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The Downside to 80s TV Fame · Children of the 80s

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Speaker 1: Children of the Eighties is brought to you by Q
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Speaker 1: one O six point five Internet Radio. You can find
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Speaker 1: it online at Q one o six five dot com
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Speaker 1: or download the app.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Children of the Eighties. I am one
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Speaker 2: of your hosts, Jim, and I am joined as always
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Speaker 2: by the lady who wishes she could get rid of
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Speaker 2: me and get Donnie in this seat to do a murder,
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Speaker 2: Death Kill podcast. It's my co host, Lindsay. Okay, you
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Speaker 2: know I'm not lying. You know everything I said is true.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So here's the problem. You don't know what today's
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Speaker 1: topic is about, and that opening is extreme, dreamly inappropriate
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Speaker 1: for the topic of the show. Just leave it. We'll
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Speaker 1: go with it. People will get a kick out of it.
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Speaker 1: But I don't know. Donnie may may put out a
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Speaker 1: restraining order against me afterwards.
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Speaker 2: You told me last week that you wanted to do
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Speaker 2: a true crime podcast about the attempted kidnapping of So
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Speaker 2: then you told me yesterday that you did research on
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Speaker 2: said topic. Yeah, and then I open with that of
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Speaker 2: the belief that we are doing that topic. And now
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Speaker 2: you are telling me that the opening does not fit
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Speaker 2: the topic that we are discussing.
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Speaker 1: It fits it a little too. Well, that's all I'm
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Speaker 1: going to say. So I commented on another recent post
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Speaker 1: that Donnie made on Instagram and he he hearted it again.
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Speaker 1: So that's twice now in what is many months? Would
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Speaker 1: you say about two months?
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Speaker 2: No, I'd say about four months.
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Speaker 1: Okay, Anyways, all I'm saying is I think I got
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Speaker 1: a chance.
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Speaker 2: I don't think so, Tim.
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Speaker 1: How excited was I though? And he hearted my comments? Oh?
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Speaker 2: You took a screenshot of it and sent it to.
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Speaker 1: Me, Because all a woman my age wanted back when
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Speaker 1: she was ten, eleven, twelve years old, was for Donnie
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Speaker 1: Wahlberg to heart one of her comments, even though we
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Speaker 1: didn't have that ling go back then. So it's like, Lord,
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Speaker 1: if you take me today, I can go happy.
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Speaker 2: You interrupted my first week at work to text me
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Speaker 2: a screenshot of Donnie Wahlberg herding your comment on his
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Speaker 2: Instagram page.
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Speaker 1: So now my next goal I gotta get him to comment.
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Speaker 1: Got to get him to comment.
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Speaker 2: And then eventually he comes in and sits in my
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Speaker 2: seat and takes over the podcast.
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Speaker 1: Well, I've been in cahoots with a listener. We've been
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Speaker 1: working on a design a logo for the podcast.
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Speaker 2: Yes, Donnie comes in, I saw that Patreon or John
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Speaker 2: sent that in via email, which he knows that I
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Speaker 2: appreciate email, so he sent that in via email, and
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Speaker 2: I have to say that I did get a kick
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Speaker 2: out of it, and we'll post that on all the socials.
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Speaker 1: The only issue I have with it is I look
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Speaker 1: a little angry in my headshot, and I'd like to
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Speaker 1: just remind John, I'm going to be real happy if
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Speaker 1: Donnie Wahlberg's my co.
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Speaker 2: Host, not if he comes on and says I'm still
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Speaker 2: gonna be married to Jenny.
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Speaker 1: I'd be happy. Just to be in his presence would
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Speaker 1: be a blessing.
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Speaker 2: I'm wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, You're wrong,
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Speaker 2: You're wrong, You're all.
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Speaker 1: Listen. I got a big problem.
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Speaker 2: What's that.
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Speaker 1: I got a big problem we got to talk about.
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Speaker 1: Forget Donnie. I got problems. I got problems Donnie can't solve.
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Speaker 2: Is it about the heat here in Georgia.
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Speaker 1: I'm dying. Well back up in the upper nineties again,
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Speaker 1: I am dying. I went to a well see now
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Speaker 1: you got me off on the heat. I went to
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Speaker 1: an estate sale Friday afternoon with someone and she just
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Speaker 1: looks at me. She's like, are you okay.
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Speaker 2: Because usually these estate sales they don't have Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I sweated through my shirt, were just like wet blotches
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Speaker 1: all over, and I said, yes, but I understand why
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Speaker 1: you felt like you had to ask. It's bad. It
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Speaker 1: is bad. You got nothing, You got nothing, Okay, I
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Speaker 1: got nothing. The heat. The heat's just brutal and uh.
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Speaker 1: I followed up with my asthma doctor, who said, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I'm just out of luck until the humidity dies down some,
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Speaker 1: and I don't think that's in the forecast for anytime soon.
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Speaker 2: So mid November.
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Speaker 1: Oh good, So I'll sound like I've smoked what two
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Speaker 1: packs a day until then. That's fun to listen to
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Speaker 1: on a podcast. Okay, No, I got I got bigger
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Speaker 1: issues than even that.
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Speaker 2: All right, hit me with them.
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Speaker 1: I may like yacht rock. Hi, my name is Lindsay Butler,
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Speaker 1: and I may like yacht rock.
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Speaker 2: Listen to that, folks, it's a miracle. It's a day
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Speaker 2: that I never thought would see happen. Our loyal listener, Sean,
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Speaker 2: also known as the yacht Rock Playlist Consultant, he will
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Speaker 2: be very happy to hear that.
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Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay before we just finalize this
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Speaker 1: and it goes on my grave marker to that's what
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Speaker 1: they're gonna do.
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Speaker 2: Here lies Lindsay Butler nineteen seventy nine to whatever day,
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Speaker 2: beloved mother, beloved wife, beloved daughter of blah blah blah
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Speaker 2: blah blah, fan of yat rock.
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Speaker 1: I'm afraid it, Mike, I need to clarify if the
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Speaker 1: Little River Band is considered yacht rock or not or not.
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Speaker 2: Now, they may have some songs that land on the
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Speaker 2: Yachtsky scale. I bet that they probably do, and I'm
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Speaker 2: sure Sean will ping me on X and let me know.
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Speaker 2: But I bet you they have some songs that land
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Speaker 2: on the Yachtsky scale. But no, they're just smooth. I
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Speaker 2: don't think they're yacht.
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Speaker 1: So I got to the point where, so, okay, wait,
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Speaker 1: back up, back up, back up. I listen to podcasts
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Speaker 1: every time I'm in my car, and I had gotten
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Speaker 1: to the point where I felt like it might be
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Speaker 1: impacting my well being, my emotional and mental.
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Speaker 2: Well being well especially the type of podcasts that you
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Speaker 2: listen to. You don't listen to happy Yeah podcasts.
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Speaker 1: So I thought, okay, I need to probably take a
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Speaker 1: little bit of a step back from that, and I
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Speaker 1: don't know how the CD because we're too cheap to
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Speaker 1: pay for serious. We don't pay for serious. And I
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Speaker 1: don't like regular radio. I can't. I can't do that.
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Speaker 1: I don't know how to see got in my car.
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Speaker 1: But there's a little river band. Is it their greatest hits?
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Speaker 2: It is their greatest hits?
