The other day while working my through some links on Youtube came a true blast from the past. I have always been a sucker for television credits, especially ones which blend a great theme song with images from the show, and there on the right hand side of the screen were the opening credits for Danger Bay. If you have never seen Danger Bay, or never heard of it, give the opening credits a look. When I was 10 years old, it always got me excited for the next 30 minutes.
Although I now don't 100% support wild animals in captivity, when I was a kid, so many of my dreams involved animals. Joining the circus or working in a zoo. The first time my family visited Florida, I was in heaven at Sea World. I mopped the entire rest of the trip, until my parents agreed to take me back for a second visit. I spent hours outside of tanks, believing fully I was bonding with the dolphins and whales on the other side.
Danger Bay was a Canadian Television show that many may have watched on The Disney Channel in the late 80's and early 90's. The show was set at the Vancouver Aquarium and focused on marine veterinarian Grant 'Doc' Roberts and his children, Nicole and Jonah. Doc was played by character actor Donnelly Rhodes with Ocean Hellman and Christopher Crabb playing his children.
I was especially taken with the adorable Christopher Crabb. The young actor was about my age, and his life at the aquarium was a dream. Loving father, whales and sea lions as playmates. Every week there was something interesting going on, usually someone was up to something that required Doc and the kids to become detectives and they usually ended up saving the day. It was also rather cool (and a little eerie) that the two child actors hired for the show set at a sea aquarium had the names Ocean and Crabb...
Crabb was not only adorable with his great face and perfect eighties hair, he was also a great actor and in 1988 won the Best Young Actor award for a cable series. After the series ended, Crabb moved to California and continued to act on shows such as Life Goes On and The Pretender. Although he continues to act, in short films and on stage, today Christopher is self employed, spending on a lot of time on his other passion, tennis.
A former #1 ranked junior champion in Florida and Canada and a world-ranked pro, Crabb is a tennis instructor who takes both a psychological and physical approach to teaching able to quickly size up a student to best maximize their abilities. Crabb also coached Robert Downey Jr. into expertly playing tennis for his role in 'Chaplin.'
Although the 80's hair is gone, Christopher looks as adorable as ever in these recent head shots below. Hopefully we will see him leave the tennis court long enough to get back in front of the cameras soon!
1 comment:
I feel that Growing Pains had the most memorable opening credits song. It's stuck in my head and I think it will be stuck in there for decades to come. I haven't watched an episode in well over 10 years but I still know every word to that song.
-Chris
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