In Los Angeles, Kopell initially drove a taxi and tried to sell
Kirby vacuum cleaners to make ends meet before being cast in a minor role in
The Brighter Day, a daytime soap aired on CBS. From there, he moved on to star in
My Favorite Martian and
The Jack Benny Program impersonating Latino characters, eventually managing to branch out and do other accents. series
Needles and Pins, 1973. Bottom, from left: Deirdre Lenihan,
Norman Fell. Top, from left: Kopell,
Sandra Deel and
Louis Nye. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Kopell appeared in many television series, often sitcoms, including
Ripcord,
That Girl,
The Jack Benny Program,
Our Man Higgins,
Green Acres,
The Danny Thomas Show,
Ben Casey,
The Flying Nun,
Needles and Pins, ''
McHale's Navy, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Sonny and Cher Show, Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, Petticoat Junction, The Streets of San Francisco, Room 222, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, “The Odd Couple” and Kojak''.
Siegfried and other roles Kopell made memorable recurring appearances as KAOS agent Siegfried in
Get Smart, Jerry Bauman in
That Girl and Louie Pallucci in
The Doris Day Show. He played several characters on
Bewitched, including the witches' apothecary and the hippie
warlock Alonzo in the episode "The Warlock in the Gray Flannel Suit". He played Charlie Miller as a member of the cast of the situation comedy
Needles and Pins, which ran for 14 episodes in the autumn of 1973. He portrayed a
plastic surgeon who gave Ed Brown a facelift on
Chico and the Man. In 1975, he was
Alan-A-Dale in the
Robin Hood parody
When Things Were Rotten. Earlier in his career, he played a director in an episode of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Good-Bye George"). About this same time, he guest starred on the short-lived
The New Phil Silvers Show. A few moments later, he was shown having been re-seated in the mezzanine when the second parody was made at his expense, and again stood up, raised his fists and stormed out, playing along with the host. In a dream sequence of
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Kopell made a parody cameo as an actor who played a ship's doctor so many times he offers to perform an operation for real, while in a 1994 episode of
Saturday Night Live he appeared as Doc during a
Love Boat-themed spoof of
Star Trek: The Next Generation. After
The Love Boat, Kopell was so recognizable that he was not in roles often without a nod to his most famous role. He appears as a coroner in "Which Prue Is It Anyway", an episode of
Charmed. Kopell appears in the
Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Critic", playing Mr. Gilson, the ill-fated restroom attendant, whom Monk referred to as the Michelangelo of lavatories. He guest starred in "Pinky", a 2009 episode of
My Name Is Earl. He made a cameo as a patient in the
Scrubs episode "
My Friend the Doctor", as well as an episode of
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Beginning in August 2022, Kopell co-starred with
Hal Linden in
Two Jews Talking off-Broadway at the Theater at St Clement's. He played his final performance on October 16. As of 2023, he still appears regularly in film and television productions despite his advanced age. ==Personal life==