I must admit, I was worried when I read that Peter MacNicol would be joining the cast of 24 this season. And I was mighty skeptical.

I knew MacNicol only as John "The Biscuit" Cage from Ally McBeal, a role which scored him an Emmy. (Yeah, yeah, I know he's been on the show Numb3rs since 2005. But I don't watch Numb3rs.) For years, I watched as the "funny little man" dazzled fictional Boston courtrooms with his odd antics and did strange things in his law offices, like "dismounting" from the co-ed bathroom stalls, utilizing a remote toilet bowl flusher and saying that he was "drawn to" various females.

Here's something you don't usually see: an actor joining a show as a series regular, but staying on his current show, on another network, also as a series regular.

Peter MacNicol will join the cast of 24 in the fall. He'll play a top government official on the spy drama when it comes back in January. But MacNicol is going to stay as a regular on Numb3rs, where he plays mentor and friend to Charlie.

Maybe Charlie can make a guest appearance on 24. He can help Jack Bauer solve an international conspiracy with, um, math or something. I mean, the show does have a number as its title.