In this gripping May 1992 broadcast of The Dini Petty Show, a 20-year-old Corey Feldman sits down for an astonishingly raw and vulnerable conversation. Taped six years after Stand By Me and five years after The Lost Boys, Feldman was in Toronto filming the thriller Blown Away alongside his frequent on-screen partner, Corey Haim. Celebrating eighteen months of hard-won sobriety, this rare television appearance catches the young actor decades before his memoir or future documentaries, offering a stark, unpolished look at a child star attempting to reclaim his life from the brink.
Feldman strips away the glamorous veneer of 1980s Hollywood blockbusters, revealing that by the time he reached adulthood, he had already appeared in 100 commercials, 50 television shows, and 18 feature films. He traces his career back to age three, when he accidentally entered the industry through his sister’s Mickey Mouse Club auditions. Feldman bluntly describes his upbringing as a “punishing environment,” memorably equating his childhood to “Christmas with Satan.” In a shocking disclosure that highlights his early isolation and fear, he notes that he kept his grandfather’s loaded World War II pistol hidden under his bed for protection as a child.
Host Dini Petty guides the discussion into the deep psychology of substance abuse, with Feldman explaining that addiction always arrives to numb pre-existing pain, rather than creating it. He openly recounts his rock-bottom descent, which included running the streets of downtown Los Angeles with gang members at 5:00 AM, racking up $150,000 in debt, and facing a no-bail warrant before spending nine months in a rehabilitation facility discovering his true identity.
The interview also captures immediate, real-time reactions to major pop-culture figures of the era. Corey Feldman smiles recalling his brief romance with Drew Barrymore, whom he took to the Academy Awards, and fondly mentions his friendship with late comedian Sam Kinison—who had tragically passed away just twenty-six days prior to the taping. Crucially, he touches upon his relationship with Michael Jackson, revealing that the pop star reached out personally, leaving a supportive message on his answering machine while Feldman was treatment.
Unseen since its single Canadian television broadcast in the spring of 1992, this pristine master tape has been optimized and preserved via the official archive of The Dini Petty Show, safeguarding a critical, cautionary milestone in television history.
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