My First TV Crushes

There was very little sexuality on TV during the time I was growing up and most of the homes I lived in were very religious. Perhaps that is why Pinky Tuscadero always sticks in my mind. I was a bit too young to get any sexual nuances on "Happy Days" but when Pinky rode into the show... well it was clear that Fonzie was up to more then tuning his bike. I didn't just love her... I wanted to be her! Smoldering sexuality and a pink motor bike!

In grade school my first 'girl friend' wanted to be Fonzie when she grew up and I wanted to be Pinky. It was a match made in heaven and I had my first kiss on a snowy playground. Then she sweetly taught me how to make a fist, how to punch and where to kick boys so they would leave me alone.

I might have had a crush on Lee Majors from "The Six Million Dollar Man" but I got the action figure as a Christmas present and when I undressed him, he had 'bionic underwear'... which as a bit confusing. Not quite as confusing as the Ken doll but still rather aggravating.

One of my cousins did have a crush on him and instantly fell in love with my doll. It disappeared shortly after Christmas, leaving behind only a few 'bionic bits' and a growing confusion.

So... I started watching "The Bionic Woman" because she chased after UFO's and bigfoot... and that was far more interesting to me.

I had always loved "The Hardy Boys". Oh, and Parker Stevenson with his blue eyes... *sigh* yes my first boy crush.

I think I remember this most because of how upset I was not allowed to buy a Hardy Boys lunch box but who wanted it anyways with that horrible Shaun Cassidy plastered to the side. Yep... every teen magazine screamed about Shaun Cassidy but hardly a whisper about my Parker. Ah... just to have a lunch box with only his face would have been a dream. I'm pretty sure I vowed that girls were stupid and so was anyone else who liked Shaun Cassidy.

Ah, Erin Gray as Col. Wilma Deering, smart sexy and she had a gun. Why she never shot Buck Rogers was a mystery to me. He was the constant source of every problem and seem to just run around getting into trouble. I think I seriously watch the show praying to see Buck die.

I can't say that I had a crush on Wonder Woman so much as I found the show to be bearable to watch.



She did have a better partner with Steve Trevor. Not the one from the 70's but the Nazi fighting Steve Trevor. Gah... that show got confusing.

Yes, I only watched the show on re-runs. I am seriously not quite that old.

Marlo Thomas as "That Girl" was my all time favorite show for quite some time. She was quirky and a little spacy but she had great style and a boyfriend who she was *clearly* not sleeping with. A peck on the cheek and that was about all there was to the relationship. They didn't even live in the same apartment. That was about as far as I was willing to go with my own sexuality so... she was ideal.

Oh, if I had only read the "Breakfast at Tiffany's", I might have understood why Donald was my ideal boyfriend. I was young and didn't care... I just wanted to be... "That Girl"!

The 80's are a bit of a blur but I think that goes for everyone who lived through them.

Ah but Bruce Willis in "Moonlighting" was a different story. Sure, there was "The Dukes of Hazard" but really if I wanted 'good-old-boys have'n trouble with the law' I could just look at my family tree. So... my semi-bad-boy was Bruce Willis in "Moonlighting". At least he could solve a case and put on a tie. It didn't hurt that Cybill Shepherd had enough sassy lines to make Betty Davis envious.

Ah, the start of my teen years. The only shows I made sure I never missed where "The Twilight Zone" and "Movie Macabre" with your host Elvira. Oh... I adored her and watched every single horrible horror movie that she hosted. I even skipped a church function just to stay home with Elvira. I already had a love of horror and had read everything by Edgar Allan Poe and tried to read every anthology that Alfred Hitchcock wrote or edited.

So, Elvira was my island of relief. An icon that was adored by other boys but also by adolescent goths and fans of the macabre. So, I could be 'normal' while still being a bit peculiar.

OK, so perhaps my most embarrassing TV Crush would have to be "Lion-O" from the Thundercats. OK, perhaps not that embarrassing if you consider the other male characters on animated tv shows.

I also had a crush on the comic book characters "The Wolverine" and "The Sandman". So... it is only fitting that there would be *one* animated character that stirred a realization that I wasn't quite heterosexual.

Ah... but my first true manly crush had to be on Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor Who. He was also my first exposure to the Doctor Who series so, still remains my favorite.

After that I was out and out of the house. As an 'official adult' keeping an apartment, a job and trying to attend school kept me pretty busy and not much time for tv.