Link to the n*de dudes
After Saved by the Bell (1989-1993) demonstrated that Saturday mornings didn't have to be all cartoons, every kid in the country suddenly started eating their Cheerios to impossibly buffed teenagers in impossibly affluent high schools. California Dreams (1992-1997) may not have been the best of the Saved clones-- I don't know if "best" is operant here -- but it was the most beefcake heavy.
The premise: two Iowa teens, Matt (Brent Gore) and Jenny, moved to California, where they form a band called California Dreams. Wait -- why are you dreaming about California, when you live there?
We pause this profile to quote the famous "California Dreamin'", which I heard many times during dark dank winters in the Midwest as I plotted my move to the gay freedom of West Hollywood:
I've been for a walk on a winter's day.
If I didn't tell her, I could leave today.
California dreamin' on such a winter's day.
Most of the Saved clones had the same basic characters: the schemer, who works every angle yet fails every class, and still gets into Harvard; the surly outsider who resents the schemer getting everything so easily; the goofball who litters his speech with nonsequiters; the popular girl, who ends up with the schemer; and the smart girl, who ends up with the surly outsider. In California Dreams, Michael Cade, left, is the schemer, band manager Sly Winkle (sly wink, get it?)
William James Jones, left, is surly outsider Tony Wicks, the band's drummer and sometime soloist.
In Season 2, Aaron Jackson joined the cast as Sly's cousin Mark Winkle, performing the goofball role.
William and Aaron were cute, but they didn't get a lot of teen idol attention. Michael and That Chest were the definite stars. Shirtless photos littered the teen magazines and the gay celebrity websites.
I didn't watch California Dreams often -- on Saturday mornings, we usually watched Joel and the Bots on Mystery Science Theater 3000, then had lunch, browsed bookstores, bought groceries at the Gay Safeway, and went to the gym. In the evening, we watched Mama's Family and The Golden Girls, then went cruising at Mugi or the Faultline...
Or has time rewritten every word?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we? Could we?
Michael was born Michael Ocello in Elmwood Park, New Jersey in 1972. He was interested in acting, but avoided drama club so he wouldn't be bullied -- "when I was in high school, being in the drama club wasn't cool," he notes in a teen magazine interview. Sounds like he was worried that people would think he was gay, which was a major concern in the late 1980s.
But the day he graduated in May 1990, he started taking acting lessons. After a year, a few commercials, and a lot of bare chests, he moved to California where he could be open about his...um...acting. It took only a few months to get a guest shot on Baywatch as Young Bobby, brother of focus character Eddie (Billy Warlock)
Michael also appeared in Chaplin (1992), the biopic of the silent movie star, as his nephew Sydney Chaplin Jr.
During California Dreams, Michael appeared in episodes of a few rather conservative shows, so I didn't check for gay characters, but I would like to see a screenshot of his appearance on The Second Half (1993): the Greek God Pan at a Halloween party.
After the series, more guest spots on conservative shows:
1996-97: Nicole's boyfriend on Something So Right (guess what's "so right").
1996, 2001: Mary's boyfriend on 7th Heaven.
2007: Along the Way, "a powerful memoir of the summer of 1996." So, eight years ago?
Devils Inside (2012), not to be confused with The Devil Inside (2012), sounds promising: three inner-city boys grow up, stay friends, and hope that the "bonds of friendship" will be a remedy for their high-risk behavior. The other inner city boys are played by Thomas Calabro, Brody Hutzler, and Danny Del Toro. However, the research is stymied by that other movie with a nearly identical name.
The Devil's Dozen (2013) sounds derivative, but not of the World War II movie The Dirty Dozen (1967), it's about twelve strangers trapped in a life-or-death game about whether they are moral or not. Other familiar names among the participants are Eric Robers, Jeremy London, William MacNamara, and C. Thomas Howell.
Since 2013, Michael's on-screen appearances have been spotty. There's no biography online, and his Instagram posts refer mostly to his wife and daughter, so I can't tell what he's been doing. He rides motorcycles and plays golf, and shows That Chest whenever he can.
There's an adult film star named Michael Cade, but I highly doubt that it's the same person.
Interestingly, Aaron Jackson has some more reliable n*de shots online. Maybe I should have profiled him instead.
But Michael was the one with That Chest.
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