Forgotten teen idols

A few more...

DeFranco family with Dick Clark

Glynis O’Connor.

What was the kid’s name who was on Flipper? Luke something.

Halpern?

Lance Kerwin omg.

It’s funny that media promotion can take a literal nobody and make him into an idol, just by saying “he’s an idol.”

Yes - Halpern, Right. He was probably my first TV crush as a kid but I was so unaware I‘m not even sure i admitted that to myself. I also liked Vince Van Patten (Apple’s Way) - especially on the 2nd season after he’d aged a bit into a typical teen heart throb of around 16 or whatever,

Hudson Brothers also on that cover. “Should you act older for them?’ The dilemma of young girls crushing on grown men! Haha.

R6 That is something I have always thought about. When I was in school I remember thinking, “If I was on TV all these girls [in the school] would suddenly have crushes on me and I would be popular.” It made no real sense and yet I knew it was true. I wished I lived in California so I could get on TV and become one of these average kids who suddenly is seen as a god because he’s on a show.

(^OP)

My teen idols were right on and far out. Todays are like super elastic bubble plastic.

Shaun who?

^My dad walking thru the living room while I was watching the Hardy Boy:

"That kid's eyes are too close together. Can't trust em."

R3 I remember Glynnis O’Connor in Ode To Billie Jo and Our Town.

Tommy Page. RIP.

1970s teen idols were dorks who happened to be on TV.

It wasn't until the 80s that they started actually getting cute (think the casts of The Outsiders and Weird Science). Even then, some real honkers were being promoted. New Kids on the Block was made up of five of the ugliest goblins I have ever seen.

Am I the only one who wants to know what Lance Kerwin's mom said about him? What a weird thing, to interview the mom.

I remember the early ‘70s cover that asked if Rick Springfield was “too tall to love.”

Lol R17. Is he even tall?

Ha, I just remembered my friend's little sister had some Teen Bop or some magazine in the 80's with unattractive, ginger, Scott Grimes as part of a contest. You could win a phone call from him. The story about it was something like, "the phone rings, and your brother tells you it's Scott. But you don't know anyone named Scott...except..Scott Grimes!" Yeah, that's where my mind would go. I wouldn't assume my dick brother was messing with me or that there was maybe a kid named Scott I didn't know. That was such a ridiculous contest, I'll never forget.

Rick Springfield’s listed height is 6’1”, R18, which might seem “too tall” for the magazine’s prepubescent female audience.

It was Luke Halpin on " Flipper."

used to sneak my sisters "Tiger Beat" mags- loved my Bobby Sherman. The Osmonds, um, not so much

I was surprised at how many photos there were of animals. Not just dogs and cats but also horses, monkeys and even pigs. But I guess that was their audience.

I like the Brophy kid. I would have eaten that ass until I got to his small intestines.

Leif Garrett

Robby Benson was my favorite ❤️

The guy on the right corner of that magazine was never cute to me. He played Jo's (tee hee) boyfriend on the facts of life.

Bobby Sherman

Bobby Sherman - whore.

[quote]Fifteen-year-old Jill Haworth (later the original stage Sally Bowles in Cabaret) was his romantic interest in Exodus. They began an intense affair. Late in 1962, she introduced Mineo to 19-year-old pop singer Bobby Sherman. Two years later, she found them in bed. Mineo would claim that before Sherman, he didn't know what two men did together sexually, and asked his gay hairdresser for details. The hairdresser showed him. Devastated, Haworth ended their relationship, although eventually they became friends. Mineo insisted he was bisexual. Most of his relationships, however, were with younger males.

Robby Benson was my first crush before I knew what a crush was. I also had it bad for Clark Brandon when he played Jo’s boyfriend Eddie on The Facts of Life.

Eddie, Clark Brandon, was a dumbass on the Facts of Life

Phillip McKeon

I never watched the TV show Life Goes On but in the early 90s there were stacks of this kid’s CD in our local dollar store and I was very taken by this cover photo. The mullet is unfortunate but I would have kissed that ass ALL over!

My name is Julie (no - not your friend, Julie) …..I was about 7 when Bobby Sherman’s song came out. My dad was a DJ at the time and brought a promo 45 home ( I think Easy Come, Easy Go was on the other side) . My dad told me that Booby Sherman wrote it for me (of course he didn’t) but I believed him. For years I must have been an idiot telling people that I was Bobby Sherman’s Julie!

