I am constantly reminded how as I get older, my tastes in men changes as I do. Today, when I was putting choosing who to feature for the birthday post, one of the actors I considered was Ted Shackelford who turns 71. Ted is best known for his role of Gary Ewing on the 80's prime time soap Knots Landing. I watched a bit of Knots when I was a kid, but I was more drawn to Dallas, the show that first introduced Gary and Valene as the parents of Southfork vixen Lucy Ewing.
Dallas was one of the shows my parents sat down to watch together, and given the show spanned 3 different decades, (70's/80's and 90's) it was a part of our families weekly routine for quite a few years. Although I don't remember much of the early years, I got caught up when the show aired on TNN, and through it's DVD releases. My mothers favorite character was definitely Bobby Ewing, played by actor Patrick Duffy. I liked Bobby, but I also found him a bit boring. Although I could see Duffy was handsome, he did nothing for me at the time I was originally watching.
Duffy with TV brother Gary (Ted Shackelford)
I do have a very specific memory of my mother, her sister and one of my female cousins having a lengthy discussion about Bobby in his speedo from the episode they had all watched the night before. I hadn't seen the episode, so snuck away to watch the Beta recording (yes, we had a Beta) the the previous nights episode. The memory was significant as it wasn't common to hear the female members of my family fawning over an actor's body.
With Lance Kerwin on a 70's celebrity sports special
A few months ago, a few old shots of Duffy showed up on Twitter that had me looking at him in an entire new light. The images (below) were of a shirtless Duffy posing with an extra, and with co-star Steve Kanaly on the Dallas set. Although he looks just as I remember, I had an entirely different reaction to Duffy... or maybe specifically to Duffy's incredible chest. It may be time to haul out those old DVD's and hunt down that old speedo scene.
Man From Atlantis
I believe this brief scene from 1984's Vamping was Duffy's only on-screen nude scene
Hanging out on the Dallas set.
