You know, I'm pretty sure that the "Eeee! Little [actor] was so cute back then!" reaction is not supposed to happen when the actor in question is forty. But ... well. *g* He's just so young and adorable!

Highlander reawakened my old Jim Byrnes crush, so I've been going back to the show where I originally fell for him - Wiseguy - and watching a few episodes for nostalgia's sake. Which, incidentally, is reminding me all over again that Wiseguy's DVD releases are the MOST FRUSTRATING THING EVER. Why, why, why is "People Do It All the Time" not included in the "complete" DVD collection? I can understand why the Dead Dog Records arc isn't, because they couldn't secure rights to the music, but I am utterly at a loss for why they'd leave out "People Do It ..." (and frustrated, since it's one of the only TWO episodes in the whole series that's basically all Lifeguard all the time). At least Amazon has it streaming.

What's fascinating to me on the rewatch (besides how adorable Jim Byrnes is with long, dark hair) is how different Lifeguard is from Joe Dawson. I don't think I realized it quite so strongly going the other way, because it took me awhile to get to know Dawson and by that time I was totally caught up in the Highlander world. But laid-back, aging hippie Lifeguard is worlds away from slick, tightly wound, mysterious, dangerous Dawson. The thought occurred to me, watching these episodes, that I'm pretty sure the most violent thing Lifeguard does in the whole series is picking a bar fight in "Call it Casaba" (which he loses). I don't think we ever saw him carry a gun.

I had also forgotten that when I first started watching Highlander, I didn't expect Dawson to be a main character. I figured he'd just be one of the occasionally recurring ones, and that I'd get a little Jim Byrnes fix every now and then. Surprise! He's one of the main characters! Which is making me aware of just how little Lifeguard was actually in Wiseguy compared to the other two contract cast members. Except for the handful of episodes that dealt with the characters' personal lives, he usually just gets a scene or two.

He's still awesome though.

Maybe I'll break down and actually watch season four this time. I still like to pretend it doesn't exist. *g* But the lure of new Lifeguard scenes that I haven't seen (well, haven't seen since 1990) is proving to be quite a siren song.

ETA: Ahhhh, and then there's the other thing about Wiseguy -- the way the show handles women. It's not necessarily an automatic strike against a show, for me anyway, if it doesn't have any women in the main cast, or if some of the women who do show up are evil and/or crazy. But the thing about Wiseguy is that not only do two of the three main characters have one-dimensional psycho exes, but ALL of the women who are in more than a couple episodes are crazy (in the TV-psycho sense) and/or evil (except for Amber, who's nice enough, but her plot arc is pretty much all about jerking around Vinnie's heart and/or not understanding him). This is probably why I glommed onto Lilah and Nona as hard as I did -- they may only be in a couple of episodes, but both of them are competent, intelligent and kind, and there's not a lot of that on this show. (Also, I ship Nona/Lifeguard like a little shippy thing. *waves Nona/Lifeguard flag*)

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