Bobby not Booby!!^

Booby Sherman

Ryan Goaling

R35, maybe Booby Sherman really did write it for you, knowing full well that Bobby Sherman would sing it and eclipse his love for you.

Bobby Baby, Bobby Booby, Bobby Sherman

Michael Gray who played the boyfriend Marcia Brady doused with whipped cream when she worked at the ice cream parlor with Jan.

Sidenote: In that episode Jan was finally better than Marcia at something since the old guy hired her instead of Marcia.

Toss me a ping pong ball. I'll show you what else I'm better than Marcia at.

I met Bobby Sherman at a paramedic/EMS convention back in the early 90s. He was very sweet and very short.

[quote] I met Bobby Sherman at a paramedic/EMS convention back in the early 90s. He was very sweet and very short.

Not too tall to love.

Bobby Sherman was adorable in Here Come The Brides - that is one of the BEST theme songs from my childhood.

I never knew Bobby Sherman liked guys. Here Come The Brides was a very popular show when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I remember some girls going around the lunchroom with a petition to keep it on the air. I don’t remember being attracted to Sherman or David Soul, though.

R15 I’m sorry, David Cassidy was not a dork.

Chad Allen and Jay R. Ferguson. Both are still delicious.

Chad Allen? Really? Delicious?

Enjoy, R33.

Parker Stevenson.

I used to look at my cousin’s teen magazines..I liked Jimmy McNichol.

Where are Davy Jones and Desi Arnaz, Jr.?

I loved Bobby Sherman and tortured my mom to buy cereal with his 45 single "Easy Come, Easy Go" on the back of the box.

My Dad was disgusted by my suede choker that I bought from an ad in Tiger Beat.

r16 What are you talking about?

R53 On the cover in the OP pic, "Lance; his mom talks honestly about him" above a pic of Lance Kerwin.

I loved Jimmy McNichol too. Especially his cute ass.

Thanks r54 did not see that!

All of them.

Ozy, you are just envious that you have disappeared into dust, while we still have photos of the teen idols.

[quote]Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

[quote]Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

[quote]The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Chad Lowe

Is Chad Lowe forgotten? I guess he is, mostly.

It’s weird how some of these teen idols are very well known to me and others from the *exact* same time frame are totally unknown - because I didn’t see their shows.

C.D. Barnes, aka Greg Brady from The Brady movies, was a teen heartthrob before those movies, starring in a couple of failed sitcoms which were supposed to catapult him (and Doug Sheehan and Linda Kelsey) to stardom...

Does anyone remember Elmer DiCaprio?

R61 - I remember that show! But I remember it because of Doug Sheehan - when I was a teen he was Joe Kelly on GH . Next he married Valene on Knots Landing . he was Ben. Didn’t his character disappear? Where is Doug Sheehan?

[quote]I don’t remember being attracted to Sherman or David Soul, though.

I wasn't either, r44. I was totally Team Robert Brown.

Bobby Sherman and Jan Michael Vincent sucked their way to "careers"

Yikes, r48. He has some crazy eyes in that video. If he had cut the damn mullet he could have been a hotter version of James Van Der Beek. He aged really well

R33, I recall they were pushing him hard at the beginning of Life Goes On to be the teen heartthrob but the hype didn't result in ratings or stardom and he was killed off the show (I think that's how he was written out) half-way through and the aformentioned Chad Lowe became Becca's love interest instead.

This website has a pretty exhaustive list of 70’s teen idols.

Lance in OP pic looks a hell of a lot like the missing Johnny Gosch.

What about young Kurt Russell, when he was doing Disney movies? Also, the oldest son on the show "My Three Sons" - he was cute but I don't know if he and Kurt got the teen heartthrob treatment.

I was into older guys - had a huge crush on Paul Michael Glaser from "Starsky and Hutch".

Anybody remember Sajid Kahn? My sister used to have his pictures up on her bedroom wall.

[quote]Is Chad Lowe forgotten?

Yes.

R71 I remember seeing Maya (also with Jay “Dennis The Menace” North). It was a favorite show of mine then, when I was 8 o 9. I remember that kid but just barely.

Michael Damian

When I was a kid, my cousin who was raised in England (until about age 11 or 12), came back to America with a lot of English albums he gave me and I remember thinking Adam Faith was handsome.

r74, Michael Damian is on Y&R lately.

