Way Back When: Alec Baldwin
We love Alec Baldwin in everything from 'Beetlejuice' to 'The Departed,' and we'll miss him when '30 Rock' ends in the spring, but in today's Way Back When, we take a look at his earlier roles.
'The Doctors'
Alec Baldwin's first role was on the soapy TV series 'The Doctors' from 1980 to 1982. He played Billy Allison Aldrich (a soap opera name if we've ever heard one) in the first of a long line of suave, smooth-talking roles in his career. In this scene, Billy attempts to blackmail Natalie Bell with information from their shady past in California:
'Cutter to Houston'
'Cutter to Houston' was a short-lived (read: nine episodes) series on CBS in 1983, about three very different doctors living in the small town of Cutter, just outside of Houston. As the promo below explains, they use "a computer and a helicopter" to connect them to the Houston medical center. Okay... Anyway, Baldwin plays Dr. Hal Wexler, a "big city doctor learning country ways," and by that they mean he's making out with the ladieeeees.
'Love on the Run'
In this 1985 TV movie, Baldwin plays a convict named Sean Carpenter, who plans to run away with his lawyer after she helps him escape from prison. Baldwin displays some of that signature charisma in the clip below:
'Knots Landing'
From 1984 to 1985, Baldwin played Joshua Rush on the TV series 'Knots Landing,' starring in whopping 40 episodes. (That's nothing, really -- the show went for 14 seasons and lasted until 1993!) The soap followed five families living in a coastal suburb of Los Angeles. In this clip, Lillie Mae puts down her knitting to casually drop the bomb that she's his real mother. No biggie.
'Dress Gray'
Man, if you're into seeing Alec Baldwin in a speedo (you so are), then today is your lucky day. In this 1986 TV movie, Baldwin plays Rysam "Ry" Slaight (um, what?), a US military academy cadet who had a homosexual relationship with a fellow cadet who was found murdered. Suspense! Intrigue! Alec Baldwin's hairy chest!