BURGER BITS--Precocious Rodney Allen Rippy, who wrestled...

BURGER BITS--Precocious Rodney Allen Rippy, who wrestled with a Jumbo Jack in a popular 1972 Jack-in-the-Box commercial, is eager to make a comeback--but Jack-in-the-Box says his return is still on the back burner.

“We just did the test video,” said Rippy, now 16, during a visit here. “I’m supposed to be back on April 28 to do the actual commercial. It starts off, ‘Remember this commercial . . .?’ And they show an old photo of me.” But a Jack-in-the-Box spokesman said a decision is in limbo.

Rippy, whose family has lived with relatives in Greensboro, N.C., for the past five years, said the town is too quiet for him after life in the California fast lane: “There’s just crickets and birds (here), no cars.”