R75, Chrissie Evert ruined her first marriage because of her affair with Adam Faith, who was a friend of John Lloyd her husband. Then she ruined her second marriage because of her affair with Greg Norman, who was a friend of Andy Mill her husband.

Lance Kerwin died this year. RIP.

Tommy Sands. He was a talented cutie but after he married and divorced Nancy Sinatra, his career ended.

Rex Smith in that movie “Sooner or Later” where he thinks the young girl he is dating is older than she really is. . Isn’t that the movie where he sang “You -ah, You Take my breath away-ah - and I don’t know what to say-uh …”

Maxwell Caulfield

Fred Berry - Rerun

Huge crush on him.

R70, Kurt Russell in ‘Follow Me, Boys!” (1966)

Greg Bradford

Gee, R82, I sure don't remember seeing Fred Berry in 16 or Tiger Beat. Not sure the pin-up centerfold would contain him.

Jackie Earle Haely

I didn’t know who Bobby Sherman was at the time and still don’t, or at least couldn’t understand what he was so famous for. I just I knew he was huge in the fan magazines,

David Cassidy. (I was at this Astrodome concert.)

Jonathan Brandis. RIP.

Davy Jones was it for me. Still is. Always will be.

I wanna hold your hand

Walk along the sand

Laughing in the sun

Always having fun

Doing all those things

Without any strings to tie me down

I wanna be free

I want to be forgotten!

We can't forget you, JTT, you little gayling!

Mr. Belvedere’s Rob Stone

JTT's pits and nipples.

I’ll never understand the appeal of armpits.

Sex offender Scott Bairstow

I thought I was the only one who noticed him, r93. I watched Me. Belvedere primarily to stare at him in jeans which he filled out nicely, front and back

R97, he’s 61 now and remains handsome.

Jimmy Osmond

🤮

[quote]Leif Garrett

I never thought he was very attractive, and the Farrah Fawcett hairdo didn't help.

This is a poor video, but it gives you an idea of how debilitating Jimmy Osmond’s stroke was. I couldn’t find anything else. I’m glad he put his health first.

Leif Garrett, 2017.

Bobby Sherman always seemed like a fully-grown man, rather than a teen idol. Does anyone remember an actor / singer named "John Davidson"? Bland good looks (like a weatherman), bland name. Sort of looked like Bobby Sherman.

R98 That's not me, I'm Marilyn Manson!

remember when everyone was saying that? Rob Stone was hot and Wesley was my favorite sitcom kid, besides Dee from "What's Happenin?" They were little assholes who blackmailed their siblings, like my siblings and I used to do, we weren't twee, smarmy kids like the cutesy ones on other sitcoms.

John Davidson r102:

R103, I friggin loved Wesley from Mr. Belvedere, to my mind easily the best tv sitcom kid (though, I did love me some Dee, poor Danielle Spencer really could not act sometimes). I always thought that Brice Beckham might have had a career as an adult actor, but that didn't pan out.

Flipper star's name was Luke Halpin, not Halpern.

John Davidson was one of the hosts of the ABC early '80's sort of reality series, That's Incredible!. He was never a teen idol. Always considered square.

[quote] Flipper star's name was Luke Halpin, not Halpern.

Gosh, thanks. We'd never have known.

The Cowsills-the inspiration for the Partridge Family.

R102 A teen idol is the idol of teens. Frank Sinatra, Van Johnson - teen idols in the 1940s - were grown men in their 30s.

Most mainstream entertainment up until the 80s was never really geared towards teens. A lot of teen idols played supporting roles on adult shows, or shows aimed at a broad demographic - or family shows.

Davy Jones was my first, when I was six years old. Bobby Sherman followed, before I was ten.

I would buy "16 magazine" with my allowance, looking for the bare chests of the men inside.

In my teen years, I wondered how much pubic hair Andy Gibb and John Travolta had, hoping for a lot of it.

I would go crazy for the shirtless shots in the teen mags and first started buying them when I was 9. I didn't know that I was sexually attracted to them at that point, I just liked looking at them. It took another three years before I figured out that hairy chests equaled boners.

Didn’t anyone look askance at you guys when you bought or were discovered having copies of Tiger Beat and J-16??

I was a kid. I put it in my parents' grocery cart. They didn't question it, R113.

