PHOTOS: Favorite TV Hunks Of The 1970s

There was all that hubbub last week about the hotness of Clint Eastwood’s son. Sure, we concur, Clint’s kid is dreamy. But what was most surprising to us was that there was such surprise at all. Of course Clint’s offspring is swoon-worthy, people! Before Clint was talking to empty chairs and grumbling through all his roles on the big screen as grumpy old men, he was quite the looker himself.

We all get old(er), people…if we’re lucky. So show some respect for the handsome men of decades past.  That’s why we’ve found inspiration in Clint (handsome as all heck on TV’s Rawhide (1959-1965) and his son decided to take a look back at television hunks from the last 30 years…and seeing what they look like today. We begin our three-part series with the handsome men of the 1970s (known to us only through exhaustive research, of course, not firsthand knowledge). We could do this all day, but here’s our Top 10. And, yeah, we know you’re going to have something to say about who we forgot or missed, but that’s what the comments are for.

Erik Estrada in CHiPS (1977-1983)

That handsome mug, the motorcycle, those boots, the authority — can someone get us a glass of water and a cigarette? — had us living for being pulled over on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson in The Hardy Boys (1977-1979)

Why pick just one when you can have two at your disposal? That’s the way we think anyway.

Michael Landon in Little House on The Prairie (1974-1983)

Now we know why our mothers were obsessed with this goody two-shoes show: They just wanted to get down and dirty with Pa Ingalls in the barn! Yeah, us, too. Sadly, Landon died from pancreatic cancer in 1991 at the age of 54.

Lyle Waggoner in The Carol Burnett Show (1967-74), Wonder Woman (1975-1979)

Sure, we all watched Wonder Woman because we loved everything about her, but having Waggoner around to leer at certainly didn’t hurt matters (like this pic from his 1976 Playgirl pictorial).

Clarence Williams III in The Mod Squad (1968-1973)

That afro and those ever-present sunglasses made him the coolest cat in school, and while we thought we wanted to be just like him, we realize we really just wanted to be with him.

James Garner in The Rockford Files (1974-1980)

His television career spans several decades, but he began turning heads in the 1950s with Maverick. One of his most memorable roles was playing a private dick in The Rockford Files.

Michael Ontkean in The Rookies (1972-1976)

He skated around the ice wearing nothing but a jock strap in Slap Shot (1977), played Kate Jackson’s gay husband in Making Love (1982), but it was all his cop-and-cuffs cuteness in The Rookies that had us at hello.

Peter Lupus in Mission: Impossible (1966-1973)

We would have taken Peter Graves or Greg Morris from Mission: Impossible, too, but way back when — before we even knew why oiled-up muscles did that to us — we were drawn to MI’s brute force which came in the form of Peter Lupus.

Dirk Benedict in Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979)

In a pinch, co-star Richard Hatch would work, too, but it was Lt. Starbuck who was all cool. He was the hip hero of every little boy’s dreams: He smoked cigars, gambled, was a starfighter pilot, and always — always — got the girl. There’s only one thing wrong with that sentence.

Robert Urich in S.W.A.T. (1975-1976) and Vega$ (1978-1981)

With his brooding good-looks Urich was a yummy TV staple in 1970s. The handsome, affable star passed away in 2002 (at the age of 55) after a long battle with cancer.