Top 4: Celebrity Crushes of 1980-1985

This is easily my most random list to date, but I read an article that mentioned WKRP earlier, which lead immediately to the list forming in my mind. I was very young in this time period, not even 10, but I vividly remember finding these women appealing.


#4. Jan Smithers - Loni Anderson's Jennifer Marlowe got all the attention on WKRP in Cincinnati, but my eye was always on Bailey Quarters. I was never a huge fan of the show, and I only remember it on syndication, but I always lingered on an episode long enough to catch a glimpse or two of Ms. Smithers. My affinity for nerdy-hot types obviously developed at an early age, and I still love women in glasses, though generally not specs as big, goofy, and Sally-Jesse Raphael-like as hers. Not long after WKRP ended, she married James Brolin (I'd be jealous, but he's now stuck with Barbra Streisand) and dropped off the radar entirely, which is a shame, but she'll live on forever now that WKRP is out on DVD.

#3. Erin Gray - Now who fills out a ridiculous looking space suit better than Erin Gray? A model since her teens in the 60s (even appearing in the 1969 SI Swimsuit Issue), she moved into acting in the late 70s. She landed the part of Col. Wilma Deering on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century in 1979, spending a full two years prancing around in the aforementioned silly costume before moving on to Silver Spoons, where she played the motherly Kate for 5 seasons. Since then, she's kept busy with acting, popping up now and then on various TV shows, and for a woman pushing 60, she's still looking pretty darn good.

#2 Carrie Fisher - Well she'd have to be on this list. When Jabba the Hutt dressed Princess Leia into the slave girl outfit in Return of the Jedi, geeks everywhere fell in love with Carrie Fisher (if they hadn't already). Or at least they fell in lust with her. Thank you, George Lucas. Since then, things haven't gone so well for Carrie Fisher, though. Even though she kept her acting career going and did some writing as well, she's had a number of personal issues to deal with: bipolar disorder, substance abuse problems, a divorce, and a long term relationship ending when her boyfriend (and father of her child) left her for a man... yikes. Today, she kinda looks like a woman who's had a rough life. But we'll always have those precious moments in Jabba's palace to remember her by.

#1. Lynda Carter - It takes a special kind of woman to pull off that costume (I've seen a few actresses wear it, but Rachel Bilson is the only other one who didn't look awful in it). Ok, so technically Wonder Woman ended its run in 1979, but it was still on in syndication, and she was active in various TV projects throughout the 80s. More recently, she popped up in the The Dukes of Hazzard movie, and a recent episode of Smallville as Chloe's mother. And at 55, she's still a fine looking woman.

The only real question here wass whether Carrie Fisher or Lynda Carter would be on top (ha!), and if I'd written this on another day, I might've reversed them. Not that you can really go wrong either way.

Honorable Mention: Pam Dawber (Mork & Mindy), Jaclyn Smith (Charlie's Angels), Catherine Bach (Dukes of Hazard), Kim Fields (Facts of Life, and who I almost put in my top 4 to make myself not feel racist, but I'd rather give my honest answers and blame my lack of diversity on TV and movie executives of the time).