June 11, 2008
Now, of all ’80s kids, Wyatt Donnelly is among my favourite. Of the dynamic duo Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith, the latter is without a doubt the more awesome. Why? Simple. Look at the uber-nerds that Anthony Michael Hall had the privilege to play during the ’80s. Farmer Ted, Brian Johnson. Then he went and played that jerkozoid in Edward Scissorhands. And you can’t exactly call his character in Johnny Be Good overly cool.
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June 01, 2008
Back in 1980, six years after Black Christmas, but before the likes of Silent Night, Deadly Night, a low budget slasher movie was released. Set amongst a group of teenagers, it follows the maniacal murders carried out by a crazed psycho disguised in a Santa Claus costume. The movie, To All a Good Night, starred a twenty year old Jennifer Runyon in what was her very first film role.
The following three to four years featured a few minor acting jobs in television, with brief appearances in The Fall Guy and the failed pilot for the TV version of Six Pack, among others.
In the year of ’84, Jennifer was cast in the zany rafting comedy Up The Creek, where she plays Heather Merriweather, girlfriend of Ivy League rafting competitor Rex Crandall. When Rex turns out to be nothing more than a cheating jerk, Heather dumps him, and is immediately swept off her feet by the smooth-talking Bob McGraw (Tim Matheson), who happens to be representing the worst university in the country in the raft race. The movie follows each of the rafting teams, and the scheming pranks pulled off by the preppy ivy leaguers in an attempt to win the rafting trophy.
During the next couple of years, major movie roles were sparse, with Jennifer starring briefly in
Ghostbusters and taking on small roles in TV movies and smaller productions. She did, however, star in 24 episodes of the classic ’80s sitcom
Charles in Charge, beside Scott Baio, Willie Aames and Nicole Eggert.
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May 30, 2008
Child stars come and go like nobody’s business. But none quite like Amanda Peterson. By the time she hit 16, she’d already starred next to Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix and Patrick Dempsey, to name a few. She’d also been in a handful of TV series and, two years earlier, had already acted in over 30 television commercials.
Her first big break was in 1985, when at the age of 13, she starred in Joe Dante’s sci-fi adventure
Explorers. River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke play two best friends, both obsessed with the idea of space travel, geeking over comicbooks and black-and-white monster movies. With the help of a new friend, they manage to assemble a small spacecraft out of various bits and pieces found in a nearby junkyard. Amanda Peterson plays Lori Swenson; Ethan Hawke’s school crush, and according to Joe Dante, both River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke had real-life crushes on their co-star. Though not a particularly big part, she was nominated for a
Young Artist Award in the category of ‘Best Starring Performance by a Young Actress – Motion Picture’, and this
certainly helped her two years down the line in gaining what would become her best-loved and most memorable role
. Read more…
