10 roles Jay Underwood could have played!
A few weeks ago while resting my back up after taking a nasty fall, I saw a post on Instagram talking about the 1987 After School Special "The Day My Kid Went Punk." I had always heard about this ridiculous made for TV movie, but happened to notice the title role was played by Jay Underwood. I personally knew him from three roles growing up as kid. Bug the scumbag boyfriend from Uncle Buck "Ever hear of a tuneup? Hehehehe!", Chip the android from The Not Quite Human films, and as Eric from The Boy Who Could Fly. After watching The Day My Kid Went Punk, I looked him up on IMDB, and fell down the Underwood wormhole. Jay acted for twenty-five plus years before stepping away from Hollywood to become a preacher, and raise his family. For the last two weeks I've had what I've called Bugathon. Here I've watched The Day My Kid Went Punk, Not Quite Human, Not Quite Human 2, Still Not Quite Human (always wished they had made a 4th movie in the late 90's!), The Boy Who Could Fly, The Invisible Kid, Son Of Darkness To Die For II, The Fantastic Four (which I actually really loved! Don't judge!), Uncle Buck, The Raffle, A Reason To Believe, The Beat Goes On, Stalked, Sleepstalker, Star Command, Valerie Flake, his TV appearances on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, 21 Jump Street, Superboy, ER, Star Trek Voyager, The X-Files, and Murder She Wrote. My buddy who's a fellow Jay fan, and who's gotten a huge kick out of my Bugathon, even sent me several Jay tapes to I can make a "Bug stack". The two I haven't seen before are Fatal Affair (where I guess he stalks C. Thomas Howell. I'm pumped!) and The Gumshoe Kid. Sadly my VCR went to the giant Radio Shack in the sky after 25 years of proud service. The Gumshoe Kid was responsible, but I guess I counted myself lucky since t didn't actually eat the tape! I still want to see this one and Fatal Affair, but I have to figure out how to get another VCR since both titles are out of print!
My Bugathon has been a nice little distraction, and I've been honestly having a blast doing it. I told people on my Instagram that if they can think of any other actors from the 1980's, send me their names. I might need to have another actor themed marathon maybe in December.
While watching all of these titles, it got me thinking...
What other roles could I have seen Mr. Underwood playing.
10) Michael - The Lost Boys
- I think this is probably my second favorite pick on this list. The Lost Boys is in my top 3 favorite vampire movies of all time. In fact, I sorta tossed back either putting him as Caleb from Near Dark, or Charlie in Fright Night. Michael from The Lost Boys ended up winning, because roughly around 1987 Jay would have been the perfect choice of playing Michael. Nothing against Jason Patrick, I just could never buy that he was supposed to play Corey Haim's brother. Also he seemed a whole lot older than everyone else. I feel it would have been a little more realistic having a more realistic looking teenager play the lead role of Michael. I mean...as realistic as you could get from a vampire movie!
- I LOVE John D LeMay from Friday the 13th the series. Even though Jay might have been a little young to play Ryan starting in 97, I feel this would have been the perfect kind of show for Jay to be in. Plus I think his chemistry with Robey would have been amazing! I'm sure with his belief's now, this would have been a big no-no, but I feel that's what was missing from Jay's career. A lead in a TV show that got picked up. Something with shelf-life that would become a cult classic.
8). Edward - Edward Scissorhands
7). Lance - Pulp Fiction
- OT loves casting actors from cult movies. I think in 93/94 he would have played a great Lance, especially in the shot to the heart scene. Just him sitting in the chair eating cereal listening to the phone would have me dying.
6). Lloyd - Say Anything
- I love me some John Cusack, but ever since I heard that Brandon Lee originally read for the part of Lloyd, I began to think of who else could have played the romantic boombox holding lead? I feel it would have been interesting to see Jay play in another romance/drama a few years after The Boy Who Could Fly. I always wished John Hughes had used him more. I know this is Cameron Crow, but he really did have the look to be in more teen movies. I always felt he had the perfect look to be in movies like The Breakfast Club, or St. Elmo's fire.
5). Josh - Clueless
- Even though nobody ages like Paul Rudd, I still feel Jay roughly would have been the perfect age and have the perfect look to play Cher's dreamy, and charming step-brother.
4). Stef - Pretty In Pink
- We all know he can play a great villain (Uncle Buck), so I think he would have played the perfect Stef (James Spader) from Pretty In Pink. Not only can he play a great jerk, I think also that iconic moment at the end when he sees Blaine has won the girl he secretly always wanted, and you can actually see the hurt look in his eyes...only two guys could pull that look off for audiences to but it. James, and Jay.
3). Valentine - Tremors
- Kevin Bacon rules, but not only in 89/90 would Jay be the perfect age, he would also have the perfect look fighting these underground worm monsters.
2). Johnny - My Boyfriend's Back
- Love Andrew Lowery in this, but how adorable would Jay have looked in this?! I always felt this was a really sweet dark comedy, and often doesn't get talked about. Plus, seeing Jay lose body parts, all the while shouting "I ate Chuck for you!" would be worth it alone.
1). Jack - Speed
- I love the movie speed. It's the perfect action movie. I think the chemistry between Sandra Bullock and him would have been crazy good. Sure nobody can replace Keanu, but I felt Jay would have been the everyday Joe that has the fight crazy Dennis Hopper, all the while trying to make sure that flipping bus doesn't blow up in Los Angeles traffic.
So in closing, what movies could you have seen Jay play? Let us not forget to date, he's played the best Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch to date!!!