Rex Smith was and is a sexy man.

R114 Really? My parents would have expected me to ask them to buy anything I wanted. Even a candy bar.

Peter Noone

Peter Herman Moon, as Ed Sullivan called him, is on tour right now. We went to see him a few years ago. Fun show.

R118 That’s the first non-cartoon movie I ever remember seeing - Saturday matinee at the home town theater. I was sevn

*seven

Don’t you know who I am? I’m a forgotten teen idol from the Seventies!

[quote] Didn’t anyone look askance at you guys when you bought or were discovered having copies of Tiger Beat

I probably read them between the ages of 9-12, which was the late '70s to very early '80s. I'm not sure anyone thought it odd. If they did, I didn't, so I don't know that I would have noticed strange looks. I used to buy them at the local convenience store or drug store, and sometimes if I was with my mom at the grocery store.

We were a big magazine family back then, and I grew up being a voracious magazine reader. So maybe this was just seen as one more publication. We had People, Us, Rona Barrett, Nat'l Enquirer, Star, etc.

And then I hit 13 and was all about Rolling Stone, Creem, Circus, then Premiere.

I remember that Rona Barrett had two or three different gossip magazines. I read them all. And then, years later, wondered how my mother figured out I was gay when I was still quite young.

My sisters read Tiger Beat

The only time I ever shoplifted something in my life was when I bought a particular Teenbeat magazine that had several cute young actors shirtless in it. I was in my teens and too embarrassed to buy it. I hid the magazine in a newspaper that I did pay for.

Like r125, the only time I ever shoplifted anything was when I tore a page out of some teen mag that featured a collage of Marky Mark dancing around in his underwear. I know this was one of the pics.

his tread deserves more love

[quote]his tread deserves more love

Is his tread all-weather radials?

This thread deserves less sarcasm.

Glynnis O’Connor was the best Emily in “Our Town.”

Glynnis O'Connor 's love interest in "Our Town" was her " Ode to Billy Joe" co-star Robbie Benson.

The View tried to book Jonathan Taylor Thomas as a guest for Alyssa Farrah Griffin's birthday last year, but said he's essentially gone off the grid.

I don't know either of these actors(?).

R132, that’s not really surprising.

[quote]—Culturally ignorant and proud of it, part 2

Which makes you just another deplorable. Congratulations.

What, because I don't know a couple of celebs? Bet you don't know who Erica Enders is, and she is at the top of her profession.

I'll never forget Fabian, as long as I live.

Ugh, I wish he'd have put a towel down on that seat, R137.

Most of these dudes are fucking hideous.

And those Cowsilll creatures...bleaurgh...

omg Robbie Benson and Tony DeFranco had horrible hair

R116 your parents were both assholes

R139, please post a picture of what you consider to be a cute teen idol.

I dare say few would disagree with my first choice.

Or my second.

Forgotten teen idols? They’re forgotten for a reason…… they’re ugly!

Or my third (despite him being a wreck now).

None of your linked images appear dumbass

Click on them, cuntsniff.

Hell, even this quartet of immature dipshits is objectively better-looking than the parade of fuggos pre-1985,

No thx I’m not interested in looking at corpses

Robert Rusler—second from left at r149–was hot. He still is.

R151, the dude standing next to him in your pic wasn't half bad either.

I think people had higher standards in the 80s, despite the fucked-up hair.

R115=Rex Smith. That man had an ego the size of Rerun's ass

R141 Yours must have been really something to have produced someone like you.

Greg Evigan was my dream date.

R154 oh trust me they’re extraordinary just like me.

R151, IIRC, they were something of an item back then.

It would be so sweet to be the filling of a Robert Downey Jr./Robert Russler sandwich.

R143, while your choices are certainly handsome, none of them can be considered forgotten.

R157, they look to be in that photo

Fabian may have been a teen idol at one time, but he was a fine looking man when he straddled that motorcycle. F_I_N_E.

R159, true. But 142 asked me for pictures of what I thought cute teen idols were. Not the forgotten ones, although I dare say there were a few.

R158 I thought you were going to say the filling in Robert Downey, Jr's tooth.

R159 Oh, what the hell, at this point. Just post whatever you want about whatever teen idols you want.

Horus.

I forgot that Bobby Rydell died last year just 3 weeks before his 80th birthday. Does that count, R164?