Fun Friday–Heartthrobs
I was just over on the boards at ACFW writing a post about how, way back when, I was in L-O-V-E with Shaun Cassidy, of Hardy Boys TV fame. So I thought, what a fun topic for Fun Friday: my childhood heartthrobs.
1977—I was six years old, and there were three men in my life . . .
Shaun Cassidy, Luke Skywalker, and The Fonz
1983—I was twelve years old. Return of the Jedi came out and Luke Skywalker had been replaced by . . .
Wedge Antilles (see, this is the beginning of my long love-affair with secondary characters)
1985—Two men on TV overtook dear Wedge as my heartthrobs . . .
MacGyver and Templeton Peck (from the A-Team)
1988—The summer between my junior and senior years of high school and two very disparate crushes. I worked as a “nanny” for the summer, and the family I worked for had cable TV (we didn’t). At that time, Nickelodeon was rerunning a show from the 1960s that the girl I watched got me hooked on. We also went to see a movie every week on Fridays, and in one of the movies, I absolutely fell in love with a character, as portrayed by a certain actor . . .
The Monkees (especially Peter Tork) and Dick Brewer (as portrayed by Charlie Sheen)
1989—the year I graduated from high school, and the last celebrity crushes I’ll admit to (here anyway).
Andrew McCarthy and Lou Diamond Phillips—not necessarily because of anything they were in that particular year (LDP was in a movie called Dakota from the previous year that I had on video, and, of course, Andrew McC in the mid-80s teen-angst films with Molly Ringwald)
Who were your heartthrobs growing up?
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KayeDacus.com 
Question: When exactly does one stop growing up? 😛 I’m having a hard time limiting my list…LOL!
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Haha! This is only a very limited, representative list. Believe me there were tons more, these are just the few that really stand out (and who are easiest to find images of online). But there’s a reason why I stopped with the year I turned 18—half my life ago. In the 18 years since, there have been so many that I would go over my 50MB storage limit if I tried to put up images of all of them!
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Oh, and can I just add . . . they mentioned on NPR this morning (which I always have on so that I can listen to the news while hitting the snooze button on the alarm several times) that this weekend marks the THIRTIETH anniversary of the first mega-blockbuster summer movie: STAR WARS. It’s just not right that the first movie I vividly remember seeing came out thirty years ago!
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Oh, wow, when I was in third grade, Kipra Appleby (my nemesis) got a blue satin jacket with Shaun Cassidy’s picture on the back (Da Doo Run Run!). I was so stinkin’ jealous!
My major crushes were more in books than on TV or movies, (Alec Ramsey in the Black Stallion Books and Don Revere in the Arabian Cow Horse books…sensing a theme here?) But I did love Peter Breck as Nick Barkley in The Big Valley (still do! I first saw this show in reruns in the early 80’s when I too was a nanny for the summer) and Richard Dean Anderson (a Minnesota boy!)
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Haha! Okay…this comment will be an exercise in restraint…limiting my list (I hope you appreciate the difficulty, LOL!). 😉 (Side note: Erica, I absolutely adored Alec Ramsey! Never heard of the Arabian Cow Horse books, though…how could I miss THAT?!)
Select list of early TV / film crushes:
Errol Flynn
Gene Kelly
Frank Sinatra
Fred Astaire (I watched a TON of musicals growing up…not much has changed, LOL!)
Dwight Schultz as Murdock from the A-Team
Harrison Ford as Han Solo (I’ve always been a Han Solo girl!)
Guy Williams (from the old Disney “Zorro” TV series)
Tyrone Power (this started with his portrayal of Zorro in “The Mark of Zorro”…I really had a Zorro obsession growing up…still do, as a matter of fact!)
Duncan Regehr
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Ah! Hit submit before I added that Duncan Regehr was a fabulous Zorro in the TV series that ran from like ’90-’94 or something like that. It was HILARIOUS. I think I really like the BBC “Robin Hood” because the spirit of the show reminds me of that Zorro production…zany fun, you know? 🙂
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Oh—totally forgot to mention Christopher Plummer from The Sound of Music, too. Mid ’80s when they showed it on TV every Easter, before we got it on video–I have the 40th Anniversary DVD set now, and the DVD of the TV production Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews did of On Golden Pond . . . one of my favorite on-screen couples EVER! Hmmm . . . I’m sensing a topic for next Friday’s post.
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Ha! You’ll get nothing out of me! I’m keeping my secrets all the way to the grave! 😀
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Oh! I forgot Christopher Plummer…and Richard Burton, love him too!
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I’m with Sally. My lip is zipped. LOL, The Fonz! I’d forgotten all about him!
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Magnum!! And Magnum and Spiderman and Magnum and Magnum. 😀 And still Magnum. I watch the Jesse Stone movies on CBS just because it’s Magnum. (and they’re actually pretty good too)
And now in my “adult” years Tobey Maguire is a big hearth-throb and Heath Ledger. I watch things just because Tobey’s in them, like Pleasantville. Seen it twice! When he did Spiderman and then Seabiscuit, I was/still am in sheer heaven! Tobey and my two favorite things: Horse racing and Spiderman.
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I like Tom Selleck okay, however my uncle (Dad’s baby brother) shares a lot of his features, just better looking. So that’s all I can think of when I see Tom Selleck–someone who looks like my uncle (so pardon me if I don’t “go there”).
Where you lose me, Rachel, is with Tobey Maguire. Maybe it’s an age thing (i.e., I’m too old), but he’s SO immature looking and sounding! Is is voice ever going to change?
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I’ve always known I’m weird, but this is going to cement that assessment. My biggest school age celebrity heart throb was Spock. That angled jaw and the pointed ears just did it for me.
This is a fun topic-bringing back lots of memories from my childhood.
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Quite the interesting blog you’ve got going on here. It might have been Star Wars’ 30th Anniversary, but for the love of film classics don’t rob Jaws of the original “mega-blockbuster” title that it deserves. Sure, Star Wars crushed all of the records that Jaws set, but Jaws practically started the summer blockbuster trend. And it’s not that I don’t love Star Wars (check out my new Top Ten when you get up tomorrow, I’m working on it now), I just can’t let Jaws be forgotten.
If you’re into documentaries (I see you’re obviously a fan of Moore, though I think Farenheit 911 was more an entertaining 2 hour montage than a real documentary), but you DEFINITELY check out Moore’s latest film, Sicko. It’s technically not out yet, but I snagged a pre-release, and I must say it’s brilliant. Be sure to check it out if you get a chance. It’s about the state of the health system and America and considering both myself and my family have been blessed with generally good health, I found it mind-blowing.
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Just realized I responded to the wrong blog, but I still stand by my Jaws argument.
Now that I’ve actually read this, and keeping it pre-graduation (and mostly pre-high school even)…
Kelly from Saved by the Bell
Kimberly the Pink Power Ranger
Princess Leia (amazing how generational Star Wars is, isn’t it?)
April O’Neil from TMNT2
And… Rachel and Monica from Friends
I guess that’s a random enough list. Of course, I’m sure I was less obsessive about it than most girls tend to be. Those are more or less just chicks that inhabited my favorite shows/movies that I found attractive. I didn’t write their names in notebooks or anything. I’d never allow my masculinity to take such a blow.
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