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Speaker 1: And I have been listening to it on repeat now
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Speaker 1: for like a month, and I'm obsessed. I walk around
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Speaker 1: the house singing it, don't.
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Speaker 2: I Yes, you do, which makes me happy. But this
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Speaker 2: is much like when you had the Oasis What's the
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Speaker 2: Story Morning Glory CD and your CD player for like
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Speaker 2: a year and a half.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and that's all I listen and Emmy.
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Speaker 2: Knows every single word to that entire album, which makes
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Speaker 2: me happy because at one time I knew every single
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Speaker 2: word to that entire album.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm all or nothing. So when this CD pops
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Speaker 1: out of my car, I'll probably never listen to it again.
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Speaker 2: No you won't. I have to get something else in there.
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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I'm loving this CD. I'm loving this
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Speaker 1: band the band. Have you guys heard of this band?
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Speaker 1: I'm saying it like they're new new on the Sea.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're new on the Seed. Well, we have discussed
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Speaker 2: the band on the show before, probably a couple of times.
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Speaker 2: So yes, I'm sure our listeners know who the Little
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Speaker 2: River Band is. They're not some new underground band they
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Speaker 2: just came up. Now, they're they're from down Under, but
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Speaker 2: they're not an underground Are they Australian? They are.
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Speaker 1: They don't sing with an accent.
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Speaker 2: Nobody sings with an accent. Just everybody sings has a
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Speaker 2: singing voice.
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Speaker 1: Now everybody sings as if they're American.
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Speaker 2: Yes, or or that's the that's the selfish way to
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Speaker 2: look at it. Or you can say Americans sing like
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Speaker 2: they're British and Australian, or you could just say everybody
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Speaker 2: sings the same. Because even Roxette, who's from Sweden, Orse Switzerland,
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Speaker 2: one of those two UH bands from Denmark, all over
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Speaker 2: the place they sing. They all sound the same.
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Speaker 1: I mean, blow my mind.
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Speaker 2: It's not the same type of music, but they all
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Speaker 2: sound like they have just a singing accent.
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Speaker 1: I thought the Little Riverband was from Lower Alabama.
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Speaker 2: No, they are from Australia.
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Speaker 1: And it.
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Speaker 2: Disturbs me a little bit that we did maybe in
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Speaker 2: the first season or early In the second season, an
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Speaker 2: episode called the Australian Invasion, and Little Riverband was featured
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Speaker 2: on that podcast. On that episode, yes, and here you
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Speaker 2: are with your mind being blown that they are Australian. Listen,
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Speaker 2: I don't remember what I did week before last. I
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Speaker 2: don't either, but I remember everything about our episodes.
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Speaker 1: I know, I know. Well, that's where we balance each
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Speaker 1: other out, because you remember everything about our episodes. I
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Speaker 1: remember everything about things that have to get done in
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Speaker 1: the home.
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Speaker 2: I'd rather remember everything about the episode.
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Speaker 1: Hi, Well, yeah, that's crazy. And then right before we
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Speaker 1: hit record, I was singing one of their songs and
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Speaker 1: you commented that the name of it is Lady, and
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Speaker 1: how did you not know that? And I'm like, that's
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Speaker 1: a Kenny Rogers song and you're like, wow, well it's
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Speaker 1: also a Little Riverband song.
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Speaker 2: It's also a stick song.
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Speaker 1: I had no idea that the name of that song
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Speaker 1: was Lady. But that is my favorite. Because I hope
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Speaker 1: everybody's gonna want to know, Lindsey, what is your favorite
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Speaker 1: Little Riverband song?
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Speaker 2: Well, it's about time that you came around to that.
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Speaker 2: That is that is the best song by Little Riverband.
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Speaker 2: Although help is on its way and Man on Your
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Speaker 2: Mind are really really close. Man on your Mind is
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Speaker 2: a close second for me.
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Speaker 1: Oh my god, I.
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Speaker 2: Bet it is, because it's always that Man on your
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Speaker 2: Mind is Dimond.
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Speaker 1: Oh, it's Donnie Wahlberg always. Oh wow, we've gone down
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Speaker 1: some trails today.
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Speaker 2: I feel like we need to go back and redo
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Speaker 2: that episode so then you can be all excited.
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Speaker 1: About probably probably Do you have anything that you want
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Speaker 1: to touch on before we get into.
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Speaker 2: I don't know what the episode is about. I have
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Speaker 2: no clue. I'm sitting over there. For the first time
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Speaker 2: in my life, I'm sitting over here with no computer,
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Speaker 2: with no ideah, and all I have is headphones and
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Speaker 2: a microphone. I did start to type some notes in
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Speaker 2: my phone just so I remember to hit the stuff
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Speaker 2: that we always hit right, like, for instance, I do
12:32
Speaker 2: want to throw out. If you haven't already, go ahead
12:34
Speaker 2: and join our Patreon. We're doing some fun stuff over there.
12:38
Speaker 2: We just released another poll for our paid members only.
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Speaker 2: We are going to be starting possibly next week, if
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Speaker 2: not for sure the week after. We're going to be
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Speaker 2: starting our attempt to find out what is the greatest
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Speaker 2: year for music in the nineteen eighties, And we list
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Speaker 2: did the number twenty five song for all ten years
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Speaker 2: of the eighties and had our Patreon members rank them
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Speaker 2: one through ten. I'm gonna calculate all those up because
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Speaker 2: you know how I love doing that. I know, and
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Speaker 2: then we're gonna calm them down. On our episode ten
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Speaker 2: to one, we're going to talk about the songs. We're
13:16
Speaker 2: going to talk about our ratings, We're going to talk
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Speaker 2: about lots of stuff about that, and then we'll do
13:21
Speaker 2: that for the twenty four songs. It's gonna be like
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Speaker 2: a two year project because I said, we're gonna do
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Speaker 2: it like once a month, but eventually we're gonna find
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Speaker 2: out what year is the best year of pop music
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Speaker 2: for the nineteen days, or at least a Billboard the
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Speaker 2: nineteen eighties.
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Speaker 1: Sounds like to me, you got your work cut out
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Speaker 1: for you over there.
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Speaker 2: I do. But it's fun work. So it's not you
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Speaker 2: know somebody what said, do what you love and you'll
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Speaker 2: never work a day in your life. Well, yes, well
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Speaker 2: this is what I love to do, so it's not worked.
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Speaker 2: To me, it's all fun.
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Speaker 1: I love that. That's awesome. Speaking of work, you had
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Speaker 1: your first week back in the office this week, and
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Speaker 1: you know you did really well.
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Speaker 2: I I mean, I mean yeah, looking at it from
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Speaker 2: the outside, yes, I did very well. Looking at it
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Speaker 2: from my point of view, I'm disappointed that I had
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Speaker 2: some fatigue problems.
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Speaker 1: Oh good grief. We knew that there was no way
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Speaker 1: around having fatigue. I think you did really well balancing
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Speaker 1: and pushing through it a good bit of the time.
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Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you that I picked the right
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Speaker 2: time to come back because I believe the salespeople were
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Speaker 2: on their annual President's Club trip where they take them
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Speaker 2: because they sell so much and so they're gone for
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Speaker 2: a week so they don't bug me for a week.
