And They Called It 'Puppy Love' ...
"My attention then turned to Jonathan Brandis from SeaQuest, and I again worked up the courage to send a letter to him through his fan club. Much to my screeching delight I got a reply in the self-addressed stamped envelope I included. I got a photocopied (but handwritten!) letter and a small autographed picture. I was beyond elated. My Jonathan Brandis crushed faded as I got older and he was doing fewer TV shows, but I always thought of him fondly. In 2003, I was at work when I read online that he had committed suicide. I was shocked and saddened; even though I never met him, I knew so much about him and it really felt like a childhood friend had died. I found solace in a Web board when I couldn't stop thinking of how troubled he must've been, especially when so many people in the world had loved him and still did. I still feel a little tug of sadness when I see the SeaQuest DVDs at the store or [when] one of his movies reruns on TV. He'll always have a special place in my heart; he will always be the only one who 'wrote' me back."
Stung!
By Alison Birmingham
"When I was 15, I was at my neighbor's house watching MTV. She was bummed out because she would be turning 30 on Friday the 13th. She said she was going to be over the hill and out of luck. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, and she pointed to the TV and exclaimed "That!" On the screen was Sting huskily crooning "Every Breath You Take."
So, ever eager to please, I sat down and wrote a letter to the address on the back of my "Synchronicity" record jacket explaining my friend's request. I reasoned that I knew getting the actual Sting was a lot to expect, but perhaps a phone call would be great. I did get a signed photo (I think it may have been stamped) from his publicist who said she would forward my letter to Sting. My neighbor never knew if he called because she went out for her birthday. This was before caller ID and message machines!"
Home Alone
by Emily Giles
"I know exactly how the writer, Alicia Coffman, felt about never getting an answer back.
My teen idol crush growing up was Macaulay Culkin. Just like Alicia, I would write letters to him all the time and never get one back. My dad would tease me when we would drive past a limo and say 'Hey, maybe that's Caulay McCulkin's (he never said his name correctly and still doesn't to this day) limo.' I would correct him ('It's Macaulay Culkin, Dad!') and then push my face into the window in hopes that it was Macaulay and he would see me looking and roll down the window.
"My last letter to Macaulay included a picture of me and my phone number. I remember telling him, 'Maybe you haven't wrote back because you just don't have the time, so here is my phone number, call me sometime!'
"He never called and I never wrote again."
Sounds of Silence
By Maria Jaramillo-Bean
"I wrote my first letter to Paul [Simon] with fear and trepidation. I wrote it over and over until I knew I had chosen every word perfectly. My hand shook when I put it in the mailbox. I knew that once I sent it, I could never take it back. I feared rejection terribly. After about two weeks, I began a vigil for the mail that drove my mom crazy.
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Member Comments
Posted By: DianeGalley @ 11/03/2008 3:33:11 PM
Comment: In my teen years my girlfriends & I obsessed over so many of the young heart-throbs, but we also liked guys in rock bands, one band especially liked was KISS. We waited downtown all morning on a Saturday, waiting for them to come out of their hotel room, and when they did, we had our camera & pens ready for them to sign our pictures....but alas, they came out without makeup on (before the unmasking of later years) and each rocker had a gal on each arm...we were told sternly by the body-guards, no pictures or we'll break your camera, yet when we offered up our pictures & pens for them to sign, sorry, too busy, and they got in their limo & drove away. I promptly gave away all my KISS records & vowed never, ever to go to one of their concerts. Now when I see Gene Simmonds on TV with his own show I also refuse to watch it....I guess they really, really let us kids down way back then, but I imagine there's still some fans who will still buy into their whole sctick still....but not me.
Posted By: Tamarra H @ 10/28/2008 2:32:53 AM
Comment: I first discovered Jonathan Brandis on Seaquest DSV. I thought he looked like an angel; the most gorgeous guy alive. I wouldn???t miss a show and I grew increasingly irritated when NBC picked Seaquest???s time slot to stick in ???irrelevant??? news broadcasts or other shows. I loved how his blue eyes seamed to sear through the screen and into my own. It was definitely an intense relationship. My most fond memory was the episode when he fell in love with Kellie Martin???s (???Life Goes On???) character, and played her a love song. I think that was his first DSV kiss. I went out and frantically looked for that version of the song (whose name I???ve long forgotten) but couldn???t find it. I dreamed he actually played the song for me. I loved him in Ladybugs too, by far my favorite movie of him. My crush of Jonathan lasted over a year in high school. I managed to find the phone number to his agent in some teen bopper magazine and called. To my utter jubilation a person picked up. I forgot what the very brief conversation was about, but I remember how I felt like I had somehow touched my big TV crush. I would line my walls with his pictures (every kind I could find). My friends at school even got in on it. One found a picture of him in a magazine that I swooned over for weeks and taped to the inside of my locker. I thought back then my crush for Jonathan would never ever fade. And I remember reading in an article of a bopper magazine that a fan eventually got over him. I couldn???t even imagine such an idea. But, of course, as the years went by my crush faded like every other teeny bopper crush. The pictures began to come down off my walls in 1???s and 2???s, until one day, my life size poster seemed too big for my wall. Way back when, it didn???t feel big enough. I guess as I got older, my fancy grew smaller as the prospect of ever meeting Jonathan became unrealistic. It was 2006 when I found out Jonathan had committed suicide three years earlier. My fascination with him was so over that I hadn???t even heard the news. I had to find out about it while perusing the web. I was crushed and saddened that my past love had gone away, and in so tragic a manner. I wonder if he ever received the letter I sent him when I was 14 that spilled over with uber love for him and his work. I wonder if he did read it, did it make him smile. I will never know what led to him committing suicide. I just know that in the years before he died, his appearances were sparing until he wasn???t seen anymore. I will always have wonderful memories of that time in my life when all I could dream of was Jonathan Brandis. His memory will always have a place in my heart.
Posted By: syerra @ 07/03/2008 1:09:42 PM
Comment: Waaaaaaaaay back in the 1960s (wow, that's incredible) my oldest sister Deb was maaaaadly in love with Davy Jones. (I was too tall for Davy, and chose Micky instead.) My poor mom and dad had to put up with the all-night record playing (sometimes the same song over and over over), the holes in their walls from all the posters, and the usual teenage & pre-teenage swooning. My sister Deb went on to be President of one of Davy's many fan clubs (got to have lunch with him on more than one occasion) while my tastes moved on to others, and to this day, she's still "wild about the boy". She even got me backstage at their reunion tour. When Micky walked past me (my perfect opportunity to drool all over him), all I could was point and say "MICKY!" (and this was in my 20's; not back in the pre-teen years.) Heh. The Monkees gave us good, clean & safe fantasy material and for that, I'm eternally grateful.