'All my life I’ve been called a hopeless romantic
Waiting for my prince to take me away
But when I found you I felt different
Than I’d ever felt before
Suddenly I was taking no chances
By walking through your door'
You take me away to Another World....
I've written on the site before that my fascination with soap hunks started with Another World. Another World was the soap my mother watched. Everyday after school, I'd arrive home, yell hello, then make a peanut butter sandwich and run down to the rec room to join my mother who already half way through the days episode of the soap.
When I was really little, I didn't really watch, I colored or worked on homework on the coffee table beside my mother. Although I didn't watch, I did listen, and before I knew it, I was knew who Mac, Rachel, Ada and the rest of the Cory's and Frames were. I watched on and off until I was about 10 or 11, when other after school activities took over.
I picked up again a few years later due to Anne Heche, and loved her turn as the twins Marley/Vicky. By then, it was the late 80's, and was never home to watch after school, so taped the shows on our Beta, (yes, we were one of those family's who started with Beta) and watched late at night or on the weekends. When Heche left the show, so did I. I was in high school by then and never saw another episode. The image below however, had me thinking back to many many afternoons in Bay City.
I was a little young to remember Sandy Cory, but I do remember seeing images of blonde hottie Christopher Rich in magazines. I was intrigued by his role as a male prostitute on the soap, but back then, getting your hands on older episodes of soaps was impossible. Today, some faithful viewers have uploaded old taped episodes on Youtube, but in the 80's, it was only through magazines and images that I knew of Rich.
Sandy & Jamie
I few year later I do remember seeing Rich in the sit-com The Charmings, as well as his role of Archie Andrews in the 1990 TV Movie, Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again. Years later, I enjoyed Rich on Murphy Brown and his most famous role on Reba.
Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again
Whenever I see Rich today, whether it be in a magazine or on TV, I can't help but to flashback to those shirtless pin-ups, and the stories of his role as a prostitute on Another World. Given it was a soap, and it was the 80's, I'm not sure how far the show went with the story. Unlike prime time TV, and cable, which continue to push the limits, soaps have actually regressed when it comes to love scenes and male skin. They most likely went further with the story then, then they'd dare do today. It was actually more common to see a soap character in briefs on a soap (or even side nudity briefly in the 90's) then, than now.
The role of TV hunk is as we know cyclical. In Reba, (2001-2007) Rich was playing the 'father' role, and it was Steve Howey who did the bulk of the shirtless scenes. Although Howey has too moved on the father role on Shameless, his father is much more of a daddy, than your typical dad.
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