Charles in Charge premiered in 1984, with 24-year old Scott Baio as a rather dorky college student working as a live-in nanny to three bratty kids. After one season, it was cancelled.
It returned in first-run syndication in 1987, hipper and sexier, with a new, softcore-porn rendition of the opening song:
Charles in charge of our days and our nights.
Charles in charge of our wrongs and our rights.
I want --- oooh --- I want Charles in charge of me.
The kids were no longer bratty -- one was a teenage supermodel. And Charles was a confident A-Gamer.
Who had a chest, and wasn't afraid to use it.
And a bodybuilder boyfriend named Buddy (Willie Aames).
I never went to tv show tapings, unless I had out of town visitors. They were tacky and touristy. But I went to Charles in Charge several times, just to gawk at Scott and Willie.
Scott was so fey, and the gay-subtext buddy-bonds were so intense, that everyone in West Hollywood assumed he was gay.
Well, maybe bisexual: he was linked with Heather Locklear, Melissa Gilbert, Leslie Ann Warren, Nicolette Sheridan, and Nicole Eggert, who stated that she lost her virginity to him in 1989, at age seventeen.
Here are 10 most interesting rumors about gay hookups and dates:
1. His first gay experience was in 1976, when he was 16 years old, with Eddie Mekka, who played Carmine on Laverne and Shirley.
2. Scott had a three-way with his cousin Jimmy and Ricardo Montalban, the star of Fantasy Island. .Details vary, but they involve oral, anal, or BDSM.
3. When Scott was appearing as Cousin Chachi on Happy Days, Henry Winkler (Fonzie) asked him to "sit on it."
4. He also dated Donnie Most (Ralph Malph). Donnie was an anal top with an enormous Kovbasa+.
5. Scott hooked up with Jonathan Ward, who played the dorky Douglas during the first season of Charles in Charge. This was a few years later, when Jonathan was 20 years old. Scott went down on him and then bottomed.
6. He regularly hooked up with James T. Callahan, who played the elderly Walter Powell. Callahan often went down on Scott in the dressing room.
7. My friend Mario said that he was set up on a blind date with Scott around 1984. The bedroom activity mostly involved wrestling and "forced" oral. No cuddling or kissing afterwards.
8. A volatile, on-off relationship with Willie Aames, his costar on Charles in Charge. There were constant jealous fights on the set. Once they got into a fist fight over allegations that Scott was cheating.
9. Cesar Romero told me that his friend Jason dated Scott during the late 1980s. Cesar often asked to "share," but Scott refused. He did allow Cesar to watch, though.
10. Will the Bondage Boy's boyfriend Rick told us that Scott answered his personal ad for a BDSM "hard master" in 2002.
Of course, most of these stories are probably made up, but if only a few are true, Scott Baio had a very interesting teen idol career. Surprisingly, most of them end in 1990, when Charles in Charge ended. I wonder if it's a coincidence.
See also: Nude Photos of Willie Aames; Rick the Hard Master Tops Scott Baio; and the Boomer Beefcake and Bonding entry on Scott Baio
I saw "Charles in Charge" being taped several times, but I never met Scott Baio or Willie Aames. I never saw either of them at any West Hollywood venue.
ReplyDeleteCharles in Charge just sounds like the title of a bondage porn.
ReplyDelete1. I just love how incestuous the Happy Days franchise was. Everything was a Happy Days spinoff in the late 70s/early 80s, even things you wouldn't think of, like Mork & Mindy. (I swore Happy Days was set on the East Coast, but Laverne and Shirley is in the industrial Midwest, and Mork & Mindy is in Denver. Also, Happy Days was more grounded, and Mork's an alien.)
2. Ricardo Montalban? Seems sus, but then I've heard rumors of César Romero helping Burt Ward fit in that little leotard. If your character's thing for older sex partners won't be a thing for 30 years, is that still method acting?
3. Also what Chachi means.
4. I hadn't heard this one.
5. Man people really like Baio as a bottom.
6. Or with older guys?
7. Sounds like a typical homophobic date. "It's not a date, just two guys relieving tension. No, don't cuddle. Really don't kiss."
8. Sounds fun. Two homophobic actors get into pointless bitchery on-set.
9. Wait, the Joker has a friend named Jason? That's honestly too funny for words. (To be fair, Romero played the bowdlerized Silver Age Joker. But considering the Joker has always been more of a foil to Robin, both are performers, I stand by what I said.)
10. Again, Charles in Charge sounds like the title of a gay bondage porn.
"Happy Days" was set in Milwaukee -- they mentioned it often. Oddly enough, "That 70s Show" was also set in Milwaukee, but they never mentioned the parallels.
ReplyDelete