Ok, I can’t help but continue my tribute to those who aren’t a household name but are the center of my movie favorites. I think it is for that very reason I am such a fan of these people. I want to see what they are up to and I sometimes wonder if I would be the only weirdo that would recognize them in a grocery store and beg for an autograph on my box of Triscuits. So lets get going.
I like Darren Harris. We know Anthony Micheal Hall and of course John Cusack but what the hell happened to Darren? He symbolized the perfect geek in the movie Sixteen Candles, Better Off Dead and Weird Science. All three movies rank high on my 80’s must see. Darren was the best geek actor ever. Seriously the best because I am positive I was friends with this kid in high school. Everyone like me had an asthmatic buddy who knew how to build a computer, play the trumpet, had peanut butter sandwiches stuck in his braces and dreamed of one day becoming a Navy SEAL. I don’t know why but it is tough to find out about Darren other than his work as Cliff “Wheeze” in Sixteen Candles and he is from Canada.
Darren, if you read this please let us know what you are up to. I hope you are still alive man.
Thomas F. Wilson is Biff/Griff Tannen. Sorry Tommy but that is who you are. I know you have been in hundreds of TV episodes and animated voice-overs since then but every time I see you I will be waiting for you to knock on someones melon shouting “hello, hello butt-head!” Just kidding Tom. Actually Thomas Wilson is a really funny guy. His stand up is one of the best I have seen and believe it or not he is also a great musician. His hobby is a little strange though. He paints portraits of childhood toys. Hrm…
Fuckin’ eh it’s Porkins, baby! Actually it is William Hootkins This guy had a long career in some of the greatest films like Raiders of the Lost Arc, Batman and of course Star Wars: A New Hope. Believe it or not he was born in Dallas, Texas and moved to London after studying at Princeton and becoming fluent in Russian and Mandarin Chinese. It kind of sucks that he was such a brilliant man and talented on stage actor but landed the fat boy role as Porkins, the tubby X-Wing pilot. I always imagined his maintenance crew cleaning out McDonalds bags from the floor board of his ship. Poor Porkins.
William passed away in 2005 after losing a battle to pancreatic cancer. He was 57. The force will be with you William, always.
Well this is a little embarrassing. Apparently Gizmo was just a puppet. Moving on.
David Graf was just an awesome guy. He will always be Tackleberry from the Police Academy movies. Even though he has been in everything from M.A.S.H. to the Star Trek I can’t help but call every cop I see Tackleberry. It sucks to say this but Dave passed away in 2001 from a heart attack. I hate finding out these guys died when I am trying to see what they are up to today. I think I watch way too much TV because I feel like a classmate died.
I know I have written about Airwolf on here before but I wanted to focus on Jean Bruce Scott. It has always bothered me that in the intro there is a shot of her eating chicken. I still to this day only think of the character, Catalin O’Shannessy as a chicken eater. I’ll post the intro again for you to see. Today she is back in the saddle again producing and writing after a long hiatus from her acting career in shows like MacGuyver, Jake and The Fat Man, Matlock, Newhart, ect… But like the on going X-Entertainment funny, I don’t want to think about chicken when I am watching Airworlf.
What? Twiki wasn’t real either? So you are telling me this guy isn’t in Malibu right now? Son of a bitch. “beedee beedee!”
Casserole of Disaster 
Yes. This post rules for 2 reasons:
#1- you included John Cusack
#2- IDWTTACWED reference 😉
The squeaky-voiced geek from Superbad reminded me a lot of the Darren Harris geek from Sixteen Candles. I wonder whatever happened to Long Duck Dong (sp?).
I watched tv so much when I was a child that I routinely spelled r-o-l-a-i-d-s for fun. So, I don’t know how I missed Air Wolf. The theme music sounded familiar. I have to agree with you that the chicken scene was disturbing. I guarantee she didn’t want that moment immortalized.
Tackleberry!
I loved that guy.
Infact- I had a crush on Tackleberry when I was a little girl.
yeah.
I was a weird little girl.
Gee, I remember Jan Michael Vincent. I think he’s a homeless alcoholic, living near a sidewalk grate not far from the LA County Courthouse.
But sadly, he’s the only one I remember on your list.
Darren Harris? Wasn’t he one of the Columbine Shooters? My, how the mighty have fallen.
I miss you, William.
LK
A bit of dead animal never hurt anyone, let alone Jean Bruce Scott playing Caitlin. You’re really rather weird to have obsessed on a character for something as benign. In the meantime (whilst enjoying a chicken tikka masala as I write – with lashings and lashings of white meat mixed through it) I’m enjoying the awesome new, digitally remastered Airwolf soundtrack that they’ve just released called ‘Airwolf Themes’ which you can download off Apple iTunes Store, or from their official website where there are great teaser samples, http://www.airwolfthemes.com/
I’m not weird if you are a contributer to X-E. Thanks for selling shit on my site and calling me weird. We got it the first time pal.
I swear, I turn my back for one 3 day bender, and there’s a ton of stuff on the Veggie Macabre to comment on. Way to keep the content coming!
Man, where to start? I don’t know if I remember Darren Harris from Weird Science. Was he in the TV show instead of the movie? I tell you who I miss though, and that’s Ilan Mitchell-Smith, aka Wyatt from the movie. I never saw him in anything else after that and always wondered what happened to him. After looking at IMDB, apparently he was in the Superboy TV series back in the 80’s. I never saw that either but it was finally released onto DVD last year so I might Netflix it. It was kind of the Smallville of it’s day.
William Hootkins! Good one! I don’t know, most people will disagree, but he’ll always be Lt. Eckhardt to me. Maybe it’s cause I’m obsessed with all things Batman and the first movie is my fave movie of all time. I can quote like every line of it….
“Why, Eckhardt. You ought to think about the future.”
“You mean when you’re running the show? You ain’t got no future, JACK! You’re a Grade A nutboy, and Grissom knows it.”
Tackleberry! Yeah, he’ll always be Tackleberry to me too, no matter what I see him in. I didn’t know he was dead though. Crap.
You know, I never really paid much attention to Airwolf when I was a kid, but it looks really cool nowadays. I kind of wish I would have watched it then. I think I’ve spent more time paying attention to Airwolf in the past few weeks than I did the entirety of my childhood. And I have to say, that is completly due to You Tube and your observations on Jean Bruce Scott’s chicken eating habits. I too give you extra cool points for an IDWTTACWED reference. Thanks for reviving Airwolf for me.
Twiki was lame. And that is all.
Dj D- I forgot about Wyatt! He never struck me as a wyatt though. That is too tough guy of a name for him.
Yeah, poor Wyatt. Completely likeable but not exactly a tough guy. I think we were all satisfied when Chet finally got put in his place at the end after all the abuse that Wyatt went through. I was so cheering for him when he finally got one of the girls in the end. Thanks for another walk down memory lane. Makes me want to strap a bra onto my head and hook up some Barbie dolls and see what could happen.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had no idea that Biff did standup comedy these days. Yeah, you’re right, he really is pretty funny. I’d like to see another Back to the Future movie, with a new kid, maybe Marty’s kid or something. With the special effects they do now there’s no end to what they could pull off. Just don’t screw it up. The first movie is still one of my top 5 fave movies of all time. One of those I can quote like every word of.
“Plastic tubes and pots and pans, bits and pieces and the bits and pieces and…”
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