Child Stars On Your Television Quiz

Answer: Happy Days

"Happy Days" took us back to the 1950's with the Cunningham family--parents Howard and Marion and teenagers Richie and Joanie and their neighborhood friends, Chachi, Ralph Malph, Potsie, and, of course, the epitome of cool, Arthur Fonzarelli, better known as "Fonzie".

Answer: The Brady Bunch

While "Happy Days" was a seventies show that took us back to the fifties, "The Brady Bunch" was as seventies as they come. The family was nontraditional, but becoming more common in America--A father with his three children married a mother with her three children.

The setting was seventies suburban. The clothes were very seventies, and the kids would sometimes perform seventies style song and dance routines in a show or special.

Answer: The Brady Bunch

One of the curses of being a successful television actor in a long-time series is being identified with your character. For a child actor, it is even more a problem. Maureen McCormick was Marcia Brady for 116 episodes, plus several episodes of the "Brady Bunch Variety Hour" and "The Brady Brides", the TV specials "The Brady Kids on Mysterious Island", "The Brady Kids", "The Brady Girls Get Married", "A Very Brady Christmas", "Bradymania: A Very Brady Special", "Pop-Up Brady", and even an episode of "Day By Day".

Does anyone remember that she played Judy Beauchamp in "Teen Angel"? Or her six appearances on "Fantasy Island"? Or another six on "The Love Boat"? Three episodes of "Son of the Beach"?

Please don't call her Marcia, or she'll bust your freaking head. Can you blame her?

Answer: My Cousin Vinny

Fred Gwynne was a great character actor, and while it was Marisa Tomei who received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, Gwynne's portrayal as Judge Chamberlain Haller was certainly notable. It was also his last movie acting role, as he died of pancreatic cancer the following year.

Gwynne played Herman Munster, a friendly Frankenstein opposite vampire wife Yvonne DeCarlo, vampire Grandpa Al Lewis, werewolf son Butch Patrick, and human niece Pat Priest. The show, which ran from 1964-66, was somewhat similar to the Addams Family. Despite most shows being in color by that time, "The Munsters" aired entirely in black and white.

Butch Patrick, like many other child actors, could not escape being Eddie Munster. His only other regular acting gig has been as Mark in the Sid and Marty Krofft children's show "Lidsville" in the early 1970's. Otherwise, he has had several bit parts and guest appearances on TV shows.

Answer: Joanie Loves Chachi

"Joanie Loves Chachi" was a spinoff of "Happy Days" that ran from 1982-83 and focused on Joanie Cunningham (Erin Moran) and her boyfriend Chachi Arcola (Scott Baio) as they moved from Milwaukee to Chicago and tried to develop a career as rock musicians.

"Love, American Style" was an early 1970's show that portrayed an hour-long story each week, with each episode completely unrelated to any previous one (new story, new characters, new setting), sort of a mini-movie. One of these episodes was the story and characters that was to become "Happy Days".

"Laverne and Shirley" was itself a spinoff of "Happy Days", focusing on the lives of a couple friends of Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli who lived together as roommates in their Milwaukee apartment.

Answer: Rerun

"What's Happening" was a sitcom that aired from 1976-79. It is about three African-American teenagers in Watts, Los Angeles--Roger, Dwayne, and Rerun. Rerun was the most openly comedic character, an overweight, bumbling kid who usually wore a beret and suspenders and did so poorly in school that "every summer he had to go to school to rerun the stuff he did all winter". He was, however, an excellent dancer, as was Fred Berry. His dancing is shown throughout the video for "Child Stars on Your Television".

Berry was typecast even more severely than most other child actors, and found almost no work when the show ended. He battled drug problems, then cleaned up and became a Baptist minister. He also accepted the typecasting to the extent that he began accepting the name "Rerun" as a nickname and wearing the beret and suspenders in public (sort of an "Anti-Marcia").

Sadly, Berry died at age 52 of a stroke shortly after making the video for "Child Stars on Your Television".

Answer: Grease

Jeff Conaway played the role of Kenickie in "Grease" in 1978, then immediately moved to the role of Bobby Wheeler in "Taxi" for the next four years. He also found regular roles in "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "Babylon 5".

Unfortunately, he is now well known for his continuing substance abuse problems. He had battled addiction in the 1980s and gotten sober, but a back injury resulted in the relapses that have led him to appear on "Celebrity Rehab", where we see him now ambling slowly hunched over a cane or being pushed in a wheelchair.

Answer: Peter Brady

Christopher Knight, who played Peter Brady, has had the most television success among the Brady boys, which is to say, nearly none. In 2009, he is the host of "Trivial Pursuit: America Plays", and was previously a participant in "The Surreal Life", a reality show that generally stars former celebrities (incidentally, he married his "Surreal Life" co-star Adrienne Curry).

Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady, has appeared on "Celebrity Boxing" and on talk shows hawking his book, "Growing Up Brady", but has done most of his acting on stage.

Mike Lookinland, who played Bobby Brady, has worked as a cameraman, and has done almost no acting outside of Brady Bunch reunions.

Robert Reed, who played the father Mike Brady, had already been an established television actor and would continue to land roles up until his 1992 death.

Answer: Stand By Me

Anyone who has seen the Corey Haim movies "Demolition High" and "Demolition University" (which are, incidentally, virtually the same film--terrorist group takes over high school/university, unpopular student/secret karate master Corey Haim leads a couple other students to save the day, with everything ending in a massive explosion)--Anyone who has seen those movies can vouch for the fact that at least one of the Coreys doesn't know karate.

The Coreys--Haim and Feldman--have starred in at least 8 movies and a reality show ("The Two Coreys") together. Well, 9 movies, if you include their appearance in "Child Stars on Your Television" in "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star".

Among the movies Feldman has appeared without Haim: "The Goonies", "Gremlins", and "Stand By Me". Haim has appeared without Feldman in the two above mentioned "Demolition" movies and "Lucas".

Answer: Adam Rich

"Eight is Enough" was a sitcom about a mother (Diana Hyland), father (Dick Van Patten), and their eight children, based on the true life of syndicated newspaper columnist Tom Braden, who had written a book about his life with the same title.

In the series, the family was called "Bradford", and the youngest son was named Nicholas. After "Eight is Enough", Adam Rich did occasional acting work, but spent more of his life in and out of trouble, being arrested for drugs, shoplifting, breaking-and-entering, and driving while impaired. Even though the show ended in 1981, at one point in 1991, his TV father Van Patten bailed him out of jail when he attempted to break into a pharmacy to steal narcotics. His last acting role (as of 2009) was a guest spot on "Baywatch" in 1993.