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Speaker 1: Uh. We were able to get in and get saddled.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yes, and actually look for no I don't
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Speaker 2: want to say look for stuff to do, but be
14:43
Speaker 2: able to do stuff that I don't that I'm not
14:46
Speaker 2: normally able to do, or that maybe I put on
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Speaker 2: the back burner. I was able to just jump in
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Speaker 2: and help people, which is my job, but I very
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Speaker 2: rarely get to do it because I get hammered, you know,
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Speaker 2: with emails from sales.
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Speaker 1: Okay, I have a question. I don't know if you
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Speaker 1: can share this o the airwaves or not, but where
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Speaker 1: did they go on their trup.
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Speaker 2: I don't know. If I knew, i'd say it, but
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Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm sure, I'm positive it was probably
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Speaker 2: somewhere in the Caribbean.
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Speaker 1: Oh, do you think that maybe you could arrange to
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Speaker 1: take the children of the eighties salespeople to the Caribbean.
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Speaker 2: If they raise enough and revenue.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely, yes, I got it. I got it.
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Speaker 2: Get the children of the eighty sales team to raise
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Speaker 2: enough revenue and I will take them to the Caribbean.
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Speaker 1: Sweet.
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Speaker 2: You heard it here first, folks, as president of this podcast.
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Speaker 1: Wait now as vice president?
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Speaker 2: Yes, you as vice president? Prod Oh all right, well
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Speaker 2: are you ready to get to it? Then?
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Speaker 1: As ready as I'll ever be. This is a podcast
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Speaker 1: that looks back on the decade of the nineteen eighties.
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Speaker 1: We talk about things that were important to us as
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Speaker 1: children and what we look back on with fond memories
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Speaker 1: as adults. Ultimately, this is a nostalgia podcast.
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Speaker 2: That's right, and today we are getting nostalgic about I
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Speaker 2: have no idea. I know I was gonna say, but
16:18
Speaker 2: before we do that, I.
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Speaker 1: Know, because I'm middle aged.
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Speaker 2: Man, I have another nominee for the middle Aged Man
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Speaker 2: Hall of fame and it actually came from two different people.
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Speaker 1: Wow, So double pressure for so, double pressure for you.
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Speaker 2: I personally I think this is a shoe in. Okay,
17:16
Speaker 2: if you say no, I'm going to show you some
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Speaker 2: pictures of this person at twenty four looking like they're
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Speaker 2: about forty five. So the nominee for today for the
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Speaker 2: middle aged man Hall of Fame, which you will choose
17:30
Speaker 2: do they get in or do they get banished forever?
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Speaker 2: Is one mister Terry Bolea, also known as Hull Cogin
17:40
Speaker 2: or Hollywood Ull covid.
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Speaker 1: What a random nominee it was his balding head, don't
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Speaker 1: you think?
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Speaker 2: So look at those pictures and look at the ages
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Speaker 2: of those pictures because so this guy, I'll tell you
17:57
Speaker 2: who it is in a minute after you get him in.
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Speaker 2: But this guy came prepared with stats.
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Speaker 1: Oh he sure did. Okay, that top left is he
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Speaker 1: twenty four?
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Speaker 2: Is that?
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Speaker 1: What that says top left.
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Speaker 2: To you is twenty four? And then the next one
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Speaker 2: over is twenty seven.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So the one where he's twenty four, he doesn't
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Speaker 1: look a day under forty four.
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Speaker 2: That's exactly what I said. And what about it? Twenty
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Speaker 2: seven fifty five and what about forty four, which is
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Speaker 2: down here sixty and what about at age fifty two
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Speaker 2: seventy he might be better off for old age man.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, but this is an easy one. He's in, So
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Speaker 1: I kind.
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Speaker 2: Of knew that he was going to be in. So
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Speaker 2: several weeks ago, our buddy Sean from Smoking Sounds nominated him,
18:54
Speaker 2: but because we were so far behind on stuff, I
18:57
Speaker 2: did not bring him up. But then Derek from the
19:00
Speaker 2: movie crew, once again nominating somebody, he decided not only
19:04
Speaker 2: was he going to nominate it, he attached some picks
19:07
Speaker 2: to assist. And Yeah, here's a picture of hal Cogan
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Speaker 2: at twenty four, looking like he's about forty, and then
19:16
Speaker 2: him at twenty seven. Now, mind you, this is two
19:19
Speaker 2: years before he was in Rocky three, and he still looks,
19:24
Speaker 2: you know, like he's middle aged.
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Speaker 1: It's his hairline and that fu manchew. Yes, it does
19:29
Speaker 1: him no favors.
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Speaker 2: I mean, look at age twenty four, like everybody's everybody
19:33
Speaker 2: I know at twenty four is like still baby faced.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, he's right.
19:37
Speaker 2: Compare him to what Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc look
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Speaker 2: like on Friends, Right, he looks like he could be
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Speaker 2: their grandpa at that age, He's lived for sure. So
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Speaker 2: congratulations hall Cogan, you have been brought into the Middle
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Speaker 2: Ages Hall of Fame in what do they call that
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Speaker 2: when they're dead? Post mortem? Post No, I don't think
19:58
Speaker 2: they call it post mortem, but posthumously a word costume.
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Speaker 1: I can't say posthumously.
20:05
Speaker 2: Posthumously. Yes, there we go. See you're not the only
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Speaker 2: one that struggles with certain words. Posthumously. Hul Cogan has
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Speaker 2: been nominated and elected to the Middle Aged Man Hall
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Speaker 2: of Fame.
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Speaker 1: Wow, I'm glad we don't have to fit him for
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Speaker 1: a jacket.
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Speaker 2: Yes you do. We fit Casey Kasem for a jacket.
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Speaker 2: We gotta fit the whole Cogan for a jacket. It's
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Speaker 2: the it's the five timers club that gets the jacket.
20:30
Speaker 2: You also get a jacket for going into the Hall
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Speaker 2: of Fame. Oh you do, every hall of fame you
20:34
Speaker 2: get a jacket.
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Speaker 1: Oh wow. Do you think when we get his jacket
20:38
Speaker 1: made for him that Danny DeVito can ride in the pocket?
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Speaker 2: Probably? Yes? Yes, Now that is the opposite, is okay
20:45
Speaker 2: of each one? So there you go. All right, I'm
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Speaker 2: I'm done, folks. I'll see you next week. Well, Lindsey's
20:55
Speaker 2: gonna take over now.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So this week's theme is a little bit along
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Speaker 1: the lines of true crime. Has some darkness there, so
21:03
Speaker 1: sorry about that. I'll try to keep the story moving
21:07
Speaker 1: as much as possible and not dwell too much on
21:10
Speaker 1: the sadness you Okay? Over there? Yeah? Are you getting comfortable?
21:16
Speaker 1: Do you need a blanket? I do not need a blanket. No, okay.
21:21
Speaker 1: So do you remember when Growing Pains should probably technically
21:26
Speaker 1: have been canceled, they tried to revitalize the show by
21:31
Speaker 1: bringing in a baby.
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Speaker 2: Okay, I'm going to disagree with you that it should
21:38
Speaker 2: have been canceled.
21:39
Speaker 1: Because everyone knows if your marriage is bad, if your
21:45
Speaker 1: sitcom is dead, have a baby. That's what it needs.
21:50
Speaker 2: It'll fix it.
