 In the original story, written by John Carl Buechler (qv), none of  the characters had last names except Jack Bergman. The screenwriters  expanded on that when naming the other characters because they were  fans of the comedy group The Firesign Theatre. So each member of the  group of bigfoot hunters has the same last name as one of the four  members of the Firesign Theatre: Bergman, Proctor, Ossman and  Austin.