TV Guest Stars or Hollywood Goes Hollywood Edition

[BrandonDaCollector]

I kinda agree but for the most part I always loved him, His WWF debut back in the early 90s was great. Lots of stuff he did was great and I especially loved he NWA gimmick in 98 there but his chosen one time with Russo was a bit much. No, IMO he never got kudos for being a great wrestler, that I can say for sure, I always thought he was a really good talent in the ring and on the mic.

[packerbacker180]

Yeah, JJ had a pretty long career notwithstanding. His podcast is a fairly interesting listen at times. Tomorrow's show might be pretty obscure, but if it doesn't make you want to seek it out if you've never heard of it, I'm not sure what will....

[BrandonDaCollector]

I'm sure it is but I'm not big on that type of podcast stuff really no matter who it is. I can't wait to see what you have next in store however

[packerbacker180]

Well, ok. I grew up a Latchkey Kid in the 80s. We didn't live far from our elementary school, and my parents both worked 9-5 jobs, so I walked home every day with my sister, and we locked the door to our side of the duplex and were left to our own devices. It really was a different era. So, I was raised on TV. If it hasn't become obvious by my topics, I watched a lot of TV. A lot. So, I thought I'd seen it all but every now and then something escapes my attention. What happened here? Well, in August of '88 we moved to the suburbs, and I actually had friends and we could go outside and not worry as much about things like traffic and other city street problems. Plus, video games became more prevalent, and I'd reached that age where I became more aware of sports so I'd watch hockey, baseball, football, etc. more.

So somehow, I never knew of this show that debuted in the fall of 1988. Maybe you've seen it. Maybe not. But what if I told you about a wrestling sitcom starring former football great Lyle Alzado that was produced in Canada. Interesting? Maybe. What if I also told you the show was produced with help from the National Wrestling Alliance?

So I present to you....Learning the Ropes.



Years before football star Bob Golic kept watch over the college bound kids of Bayside High, Raiders legend Lyle Alzado played single dad turned moonlighting professional sports entertainer, er wrestler, Robert Randall. I could tell more, but like a lot of great old shows, the intro does the job for me...



I lived right on the Canadian border and apparently this aired for one season on CTV, so it should've aired locally. It also was syndicated in select cities in the US but I have absolutely no recollection of this show. It's like Danny Tanner (RIP Bob Saget) meets the Masked Superstar. A sitcom about wrestling? Hells yeah, sign me up. But because it was aided by the NWA, it had many, many guest stars...

Here's a promo by Jimmy Jam Garvin, and a subsequent match against the Masked Maniac



In the ring, the Maniac was played by Dr. Death himself, Steve Williams--Boomer Sooner, JR!

C'mon, Ric Flair? Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!


From the theme, and the clips I've seen online, outside of the ring, this show was pretty awful, which would explain it only lasting one 26 episode season. But I don't care if it was awful, what a rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrush, here's the Road Warriors. The. Road. Warriors!



Here's an advertisement for the show. There was a shorter version but this has a bonus commercial for My Secret Identity! Hello, Jerry O'Connell.



Dick Murdoch!



Apparently, episodes included appearances by Ric Flair, Luger, Sting, Ron Simmons, and Ronnie Garvin. How is the complete series not available? There are a couple complete episodes on youtube, and there is a two disc set you can find online that has the first half of the season (12 episodes) but the rest appear lost to time.



Sadly, Lyle Alzado passed a way just a couple years later from a brain tumor due to years of steroid abuse in the NFL.



I don't care if the show was awful, I'd watch every episode.

Hell, I watched every episode of Greg the Bunny.



Sledge Hammer! ? Loved it.



I'll watch awful shows if they're remotely unique. If I can watch years of Full House and Family Matters I can trudge through a family sitcom with the NWA. Forget a wrestler one time guest starring on a show, this was an entire show with wrestling. C'mon.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Wow, all of that was incredible. I totally missed all of that back in the day, thanks for bringing it to My attention I loved how it was so classic with the NWA. See, NWA/WCW was so cool then, arguably the best days ever of the promotion. By watching this great classic stuff you can see that! Man, I had a crush on Jimmy Garvin's wife Precious for a while back then. Yeah, Lyle was awesome in many ways. Shame about him. Gosh this segment you made was terrific PB, I don't know what else to say

As a side note, at The Great American Bash 1988, Precious was the prize of a triple cage "Tower of Doom" match, she was WOW in that match too! My Grandma bought Me the original VHS at Mr. T's (I talked about the owner Verna in My vintage wrestling topic recently, she was a special lady and she knew I loved wrestling and did stuff for Me, maybe I'll talk about her & her movie shop again in the near future, it was great times) Later, I'll talk about this event in the future cause it was a great one

[packerbacker180]

Yeah, I never heard of it. St. Louis was one of the "select" locations it was syndicated according to wikipedia, so I wasn't sure if maybe you'd seen it. I wish there more episodes online.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Oh you wouldn't have PB, she only had a 1 store and it was in our area. Here is My post from My vintage wresting topic I posted not long ago, not sure if you seen it before?

CLICK here to see it, I posted a lot of other cool stuff there too recently as well, check it out the poster Verna gave Me is the start of My second post Let Me know what ya think, I detailed it a lot but I feature her Mr T's video store even more in the future because she was great and it was such a good time back then and I don't her to be forgotten
.

[packerbacker180]

Again, it's crazy the amount of stuff you have, lol.

