[Feature] 90’s Flashback: It’s All Downhill from Here

When I was a kid in the 90’s watching tv shows, I would watch these perfect characters and would just assume that the actors and actresses playing these parts were equally perfect.
In some cases, this was true – Winnie Cooper (aka Danica Mckellar) went on to graduate from UCLA and has created her own math theorem – but for others, success in the small screen has not translated to successes in real life.

Because I’m cynical and it’s generally more fun to read, here are the 90’s actors that have had less than stellar careers after their initial fame.

Jaimee Foxworth – AKA Judy Winslow from Family Matters

Jaimee Foxworth was the youngest child in the Winslow family. However, when Steve Urkel started getting more and more popular, they made more time for him by cutting her out of the show completely and without any explanation.

From there, the young actress had a steep downfall as she went through alcoholism, depression and the loss of her $500,000 trust fund. She hit rock bottom in 2000 when she went into the pornography business under the name Crave. She made seven pornographic films and quit.

Since then, she’s been on Oprah, the Tyra Banks Show and Celebrity Rehab, talking about her struggles.

Dustin Diamond – AKA Screech from Saved by the Bell
Dustin Diamond went from being the funny, jungle-fevered, dork in our favorite teenage sitcom to being kind of a scumbag as an adult.

After Saved by the Bell (Screech made it all the way to Principal’s Assistant in Saved by the Bell: The New Class), he did a lot of small work. Most notably, he was on Celebrity Fit Club, where he was a jerk and got in a shouting match with Judge Harvey Walden.

In 2006, he started telling everyone that he was broke and that his house was facing foreclosure. He claimed that he needed to come up with $250,000 in 30 days or he would lose his house. To raise money, he set up a website and starting selling “D-shirts” and almost even had a fundraiser show.

In the end, though, it turns out that a lot of his story was false and some people didn’t get their shirts. Diamond himself admitted later that he wasn’t broke, but that his mortgage broker tried to rip him off.

In his latest attempt to sleeze-it-up, a sex tape of him and his wife was released in 2006.
In it, he not only has sex with her, but apparently does (gives her?) a dirty sanchez. Yuck. The funniest part of the tape release was that his manager was hoping that the video would be good publicity for him.
Sleeze-tastic.

Tracey Gold – AKA Carol Seaver from Growing Pains
Tracey Gold played the smart daughter in the Seaver family.
Aside from being the honors student, she was also the punch line to the fat jokes the other children would say on the show.

As it turns out, Gold took a lot of those fat jokes personally.
Also, it didn’t help that she had already had a history of eating disorders before her time on the show. The result was that she became anorexic.

In all honesty, that kind of makes me feel bad for her. As a young actress, I’m sure it was hard for her to go through that ordeal. That’s not what really gets her on this list.

However, in 2004, she was arrested for driving under the influence after she got into a car accident with her husband and her three children in the car. What’s even worse is that one of her children was only four months old.

Teenage anorexia after being made fun of on national TV? Sort of understandable. Driving drunk with your children in the car? Not so much.

Honorable Mentions
These actors and actresses have gone through some hardships and mishaps, but for the most part, have led typical lives. They are honorably crazy.

Austin St. John – AKA The Red Ranger in Power Rangers

There are some rumors that the Red Ranger has done gay pornography. There is no conclusive evidence, but the pictures above are proof enough for some people. I have to admit the resemblance is flamboyantly striking.

Jodie Sweetin – AKA Stephanie Tanner from Full House
Jodie Sweetin seems to have had a mixed life so far. After Full House, she graduated Chapman University cum laude. But then she became addicted to meth and almost died. She has now beat her addiction and is back on TV, hosting shows and starring in a pilot titled Small Bits of Happiness.

Kirk Cameron – AKA Mike Seaver from Growing Pains
While still doing the show Kirk Cameron converted to Christianity.
Good for him. The only problem is that after converting, he became a jerk. He didn’t want any adult themes on the show, so when they tried writing a show about his girlfriend giving him a key to her apartment, he made them rewrite the whole script because it implied they might have sex. He got so worked up that he called the ABC executives pornographers.

He regrets his actions now and has apologized to everyone involved.