You Won't Believe How Young the Traveling Wilburys and the Cast of Cheers Were!

Memories can be deceptive. Take, for example, The Traveling Wilburys, the tongue-in-cheek supergroup that brought together legends Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. 

As a child, I naturally assumed that these veteran musicians were all in their fifties or sixties. They were rock and roll elder statesmen who each had a profound effect on rock and roll and pop culture as a whole. 

So you can only imagine how surprised I was to discover that every member of the all-star band was in their twenties when the band released its debut, The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. 

Don’t try to work out the math in your head. It will only befuddle you. It seems impossible for the band members to be so young, but sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. 

Roy Orbison was, of course, the old man of the group. The “Pretty Woman” hit-maker was, astonishingly, only twenty-nine years old in 1988. 

The second oldest was Bob Dylan, who had changed music forever multiple times and inspired countless artists. Dylan was only a few months younger than Orbison. He was twenty-eight when the group formed, yet he had accomplished much for a man still in his twenties. Dylan kicked off the folk movement of the 1960s, recorded seminal anthems like “The Times They Are a Changing,” divided fans and folk purists by going electric, and starred in the poorly received Joe Estzerhas-penned 1987 vehicle Hearts of Fire. 

Dylan was a literal baby when he recorded his first albums. He was three years old when he recorded 1964’s seminal The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Most children can’t read at that age. Not only could Dylan read, he was one of the most important and acclaimed songwriters alive. 

The iconoclastic musician had a series of mentors like Pete Seeger, Rambling Jack Elliott, and Woody Guthrie, who helped him refine his craft but also bought cigarettes and beer for him because he was too young to do so himself. 

Speaking of drinking and pop icons being way younger than we assumed, I was similarly gobsmacked to learn that the entire cast of Cheers were teenagers when the show first aired. 

Again, I encourage you not to run the numbers in your head. It will only lead to madness. You probably think I can’t be right because Nicholas Colasanto, who played Coach Ernie Pantusso in the show’s first three seasons, was clearly an old man. 

You would be wrong, however. The character actor suffered from the same premature aging disease as the protagonist of the Francis Ford Coppola movie Jack. Astonishingly, he was only nineteen years old when the show debuted. 

Colasanto’s replacement, Woody Harrelson, was only twelve years old when he made his television debut, but he was already a huge stoner. 

Astonishingly, when Cheers went on the air, no one in the cast was old enough to drink alcohol legally. So the “beer” that the barflies appear to be drinking is, in fact, only harmless iced tea. 

The members of The Traveling Wilburys and the cast of Cheers sure seemed grown-up when we were children, but they were mere children themselves when they made an indelible imprint on pop culture. 

Nathan needed expensive, life-saving dental implants, and his dental plan doesn’t cover them, so he started a GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-nathans-journey-to-dental-implants. Give if you can!

Did you know that I have a Substack called Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas, where I write up new movies my readers choose and do deep dives into lowbrow franchises? It’s true! You should check it out here. 

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