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.

From the 1960s to the 2000s, English actor Jack Wild created a charming, youthful persona, launching him into the spotlight. However, fame is fickle, and he learned it can take just as much as it gives.

Even very famous actors have a few credits that seem to have vanished into television history. Sometimes a future Oscar winner appeared in a series nobody watched, while other times an established star received an expensive new vehicle that quickly ran out of gas. These forgotten shows prove that even Hollywood’s biggest names occasionally needed audiences to collectively move on.

Country music maverick Waylon Jennings may have been a good ol’ boy, but he was also a fighter who battled his demons, the law, the Nashville establishment—and one gut-wrenching event that would change his life forever.

Nichelle Nichols wanted to leave Star Trek after its first season. It was Martin Luther King Jr. who convinced her to stay.

Randolph Scott was one of Hollywood’s defining Western heroes, but the actor’s life was far more complex than the plot of a shoot-em-up cowboy movie.