There were no cameras recording what happened that night. There was no stunt coordinator watching nearby and no second take if something went wrong. There was only Reeves, a motorcycle, a dark California canyon and a terrifying series of events he would never forget.

Mike Lookinland was famous as Bobby on The Brady Bunch, but when the show ended he faced serious choices about his future.

While the group of singers and actors known as the Rat Pack knew how to party it up, there was a dark side to this group of hard-drinking and swinging men. Frank Sinatra was the unofficial chairman of the board, and he ruled over the others with an iron fist. Sometimes it was his way or the highway. And then, as the five men got older, each had to pay for their many sins with twists of fate that none of them saw coming.

Throughout much of the 80s and 90s, John Candy dominated comedy but never lost sight of his humble Canadian beginnings. Audiences adored him, and his fellow comedians respected him. But beneath his funnyman exterior, he struggled with the weight of his success—and his literal weight. Candy’s story is proof that the good ones never last long.

For Gen X viewers, television in the 1980s offered a surprisingly complicated education in romance. Some couples were happily married, others spent years avoiding commitment, and a few seemed incapable of getting through dinner without starting an argument. From sitcom kitchens to detective agencies and Texas oil empires, these relationships suggested that love could be comfortable, chaotic, funny, frustrating, or all four at once.