and Isabelle Allen (nee Donohue), a husband and wife vaudeville comedy team. He was raised on the South Side of Chicago largely by his mother's Irish Catholic family. Milton Berle called Allen's mother "the funniest woman in vaudeville". Allen's first radio job was on station KOY in Phoenix, Arizona, after he left Arizona State Teachers College (now Arizona State University) in Tempe while still a sophomore.

Allen's first television experience came in 1949 when he answered an ad for a TV announcer for professional wrestling. Although he knew nothing about wrestling, he watched some shows to gain insight, and discovered that the announcers did not have well-defined names for the wrestling holds. So, when he got the job he created names for many of the holds, some of which still are in use. After the first match got under way, Allen began ad-libbing in a comedic style which had audiences outside the arena laughing. An example: Leone gives Smith a full nelson now, slipping it up from either a half-nelson or an Ozzie Nelson. Now the boys go into a double pretzel bend with variations on a theme by Velox and Yolanda. After CBS radio gave Allen a weekly prime time show, CBS television believed it could groom him for national TV stardom and gave him his first network show. The Steve Allen Show premiered at 11 a.m. on Christmas Day, 1950, and was later moved into a thirty-minute, early evening slot. This new show required him to uproot his family and move from Los Angeles to New York, since at that time technology had not yet been developed that would allow a coast-to-coast program to originate from LA where the time zone was earlier than on the East Coast. The show ran until its cancellation in 1952, after which CBS tried several shows to showcase Allen's talent. He achieved national attention when he was pressed into last-minute service to guest host the hugely popular Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts when Godfrey was unable to appear. He turned one of Godfrey's live Lipton tea and soup commercials upside down, preparing tea and instant soup on camera, then pouring both into Godfrey's iconic ukulele. With the audience (including Godfrey, watching from Miami) laughing uproariously and thoroughly entertained, Allen gained major plaudits both as a comedian and a host. Variety magazine editors who had seen the show wrote, "One of the most hilarious one-man comedy sequences projected over the TV cameras in many a day ... . The guy's a natural for the big time." Allen also was a regular on the popular panel game show What's My Line? from 1953 to 1954, and returned frequently as a panelist until the series ended in 1967.

Can you provide me with a little information on Steve Allen and Television?

OUT: Allen's first television experience came in 1949 when he answered an ad for a TV announcer for professional wrestling.

IN: Lehrer was born in 1928 to a Jewish family and grew up in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Although he was raised Jewish, Lehrer became an agnostic. He began studying classical piano at the age of seven, but was more interested in the popular music of the age. Eventually, his mother also sent him to a popular-music piano teacher.

Lehrer earned his Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (magna cum laude) from Harvard University in 1946. He received his MA degree the next year, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He taught classes at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He remained in Harvard's doctoral program for several years, taking time out for his musical career and to work as a researcher at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. He was drafted into the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957, working at the National Security Agency(NSA). (Lehrer has stated that he invented the Jell-O Shot during this time, as a means of circumventing liquor restrictions.) These experiences became fodder for songs, e.g., "The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be" and "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier". Interestingly, it was many years before Lehrer publicly revealed having been assigned to the NSA, since the mere 'fact-of' its existence was classified at the time: this left him in the interesting position of implicitly using nuclear weapons work as as cover story for something more sensitive. Despite holding a master's degree in an era when American conscripts often lacked a high school diploma, Lehrer served as an enlisted soldier, achieving the rank of Specialist Third Class (later retitled "Specialist-4" and currently "Specialist"), which he described as being a "corporal without portfolio." In 1960, Lehrer returned to full-time studies at Harvard, but in 1965 gave up on his mathematical dissertation about the subject of modes in statistics, after working on it intermittently for 15 years. From 1962, he taught in the political science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1972, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, teaching an introductory course entitled "The Nature of Mathematics" to liberal arts majors--"Math for Tenors", according to Lehrer. He also taught a class in musical theater. He occasionally performed songs in his lectures, primarily those relating to the topic. In 2001, Lehrer taught his last mathematics class (on the topic of infinity) and retired from academia. He has remained in the area, and in 2003 said he still "hangs out" around the University of California, Santa Cruz.

What did he do after he finished at Harvard?

OUT: From 1962, he taught in the political science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

IN: Zazi was born in a village in Paktia Province, Afghanistan. He has two sisters and two brothers. At the age of 7 in 1992, he and his family moved to the city of Peshawar in Pakistan where they settled as Afghan refugees. In 1999, he and the family left Pakistan and immigrated to New York City.

American authorities also arrested imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, who was charged with and convicted of lying to the FBI about a conversation in which Afzali informed Zazi he was under surveillance. Afzali was formerly a resident of Flushing, Queens, and legal permanent resident of the U.S., born in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was an imam at a Queens mosque, and ran the Islamic Burial Funeral Service, a Queens funeral parlor. He was charged with having told Zazi that he was being watched, and lying to the FBI in a matter involving terrorism. He initially pleaded not guilty, faced up to eight years in prison and deportation if convicted, and was freed on $1.5 million bail. On March 4, in a plea bargain he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of lying to U.S. federal agents, and said he was sorry. Afzali faced up to six months in prison, and as part of the plea arrangement the government agreed not to request any jail time. Brooklyn federal judge Frederic Block will sentence him on April 8. As part of his plea agreement, Afzali voluntarily left the U.S. in July 2010, within 90 days of his conviction. As a felon and under the terms of his plea bargain Afzali may not return to the U.S. unless given special permission. Afzali denied any intention of aiding terrorism or misleading authorities, and according to his lawyer he was "caught in a turf war between the NYPD and the FBI." His last words in the United States were "God Bless America," according to his lawyer.

What Happened to Imam?

OUT:
American authorities also arrested imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, who was charged with and convicted of lying to the FBI