What was Arnold Horshack’s Fiscal Policy?

In the last year I’ve read Kamala Harris’ 107 Days and Jill Biden’s View from the East Wing. Some here on Ricochet believed I should read things with greater literary worth, and I took those admonitions to heart.

That’s why I read this book from 1977: TV Super Stars by Jeffrey Feinman (Xerox Education Publications). This was the kind of book you could buy for about a dollar from the Scholastic Book Club. The book had some kind of tie-in with the Weekly Reader. Today the book is available on eBay for anything from $2.75 to $18.75.

There are those who might quibble with the title of the book, arguing that some featured in the book – such as Mark Shera – weren't “Super Stars.”

(Of course, we all remember Shera as Officer Dominic Luca from S.W.A.T. and also as Jedediah from Barnaby Jones, where he was the elderly detective’s nephew and assistant. Still, he wasn’t the star of either show, let alone super.) The book presents us with fascinating tidbits from Shera’s life. “Mark now lives in Hollywood. He has become an active tennis player. He takes advantage of California's beaches too. Mark is also quite a singer and loves to play the piano. Mark is a bachelor.”

Others featured might be more commonly considered superstars—like John Travolta, at the time playing Vinnie Barbarino, one of the Sweathogs on Welcome Back, Kotter. Did you know that Travolta was one of six children born to Helen and Salvatore Travolta in Englewood, New Jersey? Did you know his mother was a drama teacher, and his father ran a tire shop? Did you know he had a pilot’s license, and drove a ‘55 Thunderbird?

At the time this book came out, there was no TV star bigger than Henry Winkler, The Fonz on Happy Days. About Winker we learn the following important details: he was born in New York City on October 30th (they don’t give the year), he’s 5’6½” and 140 lbs., with brown hair and hazel eyes.

I was baffled why the book had a chapter on MacKenzie Phillips from One Day at a Time but not Valerie Bertinelli, who I found much cuter back in the day. (Phillips was the daughter of John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas... and she was half an inch taller than Henry Winkler.)

Readers get intriguing information about the actor who played Mr. Kotter and about the actors who played the other Sweathogs. And the actors who played Richie Cunningham, the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, the paramedics from Emergency, along with such musical masters as Donny and Marie Osmond and the Captain and Tenille.

And so much more.

There is something unsettling about this book. Important events were taking place in the mid-seventies. The year before Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford in the Bicentennial Presidential Election. The energy crisis continued to throttle American thermostats and fuel pumps. Gary Gilmore had recently been executed.

Yet going through TV Super Stars, I never learned whether the celebrities supported Ford or Carter. What were their positions on fossil fuels vs. nuclear power vs. renewable energy resources? Nowhere could I find the stances these demigods took on capital punishment, abortion, or the Catholic Church’s decision to loosen policy on divorce. Not a single celebrity had suggestions for ending the Cold War.

(I guess to be fair: we knew Anita Bryant’s position on certain social issues.)

How were the young people of the time supposed to navigate life without the wisdom of television stars about politics and pressing social issues? I was a teen at the time, and I can’t remember how we managed to muddle through.

To be honest, I kind of liked it that way. Because, you know, if Macklemore had been a “Super Star” back in the day, he would have made himself a spokesman for the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.