Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Top Ten Anniversary: The TV Hunks

Top Ten TV Hunks

In less than two weeks (on August 24th, 2019) Poseidon's Underworld will be turning TEN years old! In anticipation of the big day, we'll be doing a series of Top Ten favorites. While I don't think any long-term readers will be surprised by these favorites, you may still welcome reveling in some of them along with me. As you can guess, all of these men have been featured here at Poseidon's Underworld one way or another, so if you want to see or know more about them, just click on the man's name. These are in order alphabetically by first name.

CHAD EVERETT -- Firm-jawed star of Medical Center, the highly successful drama series he headlined after his career as a young movie lead began to subside. We love his thick, chestnut brown hair, his penetrating blue eyes and his beefy physique which was hinted at even in his surgical scrubs (the bottoms of which are feverishly discussed to this day by his fans online!) Even as he aged and turned gray, he retained his hearty good looks.
CLINT WALKER -- Towering gentle giant who starred in the very popular western series Cheyenne. Walker's handsome, if slightly imperfect, features are already our cup of tea, but what really put him over the top and into our all-time favorite category were his burly figure (with a jaw-dropping chest), his kindly, polite manner and that voice... a one-of-a-kind soul soother that made the whole package irresistible.
DACK RAMBO -- As a fresh-faced youth, he costarred on The New Loretta Young Show and The Guns of Will Sonnett, but by the 1970s and '80s, he'd emerged as a dangerously sexy hunk with bedroom eyes, bedroom lips and even a bedroom crotch! Ha ha! A guest star on countless hit shows, he could never quite maintain one of his own for long, but Paper Dolls offered some memorable moments with Miss Morgan Fairchild. A stint on Dallas proved to be less rewarding, but he did wear a Speedo in the Ewing pool!
GREGORY HARRISON -- Made his mark on the hit miniseries Centennial and starred in the short-lived Logan's Run before costarring on the long-running hospital series Trapper John, M.D. All it took for us to become hooked was an opening credits sequence that showed him dripping wet in a shower stall, but we adored him thereafter as well in TV movies like For Ladies Only (1981), in which he played a male stripper.
JON-ERIK HEXUM -- Few men have made my heart go pitter-patter more vividly than did Mr. Hexum when he costarred on the kid-oriented adventure series Voyagers. Typically clothed from head-to-toe (but with telltale chest hair peeking out of his off-white shirt), he donned gladiator gear for a key episode that would never be forgotten. Like Clint Walker, he had a deliriously syrupy low voice. He was later exploited to his best advantage in the TV-movie The Making of a Male Model (1983) and the spy series Cover-Up, where an on-set bit of fooling around led to his early demise. He died while existing as, quite honestly, the perfect man and is, thus, crystallized as such in our mind.
LEE MAJORS -- Watching The Big Valley at four o'clock every day was an after school ritual that I wouldn't miss for anything and one of the key reasons was seeing The Six Million Dollar Man back when he was new on the scene. Majors was the brooding, but upright, bastard son of The Barkleys before moving on to Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, The Virginian and, after Six Million, The Fall Guy making for an enviably long and successful career on TV.
ROBERT CONRAD -- I don't think anyone in the history of television regularly wore pants as tight as Mr. Conrad on The Wild Wild West. His body in them is the stuff of legend. However, for me, the best was yet to come whenever he would (frequently, thank Jesus!) take off his shirt. Those searing baby blue eyes, framed by his permanently tan face, were the gravy on top of an already delicious piece of beefcake! Later, he starred on Baa Black Sheep and sported khaki zip-up flight suits that were demonstrably tighter than anyone else in his command.
TED McGINLEY -- The hair, the eyes, the smile... the everything! Though his greatest success came later on Married... with Children (which I have never seen), it was on Happy Days, The Love Boat and Dynasty that I came to know and love Mr. McGinley. He became known for "killing" hit series once he arrived on them, but that was never fair. He was always a key reason for me to watch whatever show he was on (though I did stop short of The Bundys. America didn't, however!) In his day, the keywords I'd use for him are "dreamy" and "breathtaking."
TY HARDIN -- Brought in to fill the gap left by Clint Walker during a dispute with Warner Brothers, Hardin worked on Cheyenne and was rewarded with his own western series, Bronco. He parlayed his TV fame into some notable film roles including The Chapman Report (1962) and PT 109 (1963) and scored bonus points for bearing up against Joan Crawford in Berserk! (1967.) His final years were ones of questionable sociopolitical viewpoints (i.e. - extremism), but in his prime he was one charming devil.
VAN WILLIAMS -- One more of many from the Warner Brothers stable of handsome hunks who were put to use in both movies and TV, Williams did the private eye bit on Bourbon Street Beat and Surfside 6, was assistant to a millionaire on The Tycoon and played a famous hero on The Green Hornet. Always dapper and carefully groomed, when he lost his business suits in favor of swim trunks it was eye-popping! By 1980 he had fled Tinseltown for a new life in real estate, telecommunications and even local law enforcement.

That's our much debated and deliberated Top Ten, with some gents being narrowly beaten out along the way including Dennis Cole, Doug McClure, Gary Conway, Lee Horsley, Mark Goddard and Ron Ely, among other contenders. Stayed tuned, though, because a bit later we'll be featuring our Top Ten Movie Hunks!

13 comments:

  1. I'm so glad Robert Conrad and Clint Walker made your top ten, Poseidon, they are two of the sexiest men in entertainment, past or present! I never get tired of watching anything I can find them in, and there just doesn't seem to be enough shirtless photos of them online. I could go on and on about what else they do for me, but I'm sure you can use your imagination. In fact, I must sign off now....

