Bonjour, mon petit choux fleurs! I am still Internet-less, sadly, and as Zapp Brannigan once said, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised…” BUT! I’ve gathered my spongy flesh along with all my available wits to bring you a nostalgia-tinged Friday Pretty this week. These are the televisual chaps we loved with all our acne-spotted, awkward-stanced adolescent hearts (and secretly still love now). Here, we honour the crushes of our youth, forever preserved in the amber of our minds. You can pay me in the currency of our youth – sleepovers, Chinese burns and the messy but ultimately character-buildng business of fancying the same guy. *Gasp* Let us begin.
My boyfriend, your boyfriend, Capeside’s bad boy, and now dating Helen of Troy, Pacey Witter/Joshua Jackson:
He even brought coffee. What a guy.
And the flipside, because some weirdos liked him too, James ‘The Chin’ Van Der Beek:
When you type 'James van der Beek' into Google, it auto-populates with: 'James van der Beek crying'.
Back when flannel was hot (as in fashion–forward, not clammy) and Jared Leto didn’t front a crap emo band, there was Jordan Catalano:
Too pretty to be up to any good...
Remember Felicity? Remember how she had to choose between Ben and Noel? Here at YGD, we chose Ben AKA Scott Speedman:
Ah, that crooked smile, that touch of the Simon Bakers...
I loved the two main vamps in Buffy, but by the end of the epic seventh season, my heart belonged to fake Cockney Spike, brought brilliantly to life by James Marsters:
Ze Sardonic Eyebrows of Love!
Forget Neighbours, the Antipodean teen must-watch in our household was Heartbreak High. My teenage heart yearned for bad boy Drazic, with his wounded soul and oh-so-edgy pierced eyebrow…:
Real name Callan Mulvey. Which is less sexy, somehow.
Sure, he’s married to ScarJo now, and has cornered the market in sarcastic and witty oneliners (usually topless), but Ryan Reynolds used to be Berg in Two Guys And A Girl:
There were no photos of Berg-era Ryan. Honest, I looked...
Happy Friday, pervettes! 
8 Comments
When I was about 9, about half of the guys on this list were my future ex-husbands….
This per(vert) is particularly thankful for such a dedicated YGD.
Great post, we obv grew up in the same era as I fancied most of these guys in my youth. Especially Jordan Catalano – so special everyone always called him by his first AND last name. Hilaire!
@A Simple Thing – Right? *Sigh*
@James – *Bows and waves*
@Lil Bear – OMG, I just realised that I always call him by both names! Shame Jordan Catalano turned out to be a Grade A douche upon closer adult YGD inspection…
Oh my god, I’d forgotten about Heartbreak High and Drazic. My flatmates and I at uni were obsessed with it. I remember getting a hysterical text message from one of them after his car accident saying he had died and having to practically sedate her. That might have been when having crushes on cute boys off the telly became a chore…
Did Blue Heelers ever make it here? I believe I harboured a disgraceful crush on one of the Oz coppers, Adam or summat. Dear god what an awful program.
Mostly it was, in the immortal words of Buffy Prime: “Graduate high school, marry Christian Slater, die.” He later got arrested for beating up his GF. Way to pick ‘em, me!
That photo of josh jackson was totally droolicious..this post brought back memories!
Oh Joshua…. Glad you included “your boyfriend” because he was my boyfriend, always has been, always will be. So happy he’s back on my television in Fringe.