Whatever Happened To: The Cast of Hey Dude

Most of my "Whatever Happened To" ideas stem from TV shows I watched growing up, and I was recently thinking that there probably aren't too many left to cover. As I was contemplating what might be a good candidate, a friend happened to post on Facebook how it was the 29th anniversary of the debut of Hey Dude. The show premiered in 1989 and ran for five seasons, a total of 65 episodes.

This show was a bit of an outlier for Nickelodeon, marking only its second live-action series (a format which would prove successful for other shows, including Clarissa Explains It All). It followed the misadventures of the staff at the Bar None Dude Ranch near Tucson, Arizona. Fittingly enough, the show was also filmed near Tucson, and the ruins of the set can still be visited today.

I remember being somewhat underwhelmed by Hey Dude, maybe because it was geared toward more of an older audience. The comments on the YouTube video for the theme song suggest that this is a pretty common occurrence. The humor was fairly tame ("Ha ha, that guy got pushed into a trough!"), its characters and plot lines weren't too memorable, and the theme song was probably the best thing about it.

But it was still entertaining enough for a kid to while away a half-hour on a lazy summer day. And a surprisingly thorough recap site often has good things to say about the actors and episodes.

So what happened to these folks?

David Brisbin (Benjamin Ernst)

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Mr. Ernst was always a bit of a bumbling fool, so I was a bit surprised to read his origin story on Wikipedia. Apparently he was a high-powered New York City accountant who decided to change gears in middle age and buy a dude ranch in the West, supposedly to have a more relaxing profession. He was a divorcee whose son came to live on the ranch at the beginning of the series. Despite being a bit out of his element in running the ranch, he still cared about his workers and did his best to support them.

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David Brisbin, now 66, has continued to act since Hey Dude. He's had small roles in a number of popular TV shows, including Seinfeld, Home Improvement, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The X-Files, as well as a recurring role as Dr. Alexander Babcock on ER. Brisbin has also scored credits on movies such as Forrest Gump and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and acted extensively in theatrical productions.

Kelly Brown (Brad Taylor)

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Hailing from a wealthy family in Michigan, Bradley was a riding instructor at the Bar None Ranch. The show moved away from the "snobby rich girl" persona by portraying her as competent and hardworking, even a little tomboyish (her nickname being short for Bradley), although she sometimes let a bit of haughtiness slip through. Brad was often at odds with Ted, though there was also a bit of romantic tension between the two.

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Hey Dude was Kelly Brown's only acting credit, although she worked in modeling before the show. She went on to marry her childhood sweetheart and have four kids. Brown now lives in Montauk, New York, and owns the clothing boutique store Kelly B.

David Lascher (Ted McGriff)

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A senior staffer at the ranch, Ted was usually hatching some scheme or another which usually wound up getting him and his fellow ranchers in trouble. He had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Brad which, if I remember correctly, leaned pretty heavy toward the "hate" end of the spectrum; still, Ted was a good-hearted fellow who earned a kiss from his rival after a surprisingly good date with her. Ted took a brief hiatus from the show when his character was required to attend summer school, but later returned to the ranch.

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David Lascher, now 46, had a successful career as a young actor in the 90s, including as the romantic interest of the title characters of both Blossom and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. He's been less active as an actor since then, having only a handful of credits in the 21st century, but also tried his hand at other roles by writing, directing, and producing the 2014 film Sister. He's active on Instagram and Twitter, where he describes himself as an actor/writer/director, but at this point he seems to be simply enjoying time with his family.

Jonathan Galkin (Jake Decker)

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Mr. Ernst's nephew, Jake Decker was introduced in the third season as a sarcastic surfer slacker who enjoyed playing the drums. He was portrayed as being fairly smart despite his spaced out persona, and aspired to be a writer.

