The Celebrity Olympics: Party XI

Battle of the Network Stars XI

November 20th, 1981

When I began this series, I thought I'd breeze through the episodes from beginning to end quickly and easily.  The best laid plans...  It's taken longer than I planned, especially ensuring the shots I feature are from the episode I'm spotlighting.  I know I've made some mistakes, especially with actors who wore his tight speedos in multiple battles.  Although the bathing suit bulge is my focus, sometimes I can only identify the exact battle by the color of the speedo who else in the photo.

Well, we're over half way there.   There were 18 episodes of Battle of the Network Stars during it's original run.  We're now on number eleven!   This was the year of the green speedo, and the green bulge.  Some of you have seen shots of Andrew Steven and Sam J. Jones in their green spandex before.  I've featured images of the hot duo previously on the site.

Looking at their IMDB pages, I see that both actors were co-starring together in the short lived ABC Drama, Code Red.  Along with actors Lorne Greene and Adam Rich, the show looks like an 80's version of TV's current craze of 911 shows.  I have yet to really watch any of the 911 franchise, but with Jones and Stevens, had I been a little older when it aired,  I may have given it a try.

I love the hotness of both actors, and both to me are symbols of those 80's himbos.  Both also seemed to accept their fate, at least temporarily.  Unlike some actors competing on Battle, we don't have to guess what's under the speedo, at least with Jones.  He appeared multiple times in Playgirl, starting with being the man of the month in June of 1975.  You can check out a few of Playgirl full nudes on FH HERE:

I've also featured quite a bit of Andrew Stevens on the blog.  If you click HERE:, you'll see a variety of his 'nude' work, including his softcore period, often starring along side softcore queen, Shannon Tweed.  If you check out the piece on flick Massacre at Central High, you may also see a quick frontal.  Although it didn't appear in the U.S version, I included a clip of a European cut which appears to show Steven's stick in a beach scene. 

Check out more speedo bulges from the eleventh Battle on the NEXT PAGE HERE:

The Eleventh Battle: November, 1981

Battle of the Network Stars XI
November. 20, 1981

Hosts: Howard Cosell 

& Lee Majors 

Willard

NBC (winner) 

Gabe Kaplan, (captain) Maud Adams, Melissa Gilbert, Mark Harmon, Randi Oakes, Cristina Raines, James B. Sikking and Fred Willard

ABC

Scott Baio, (captain) Douglas Barr, Cathy Lee Crosby, Donna Dixon, Telma Hopkins, Ann Jillian, Sam J. Jones and Andrew Stevens 

Roberts

CBS

Pernell Roberts, (captain) Mimi Kennedy, Lorenzo Lamas, Jared Martin, Donna Mills. Tim Reid, Charlene Tilton and Berlinda Tolbert 

The Teams 

It's always surprising to me to see which actors who you didn't expect, look hot out of the clothes they usually wear on TV.  Most actors from the 80's were wearing suits as lawyers, uniforms as cops or rescue workers or scrubs as doctors.  I was surprised how hot and beefy Purnell Roberts looked out his scrubs.  It was also nice to see Fred Willard shirtless.  Willard has made most of us laugh for years, but I don't think I recall two many shirtless scenes. (Although I did find one HERE:) 

NBC won this battle, and sadly, like some of the other recent editions, they didn't televise the swimsuit introductions.  Early editions had a 'speedo show' with the swimmers jumping on the swim platform to show wave before it begun.  Most of the skin from the eleventh edition occurred during the kayak event.  Check out the video below.  Jared Martin (From Dallas) looks especially hot patddling along.

Martin

Barr

Lamas

Harmon & Kaplan

The Celebrity Olympics: Part X

Battle of the Network Stars X

May 8th, 1981

When I began this series, I thought I'd breeze through the episodes from beginning to end quickly and easily.  The best laid plans...  It's taken longer than I planned, especially ensuring the shots I feature are from the episode I'm spotlighting.  I know I've made some mistakes, especially with actors like Gregory Harrison, who wore his tight speedos in multiple battles.  Although the bathing suit bulge is my focus, sometimes I can only identify the exact battle by the color of the speedo who else in the photo.

