{"id":1387,"date":"2026-03-04T12:01:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2026-03-06T10:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:08:18","slug":"dr-rick-progressive-commercials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/dr-rick-progressive-commercials\/","title":{"rendered":"As TV\u2019s Dr. Rick, Bill Glass charms with thoughtful comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you\u2019ve tuned in to network TV lately, you\u2019ve probably met Dr. Rick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s the mustachioed \u201cParenta-Life Coach\u201d who appears in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.progressive.com\/commercials-campaigns\/dr-rick\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.progressive.com\/commercials-campaigns\/dr-rick\/\">Progressive insurance commercials<\/a>, gently steering new homeowners away from the cliff\u2019s edge of becoming their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Stop narrating your own actions. Don\u2019t clap when the plane lands. Don\u2019t offer unsolicited advice on pumping gas. Refrain from gasping at the sight of someone with blue hair.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Rick delivers his interventions with the calm authority of a man who has seen it all and the patient optimism of someone who still believes in change. And the inspiration for this particular blend of sincerity, self-importance and exasperated care can be traced to, of all places, KU, where Bill Glass, \u201994, the actor who portrays Dr. Rick, spent four years as a student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a recent interview with <em>Crimson &amp; Blue<\/em> from his home in Los Angeles, Glass shared that, as he began digging into the Progressive campaign and bringing Dr. Rick to life, he didn\u2019t model the character on a motivational speaker. Instead, he thought about a recognizable academic type he had discovered during his KU days: the earnest professor delivering a lecture on a niche topic with full conviction that it matters to the fate of civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a wonderfully specific observation, and it explains a lot about why Dr. Rick works: He isn\u2019t trying to dominate the room; he\u2019s trying\u2014almost heroically\u2014to educate it. Like any great professor, he is also occasionally baffled that his students aren\u2019t getting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRemember,\u201d Glass says to close his wholesome <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/_billglass\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/_billglass\/\">@_billglass<\/a> Instagram posts, \u201cI\u2019m on Team You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As with Dr. Rick, Glass\u2019s thoughtful blessings for success are sincere, and the sentiments encapsulate the veteran comedic actor\u2019s supportive, humble nature, shaped by years of stage work, auditions, sitcom guest spots and long stretches of the kind of steady, working life in entertainment that rarely garners much fanfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-comedic-aspirations\">Comedic aspirations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Glass grew up in Arlington Heights, a Chicago suburb, in a home where practicality mattered. His father was an electrician\u2014\u201cold school,\u201d as Glass puts it. His mother was an easy mark. Making her laugh at the dinner table was fun. Making his dad laugh, he says, was big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t the most handsome fellow in the world,\u201d Glass says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t the leading man in my school.\u201d He memorized bits from Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams and other greats of a comedy golden age and performed them for anyone who would listen. Murphy\u2019s 1983 stand-up special \u201cDelirious\u201d was transformative for Glass on his quest to unlock the secrets of comedic rhythm and understand the basic truth that comedy isn\u2019t about the jokes. It\u2019s connection. It\u2019s survival. It\u2019s a way in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes it was a way out, too. Humor could be social currency\u2014make the girls laugh, win a little approval, soften the target on your back when the wrong guy in the hallway decided today was your day. Glass describes it as a triple dip of motivations that probably sound familiar to anyone who\u2019s ever used wit as armor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-outermost-icon-block items-justified-center\"><div class=\"icon-container\" style=\"width:48px;transform:rotate(0deg) scaleX(1) scaleY(1)\"><svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M18.7 3H5.3C4 3 3 4 3 5.3v13.4C3 20 4 21 5.3 21h13.4c1.3 0 2.3-1 2.3-2.3V5.3C21 4 20 3 18.7 3zm.8 15.7c0 .4-.4.8-.8.8H5.3c-.4 0-.8-.4-.8-.8V5.3c0-.4.4-.8.8-.8h13.4c.4 0 .8.4.8.8v13.4zM10 15l5-3-5-3v6z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Watch Dr. Rick scare one young homeowner straight.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dr. Rick | Scared Straight | Progressive Insurance Commercial\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OAZQGG00zV8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>His dream, even then, was to do what he saw hometown heroes from the Chicago-based improv troupe The Second City doing. He\u2019d grown up watching Second City legends on \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d\u2014Belushi, Aykroyd, Radner, Murray\u2014and as a teenager saw Second City\u2019s Mainstage cast in person. Chris Farley and Tim Meadows were there. It made the dream feel real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also made his parents insist, even more firmly, on a backup plan. So Glass went to college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I left for KU,\u201d Glass says, \u201cI was inspired.