I had a crush on Courtney Cox on Misfits of Science.
Yeah, I remember DiCaprio on Growing Pains, but I also remember Matthew Perry on Growing Pains as Sandy, Carol Seaver’s boyfriend who, IIRC, dies as a result of a drunk driving accident (initially he’s just in the hospital and seems fine, but when Carol gets home from visiting him, Kirk Cameron gives her the bad news that he died while she was on the way home).
ETA: I also remember Julia Roberts on an episode of Miami Vice because I thought she had really sexy eyebrows (they were all full and Brooke Shieldsy).
As already corrected, Ralph Macchio, but I remember that character vividly too. Particularly some episode where he wanted to impress a girl, so in the middle of the night he showed up outside her window and did a crappy, troubled-kids version of a tap dance while singing “Heaven… I’m in heaven!” because he thought he could impress her by acting like Fred Astaire or something. His name was Jeremy.
By the time he made it big in Karate Kid, I recognized him as that tough kid, Jeremy, and some “after school special” things. For some reason, in my brain I associate him with Meeno Peluce and Jackie Earle Haley (from back when Roarshack was the tough, cigarette smoking kid on Bad News Bears). As far as I know, none of those guys ever appeared together, but I remember them sort of collectively as childhood “that guys”.
ETA: Huh. Whaddaya know. According to IMDB, Macchio was only in ONE episode of Eight Is Enough. I remember him so well, I thought he was more of a recurring character.
The video was a big deal at the time. Springsteen had been one of the last holdouts against doing videos for his songs and when he finally broke down and agreed to do one it got a lot of publicity. Cox was an unknown. The video got her noticed.
Ah, I see. Actually, I never saw Square Pegs, nor had I even heard of it until recently in another thread here.
But speaking of music videos (not Parker, but Springsteen), has anyone mentioned Angelina Jolie in that Meatloaf video? Playing a damned-hot-looking West Texas teenage runaway in his video for “Rock’N’Roll Dreams Come Through.” (She be another one who is not aging well.)
Not mine. I honestly thought: “Hey, that’s the guy in the Lenscrafter commercial” when I started seeing David Morse in more substantial roles. He really was good in that commercial. When he realized he could have the type of glasses he had only dreamed of before, his face did this sort of gradual lighting up.
Same with Angelina Jolie. I didn’t even realize who her father was until later, just thought: “Ooh, that’s that one hot Meatloaf girl.”
My Mother loved the old Alfred Hitchcock episodes. When I was about 12, I remember watching a repeat of one of the episodes that featured Bob Newhart and I exclaimed that was Dr. Hartley.
in the Hitchcock episode, I vividly remember Newhart digging a grave in his yard in a business suit. I asked my Mom if it was common for people to do manual work in suits back in the “olden days” (black/white TV).
Marilyn Chambers (RIP) was an Ivory Soap girl. 99.44% pure?
Now, this one IS one I thought of after the fact, but Howard Hesseman was also a hippie in the film Billy Jack (1971). (I think he was just a hippie, period.)
The soaps have launched many a career. The most suprising story to me:
Rachel Frame was born on the wrong side of the tracks, married an intern and when he couldn’t provide a rich life she seduced his sister’s rich fiance and had his son. Whenever she went to visit her mother, to get the kid out of the way they would send him next door to play with Joey Parini.
Head writer Harding LeMay decided to bring the Parinis into the show. There was the poor Italian Catholic widow Rose, her teenaged daughter Angela and the aforementioned 10 year old Joey, played by a young Ray Liotta.
When I heard his name as starring in a movie 15 years later, I damn near fainted.
I remember seeing Brad Pitt as a pothead in True Romance and thinking he’s going to be a big star someday…I don’t know why. James Gandolfini also starred as a really scary goon who beats up Patricia Arquette, a good launching point for his role as Tony Soprano years later.
I used to love the furniture commercials Shelly Long did (before Cheers). She was adorable (and not a blonde). I don’t remember the actual store name, but her last words were always, “Opposite Woodside and Yorktown shopping centers.” (Or vice versa).
I knew a guy who was a write on Growing Pains at that time and said even then Leonardo was a dick.
There’s high school slasher movie called “Cutting Class” that used to be on cable a lot in the very early 90s. I watched it several times. I don’t really know why. Years later it started popping up a lot again and I realized that the lead was Brad Pitt.