Ahhh, 80's hunk Leigh McCloskey, such a beautiful man.  I think he was playing Lucy Ewing's boyfriend on Dallas at the time of this battle.  A gifted actor, he really should have become a much bigger star.   But, thanks to Battle, we got to see him speedos and a towel, something we would have missed if he'd been on a hit television series in decades beyond the 80's.

Every time I begin researching a new episode of the celebrity competition series, I get a little overwhelmed.  There were quite a few episodes, and I wonder if it's worth the effort to feature them all.  Then, I start collecting images of hot hunks from the time in their speedos, and I get re-energized to finish off the series.  

Now that we're on 1981, I know more of the celebrities than the previous edition.  The only male actors I really had to familiarize myself with were Bo Hopkins and Skip Stevenson.  A few,  like Woody Brown below right, I've previously featured, including their on screen nudity. (HERE:)

Michael Warren & Woody Brown

So, onto more studs in speedos and a hot strip by Gregory Harrison when he's chosen to take his place in the dunk tank.  Check out more on the NEXT PAGE HERE:

The Tenth Battle: May 1981

Battle of the Network Stars X

May 8th, 1981

Hosts: Howard Cosell

& Erin Gray

CBS: Winner

Tom Selleck, (Captain) Danielle Brisebois, Gregory Harrison, Michele Lee, Leigh McCloskey, Judy Norton Taylor ,Tim Reid. Charlene Tilton

ABC: 

Robert Urich, (Captain) Scott Baio, Melanie Chartoff ,Jeff Conaway, Linda Evans. Jenilee Harrison Bo Hopkins. Ann Jillian

NBC: 

Barbara Mandrell (Captain) Woody Brown, Melissa Gilbert, Brian Kerwin, Louise Mandrell ,Randi Oakes, Skip Stephenson, Michael Warren

Urich

Harrison

Gregory Harrison was truly one of the hottest hunks of the eighties.  That handsome face, the head of hair and his beautiful body!  If you've checked out FH, you know I featured Harrison, and his on-screen nude scenes many times on the site. (you can find them all HERE:)  Thankfully he was employed on Network television for most of the 1980's, appearing on Battle of the Network Stars a total of four times.  Sadly, I think this mark's his last appearance stripping down to his speedo.

Harrison being picked up by Randi Oakes

Michael Warren

Previous Battles on FH:

Woody Brown

Again this episode, the producer annoyingly shot most of the hotties in the speedo from the waist up!  This was especially criminal this edition as the ABC team wore white speedos.  We did get a few good shots of Robert Urich's butt as he got out of the pool after the Kayak relay race.  Because of this, I didn't include a video this time of the swimming competition.  Instead, I included a few minutes from the dunk tank.  There a hot moment when Gregory Harrison strips down, gets wet, then is carried down by actress Randi Oakes. 

The Celebrity Olympics: Part IX

Battle of the Network Stars IX

December 5th, 1980

When I began this series, I thought I'd breeze through the episodes from beginning to end quickly and easily.  The best laid plans...  It's taken longer than I planned, especially ensuring the shots I feature are from the episode I'm spotlighting.  I know I've made some mistakes, especially with actors like Gregory Harrison, who wore his tight speedos in multiple battles.  Although the bathing suit bulge is my focus, sometimes I can only identify the exact battle by the color of the speedo who else in the photo.

Every time I begin researching a new episode of the celebrity competition series, I get a little overwhelmed.  There were quite a few episodes, and I wonder if it's worth the effort to feature them all.  Then, I start collecting images of hot hunks from the time in their speedos, and I get re-energized to finish off the series.  

Now that we're finishing 1980, we're on the home stretch.  I don't mean we're near the end, but I was really struggling with some of the episodes from the 1970's with so many celebrities I'd never heard of before.  Most of the speedo wearing stars in this installment, I'd at least heard of.  There were only a few male contestants, (Robert Walden, Byron Allen and Arte Johnson) I had to look up.  I knew who most of the female celebrities were, (except Phyllis Davis) and was surprised to see actress Diane Ladd on one of the teams.  I'm not sure I knew that Ladd had a short stint on the sit-com Alice at the time.

So, onto more studs in speedos and a surprisingly hot strip by Tom Selleck when he's chosen to take his place in the dunk tank.  Check out more on the NEXT PAGE HERE: