After a few failed tv series and execrable movies Scott Baio burst onto the teen idol scene in 1977, when he was hired to play "Cousin Chachi" on Happy Days (1977-84) and the execrable spin-off, Joannie Loves Chachi (1982-83). He immediately pushed on with his long-runnng "boy nanny" vehicle, Charles in Charge (1984-90).
There's no doubt that Scott was dreamy (though many fans preferred his cousin Jimmy). He was pleasantly muscular, though no bodybuilder. And he knew how to work a shirtless shot.
But the beefcake shots were aimed entirely at a female audience. Scott gave no indication, on or off camera, that he was aware that he had male fans, or that he knew that it was even possible for a teenage boy to like him. Or that he knew that gay people existed at all.
No gay characters appear in any of his movie vehicles, except for the 1986 Truth about Alex, in which a teenage boy discovers that his best friend is gay.
And there is no bonding. Only two significant same-sex relationships occurred his entire film and tv career: with Lance Kerwin in The Boy Who Drank Too Much (1980), and with Willie Aames in Zapped! (1982), which was remade into a Disney Channel movie in 2014. Over the years, Scott has made only one statement acknowledging the existence of gay people. In 2010, his wife Renee got in trouble for tweeting that the editors of the website Jezebel were "lesbos," and explained that women become lesbians because they can't get a man. Scott defended her statement as "freedom of speech" and "the right to disagree."
He disagrees with lesbians having the right to exist?
Scott Baio's fans have had happier days.
There are gay rumors about Scott on Tales of West Hollywood.
I was never a fan of Scott Baio. There was just something about him that turned me off even way back when he started on 'Happy Days' (I preferred Fonzie's first "boy" Spike and was NOT happy when he was replaced by Chachi). I preferred boys a little more "butch" than Scott Baio was, but there was also something else about his personality that I just never liked. I could never put my finger on it, but his attempt at a "comeback" with that awful VH1 reality show pretty much only served broadcast what a conceited jerk he was, so I felt vindicated.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Scott disagreed with his wife but didn't want to contradict her?
ReplyDeleteAs for Scott's comment regarding gay and lesbian people...'Methinks the lady doth protest too much!'
ReplyDeleteAnd yet in the early 1980s, he starred in an HBO-TV version of "Gemini," and also on stage with Danny Aiello, about a nerdy college freshman from a working-class Philadelphia Italian family who doubts his sexuality. I remember it well because it was on HBO around the same time as "Brothers," also about a working-classs Italian family with a gay son.
ReplyDelete