Petty's first appearance in film took place in 1978, when he had a cameo in "FM". He later had a small part in 1987's "Made in Heaven" and appeared in several episodes of "It's Garry Shandling's Show" between 1987 and 1990, playing himself as one of Garry Shandling's neighbors. Petty was also featured in Shandling's other show, "The Larry Sanders Show", as one of the Story within a story final guests. In the episode, Petty gets bumped from the show and nearly comes to blows with Greg Kinnear.