I got two DVDs recently: Flash Gordon (the groovy Dino DeLarentis 1980s version) and ARK II, the Filmation Saturday morning TV show. I realize that, again in hindsight, I was physically attracted to manly, hairy guys in these shows :
Terry Lester, who went on to many memorable episodes of The $10,000 Pyramid, As the World Turns, and of course, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park
ARK II always had co-stars I loved.
And of course, Filmation had to get a whole crappy cartoon ready when live production money ran out. Note how much more beefier Commander Jonas becomes when put down on paper (and less Visible Panty Lines too)…
I remember being 100% obsessed with the tunic and tights combos the main characters always wore. Plus I wanted to drive that ARK.
Then we move on to Flash Gordon. At the time this movie came out, I was hanging around Rick G, a minor grunt on the school’s football team, but blond and on the team, just like Flash (played bt Sam J Jones). Sam had chest hair back when it was cool to have chest hair whereas I think Rick shaved, but that didn’t stop me from building FlashRickyGordon fantasies when things were low and slow. Here’s Sam in leather shorts. He stands 6’4″ and once posed naked for Playgirl (yes I tried googling):
But while watching I was startled to remember the leader of the Hawkmen, Brian Blessed, when he came on screen. Brian is (according to IMDB) good friends of Patrick Stewart, borne into a mining family in England and good at boxing, Brian was always a stout character with a booming voice:
I totally forgot how fixated I was on his legs the entire movie (and the leather jock wearing guys in the background). Gratuitous BBlessed pic no. 2:
And, last but not least, I was turned on by Topol, who played Dr Hans Zarkoff. I always go for guys with brains (and a tuft of hair coming out of their collar). Stupid name, great beard:
Anyhoo. Just a look into the psyche of my desires. Feel free to mock.
14 thoughts on “Again With the Formative”
ARK II Had a chimp, too.
Well it was only when bored and had nobody else to fixate on, but it was a “thing” for a while. He was too um, vanilla, to really be a fixation. Oddly, I could never figure out why we were hanging out with him…. he didn’t seem like your type either, frankly. He didn’t have a sense of humour, if I recall.
And god no to the “Hal Pierce” type. What I liked was the “David Bowie” glam rock type… smart, androgynous. Rick didn’t fit that, but who doesn’t like a bit of blonde beefcake now and again?
And whatever happened to Hal, anyway?
I am officially freaked out! You had a “thing” for Rick too?!? I honestly did not know! I thought you liked the Hal Pierce types.
So freaked!
What does it say about me that I also had a thing for Rick G and Topol? I knew there was a reason (aside from listening to Thomas Dolby over and over again in your living room) that we hung out together….
The guy with the golden arm in the pic with Terry was arrested for outdoor sex in London. That must have been a gay o’ set!
TIDBITS of correction…IMDB’d Terry Lester…turns out…he was actually on ATWT for a few episodes in 93-94 that I somehow missed and Santa Barbara before it got cancelled…the other tidbits…apparently his was GAY! HE was one of us!! and some not so nice websites mention that he died from a viagra/poppers double heart attack in 2003 getting boned! WOW…the things you find out these days….
Funny, I don’t remember ARK II, and I’m a bit of a pop culture whore. I’ve always had a soft spot (well hard actually) for blond fuzz. I don’t know how I missed it.
I almost rescued Flash Gordon from the Walmart Bargain Bin the other day. But then I realized it would end up sitting along side Barbarella, Queen of Outer Space and other neglected DVD’s. Q refuses to watch them and seldom get the 2 hours alone, or if I do, I don’t feel like watching a movie just then.
Remember Flesh Gordon?
“Oh good! There’s oxygen on this planet!”
Ah yes… Gil Gerrard.
Patton Oswald does a great bit about Gil getting a watch lost up his as during a fisting accident at sea…
LOL..Terry Lester was Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless…no As the World Turns…sans facial hair of course, but he was often sans shirt and he is a furry blond. Other stud muffins fromt he 70’s that turned my preteen crank….Mark Goddard from Lost in Space, Lee Majors (Big Valley and 6 million dollar man), Gil Gerard(Buck Rogers) and for some still unknown reasons…the guy that played Danno on Hawaii 5-0. and oh well…the leather guy and contruction worker from the Village People
Oh, Sam Elliott… yum.
I’ll see your Flash Gordon, and raise you one Bobby Ewing getting out of the Southfork pool…
Uh-oh.
I’m guessing my prepubescent predilection with David Cassidy would be totally mocked within this particular forum?
In my defence, once I’d begun to comprehend the whole “homo” thing, I quickly included Bill Bixby (Courtship of Eddie’s Father version) and Michael Landon (“Little” Joe my ass!) in my secret circle.
But my real claim to fame?
That “bit-part” actor that I secretly drooled over in episodes of “The Mod Squad”, “Streets of San Fransisco” and “Police Woman” – and immediately recognized a decade later as Cher’s boyfriend in “Mask”. Yes my friend, I recognized Sam Elliott’s considerable talent long before Hollywood did.
Split
Add Dan Haggerty from grizzly Adams and you have the sum total of “guys I fantasized about while going through puberty”. I loved Brian Blessed in FG…sexy.
Horrific movie but full of homoerotic costumes… that flying bear leader sure has legs
Nice to see that Robby the Robot got a job after Forbidden Planet. I think he may have had some surgery (as Hollywood types do) as his left antenna is sticking out and not in the upright position as it was in FP.
Either that or he went flacid.
http://www.jeffbots.com/forbidden6.html