NEED TO KNOW
Salute Your Shorts aired on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1992, but was syndicated on the network for a decade
The camp-based series was beloved by viewers and the young cast, who praised the safe work environment that many take for granted
Venus DeMilo Thomas, Megan Mahdavi, Michael Ray Bower, Heidi Lukacsik and Danny Cooksey participated in a virtual reunion on the Splat Attack podcast as the show celebrates its 35th anniversary
Megan Mahdavi has the fondest memories of her time on Salute Your Shorts.
The former actress appeared alongside castmates Venus DeMilo Thomas, Michael Ray Bower, Heidi Lukacsik, and Danny Cooksey in a virtual reunion on the Splat Attack podcast as the show celebrates its 35th anniversary.
Acknowledging that child actors don’t always have a positive experience on the sets of their projects, Mahdavi praised the crew behind Salute Your Shorts for providing an appropriate and positive environment for the show’s young talent.
“We had such a love affair with our crew. We had a young, cool crew and they took care,” she began.
“We had an amazing, amazing crew. Like these scandals coming out now that I read, I feel like, ‘Wow, we were the luckiest cast in the world because not only were our writers these wholesome guys who, their thought was like ‘Food is funny,’ “ Mahdavi acknowledged.
“I mean, they never did things to embarrass us or… I just feel like how lucky. If you’re going to be a child actor, how lucky to be a child actor with the nicest crew on earth,” she continued.
The star later added, “For me, it was just a really rosy experience. I think they took care of us as kids. So my memories of Salute Your Shorts are like, the best time of my life. I mean, I have kids now so nothing can ever be better than that, but yeah, it was just an awesome experience. It’s the summer camp I always wish I’d gone to.”
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Castmate Danny Cooksey noted that the show had a “unique position” since they weren’t “in the Nickelodeon sort of apparatus.”
“We were kind of this little independent network,” he said. “People would come in and go, ‘Yep, you guys are spending money making a show. Cool. All right. see you guys next month.’ And they would sort of be gone. We were just this little thing. We were in our own bubble, which was really nice.”
Mahdavi also acknowledged that late castmate Kirk Bailey, who played Kevin ‘Ug’ Lee, was among those who “really took care of us”, using night shoots as an example.
“One of the cameramen was telling us that there was a prison on the other side of the hill, where they had some escapees, just to amp things up. And Kirk just made everything okay. He always made sure. That was who he was,” she shared.
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