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Far enough from home to feel like his own person, Glass arrived at KU as a business major. Then he failed a required course and promptly looked for an option truer to his dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ESPN was rising then, and it hadn\u2019t yet morphed into a polished, corporate machine. It was looser\u2014sports coverage with a wink. \u201cIn the early \u201990s, ESPN was sort of comedy sportscasting,\u201d Glass says. He could imagine himself in a world where you loved sports, told stories and still got to be funny. So he switched his major to broadcast journalism. (A classmate, Bob Wiltfong, j\u201992, found his own insurance pitchman fame as Nationwide\u2019s \u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Spokesperson in the World.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glass lived in Oliver Hall, and later moved off campus to a rental with more character than comfort\u2014a house at 14th and Tennessee that he remembers as \u201calmost condemned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After KU, Glass returned to Chicago and threw himself into the one thing he\u2019d promised himself he\u2019d try: improvisational comedy. He took classes at Improv Olympic and, when he could, snuck in classes at The Second City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glass came up during what he calls a \u201cmurderer\u2019s row\u201d era of talent in Chicago, and as he watched performers who would become household names, he learned the less touted skills of comedy: how to fail in front of people, how to recover, how to build trust with scene partners, how to make the room feel alive. He remembers seeing a kind of seasoning onstage\u2014moments when performers weren\u2019t \u201ctrying\u201d at all, just operating on instinct and trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That education would matter later, especially in the commercial audition world. Although Glass never got paid to perform as an onstage improviser, improv paid him back in another currency: versatility. The ability to walk into a room, do the lines on the page, then offer something extra. A different take. A button. A small, weird moment the director and producers didn\u2019t know they needed until it was there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-enter-dr-rick\">Enter Dr. Rick<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Progressive\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Become Your Parents\u201d campaign began airing in 2020 and was an outlier in the insurance ad universe\u2014smart, specific and oddly comforting. But Dr. Rick didn\u2019t begin as Dr. Rick. Glass explains that in 2017, he appeared in the nascent ad concept as an unnamed group leader for a prototype of the eventual campaign\u2019s \u201cParentamorphosis Anonymous\u201d meeting. Two years later, the campaign\u2019s creative team decided to bring the group leader back, and Glass had to re-audition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The current version of the campaign began filming in November 2019, and Dr. Rick began airing in 2020. As the pandemic forced a collective retreat into homes, the TV counselor with the soothing voice offered a sort of balm to pervasive fears. Viewers sought out the commercials on YouTube. Glass did too, at first simply to see how the work was landing. The early spots racked up millions of views. That\u2019s when he realized the campaign had struck a chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re in this world of paying to <em>avoid<\/em> commercials,\u201d Glass says, reflecting on his reaction at the time, \u201cand people are seeking it out?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-outermost-icon-block items-justified-center\"><div class=\"icon-container\" style=\"width:48px;transform:rotate(0deg) scaleX(1) scaleY(1)\"><svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M18.7 3H5.3C4 3 3 4 3 5.3v13.4C3 20 4 21 5.3 21h13.4c1.3 0 2.3-1 2.3-2.3V5.3C21 4 20 3 18.7 3zm.8 15.7c0 .4-.4.8-.8.8H5.3c-.4 0-.8-.4-.8-.8V5.3c0-.4.4-.8.8-.8h13.4c.4 0 .8.4.8.8v13.4zM10 15l5-3-5-3v6z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Dr. Rick reminds young homeowners that not everyone needs their help.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dr. Rick | Getting Involved | Progressive Insurance Commercial\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J-mRJKFT_88?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Glass talks about Dr. Rick the way a seasoned actor talks about any satisfying role: Tone is everything. Too bossy, and he becomes insufferable. Too sweet, and the comedy dissolves into syrup. The character lives on a narrow ledge: He has to be nurturing and helpful, sincerely invested in people improving their lives, and he has to be human enough to feel occasional frustration when people aren\u2019t learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an old axiom,\u201d Glass says, \u201cthat you try to find the truth in comedy.\u201d Even a ridiculous premise needs emotional logic. Dr. Rick wants to be a doctor. He wants to help. He is also, in his own way, holding back the urge to say, <em>Come on. We\u2019ve talked about this<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The balance is shaped by Glass\u2019s instincts, but also by a director\u2019s hand. Glass credits the commercials\u2019 director, Martin Granger, for shepherding tone. After a few shoots, the rhythm settled in. They now shoot twice a year, usually a week at a time, producing several commercials per session. \u201cWe get the band together,\u201d Glass says, \u201cand we go crank them out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that band is stacked. The campaign uses a deep bench of improv talent\u2014\u201cThe best improvisers working right now,\u201d Glass says, and he lights up when naming his colleagues, who include Chris Witaske, Mike Nelson and Abra Tabak. \u201cEvery actor who has stepped into this chaos hits a home run,\u201d Glass says. \u201cMy job, literally, is to not laugh, not break, stay out of the way.