Who's That Girl? Vanessa Ray Rules TV

     Some actors have ok careers, steadily acting in different shows like Lee Norris. Some actors like Jason Marsden have great years. Some actors like Vanessa Ray are killing it (literally) on two coasts and starring in two dramas at the same time. You go, Glenn Coco! See definition 2 of Glen Coco in the Urban Dictionary if you're not following us here.

Eddie Janko

     Just who is Vanessa Ray? She has regularly been appearing alongside the handsome Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) as his tough talking rookie partner as Edit "Eddie" Janko in the NY family cop drama Blue Bloods on and off for three seasons. She has shot people, arrested perps, been roughed up by a boyfriend, and faced her inmate father, among other things. She and Jamie remain close friends, but we've always gotten a glimpse of "will they or won't they." As of now, she is hoping to make detective soon, so maybe the partners will become more than partners if they're not chilling with beers after a long tour.  

Charlotte

     Ray may also look familiar to you from another popular role. Perhaps you recognize her as the long-masked sun-drenched villain of Pretty Little Liars, known as "A", Others may know her by her many aliases, such as  Cece Drake, Charles, and finally, as Charlotte DeLaurentis, Alison's "sister", who left Charles behind a long time ago. If you still don't know who "A" is, you have been living under a rock.

     In a nutshell, Alison had two older brothers Jason and Charles. Young toddler Charles loved baby Alison like a baby doll and tried to give her a bath, almost drowning Alison and getting himself a one-way trip to a children's institution. Charles realized he should have been born a girl, and mom helped out by having an operation to change him into Charlotte, letting dad believe he had died at age 16. Alison and Jason didn't even remember having a brother. Charlotte began a lot of mayhem to punish people, including the family that sent him/her away.

      In last week's season 6 premiere, Charlotte is released from the mental hospital and mysteriously "falls" off the church bell tower her first night home. A suicide, thought some. A murder, insisted the police. Now the liars must figure out who murdered Charlotte, and it possibly is one of the liars themselves. Maybe they could use the Reagans from Blue Bloods to help solve this case as the Rosewood police force are completely ineffective. 

Gimme a Beat

Barbie and The Beat Pkg.
 Image from Pintrest

     Tonight while cleaning I found some old cassette tapes that re-awakened my girlhood love of Barbie. The typical things were there,  radio mixes, the Grease movie soundtrack, the New Kids on the Block first album, but tragically missing was my "Macarena" cassingle tape.
* The Macarena tape was recovered two weeks later!*

     The other hidden gem in this collection was a hot 
pink cassette of singles from the fictional band Barbie and the Beat. I often called her Rocker Barbie (known as Disco Jeans Barbie publicly), but discovered is another Barbie known as Rocker Barbie). Nonetheless, she is one of the best and favorite dolls I have owned. Although Totally Hair Barbie makes it a close competition because you could cut her foot-length hair and style with DEP gel. Not only did my "Rocker Barbie" or "TB" for The Beat come in an awesome 80's outfit with denim jacket and skirt (a true denim suit), tons of pink skirts, a tube top and matching legwarmers, but she also had a tiny clip-in hat and big earrings!

My cassette
(c) PipPepPop

     The greatest part was her lime green plastic guitar! This instrument was tricked out in green and pink with a shiny strap that puts my ordinary acoustic to shame!  I found some images across the web to show barbie in all her glory. I tragically lost the denim suit on a plane ride in about '91 and was forced to dress Barbie in her pink cami top, mini skirt, and swirly crinoline, with matching leg warmers and pumps. Once her ponytail came out, she quit the music biz. My Barbie looks pretty beat these days.

     Best of all, there was an accompanying music cassette for her performances! There are 4 hit singles on this cassette full of girl power and attitude, and they sound very much like early Paula Abdul and a mid 80's Madonna (think Straight Up meets Get into the Groove meets Lucky Star. The cassette includes "Shine", "Jammin'", "The Beat" and one other that I can't read because the label is ripped.

