Skip to content
Salute Your Shorts Cast: Where They Are Now
The ensemble cast of Nickelodeon’s Salute Your Shorts has taken a variety of different career paths since the show ended. Debuting in 1991, the teen sitcom followed a group of campers at Camp Anawanna and the different adventures they get up to and the relationships they have over the course of a summer. The main star of the series changed over the course of its two seasons, but for the most part, the characters stayed the same. Bullies, preppies, and every other ’90s stereotype came together to prank, fight, make friends, and be kids in a way that wasn’t always depicted on television.
While the show only ran for two seasons, it gained a cult following and has a 75% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Salute Your Shorts was part of a gambit by Nickelodeon to inch into the original programming space that The Disney Afternoon had taken when it launched in 1990. Nickelodeon had primarily been a game show network up until that point with shows like Double Dare, Finders Keepers, and Think Fast. The main characters in the series consist mostly of young teenagers save for the older camp counselor. Some of the cast of Salute Your Shorts continued acting after the series, but others went on pursue completely different professions.
Michael Bower As Eddie “Donkeylips” Gelfen
Eddie “Donkeylips” Gelfen is the “muscle” of the group of kids, though he generally has an amiable and kind personality. Michael Bower played Donkeylips as part of the ensemble cast of Salute Your Shorts and afterward had a solid career in television, movies, and video games. He has appeared in episodes of Friends, The X-Files, Monk, and Bones, and played Ryan in an episode of Daisy Jones & The Six. His movie roles include Danny Donald in Evolution and Erwin in Dumbbells. Bower has also provided his voice to a number of video games, including Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption.
Danny Cooksey As Robert “Bobby” Budnick
Danny Cooksey played Robert “Bobby” Budnick, the camp bully in the early parts of Salute Your Shorts season 1 who eventually softens and becomes something of the leader of the camp. Prior to being cast in Salute Your Shorts, Cooksey was a child actor known for playing Sam on the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, and as a teen, he appeared as John Connor’s friend Tim in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. After Salute Your Shorts, he moved primarily into voice work. Most notably, he starred as the title character in the animated series Dave the Barbarian and voiced the twins, Brett and Chett, in the Dr. Seuss movie The Lorax.
Erik MacArthur As Michael Stein
Michael Stein was the original protagonist in season 1 of Salute Your Shorts and is the first victim of the titular prank. He and Bobby often butted heads, but when Erik MacArthur left the show before season 2, Michael was written off as having chicken pox. This was MacArthur’s first acting role, and he only appeared in a handful of movies and TV Shows before exiting the public eye in the early 2010s. His most notable roles since being in the cast of Salute Your Shorts include Will in the black-and-white and color hybrid film Pleasantville, Gene in The Birds of Paradise, and Bink on the TV series Weird Science.
Blake Sennett As Ronald “Ronnie” Foster Pinsky
Blake Sennett, who went by the stage name Blake Soper at the time, replaced Erik MacArthur as the protagonist in season 2 as Ronald “Ronnie” Foster Pinsky. Ronnie is a much more suave character and so more of a foil to Bobby. Sennett only appeared in a handful of TV shows after being cast in Salute Your Shorts, including Boy Meets World which he left due to substance abuse issues. He successfully turned his life around and quit using drugs and put his focus on music. Sennett first started the band Rilo Kiley, which lasted for 15 years, then began the Elected, and then Night Terrors of 1927.
Kirk Baily As Kevin “Ug” Lee
Kevin “Ug” Lee is the older camp counselor on Salute Your Shorts who is perpetually grumpy and annoyed. Ug was played by Kirk Baily in his first major role. After being in the cast of Salute Your Shorts, he went on to a long and successful live-action and voice-acting career in movies and television, particularly in anime. He voiced the Decepticon Brawn in the movie Bumblebee, Shin in Cowboy Bebop, and Beninosuke in Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran. In live-action, Baily played Greg Madigan on Melrose Place and Coach Nichols in The 6th Man. Kirk Baily died in early 2022 of lung cancer at the age of 59.
Trevor Eyster As Eugene “Sponge” Harris
Trevor Eyster, who was Tim Eyster before legally changing his name, plays Sponge Harris, the smart kid of the group, in the cast of Salute Your Shorts. Eyster stopped acting for nearly 21 years after the end of Salute Your Shorts except for a small role in Babylon 5 as a one-episode character named Simon. In 2014, he appeared in one episode of Bones as Wesley Foster. His only credited work after Bones was directing and producing a web miniseries called SpongeyLeaks that documents elder abuse and neglect, which he first experienced with his aunt (via Facebook).
Heidi Lucas As Dina Alexander
Dina Alexander is the pretty girl at the camp who many of the other characters had a crush on but who also often had her head in the clouds. Dina was played by Heidi Lucas in her first on-screen role. Lucas only acted in a handful of productions in the years after being cast in Salute Your Shorts, including a one-episode stint on Boy Meets World as Kim and a starring role on the short-lived series Hypernauts as Noriko “Max” Matsuda, the team medic. After 1996, Lucas ended her acting career to pursue a profession in the legal field, and she currently works as a lawyer.
Venus DeMilo Thomas As Telly Radford
Venus DeMilo Thomas played Telly Radford on Salute Your Shorts. Telly is a sports-obsessed over-achiever, who also tends to be the one with the most common sense out of the campers. Thomas appeared in a number of TV shows in supporting and guest roles after being cast in Salute Your Shorts, including Lydia on My So-Called Life, Gail on Party of Five, K.C. on Family Matters, and Rashelle on Sister, Sister. After 2003, Thomas didn’t appear in another production until 2016. She has played minor parts in a handful of series since then but did star in Frost, a small but tense horror film in 2022.
Megan Berwick As Z.Z. Ziff
Z.Z. Ziff is the nature-obsessed one of the group and loves hiking and camping even if she doesn’t always know how to communicate with her fellow campers. Z.Z. was played by Megan Berwick in Salute Your Shorts in her second role. Her first came on Full House where she had a one-episode appearance as a party guest. Berwick had one small role after being cast in Salute Your Shorts before disappearing from the public eye. She explained her absence in a taped video for the 2012 Salute Your Shorts reunion (via YouTube): she has been working in the government in Haiti in order to support a social protection organization.
