If there’s anything that can be gleaned from the debut subject of “Where Are They Now?,” VH1’s new series, it is that the so-called “bad boys of rock” aren’t so bad any more.
Where are they now? They’re kicking back, looking older and slightly less rough than in their rambunctious days.
But that’s pretty much all you’ll get from this installment. A lot of the “where-are-they-now” mystery isn’t mysterious to anyone who reads newspapers or magazines or watches entertainment news shows.
“Motor City Madman” Ted Nugent is a big hunting nut. “Soul Brother No. 1” James Brown is still touring and controlling urges to shoot up office buildings. Former Van Halen clown David Lee “Diamond Dave” Roth has his own band, fell out with his former mates before a reunion could even effectively get under way, and is wearing bangs to hide a receding hairline.
Leave it to Roth to provide some minor sparks on “Where Are They Now?” which premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday on the almost-but-not-all-music-video channel.
“Cut,” Roth says while being interviewed. “I don’t want to be part of a segment that’s reviewing . . . is that what we’re doing?” He pouts as he gets up and starts to unhook his microphone.
That’s exactly what VH1 is doing, Dave: taking its occasional series of specials on what past icons are doing these days and turning it into a weekly excursion into nostalgia, highlighted with videos, old and new interview clips and other story enhancements.
For the unknowing, Twisted Sister’s cross-dressing front man Dee Snider is a radio host who also wrote and starred in a movie called “Strangeland” (he says his “Twisted” days hid a man with “severe psychological problems” he claims came with his wearing “heels and stockings and hot pants”); former New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg once torched a hotel hallway, but is now an actor like his brother Mark; and original Goth king Alice Cooper is a 50-year-old avid golfer.
Hopefully, upcoming segments on video-friendly rockers, disco stars and others, will be more revealing.
But, as always, it is the videos shown on this and other VH1 series that provide special satisfaction. Quick hits on Billy Idols’ “White Wedding,” James Brown’s “Living in America,” Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and others are a grin-inducing blast.
Hey, here’s a novel idea: Why not take those and other videos, string them together and run them for several hours during the day?
Nah. Wouldn’t work.
– Making the grade: Anna Chlumsky might get a chance at a hat trick . . . if finals don’t get in the way.
Chlumsky, a Chicago-area actress famous for giving Macaulay Culkin his first on-screen kiss when she was 10 years old in 1991’s “My Girl,” already has appeared on ABC’s made-in-Chicago comedy-drama “Cupid.” This Saturday, Chlumsky makes her second appearance in a show made here, with a guest turn on CBS’ “Early Edition” (7 p.m., WBBM-Ch. 2).
“Turks,” a police drama CBS currently is shooting here for midseason, might make Chlumsky 3-for-3 in Windy City television work.
“I have to become a criminal or something so I can be on the cops show,” said Chlumsky, laughing. She just turned 18.
“It opens up great opportunities,” she adds about all the TV activity happening here. “It’s great just to have them so close,” she says, referring to the studio where the shows are filmed.
Chlumsky, who was born in Maywood and raised in Broadview, is especially thankful for the easy access to work, because she is a freshman wrapping up her first quarter at the University of Chicago, majoring in history.
“I want something to fall back on for when I don’t have roles, because that happens,” she says.
An actress since she was 5 years old, Chlumsky also has appeared in the movies “My Girl 2” and “Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain” with Christina Ricci.
Chlumsky took six days off from studies last month to appear on Saturday’s “Edition,” playing a girl whose boyfriend suspects she’s sweet on high school substitute teacher Patrick (Billie Worley), the bartender who works for newspaper prognosticator Gary Hobson (Kyle Chandler). Gary, meanwhile, is looking to stop a shooting at that school before it happens.
College is high on Chlumsky’s list, but she’s not retiring from acting. Chlumsky will study, audition for parts as they come, and take it one step at a time.
“I don’t know what’s in store for me. I just figure wherever life leads me, that’s where I’ll go. I’d love to stay in Chicago, but who knows what might happen,” she says.