'Robin Sparkles' Gif from
The Odyssey Online

Image from Ebay

     I could see an immediate visual comparison between "The Beat" Barbie and How I Met Your Mother's Robin Sparkles, as observed in this photo. But singing was just one of Barbie's many talents in the 80's Sheo also moonlighted as a Bangles-era Rocker Barbie. A list of her other careers can be found here, and another glorious rock star outfit. There were other videos, comics and movies that depicted Barbie's life as a rock star, and she even toured space in one animated movie, titled Barbie and The Rockers: Out of This World.

     My Barbie had the privilege of performing with  NKOTB's Joey McIntyre, who is apparently a rare 1990 collector doll selling for about $50.00 on Ebay. Unfortunately my Joe lost his ring, microphone, and cassette and was punished by my brother for cursing, resulting in a mouthful of soap.  Alas, the doll looks adorable and so does Joey, who just appeared in last week's Angel From Hell.

Freeform: Coming to your Local Television

     Tomorrow, ABC Family will change its name to Freeform. Since 2001, they have been known as the gawky teen cousin network of ABC, showing reruns of  Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Gilmore Girls, Step by Step and other 90's and early 2000's shows. The network also launched the wildly successful and addictive Pretty Little Liars (teen murderesses) and a host of other interesting shows and subject matter such as :

• Make It or Break It (gymnastics team with issues)
• The Fosters, (a charming Lesbian couple and their foster children, with issues) 
• and the often dialogue-plagued: The Secret Life of the American Teenager (pregnant teens- with issues)

     According to statements from ABC Family, they are trying to hold on to their 18-34 females demographic and feel this name change will help them become more accepted or cool. I find this a big funny for a network that built it's empire on teen dramas. Let's face it, the WB never tried to be cool, but it drew a huge pull of women in that demographic and both women older and younger than it , and still does as the current CW network. It also calls its demo (or its Demi Lovato, as comedians Nikki Glazer and Sara Schafer referred to the demographic of their short lived MTV show), the becomers. To me, as a woman in that coveted "Demi", I am really creeped out and a little offended. The Becomers sounds like the next Vampire Diaries spinoff. "The Becomers" will get you at 9 P.M. on Thursday night.

     We'll have to see how this all plays out. The same network held a blaze of glory from 1998 - 2001  as Fox Family Channel before it changed over to ABC. I was pretty upset at the time and may never recover from the lack of S Club 7 reruns. (S Club has shows in Miami and Los Angeles and they were amazing). Fergie of the black eyed peas also hosted a show where kids won prizes for the best lip sync to a popular song. It was truly a renaissance. Before that, the channel was known as the Christian-inspired  Family Channel and I'm not too sure it had any appealing programming other than old reruns of Bonanza.  

Let's Hear it for the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!

Congratulation to Rachel Bloom on her win for best actress in a tv musical or comedy at the Golden Globes! See here speech here. Read more of my thoughts about her show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend here!

Cosby Show: Revisited

     It appears that I am not the only person who recently re-discovered The Cosby Show. I spent my new year's weekend watching bits and pieces of 80's America's  favorite family on Hulu to re-capture some of the magic the show brought me as a youngster, learning valuable life lessons with a hug and funky dance number at the end.

     Two highlights of this binge included  season 3's Cliff's 50th Birthday, where the children provide a presentation titled: Things that are older than dad. I also watched the last episode, And So We Commence, Part 2, where the family (minus Denise) come together for Theo's graduation from NYU. While the jokes were still the same, and the family love was bountiful, there was somethign creepy about Cliff Huxtable begging his son to take a visiting friend's daughter to the roller rink. It was almost as if he would take this girl and drug her if she didn't get out of the house.

     Maybe I'm just a little too into the Bill Cosby scandal, but I am having a bit of a tough time separating him from Cliff Huxtable, like in this Inside Amy Schumer sketch. I watched the A&E special Cosby: The Women Speak and heard over 10 accounts that started out, I was invited for acting lessons .... or I went to dinner..... and ended up with :I have no idea what happened, but I was violated. After checking out the great and intriguing new season of ABC's American Crime this week, I totally am very creeped out by Cosby. American Crime details a plot line about a teen boy who was drugged at a party and violated by someone on the basketball team.