21:51
Speaker 1: It'll fix it. Babies will fix everything. So. Ashley Johnson
21:56
Speaker 1: was the actress who joined Growing Pains as Chrissy during
22:01
Speaker 1: the show's final two seasons from nineteen ninety till nineteen
22:05
Speaker 1: ninety two. She was not the one that played the baby,
22:09
Speaker 1: right obviously, she was the one with the sweet little
22:12
Speaker 1: headful of curly shoe hair.
22:14
Speaker 2: She had a headful of.
22:17
Speaker 1: Hair, so just recently, she revealed during her very first
22:22
Speaker 1: season on the show, a fan actually tried to abduct
22:25
Speaker 1: her from the studio lot. Have you heard that? Oh?
22:29
Speaker 2: I have never heard this, Okay.
22:31
Speaker 1: Ashley shared this story on her Weird Kids podcast, explaining
22:35
Speaker 1: that at the time she had only been through a
22:37
Speaker 1: handful of live tapings. So back then, the cast members
22:42
Speaker 1: had old camper type trailers outside the studio, and before filming,
22:48
Speaker 1: they would leave those trailers and walk past the studio
22:52
Speaker 1: audience who were lined up waiting to go inside.
22:55
Speaker 2: Growing Pains was filmed before a live studio audience.
22:58
Speaker 1: Exactly, and unlike a modern TV studio, there weren't really
23:03
Speaker 1: any layers of security separating the actors.
23:07
Speaker 2: I'm telling you the nineteen eighties, it was like the
23:09
Speaker 2: wild wild West. Yes, I mean really, we'd go out
23:13
Speaker 2: and we'd play until dark. We would disappear, Our parents
23:16
Speaker 2: wouldn't know where they were. They didn't even care where
23:18
Speaker 2: we were. There was no security. Actors and actresses are
23:23
Speaker 2: getting getting hunted down by crazy people. I mean there
23:27
Speaker 2: was no security. It was like, what were we doing.
23:30
Speaker 2: You could smoke on a plane. You could just go
23:32
Speaker 2: running onto the tarmac. You get on a plane, bizarre.
23:37
Speaker 2: There was no security inside. I mean, planes had been
23:40
Speaker 2: It's not like planes hadn't been hijacked before they had,
23:43
Speaker 2: but they still had no security inside.
23:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, none.
23:46
Speaker 2: And it was literally it's like we lived in a
23:51
Speaker 2: different world than what today is.
23:53
Speaker 1: And people smoked cigarettes everywhere.
23:56
Speaker 2: Everywhere, whether you were at a restaurant, whether you were
23:58
Speaker 2: in the office, in the hospital. People smoked in the hospital.
24:04
Speaker 2: People smoked in the office, people smoked on the plane,
24:08
Speaker 2: people smoked in department stores. It didn't matter where they were.
24:12
Speaker 2: Everybody was puffing on a lung dart everybody. And that's
24:19
Speaker 2: on her. I don't even see people that smoke could nowadays, No.
24:22
Speaker 1: You really don't. That's that's something that it's almost like,
24:24
Speaker 1: if you still smoke, it's so taboo. You do it
24:27
Speaker 1: in the privacy of your own home at dark, under
24:30
Speaker 1: the covers. Yes, so watch out, you'll start a fire
24:34
Speaker 1: that way. Okay, So getting back back to the story
24:39
Speaker 1: in hand, Okay, audience members could apparently get within just
24:43
Speaker 1: a manner of a few feet of the cast members,
24:46
Speaker 1: who some of them you know, at the time, were
24:49
Speaker 1: pretty big stars. So that becomes especially unsettling when you
24:52
Speaker 1: hear what had happened shortly before this particular taping, someone
24:57
Speaker 1: had written to the production threat to come to the
25:00
Speaker 1: set with a gun and kill some of the cast members.
25:04
Speaker 2: Now, why do we know why? They were just crazy?
25:07
Speaker 1: She did, Yeah, she didn't share that. So despite that threat,
25:11
Speaker 1: Ashley still had to make that walk from her trailer
25:16
Speaker 1: by the live studio audience who was lined up waiting
25:21
Speaker 1: to go inside. She had to make that walk from
25:23
Speaker 1: the trailer into the studio. She was with her mom
25:27
Speaker 1: this particular day when suddenly a man stepped out of
25:30
Speaker 1: the audience line, grabbed Ashley and started running away with her.
25:35
Speaker 1: Now remember Ashley's little at the time, right, she's like
25:39
Speaker 1: four or five. Yeah, she recalled security eventually catching up
25:42
Speaker 1: with them and trying to wrestle her away from the man.
25:46
Speaker 1: Her memories of the moment are understandably pretty chaotic. She
25:50
Speaker 1: remembers practically. She describes it as flying through the air
25:53
Speaker 1: as security struggled and tackled him to the ground. And
25:57
Speaker 1: then came an even scarier detail, this man had a gun.
26:03
Speaker 1: Ashley says she didn't really understand what was happening while
26:06
Speaker 1: it was on going on. In fact, her reaction as
26:09
Speaker 1: a child afterwards says a lot about just how young
26:12
Speaker 1: she was while adults were asking her if she was okay,
26:17
Speaker 1: Ashley's biggest concern was that she might be in trouble.
26:21
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's that's cute and sad because a lot
26:26
Speaker 2: of little kids are like that. But hold on, I
26:28
Speaker 2: want to go back to this man grabbing her and
26:30
Speaker 2: taking off and running. Did he not realize that you
26:35
Speaker 2: can't run as fast as you normally can if you're
26:38
Speaker 2: holding a five year old.
26:40
Speaker 1: Okay, so she says, And if I haven't mentioned it,
26:43
Speaker 1: I will mention it before my story's over. She believes
26:46
Speaker 1: he was under the influence of some pretty strong drugs.
26:50
Speaker 2: He probably was, But here's the deal. Okay, if I'm
26:55
Speaker 2: in a crowd now, I'm fifty two now and I
26:58
Speaker 2: have what doctors call a little bit of a weight problem.
27:03
Speaker 2: But when I was younger, somebody I see somebody take off,
27:08
Speaker 2: like grab a kid and take off. You're tackling Not
27:11
Speaker 2: only that, then I'm I'm beating them to a pole.
27:13
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, it's just I'm not just getting
27:15
Speaker 2: the kid away. Then I'm trying to inflict some serious dammage. Yes,
27:19
Speaker 2: so they never do that again. So hopefully this guy
27:24
Speaker 2: got what was coming to him.
27:25
Speaker 1: Okay. So, like I said, she was worried, she was
27:29
Speaker 1: in trouble because the kidnapper had managed to run off
27:33
Speaker 1: with one of her shoes. So even after they were
27:37
Speaker 1: able to get Ashley back, you know, safely to her
27:41
Speaker 1: mom that somehow the bad guy kept the shoe.
27:44
Speaker 2: Stop it, stop it pause here? Can can you refer
27:49
Speaker 2: to her as Chrissy? That's how I know her, You say, Ashley,
27:51
Speaker 2: and I start looking around for okay, somebody else, so
27:54
Speaker 2: call her Chrissy.
27:55
Speaker 1: Okay, so somehow.
27:57
Speaker 2: Call her Chrissy.
