I was talking with some of my buddies a few months ago about some of our television crushes when we were growing up. As I talked, my friends fell into fits of laughter.  One finally said, “You should write a column about it!” We will see if you think it’s as funny as they did.

My career choices in the 1970s were limited. I talked often about being a teacher, but my secret ambition was to be tough enough to be a cowboy, policeman or a superhero. For real.

It was probably the influence of the shows I watched. There were definitely some crushes on those shows.

But my first TV crush was Lady Aberlin from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” I don’t know why I liked her so much.  She was nice. She was pretty.  She talked to puppets. She was King Friday’s niece even though he was a puppet and she was a real person. So, there you go. What’s not to like?

I liked all the gals from the game shows, too. I liked the ladies on “Let’s Make a Deal” and “Card Sharks.”

I don’t remember her name, but I liked the lady on “Wheel of Fortune” when Chuck Woolery was still the host and you could actually shop when you solved a puzzle.  That gal was pre-Vanna. Later, I liked Vanna too.

I loved Jamie Sommers from the moment I met her, and I was even happy when she lost her memory and couldn’t remember being in love with Steve Austin. She drove a cool car and when her brakes went out, she stopped it with her bionic leg. I joined the Jamie Sommers fan club so that I could get a life sized poster of her to hang in my room. I’m not ashamed to admit I kissed that picture a few times. OK, here’s where the laughter started.

Who didn’t like Linda Carter as Wonder Woman? My friend Scott and I kept pictures of her in our lockers in fourth grade (more laughter). We were the first guys to do such things.  When we drew names for the Christmas gift exchange, Scott got my name and bought me a magazine with Wonder Woman on the front cover. I didn’t have a poster of her on my door, but I had a few clippings here and there.

Perhaps I fancied myself as a potential superhero boyfriend whom Wonder Woman would pick up in her invisible jet someday.

When bionic females and super-heroines didn’t strike my fancy, I resorted to the lady cops. We were all (at least the guys in my bunch) overwhelmed when “Charlie’s Angels” came along, but I confess that I was also in love with Angie Dickinson, a Friday night “must see” as Police Woman’s Pepper Anderson.

She was cool.

I watched a lot of old movies on KPLR on rainy weekend afternoons. I’m pretty sure I liked plenty of the starlets in those movies.  I remember how, every now and then, Abbott and Costello or The Three Stooges would have really attractive lady friends with them. Early “trophy wives” or girlfriends, if you will.

Speaking of old shows, I probably should mention my “Darla” phase, a brief time when I took a liking to Alfalfa’s girlfriend (laughter starts again).

I also liked the western reruns that were on in the afternoons. There were plenty of pretty gals on those shows.  There were always pretty ladies visiting the Ponderosa, falling in love with Little Joe or even Hoss. Once in awhile, Newly of “Gunsmoke” would fall in love.  I think there was even an episode where some lady fancied Festus. Even she was too pretty for old Festus, but he was a deputy after all.

I loved Linda Evans long before her “Dynasty” years. She played the pretty Audra on the Big Valley, and always had a bunch of big tough brothers to defend her if a cowpoke got too close to her.

But the thing that made my friends absolutely hoot with laughter was when I admitted to having a crush on Audra’s mother, Victoria. Yes, you guessed it. I, at age 10, had a crush on 58-year-old Barbara Stanwyck.  I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was her classiness or maybe it was the fact that she could ride a horse. Or maybe I was just partial to older women.

Or maybe I just watched too darned much television.