\u201d Serving his scene partners, Glass adds, is a philosophy that seems to come with age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I was a younger improviser,\u201d he says, \u201cI was big and loud.\u201d Now he believes the material wins when you stop trying to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-sitcom-dreams\">Sitcom dreams<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Glass moved to Los Angeles in 1998. Since then, his face has floated through the American pop culture bloodstream: sitcom roles, guest spots, recurring turns. He\u2019s appeared on shows like \u201cJustified,\u201d \u201cThe Middle\u201d and, more recently, \u201cRutherford Falls,\u201d the smart comedy (co-created by Mike Schur, a writer and producer known for \u201cThe Office\u201d and \u201cParks and Recreation\u201d) that gave Glass one of the highlights of his career: the opportunity to return, not just visit, for four episodes as the charmingly daffy Mayor Frank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Dr-Rick-commercials.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Dr-Rick-commercials.jpg 500w, https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Dr-Rick-commercials-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>His work has also included more emotionally complex material. In a recent role in episode nine of the first season of \u201cSt. Denis Medical,\u201d Glass and his character\u2019s sister argue ruthlessly at their father\u2019s deathbed\u2014an experience that carried an uncanny personal resonance. He shares that the shoot came at the one-year anniversary of his own father\u2019s death. He hadn\u2019t told the production. He simply went to work and let the moment be real: When the doctor finally announces that the old man\u2019s death is imminent, the squabbling siblings fall to their knees at Dad\u2019s bedside, hand in hand, and Glass turns to the doctor with an innocent, frightened gaze, awaiting the pronouncement\u2014a fleeting second of silence that rings pure and powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story lands not as a dramatic reveal, but as another piece of who Glass is: an actor who thinks about tone, truth and the people around him. He repeatedly returns to a theme that feels almost quaint in a fame-obsessed culture: how much \u201cnice\u201d matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his telling, sets like \u201cRutherford Falls\u201d and \u201cSt. Denis Medical\u201d are joyful not only because the writing is sharp, but because the people are decent. Talented and kind. A rare combination that makes you want to come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The dream, he says, is still a sitcom: a regular place to go each week to build the comedy puzzle with a group of smart, funny colleagues. He\u2019s also candid about the shifting dynamics of the industry\u2014how social media, followers and visibility now shape opportunities in ways that didn\u2019t exist when he started. He\u2019s not bitter; he\u2019s realistic. The goal posts have moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, he keeps showing up. Keeps working. Keeps getting better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Dr. Rick teaches people to stop acting like their parents, Bill Glass embodies another kind of lesson: Keep your center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In recent years, the Midwest has pulled him back. As part of Big Slick, the Kansas City charity event benefiting Children\u2019s Mercy, he reconnected with the region and its web of KU- and Kansas City-tied entertainers. Glass describes it as \u201clife-changing\u201d\u2014the kind of experience that reminds you how communities can rally for something bigger than themselves. He found that the hosts\u2014 Rob Riggle, c\u201992, Paul Rudd, \u201992, Heidi Gardner, \u201906, Jason Sudeikis, Eric Stonestreet, David Koechner and others\u2014were exactly what you\u2019d hope: funny, caring, present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glass has a phrase for what he felt returning to the region after years in Los Angeles: Kansas City, he says, is a \u201cWe city,\u201d not a \u201cMe city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a line that echoes his whole career\u2014ensemble-driven, partner-forward, quietly grateful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glass has returned to KU, too, taking in the new David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and savoring the kind of experience only Lawrence can provide. He\u2019s thrown out the first pitch at a Royals game. He calls himself a Royals fan and says he pulls for the Chiefs while acknowledging that his Cubs and Bears are blood inheritance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if you ask him what he tends to root for most, he answers true to form: \u201cI\u2019ve always pulled for the nice guys,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That might be why Dr. Rick works as more than a bit. Underneath the mustache and the perfectly timed, painfully accurate jokes about adulthood, the character is rooted in a sincere belief that people can improve\u2014not through humiliation, but through guidance, patience and a gentle dash of truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Chris Lazzarino, j\u201986, is associate editor of Crimson &amp; Blue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-photo-by-david-lowe-images\">Photo by David Lowe Images<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The actor and KU alumnus portrays the patient, endearing life coach in the popular Progressive insurance commercials, a character modeled on professors from his days on Mount Oread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[91,53],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-jayhawks","tag-pop-culture","tag-school-of-journalism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>As TV\u2019s Dr. Rick, Bill Glass charms with thoughtful comedy - Crimson &amp; 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