27:58
Speaker 1: Ashley had managed to keep one of Christy Ashley's shoes,
28:06
Speaker 1: so even after she was safe and she was back
28:08
Speaker 1: with her mom, she was still missing a shoe and
28:10
Speaker 1: she was worried because that shoe didn't belong to her.
28:13
Speaker 1: It belonged to the wardrobe department.
28:15
Speaker 2: So she thought she was going to be in trouble
28:16
Speaker 2: with the wardrobe department.
28:18
Speaker 1: Yes, for losing one of her shoes.
28:20
Speaker 2: That's precious.
28:22
Speaker 1: This is really sweet, isn't it? And somehow the story
28:25
Speaker 1: gets even a little bit weirder. Christy Ashley says she
28:28
Speaker 1: wasn't even especially scared while the man was running with her.
28:32
Speaker 2: Uh, huh.
28:32
Speaker 1: She describes herself as being such a polite child that
28:37
Speaker 1: she was apparently trying to make conversation with him, basically
28:41
Speaker 1: asking who he was and what his name was while
28:44
Speaker 1: he was attempting to kidnapp her. Like I'm sorry, good sir,
28:48
Speaker 1: what is your name? She said? The man seemed to
28:51
Speaker 1: be under the influence of something. It was incredibly strong.
28:54
Speaker 1: Security was eventually able to stop him, and Ashley was
28:57
Speaker 1: returned safely to her mother. She continued acting after growing Pains,
29:03
Speaker 1: appearing in shows including Phenom and Maybe This Time, and
29:07
Speaker 1: eventually built an enormously successful career as a voice actor.
29:13
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I know a lot of kid actors going
29:15
Speaker 2: to be voice actors, So that's good. I've never heard
29:17
Speaker 2: of those television shows. She voice mentioned.
29:21
Speaker 1: She does the voice on the This is Us video game.
29:28
Speaker 2: I didn't know there was a video game. But is
29:30
Speaker 2: that sass video game of old time?
29:32
Speaker 1: Probably not that, not the Last of Us? Not This
29:37
Speaker 1: is a Oh.
29:37
Speaker 2: Okay, I was like, how'd they make that into a
29:40
Speaker 2: video game? What you go and adopt a family like
29:44
Speaker 2: that has issues? I would definitely be the sister of
29:46
Speaker 2: that group, all right, So Christy Ashley, she sounds like
29:52
Speaker 2: she's been successful. She was very cute on Girls, she adorable,
29:57
Speaker 2: the little curly hair, but she was so annoyed on
30:00
Speaker 2: that show.
30:00
Speaker 1: They just needed she was not annoying. The show had flatlined.
30:04
Speaker 1: They needed to call no.
30:05
Speaker 2: I disagree. She was up. She was a lot better
30:08
Speaker 2: than that. Brian Bonzel kid. Well, Chrissy was not annoying.
30:15
Speaker 2: She was good. How dare you say anything bad about
30:19
Speaker 2: Growing Pains? How dare you?
30:21
Speaker 1: I want to give you the opportunity to say everything
30:24
Speaker 1: that you feel you need to say about Growing Pains.
30:26
Speaker 1: But I've got another story I would like to share
30:28
Speaker 1: as well.
30:29
Speaker 2: Okay, so Growing Pains is probably if I got to
30:34
Speaker 2: choose what family I wanted to be in in any sitcom,
30:38
Speaker 2: I think I'm going Growing Pains. I might go different
30:42
Speaker 2: strokes because then I get to be cool with my
30:45
Speaker 2: two African American step brothers. But I also get the
30:49
Speaker 2: penthouse in New York, you know, with the with the
30:52
Speaker 2: drumming construction money. So I might go that, But realistically,
30:56
Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna go with the Severs. I think
30:58
Speaker 2: Jason Seaver was the greatest dad of all time. I
31:02
Speaker 2: think Maggie Sever might have been the greatest mom of
31:04
Speaker 2: all time, her or Claire Huxtable.
31:07
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you know, I mean hindsight. It's
31:09
Speaker 1: difficult here now, but I'm gonna say I wanted to
31:12
Speaker 1: be in the Cosby family.
31:14
Speaker 2: Well you did until he offered you a coke.
31:16
Speaker 1: Well, yes, but.
31:22
Speaker 2: I want to be part of the Severs. I want
31:25
Speaker 2: to be Jim Sever. Actually I want to be Tom
31:28
Speaker 2: Sever because I had picturing the major leagues. But Jason
31:33
Speaker 2: Sever was the greatest dad. Maggie Sever one of the
31:36
Speaker 2: greatest moms. She was a stay at home mom who
31:38
Speaker 2: then went back to her career as a news journalist,
31:41
Speaker 2: so she would have been somewhat famous. I would have
31:44
Speaker 2: had a funny older brother and Mike who was kind
31:46
Speaker 2: of a clown, so I would have looked like the
31:50
Speaker 2: golden child, and that they would have been so proud
31:52
Speaker 2: of me, you know, because you had the Mike being
31:55
Speaker 2: a clown, never study, and you had poor Carol who
31:59
Speaker 2: had anarexia. It might have been easier for that kidnapper
32:03
Speaker 2: to pick her up than it was Christy. Then you
32:07
Speaker 2: had Ben, who was just a punk. Yeah he really was, right,
32:10
Speaker 2: So I would have been the favorite. And then you
32:12
Speaker 2: have little Chrissy Ashley come along, and she would have
32:16
Speaker 2: been a sweet little baby sister.
32:18
Speaker 1: What would you have done when she became the favorite?
32:22
Speaker 2: Uh? Probably just been myself. But the only thing that
32:33
Speaker 2: would have bothered me a little bit, the only thing
32:39
Speaker 2: I'm not sure I would want to be in that
32:42
Speaker 2: family strictly because the dad was a psychiatrist and there's
32:46
Speaker 2: no getting over on him.
32:47
Speaker 1: How does that make you feel?
32:49
Speaker 2: Well, he's gonna he's gonna get in my head and
32:53
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be able to get away with anything.
32:56
Speaker 2: That would be the only downside to being in that family.
33:00
Speaker 2: But they had a nice house. And you know what,
33:02
Speaker 2: when le Leo DiCaprio came in at the end of
33:05
Speaker 2: the day and kind of ruined the show, I would
33:07
Speaker 2: have probably beat the crap out of him.
33:10
Speaker 1: From what I hear he needs it, Yeah.
33:12
Speaker 2: I would have. I didn't like him then, and I
33:15
Speaker 2: would have probably beat the snot out of them. I
33:16
Speaker 2: liked the fight when I was like thirteen years old,
33:19
Speaker 2: so we definitely would have thrown down. Now, maybe I
33:22
Speaker 2: would have whipped him, Maybe maybe he would have whipped me.
33:25
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you what, that wouldn't have been the
33:27
Speaker 2: only time, we thought I'd have been going back after him,
33:31
Speaker 2: so brandom.
33:35
Speaker 1: So I think it's interesting that we've never heard this
33:39
Speaker 1: story until now.
33:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had no idea.
33:43
Speaker 1: That feels like that would have been something that would
33:46
Speaker 1: have been on Entertainment Tonight back in the day.
33:49
Speaker 2: Ooh, Entertainment Tonight. I like that. Yeah, right, good, good
33:52
Speaker 2: call out there, you know.