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  2. Great list of guys here! You've pretty much hit all my top ten, especially Conrad, Walker and Hexum!

    One small correction, though-- Ty Hardin's show was called "Bronco":

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronco_(TV_series)



    Thanks for everything you do, and please stick around for at least another ten years!

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  3. This is going to be a fun series of posts. Looking forward to it all. Btw, happy (early) anniversary!

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  4. Martin, I think a person would have to be blind to disinclude Bob or Clint from a list like this...! They were TV beefcake gods, fer cryin' out loud. :-) Glad you liked seeing them again.

    hsc, what a scream! Something about all this beefcake must have gotten the word Honcho on my mind. I wonder how... Ha ha ha!! I fixed it. Thanks!

    Scooter, thank you much! I hope you like this series.

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  5. Here's to ten more Poseidon. I think for Christmas I want Chad's head attached to Clint's body. I also like Jon-Erik but hands down the sexiest is Robert Conrad. He always seemed so wound up and I find that really hot. I think he aged really well and looked better older, but a recent viewing of Palm Springs weekend almost made me change my mind.

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  6. Very nice, but my heart still belongs to daddy - Flipper's daddy, Brian Kelly, that is. Oh, the blissful hours I spent imagining myself slim, sandy-haired, wearing nothing but a tan and cutoffs, frolicking in the sun with someone tall, dark, handsome, hirsute, - excuse me a minute.........

    There, that's better. Anyway, I really liked Flipper.

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  7. A great group of guys but I have to say Dan's totally understandable obsession with Brian Kelly is right in my wheelhouse! And Carl Betz from the Donna Reed Show.

    I never watched much of Big Valley unless I was home from work during the day and saw reruns. But I was usually frustrated because it was never about Heath, but about Audra!

    I would add Frank Converse who was from a slightly earlier time on TV in Coronet Blue and another series where he played a police detective I a series called NYPD. I will never forget the episode where the somewhat older gay man reports that he was a victim of blackmail by someone who picked him up at a gay bar. Frank the detective was picked to be the decoy to pick up the blackmailer at the bar because he was such a luscious looking blonde and would be an easy mark. My temples throbbed watching Frank waiting to be picked up by a man in a bar! Who knew there were places like that for people like me! Even though I was only 13!

    And also quite a bit earlier than your choices, I have to add Gardner McKay, who had a series called Adventures in Paradise. I was about 6 or 7 when I had an erotic dream about Gardner dancing JUST FOR ME in a grass skirt and his white sailor's cap and all that chest hair. I don't believe those people that say you don't know your sexuality at such a young age, after that dream, I F-ing knew!! Of course if you ask the same people they will say they knew they were straight at that age so they are simply delusional!

    Lots of eye candy in this post Poseidon, loved it!

    BrianB

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  8. Congrats on your anniversary! I think I've been along for most of the ride and it's been a wonderful ten years. You included the four TV hunks that I think actually TURNED me gay: Chad Everett, Robert Conrad, Clint Walker (if only from his "Lucy Show" appearance) and Lee Majors. Yes, I was a perfectly straight, unsuspecting Midwest youth until I saw them--and then, POW! I turned into a child who was gayer than laughter. No turning back. Such was the power of black-and-white television!

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  9. Gingerguy, I'll take Chad or Clint's heads... all of 'em! LOL I think Robert Conrad was almost too beautiful as a youth and got at least more interesting looking as a person as he aged some. But what a bronze face and physique he had!

    Dan, I also really like Brian Kelly (and he has an entire tribute all his own here), but you know what? I've never seen an episode of "Flipper!" Only photos and a few clips. It was never rerun around here to my knowledge.

    BrianB, I was pointed in the direction of Carl Betz several years ago and he was nice looking. He's featured in a post I did here once on TV Dads for Father's Day. His "hair" did sort of put me off though, especially as he got older. That's amazing about the old show "NYPD" featuring a gay bar in it!

    Gregory, I only found out a few months ago that Clint Walker did TWO "Lucy" episodes, both times as the same character. He was positively God-like in them next to diminutive Lucy! Thanks!

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  10. I'll always have a soft spot for Paul Michael Glaser, a.k.a., Starsky, but swoon! what a list! Clint and Robert, mmm, my goodness!

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  11. Amusing Note: Critics were less than admirable about both Kim Novak's and James Stewart's acting abilities. Films In Review magazine (no longer published) commented about VERTIGO and Stewart's mad scenes: "Steward going insane is like Novak making love."
    Be that as it may, the picture is still entertaining, and Novak's sleepwalking acting style is for once appropriate to the character.

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  12. Dear Poseidon, I've loved your site since it began. I discovered it while I was recouping from a major brush with death and it helped pass some otherwise dreary months. Thanks again and man, I could tell you some good stuff about a few of our favorites like Doug McClure and also Lee Majors. Hehehe See ya...

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  13. Forever1267, I did like "Starsky & Hutch," too, especially Starsky. Did you ever see my post about the pilot, in which there is blurry, long shot nudity of Hutch?!!

    Laurence, this comment was likely meant for another post, but I know all these get confusing with the similar titles and golden pics! I agree about Kim's somnambulistic style fitting Madeleine!

    Unknown, thank you so much for the wonderful endorsement! If I did anything at all to make someone's day better that's a great reward for me. And we are ALL EARS about Doug and Lee! (Didn't they work together on one season of "The Virginian" - retitled "Men From Shiloh" that year, I think?) poseidonmail@yahoo.com !!!

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