Today (July 28, 2010) is the 46^th birthday of beautiful actress Lori Loughlin. Most people remember her best as "Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis" married to "Uncle Jesse" on the ABC sitcom Full House for 153 episodes from 1988 to 1995. Many people do not remember her role as "Christian Hollings" in a BMX movie from 1986 called Rad, but I do.

The popularity of BMX racing and freestyle was quickly growing back in the 80s. This movie attempted to capitalize on the trend, but had very little box office success doing so. Since then however, the film has achieved a bit of a cult following especially from BMX fans. The story is a bit predictable with a small town kid trying to achieve greatness while avoiding all of the obstacles thrown at him by crooked villains with a little love story thrown in for good measure. The main character is "Cru Jones" (great character name!) played by Bill Allen. "Cru" wants to win the big "Helltrack" race which would get him sponsorship and fame, but he has to beat hot shot "Bart Taylor" (played by gold medal Olympic gymnast Bart Connor). This won't be easy because of attempts to prevent "Cru" from even participating. Just when "Cru" is ready to give up on his dream, Lori Loughlin's character "Christian" comes up with an idea which allows him to enter the race. Here's the original trailer for Rad...

Rad was directed by Hal Needham who had previously directed Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and The Cannonball Run (1981). The character of "Cru Jones" is loosely based on GT rider Eddie "The King" Fiola who also actually does all of the real stunt work for Bill Allen's character in the movie. Other GT riders Martin Aparijo and Pat Romano do the stunt work for Loughlin's character. There is a particularly corny scene that takes place at the dance between Loughlin's "Christian" and Allen's "Cru" dancing on bikes. It is set to the song "Send Me an Angel" by Real Life and has plenty of the cheese you would expect out of an 80s dance scene...

My younger brother was big into BMX freestyle, so we were one of the few to see this film in the theaters right when it came out. Like I said earlier, it did become a cult classic and was reportedly in the top 10 VHS rentals for the 2 years after it was released. Surprisingly, it has yet to be officially released on DVD. Though she would later be better known for roles on Full House, Summerland and now on The CW's 90210, I will never forget the gorgeous Lori Loughlin as "Christian" back in 1986's Rad.

That'll do it for another issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks as always for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. If you want to see the past issues of Preview Review, just type that into the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column and it should give you a list of all of them. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on the "Like" button. Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also follow Old School on Twitter by clicking on the FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER LOGO also in the upper right hand column. This will take you the page and you can just click on the box that says "Follow". I am sending daily 80s tweets, so sign up to get those. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.