33:53
Speaker 1: But no, nobody, nobody that I remember that I know
33:57
Speaker 1: OFV mentioned it until it became a little bit of
34:01
Speaker 1: a headline when she did this podcast episode about it recently.
34:05
Speaker 2: Now my wheels are turning. Should we do a news
34:07
Speaker 2: magazine show of the eighties?
34:09
Speaker 1: That would be fun? Okay, So let me move on.
34:11
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about Heather Thomas. Oh yeah,
34:16
Speaker 1: fall Guy, the female counterpart to Lee Majors in The
34:22
Speaker 1: Fall Guy. So okay. Heather Thomas was one of those
34:25
Speaker 1: faces it was almost impossible to miss in the nineteen eighties.
34:30
Speaker 1: She was best known for playing Jody Banks alongside Lee
34:33
Speaker 1: Majors on The Fall Guy. Thomas appeared on the hit
34:36
Speaker 1: series throughout its run from nineteen eighty one until nineteen
34:40
Speaker 1: eighty six, and during the height of the show's popularity,
34:44
Speaker 1: she became one of the decade's biggest sex symbols.
34:48
Speaker 2: Yes she did.
34:49
Speaker 1: And if I remember right, The Fall Guy. It has
34:53
Speaker 1: the theme song that's so good, right.
34:54
Speaker 2: Yes it does. In fact, we should play it right now. Well,
35:00
Speaker 2: I'm not kind to kiss that tell, but I've been
35:04
Speaker 2: seen with her up. I've never been with anything less
35:08
Speaker 2: than a line so fine. I've been on fire with
35:12
Speaker 2: Sally Field and gone past with the girl named Boy.
35:16
Speaker 1: But somehow they just got and up at mine.
35:21
Speaker 2: It's been fine. Live, I leave, I take my chances.
35:27
Speaker 2: I die for living in the food. His attitude me
35:33
Speaker 2: urst one I ever do. Just watch my bed and ladies.
35:38
Speaker 1: Just some of the guy out a bandage and mine.
35:41
Speaker 2: God, I'm my fall brother, tall building, I fight ball
35:47
Speaker 2: that new car.
35:48
Speaker 1: Because of the unknownstuh myn mad.
35:52
Speaker 2: That wots such a start, all right, don't you love that?
36:01
Speaker 1: That holds up really well? Yes, But behind the fame
36:04
Speaker 1: was something much darker, and it ultimately played a major
36:08
Speaker 1: role in her decision to walk away from Hollywood.
36:11
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I wonder what happened to her after The
36:14
Speaker 2: Fall Guy. You know, Marky Post was on that show too,
36:17
Speaker 2: pre Night Court.
36:18
Speaker 1: No, I did not know that in a twenty twenty
36:21
Speaker 1: five appearance on the Still Here Hollywood podcast, Thomas opened
36:26
Speaker 1: up about the frightening amount of attention that she received
36:30
Speaker 1: from stalkers during and after her years on The Fall Guy.
36:35
Speaker 1: When she says stalkers, she doesn't mean the occasional, like
36:39
Speaker 1: overly enthusiastic fan. She says that things got so bad
36:45
Speaker 1: that at one point she was dealing with as many
36:48
Speaker 1: as two stalkers a week.
36:51
Speaker 2: That's that's that, you know, this is what happened on
36:53
Speaker 2: my sister Sam where the you know, yeah, it's killed
36:57
Speaker 2: by her stalker.
36:58
Speaker 1: And remember this was the back in the nineteen eighties
37:01
Speaker 1: and then the early nineties. Stalking wasn't necessarily treated by
37:05
Speaker 1: police or even the legal system the way that it
37:08
Speaker 1: would be today, and many of the protections that celebrities
37:12
Speaker 1: have access to now simply wasn't there, given.
37:15
Speaker 2: It was the wild West. And I remember this because
37:19
Speaker 2: I watched a show, a movie like one of those
37:22
Speaker 2: made for TV movies that would have been on Lifetime now,
37:24
Speaker 2: but maybe it was like on NBC back in the
37:26
Speaker 2: day of Nancy McKeon Joe Polichuk from Facts of Life.
37:32
Speaker 2: She was either married or whatever, had a stalker and
37:37
Speaker 2: the police wouldn't do anything. And then they the stalker
37:41
Speaker 2: caught her and like stabbed her in the back, and
37:43
Speaker 2: then she walked with the limp for the rest of
37:45
Speaker 2: her life. Really, and then she may have been the
37:47
Speaker 2: one that got like the stalking laws changed.
37:50
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to get into a little bit of that, okay.
37:54
Speaker 1: For Thomas, the situation became genuinely terrifying. She recalls receiving
37:59
Speaker 1: a box of bullets in the mail well that people
38:03
Speaker 1: sent her funeral reads, and at one point a man
38:08
Speaker 1: carrying a large knife jumped the gate at her home.
38:13
Speaker 1: Thomas became so concerned for her safety that she kept
38:16
Speaker 1: the bodyguard with her at all times. But perhaps the
38:19
Speaker 1: scariest incident happened one night while she was at home.
38:24
Speaker 1: Thomas says a man actually cut through the screen of
38:27
Speaker 1: her bedroom window and climbed inside her house.
38:30
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, she had.
38:32
Speaker 1: A gun though. Listen, she had a gun loaded with
38:34
Speaker 1: rock salt and she shot it.
38:36
Speaker 2: Oh, she had a shotgun loaded with rock salt.
38:38
Speaker 1: I I did not know that was like a thing,
38:41
Speaker 1: so but apparently that was enough to knock it.
38:43
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, it'll hurt like a son of a
38:45
Speaker 2: gun without killing you.
38:46
Speaker 1: So by then Thomas wasn't only thinking about herself. She
38:49
Speaker 1: had two young daughters, and the constant fear and just
38:53
Speaker 1: security concerns took on an entirely different meaning. Eventually, she
38:57
Speaker 1: decided that she had had enough, so she did continue
39:03
Speaker 1: acting for a while. After The Fall Guy, she appeared
39:05
Speaker 1: in projects including Red Blooded American Girl and Something Called
39:11
Speaker 1: Against the Law, but by the nineteen nineties she largely
39:14
Speaker 1: stepped away from Hollywood. For five seasons, audiences watched her
39:19
Speaker 1: on one of the most recognizable action adventure shows of
39:23
Speaker 1: the early nineteen eighties, But while viewers saw the glamourous
39:27
Speaker 1: side of becoming a TV star, Thomas was experiencing a
39:31
Speaker 1: very different reality when the camera stopped rolling, and eventually
39:35
Speaker 1: the fame simply wasn't worth what came with it, and
39:39
Speaker 1: she made the decision to step away.
39:41
Speaker 2: See look at what these stalkers ruined. Every guy my
39:46
Speaker 2: age that I know loved Heather Thomas. Yeah, and these
39:50
Speaker 2: stalkers ruined her from being on TV for the rest
39:53
Speaker 2: of our lives. And you know it's funny because you
39:57
Speaker 2: mentioned her and she was on The Fall Guy. And
40:00
Speaker 2: then at the same time, Heather Lockleyer was on TJ.
40:03
Speaker 2: Hooker and it was like the Coreries, only it was
40:05
Speaker 2: the Heathers. Yes, right, So you had the Corries in
40:08
Speaker 2: the eighties, you had the Heathers in the eighties. Both
40:14
Speaker 2: Heathers are still alive. Both Cores are not still alive,
40:18
Speaker 2: only one of them is. But they all had their issues.
