The World of Angy Wong

Wiki Search: California Dreams
Synopsis: “California Dreams was about a multi-ethnic group of teens and their band. The show’s plots combined real-life issues with zany adventures. It covered a range of topics such as fear, using drugs for a competitive edge, falling for scams, letting greed overtake friendship, accepting a divorced parent dating, forgiving others for past wrongs, and dealing with general teen social problems.”
Cool Rating: 4 out of 5 surf boards

I was born in the 80’s but I am definitely a 90’s child; and my boyfriend knows that all too well as he has suffered through my countless butchering of songs found only on cheesy 90’s TV show. I’m not tone deaf, and I do recognize that these songs are poorly written and are worse than the manufactured crap by the late 90’s boy bands and girl groups, but there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about these songs. I mean who can resist the sultry looks Uncle Jesse throws at the camera while singing the No. 1 song (in Japan), “Forever” , in a mock MTV music video on Full House or not get just a bit teary when watching Jesse and Slater’s rendition of Michael Bolton’s “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” in the Prom episode where Kelly and Zack breaks up because she likes that douche bag, Jeff? As much as I loved Jesse and The Rippers and Zack Attack, there were no better songs than those by the California Dreams.

So, I decided to wiki (yes, I use “wiki” as a verb) California Dreams. I was particularly interested in what happened to cast since as we all know, most actors from these NBC Saturday morning TV shows end up going nowhere in their career (i.e. Dustin Diamond). Here are some facts I found on some of the actors:

• To date, the only member of the cast to continue a steady acting career is Kelly Packard (who played Tiffanie Smith), who was cast in Baywatch and Ripley’s Believe it or Not!.
• Jennie Kwan, who played Samantha Woo the female lead singer from Hong Kong , is actually Filipino American. She was also in the short-lived 90’s girl group, Nobody’s Angel, which made a cameo appearance in Justin Timberlake and Kathie Lee Gifford’s made-for-TV movie, Model Behavior.
• The Fonz-like character, Jake Sommers aka Jay Anthony Marke, is an accomplished musician that played all his own music on the show. However, whenever he “sang”, he was actually lip-syncing to Zachary Throne (an actor hired to be the “singing voice” of Jake. Jay is now a quality assurance engineer at a computer gaming company.
• The shy and often geeky cousin of Sly Winkle, Mark Winkle played by Aaron Jackson has been in a several forgettable films. He also lip-synced on the show and his character’s singing voice actor was Barry Coffing. Aaron was also a contestant on the dating game show Bzzz! I totally remembered watching this game show too, which was so bad that it was almost good. Click on the link and you’ll know what I mean (notice how Steve looks like Steve from Dream Phone’s game board!).
  
• Heidi Lenhart, the actress who played Jenny Garrison (character that I thought was entirely bitchy and basically the show’s version of 90210’s Brenda), has been in a series of television shows and movies playing notable characters such as “Subway Girl” in Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane. I’m not going to harp on her too much however because she’s the step-daughter of Haim Saban who created the Power Rangers!
• After leaving the show, Brent Gore aka Matt Garrison, went onto have a music career… sort of. He recorded 6 EP’s but have not found notable recognition for any of them.

The other actors had very slim wiki-pages, which are not worth wasting space on. It’s quite sad (although not surprising) to learn that most of their careers has gone to the dumps and especially since most of them must have thought that California Dreams was going to be their big break. This wiki-search was not a complete waste of time however, as I did find one piece of information that might make one of my long-time dreams come true.

“It was announced on the 6th of December 2008 that Brent Gore is trying to bring the first two seasons out on DVD. He is also trying to arrange all the cast for interviews and special features. If he succeeds, the DVD should be out by the end of 2009.”

Hopefully, Brent Gore will succeed and I will finally own California Dreams on DVD! This has been something that I’ve been waiting for since TBS stopped showing reruns of it. When they do come out, I know I will be the first one in line to purchase my own copy, much to the dismay of my boyfriend. Here’s a video to tie all you California Dreamers over. It’s Mark singing “It Must Be Love” to none other than Tara Reid! Notice how Mark drinks as he serenades Tara Reid – he must have figured out early the kind of guys she’s attracted to.

Also, if you want to listen to all the songs by California Dreams, you can find them at the fan site Then and Now.