whatever happened to the kid from cop and a half…?

i've no idea what the hell made me ask that question, but there's a crappy pointless story behind why i might possibly care.  yup, you're about to hear that story.

way back when, when i was in 8th grade (1993 baby!) the local "70s, 80s, and today" station that my mom listened to was having a contest.  call in and win!  the game was you had to be singing when your line got picked up.  so i called, was put on hold and when my line was picked up there i was singing michael jackson's "heal the world."

i was singing so high that the dj (i wanna say it was rocky allen) said "congratulations ma'am, you're going to see a special preview of cop and a half!"

cop and a half?  wtf?  i was only in 8th grade, hadn't even hit my 14th birthday yet, but i knew a crappy movie when i saw one.  my mom thought it would be fun, so we went anyway.

i remember nothing of the movie.  not a damn thing.  kinda like an alcohol induced blackout, only less interesting or enjoyable.  what i do remember is after waiting on a line to get to the guy who was checking names we then had to wait in another line for popcorn where they apparently had retarded monkeys manning the counter.  see, even though not everybody who was a head of us to get in was on the line, it was actually longer than the line to get in…go figure. 

in any case the guy who was at the end of the line greeted my mom and i by saying "once upon a time, i was the end of the line" and laughed at his own lame attempt at a joke.  mom, never one to criticize, politely chuckled before engaging me in mind numbing conversation designed solely to allow her to ignore the man.  i simply wished i could bite him in the back of his knee so i could hurt him as badly as he hurt my sense of humour.

so, the kid was named norman d. golden the second (the right, "the second" not junior…i hate that too) and clearly not as cute as his parents or the studio had hoped as the movie bombed spectacularly and poor normie only had a couple of tv roles before disappearing 11 years ago.

of note, ray sharkey who played vinnie fountain (sorry can't help ya with who he was), died a coupe of months later on june 11, 1993…likely of embarassment.  it was predictably the last movie or television role of his life.  but i didn't ask what happened to ray sharkey, so fuck him…