Speaking of Full House and Family Matters...

It's not surprising that wrestlers make guest appearances on tv shows. Afterall, a lot of wrestling is memorizing choreograohy and giving convincing speeches. Acting, really, So, when you need a tough guy or a wrestler for a wrestling theme episode, why not go right to the professionals?

So, it isn't shocking when a Hulk Hogan or the Rock shows up somewhere because those are guys that have transcended the business. Hell, they even had/have their own shows. But sometimes you run in to a guest spot you weren't expecting or wasn't advertised. But as we'll see, sometimes the actors are fans, too.

Unfortunately, this was the best version of the segment I could find, but it has someone doing some voiceover narration, but the only other version on youtube cuts out the sound for some rap music, so at least this version you can hear the actual episode.



I liked the Bushwhackers when I was young. We used to lick each others faces sometimes when we wrestled, lol. Not really a fan of the idea anymore, even pre-'Rona, lol. Don't think my kids would be fond of getting their heads licked by some random Kiwis either, but it was a different time.



Turns out the cast of Family Matters were big fans of the Sheepherders.



I don't really remember if this appearance was advertised, but it's always nice to see a tag team...make a splash.



Not this time, Luke. I bet that smarts (insert Bobby Heenan joke about the Bushwhackers not being smart here). But don't tell Carl and Urkel that wrestling is fake!



What's that, Bobby?



"Now cut that out!"


It's amazing some of the names not in the WWE Hall of Fame but the Bushwhackers are. Hell, how is Demolition not? I mean, just because they were part of a lawsuit against Vince McMahon, he wouldn't really be that vindictive, would he?



Anyway, that's the fun thing about wrestlers. They're all actors (some better than others) so you never know where one might show up next. You could dial 1-900-909-9900 and maybe Mean Gene will break it down for you at $1.69 per minute, or keep your eyes peeled here and find out in the future. It might just make you...flip...

[BrandonDaCollector]

Hah, great one PB. You might be surprised with this but I actually watched Family Matters and like it. I didn't find it so-so like some others. Anyway, I didn't see all the episodes and I had no idea that the Bushwhackers was on that show. That was really good! Of all of the wrestling I have watched for so long, I really had no idea how much I missed when it came to wrestlers being on TV shows Its fun catching up like this if you will

Oh, I didn't comment of your Bushwackers theme post, it was good, I always liked that theme and the team in general. I know, the licking was funny...for some reason they always reminded Me of Popeye

OK, a couple things you posted and said about.:

1. Demolition - Yes, it was because of the lawsuit. Remember years ago when it was a huge deal when the New Day broke Demolition's tag title record? Well, all of that was totally intentionally so they could wipe that clean, I knew it then and I hated it In fact there is a long list of names on the lawsuit list from head trauma and other injuries. I must say the only one from this list that was lucky was Barry Windham simply because he was a Horseman and made the hall of fame.

2. The gif you had of Bobby Heenan & Gorilla Monsoon. Oh I remember that, that was from late 93 and really kinda pitiful how it was. It was a feud between the two as they were together on shows and commentary for years including Prime Time Wrestling and PPVs. When it was all said and done Gorilla threw "The Brain" out of the building "literally" on Monday Night Raw. This was a way to write Bobby off as he was leaving and going to WCW. He would reunite with Mean Gene as he just left only a few short months prior. Bobby would partner up with Tony Schiavone for years to come in WCW!

OK, that's it, again, another good entry PB

[packerbacker180]

Oh, I watched Family Matters, too. I'd bet anyone in our age range did to see what that crazy Urkel would do next. Heck, I still might watch an episode if I come across it and nothing else is on. Did I do that? Yes, yes, I did.



I never knew how to feel about that Gorilla-Heenan moment. In a way it's a shame they had him go out that way instead of just letting him leave, but then I guess it gives an ending to their storyline together of all those years of friendly banter. I don't know.

Yeah, it's surprising the amount of appearances wrestlers have on TV and movies. Here's Big John Studd on the 80s police drama Hunter in 1987. Sadly, couldn't seem to find any video outside of the entire episode, and he really only has a small role as part of gang of neo-Nazis that rob a gunstore. In the attempt to escape, the big man was shot and killed by Rick Hunter. Imagine a 6'10" robber, yikes. Kind of hard to escape unnoticed and lay low. Fred Dryer himself was 6'6" and an ex-NFL defensive lineman with the Rams.




Hunter was another one of those shows my father watched, and since we only had two TVs and their weren't many channels, I sort of watched as well. I've always remembered the theme though, and it's on late nights now on one of the free over the air antenna channels and I'll occasionally watch an episode.



John Minton actually appeared in several movies, and a handful of other TV shows. Here's his battle with Ron Perlman's Beast on the awful female friendly fantasy drama Beauty and the Beast.



Hopefully that's the last time any of us have to watch any part of that show.



Sadly, we lost Big John Studd, who would've won that battle royal at WrestleMania 2 if it weren't for the nefarious deeds of William Perry. Studd passed away in 1995 after a several yearslong battle with cancer.



Oh, what do you give a 7 ft robber"

Anything he wants.


Look at that, I wasn't even planning on doing a TV show today, but I thought, I'll just post an image of Big John Studd and before you know it, it's a longer post. Oh well. I was actually planning on doing another show that like Learning the Ropes, was heavily influenced by wrestling and had multiple wrestler appearances that I had never heard of. I'll leave it at that and let the anticipation build....