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Aside from Hey Dude, Jonathan Galkin's only acting role was on another Nickelodeon show, Way Cool. After attending New York University, Galkin entered the business of music production. Now 46, he co-founded the label DFA Records in 2001 (originally entitled Death From Above before the 9/11 attacks quickly resulted in an abbreviated name) and continues to work there today. While the label represents a number of artists, LCD Soundsystem is arguably their biggest client.

Geoffrey Koy (Kyle)

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Introduced at the end of the third season, Kyle was the handsome if somewhat dimwitted son of Lucy's ex-boyfriend. He proved useful around the ranch and also wound up finding himself attracted to Brad, setting up a bit of a romantic rivalry with Ted once he returned. The good folks over at TV Tropes posit that Kyle was brought in for this reason after there wasn't too much chemistry between Brad and Jake.

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Geoffrey Coy was another cast member who opted out of acting after the show concluded. He attended business school at Baylor University and began a career in the medical and biopharmaceutical industry. According to his LinkedIn page, he has been working at the pharmaceutical company BTG International for the past five years and is the company's vice president of sales and marketing.

Debrah Kalman (Lucy)

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The only adult staffer seen at the Bar None Ranch other than Mr. Ernst, Lucy was portrayed as being much more knowledgeable about ranching and vastly more competent. She was something of a background character, though; in the episode guide, she's the main focus of only one plot (in which she's thinking about getting married).

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According to Debrah Kalman's IMDB page, she now goes by the name Debi and has branched out from acting a fair amount. In addition to opening a few restaurants with her husband, she became a teacher at age 53 and continued this career for eight years. Now living in Florida, she has started acting and modeling again. She most recently starred in the film At the End of the Day and will appear in the upcoming picture #Snapped.

Christine Taylor (Melody Hanson)

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Melody was the ranch's lifeguard and had a notably sunny personality. A few episode subplots even revolved around whether she'd be able to keep up this friendliness in the face of certain annoyances, or if people were taking advantage of her kindness. Despite this character trait, Melody and Brad often had a more contentious relationship and sparred over various issues.

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Perhaps the most well-known of all the Hey Dude alumni, Christine Taylor is still acting. She might be best known as the wife of Ben Stiller, having appeared with him in comedies such as Zoolander and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, although the couple separated in 2017 after 17 years of marriage. Taylor's other roles include Marcia Brady in the Brady Bunch movies and Sally Sitwell in Arrested Development. Now 47, she'll be appearing in the upcoming film Friendsgiving.

Joe Torres (Danny Lightfoot)

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Danny generally acted as the voice of reason in the series, frequently trying to warn Ted, Mr. Ernst, and others away from unsound ideas. He was also portrayed as a talented artist, and a few episodes involved his Hopi Indian heritage.

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Joe Torres stayed off the grid after Hey Dude (his only acting credit), which may have helped fuel rumors that he drank himself into an early grave. He failed to show at a reunion in 2014, where series writer Alan Goodman acknowledged that his whereabouts are pretty much unknown despite some casual efforts by the cast to stay in touch with each other. Other rumors suggest that he became a pool shark in the Tuscon area or a used car salesman in New Jersey. A Facebook page purportedly run by Torres seems to back up the former theory, although its origin seems pretty dubious.

Josh Tygiel (Buddy Ernst)

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The title screen for Buddy is all you really need to know how much of a fish out of water he is. After all, he's at a dude ranch with some colorful 90s duds, a skateboard, and a Mets cap. Buddy generally eschews the ranch activities in favor of things like comic books and magic tricks, and wasn't too happy to be at the Bar None. However, some episodes showed him finding aspects of ranch life to enjoy, becoming attached to a horse in one storyline and falling for Melody in another.

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I kind of love that Josh Tygiel's LinkedIn page matter-of-factly includes his time on Hey Dude ("Actor - Nickelodeon"). The show proved to be his only acting credit, although he included drama in his college studies. After completing his education, Tygiel started working as an investigator and writer/editor of due diligence and business history reports for hedge funds and private equity industries. He's been in this line of work for close to 20 years, and lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and children.