40:23
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, well, I mean it's the saying everybody
40:26
Speaker 1: fights a battle.
40:27
Speaker 2: That you know nothing about exactly. That's why you should
40:30
Speaker 2: be kind to everybody, you see.
40:31
Speaker 1: Correct. So if Heather Thomas's story gives us an idea
40:35
Speaker 1: of how frightening celebrity stalking could become during the nineteen eighties,
40:40
Speaker 1: there's one more story from that decade that shows just
40:43
Speaker 1: how tragically far it can actually go.
40:45
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, you are going way further. I thought
40:48
Speaker 2: we were only talking about Chrissy from Growing Pains, and
40:51
Speaker 2: you have so much more now now you got Heather Thomas,
40:54
Speaker 2: or now you're talking to my sister Sam since I
40:56
Speaker 2: brought it up.
40:57
Speaker 1: Yep, this is the story of Rebecca. So if you
41:01
Speaker 1: watch TV in the mid nineteen eighties, you may remember
41:04
Speaker 1: Rebecca as Patty Russell on the cbsitcom My Sister Sam
41:09
Speaker 1: alongside Pam Dauber. Rebecca was young, talented, and seemingly at
41:15
Speaker 1: the very beginning of what could have been a long career.
41:18
Speaker 1: But on July eighteenth, nineteen eighty nine, Rebecca Shaefer was
41:22
Speaker 1: murdered outside her own house by an obsessed fan who
41:25
Speaker 1: had been stalking her for years. She was only twenty one,
41:31
Speaker 1: and as horrible as her story is, what happened to
41:33
Speaker 1: Rebecca would eventually help change the way stalking was treated
41:38
Speaker 1: under American law. So let's back up just a little bit.
41:41
Speaker 1: Rebecca had small roles on Guiding Light and One Life
41:45
Speaker 1: to Live, and she then landed a tiny part in
41:49
Speaker 1: a Woody Allen's Radio Days, although almost all of her
41:54
Speaker 1: appearance in that movie was ultimately cut. Then came the
41:58
Speaker 1: role that changed everything. Rebecca appeared on the cover of
42:02
Speaker 1: seventeen magazine, and that caught the attention of producers who
42:06
Speaker 1: were casting a new CBS sitcom called My Sister Sam.
42:10
Speaker 1: The show starred Pam Dauber, who, of course we are.
42:13
Speaker 2: Mark, and Mindy Nanu Nanu yeap red brother.
42:17
Speaker 1: Rebecca was cast as Patty Russell, a teen from Oregon
42:23
Speaker 1: who moves to San Francisco, to live with her older
42:25
Speaker 1: sister Sam after their parents die. The show premiered in
42:30
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, and initially it was a hit. During
42:34
Speaker 1: its first season, My Sister Sam ranked among the top
42:37
Speaker 1: twenty five shows on TV. Rebecca, at the time was
42:42
Speaker 1: only eighteen. She had gone from struggling to find any
42:45
Speaker 1: kind of work to starring in a successful TV series
42:49
Speaker 1: what felt like seemingly overnight. But unfortunately, one of the
42:54
Speaker 1: people watching was a teen in Arizona named Robert John Bardo,
42:59
Speaker 1: and he became obsessed with Rebecca. Bardo's fixation on her
43:03
Speaker 1: lasted for approximately three years. He wrote her numerous letters,
43:09
Speaker 1: and Rebecca actually responded to one of.
43:12
Speaker 2: Them, Wait does it say lead me alone?
43:15
Speaker 1: Which wouldn't have been particularly unusual for a young actress
43:19
Speaker 1: to be responding to fan mail, But to Bardo, it
43:22
Speaker 1: meant like something totally you know more so obviously normal
43:29
Speaker 1: person would have thought yes. In nineteen eighty seven, he
43:31
Speaker 1: traveled from Tucson to la and tried to get onto
43:35
Speaker 1: the set of My Sister Sam so he could meet her.
43:38
Speaker 1: Studio security turned him away a month after the kidnap
43:43
Speaker 1: you this was before a month later he returned, this
43:47
Speaker 1: time he was carrying a knife. Once again, security caught
43:51
Speaker 1: him and prevented him from getting to Rebecca. For a while.
43:54
Speaker 1: After that, his attention apparently shifted to other female celebrities,
44:00
Speaker 1: including Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, and Madonna. But then in nineteen
44:05
Speaker 1: eighty nine, he saw Rebecca in the movie Scenes from
44:08
Speaker 1: the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, and there's a scene
44:13
Speaker 1: in a bedroom scene in that movie with Rebecca, and
44:15
Speaker 1: when he saw that, he became extremely jealous and angry,
44:21
Speaker 1: and that reignited his obsession with Rebecca. And this is
44:26
Speaker 1: where her story exposes something almost unbelievable about the privacy.
44:31
Speaker 1: Back in the nineteen eighties, Bardo wanted Rebecca's home address,
44:36
Speaker 1: so he hired a private detective who was able to
44:39
Speaker 1: obtain her address from California Department of Motor Vehicles records.
44:45
Speaker 1: So then Bardo traveled overnight from Tucson to la and
44:49
Speaker 1: found Rebecca's apartment. Meanwhile, Rebecca was preparing for what could
44:55
Speaker 1: have been another major step in her career. She was
44:58
Speaker 1: expecting a script that day because she was preparing to
45:01
Speaker 1: audition for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather.
45:06
Speaker 2: Part Oh Wow, it would have been a better movie
45:09
Speaker 2: with her in it, because he wouldn't have had his
45:11
Speaker 2: daughter be it.
45:12
Speaker 1: She was being considered for the role of Mary Corleone.
45:17
Speaker 1: So when someone rang her doorbell that morning, Rebecca answered it.
45:21
Speaker 1: It was Bardo. He showed her a letter and autograph
45:24
Speaker 1: that she had previously sent to him. We know that
45:27
Speaker 1: she spoke to him briefly, and then she asked him
45:29
Speaker 1: to not come to her home again. So he left,
45:32
Speaker 1: but about an hour later he went back. Rebecca answered
45:36
Speaker 1: the door again. This time Bardo pulled out a gun
45:40
Speaker 1: and shot and killed her. Neighbors rushed in to help,
45:44
Speaker 1: but it was too late. She died shortly after arriving
45:48
Speaker 1: at cedar CYANAI. Bardo fled la and headed back toward Arizona.
45:54
Speaker 1: The following day, police arrested him in Tucson after motorist
45:57
Speaker 1: reported seeing a man behaving erratically and running through traffic.
46:02
Speaker 1: He confessed to Rebecca's murder. And here's another name you'll
46:05
Speaker 1: probably recognize. The prosecutor in this case was Marcia.
46:10
Speaker 2: Clark uh who's that.
46:14
Speaker 1: Years before she became nationally known as the lead prosecutor
46:19
Speaker 1: in the OJ Simpson trial.
46:21
Speaker 2: OJ Simpson, the football player. Yes, he was on a trial.
46:26
Speaker 1: You wouldn't believe. I'll tell you later what he was
46:29
Speaker 1: accused of and naked gunned. Okay.
46:31
Speaker 2: Yes.
