WHAT!? Interdimensional TV Star Jan-Michael Vincent Is A Real Person & An Actor!
(This clip is posted on the Adult Swim Official YouTube Channel)
If you're not a fan of Rick and Morty then you have no idea what i'm talking about. Regardless, there was an episode called Interdimensional TV 2 where the gang watches television programming from other dimensions while waiting for the father Jerry to be treated for first contracting some horrifying bacterial disease that causes him to vomit acid instantly killing anyone it touches (beginning with the doctor about to treat him), but then to have his penis removed so it can be used as a heart transplant for some famous nobel peace prize winning alien. I can't even type that without laughing uncontrollably.
As they flip through the channels they happen upon a movie trailer featuring multiple "Jan-Michael Vincent's" and they are always being called to save the planet. It's hilarious but anyway until today I always thought he was just some made up person. Well as a result of searching for stuff about the karate kid so i could spell Mr. Miyagi's name correctly in a comment i ended up seeing the name Jan-Michael Vincent in my google search, on Imdb.com no less.
Turns out Jan-Michael Vincent starred in the 80's action TV show Airwolf co-starring Ernest Borgnine which explains why I'd never heard of him. My parents would not allow me to watch that when I was growing up and I never got around to catching up on it later when I went through my phase of retaliation to my parents oppression of my youth as a Jehovah's Witnesses.
He was also a popular pick to play alongside Charles Bronson and was even the first pick for the role of Hooper in the 1975 Thriller Jaws
He was born in one of my old hometowns Denver, Colorado in July of 1944. When he was first noticed for his all American looks he was still active in the National guard but gave it up to make his on-screen debut in The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Chinese Junk (1967), followed by Journey to Shiloh (1968) and Danger Island on the Hanna-Barbera kids TV show The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968). His final appearence was in the movie White Boy (2002). Ongoing health issues the result of a 1996 automobile accident as well as other personal problems seem to prevent his return to acting. He now lives a quiet life on his horse ranch in Mississippi.
While Mr. Vincent may have once been remembered by film fans as the apprentice hit man to Charles Bronson in The Mechanic (1972), as "Matt" in the surf movie Big Wednesday (1978) with Gary Busey and William Katt, or as Trucker Carol Jo Hummer in White Line Fever (1975) i'm pretty sure at least in the circles i run in, Rick and Morty is his current claim to fame. I certainly would not have given that link a second thought had it not been for Interdimensional TV