46:32
Speaker 1: Bardo was eventually convicted of first degree murder and sentenced
46:36
Speaker 1: to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But
46:39
Speaker 1: Rebecca Schaeffer's story didn't end with his conviction, because her
46:43
Speaker 1: murder exposed just how inadequate stalking and privacy laws were
46:47
Speaker 1: at the time. In nineteen ninety California passed one of
46:51
Speaker 1: the country's first anti stalking laws, and soon other states followed.
46:56
Speaker 1: There were also changes involving access to personal information through
47:00
Speaker 1: state motor vehicle departments. In nineteen ninety four, the Federal
47:04
Speaker 1: Driver's Privacy Protection Act was enacted, restricting the release of
47:09
Speaker 1: personal information, including someone's home address, from DMB records. So,
47:16
Speaker 1: in other words, the very method Rebecca's killer had used
47:19
Speaker 1: to find her helped lead to changes designed to prevent
47:22
Speaker 1: someone else from being able to do the same thing.
47:26
Speaker 1: Rebecca's death also deeply affected the people who knew her.
47:29
Speaker 1: Pam Dauber and several other My Sister Sam cast members
47:33
Speaker 1: reunited to film a public service announcement addressing gun violence.
47:37
Speaker 1: I remember that do you no, I do not. Yeah,
47:39
Speaker 1: it was I didn't fully understand everything, but it was.
47:43
Speaker 1: It bothered me. Rebecca's parents became advocates as well, and
47:48
Speaker 1: on the very day she died, she was preparing for
47:50
Speaker 1: an audition for one of the biggest directors in Hollywood.
47:54
Speaker 1: Will never know what Rebecca Schaeffer's career might have become. Instead,
48:00
Speaker 1: her name became forever associated with something she never asked for,
48:04
Speaker 1: the dangers of celebrity stalking. And when you hear Heather
48:08
Speaker 1: Thomas described receiving bullets and funeral reads in the mail,
48:13
Speaker 1: having men jump the gate at her home, and ultimately
48:16
Speaker 1: having an intruder climb through her bedroom window, Rebecca Schaeffer's
48:21
Speaker 1: story puts those fears into a very different perspective.
48:24
Speaker 2: Oh for sure, for sure. So it's too bad that
48:28
Speaker 2: Heather Thomas used rock salt Well, yeah not book shot. Yes,
48:34
Speaker 2: when they make me king for a day for the
48:39
Speaker 2: day like Thompson twins, I will pass a law that says,
48:45
Speaker 2: if you're a documented stalker and you're still stalking that person,
48:49
Speaker 2: it is okay for them to shoot and kill you. Yep,
48:53
Speaker 2: all stalkers should be shot. I don't care if they
48:57
Speaker 2: have a mental issue or not, because they're not going
48:59
Speaker 2: to stop until they kill or hurt or maime, or
49:02
Speaker 2: they're caught and thrown in jail. And even with the
49:05
Speaker 2: stalking laws, it's still not enough.
49:06
Speaker 1: I know.
49:07
Speaker 2: It's we've seen enough of your crime specials on TV
49:12
Speaker 2: to know that police can't really do anything with the
49:16
Speaker 2: stalkers unless they're caught on the property of the person
49:19
Speaker 2: they're not supposed to be yet, or violating the protection order.
49:26
Speaker 2: But they've got to be violating at the time the
49:28
Speaker 2: police catch them. So somebody calls the police and they run,
49:30
Speaker 2: they can't do anything about. It's just so ridiculous. So
49:33
Speaker 2: when I'm king, hey, stalkers are like deer during deer season,
49:40
Speaker 2: but stalker hunting season is all year long. God, you
49:45
Speaker 2: don't have to have a license for it. You don't
49:47
Speaker 2: have to have documented proof.
49:49
Speaker 1: So when you put these stories together like we just
49:52
Speaker 1: did today, you start to see just how different celebrity
49:55
Speaker 1: security was in the eighties and early nineties.
49:58
Speaker 2: The Wild West.
50:00
Speaker 1: Simply wasn't the kind of security infrastructure that we expect
50:03
Speaker 1: out of celebrities today.
50:05
Speaker 2: It's like it's like Abraham Lincoln get shot and then
50:10
Speaker 2: they still don't have anybody protecting the president. And twenty
50:13
Speaker 2: years or sixteen years later, James Garfield gets shot, and
50:17
Speaker 2: then they still don't have somebody protected the president. And
50:22
Speaker 2: twenty years later, William McKinley gets shot. It's like what
50:25
Speaker 2: in the world. And then finally they get you know,
50:28
Speaker 2: secret service in there to protect and yet Kennedy still
50:31
Speaker 2: gets shot, although he did kind of go against their
50:33
Speaker 2: orders of don't driving it in a drop top.
50:36
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that is the end of my somewhat true
50:42
Speaker 1: crime ish episode today.
50:44
Speaker 2: True Crime of the eighties starring Lindsey and Donnie.
50:48
Speaker 1: See that's why I said, oh no, we're talking about
50:50
Speaker 1: my obsession in love of Donnie Wahlberg, and now I'm
50:53
Speaker 1: going to get into talking about stalkers.
50:55
Speaker 2: Should I be exactly? Yeah? Exactly?
50:58
Speaker 1: Oops.
50:58
Speaker 2: Though, had I known that you were gonna go through
51:03
Speaker 2: all this, I would have talked to my Boston accent.
51:06
Speaker 1: Oh let me hear one more.
51:07
Speaker 2: Time, Boston. Okay, I'm gonna go get in the CA.
51:13
Speaker 1: That's not half bad. It's not half good either, you know,
51:17
Speaker 1: it's not okay. So I don't even know how do
51:21
Speaker 1: you wrap it up? Because that was heavy I'm not
51:23
Speaker 1: sure how you.
51:24
Speaker 2: You know, when we watch these at night, like we
51:26
Speaker 2: have to have a pilot cleanser and then we watch Seinfeld.
51:29
Speaker 1: We do. Seinfeld is always our palat Where is Gramer
51:33
Speaker 1: when you need it?
51:34
Speaker 2: Exactly? Well, he's wearing those painted on jeans where he
51:39
Speaker 2: walks like Frankenstein. Yes, Frankenstein's monster. I know the difference, folks.
51:44
Speaker 1: So we're out there. We're on all the socials. You
51:46
Speaker 1: can find us on x, Facebook, Instagram, Children of Underscore Eighties.
51:52
Speaker 1: You can always email us. We like to get emails.
51:54
Speaker 2: Children of the nineteen Eighties at gmail dot com and
51:56
Speaker 2: we are. We're getting more and more emails and I'm
51:58
Speaker 2: loving it. I am loving it. In Remember, you can
52:01
Speaker 2: join our Patreon for free. But if you want to
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Speaker 2: and get bonus episodes and all that stuff, you can
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52:11
Speaker 2: help support the show. We've got a great community over there.
52:13
Speaker 2: We've got great people participating. It's always so much fun.
52:17
Speaker 2: Come join the crowd, be a part of it. You know,
52:19
Speaker 2: everybody wants to be part of a part of a crowd.
52:22
Speaker 1: Come on We would love to have you.
52:26
Speaker 2: Until next time. I guess if we're not stalked until then.
52:31
Speaker 1: I'm Jim and I'm Lindsay. We are children of these
52:37
Speaker 1: next friend