Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries presents: Jean Rasey!

Back in the days when The New Mickey Mouse Club was consuming most of my life, I also had a mild passing interest in the Sunday night Crime-drama Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries, the show based on the best selling juvenile fiction novels and starring teenage heartthrobs Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin.

Pamela Sue Martin! Like most guys my age, most of the main reason to tune in to the show was to see the pretty sleuth go through the motions, and so when a friend of mine told me he’d picked up the Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries DVD Box Set of the first season, I couldn’t wait to borrow it and take a step back to those childhood crushes of yesteryear!

  The show itself was about as much as I’d remembered (the stories themselves were your basic TV mystery drama yarns like Quincy and Charlie’s Angels) and Pamela Sue was as charismatic and pretty as I’d remembered…but there was one person I hadn’t recalled at all, and that was the character of Nancy’s tomboy friend George Fayne.

 As all readers of the original Nancy Drew novels know, best friends George Fayne and Bess Marvin usually accompanied Nancy as she went about uncovering clues and solving mysteries, and though I don’t know what became of Bess, it was nice to see (along with “sort-of” boyfriend Ned) some of the other regular book characters making appearances in the show!

 The show was paired up with the Hardy Boys show, and so maybe the producers wanted to give Nancy a “partner” in the TV series, and they surely found one in George Fayne! As played by pretty actress Jean Rasey, I found myself loving every scene that George was in, and I think it’s safe to say that (at least at THIS time in my life) she really MADE the show for me!

 Jean Rasey! How in the world did I forget about her? This gal was so much fun, and I think she really brought the George character to life! I’d always thought having a girl named “George” was funny reading the books, but to see it attached to this beautiful, sunny girl just made it all the more ironic!

  And the thing I loved most about Jean Rasey’s portrayal of George is that she managed to capture the character’s tomboyishness while still managing to look cute as heck!  One of the great joys of re-watching the series after all these years is watching George’s stuttering “scaredy-cat” shtick that would give Shaggy a run for his money performed with such cute and spunky gusto!

 I was so intrigued by my discovery of Jean Rasey, that I went right to Wikipedia to find out more about this wonderful actress…only to find no page exists for her! Man, that is really sad. IMDB still had a bit about her, though it was disheartening to read that she’d only done a few more television show appearances (all between 1975-79) and nary a show since! Sigh. Oh Well, I'll always have my Nancy Drew reruns to satisfy me!

BTW...While searching for information, I came across a "Facebook" page featuring a pretty lady named "Jean Rasey"... is this the Jean Rasey?! :)

Comments from the original VOX Post:

jean rasey wrote: Feb 21, 2010 

Yes....this is Jean Rasey.

zinkognito replied to jean rasey’s comment: Feb 24, 2010 

WOW!!!!!!!

Dunno If I'm REALLY lucky enough to have garnered a comment from THE lovely Jean Rasey, but on the off chance it happens to be, I MUST say that it is a THRILL indeed to hear from you!!!!

(And who says blogging doesn't have its little rewards!?) AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Thanks so much for commenting!

jean rasey wrote: Feb 24, 2010 

Hahahaha! No thank you! & Yes it is me Jean Rasey and Yes I am back acting....again thanks for your very kind words.....:-)

zinkognito replied to jean rasey’s comment: Feb 25, 2010 

Ms Jean Rasey~

You're VERY welcome! That's great news to hear, and we'll certainly be looking out for your new endeavors!

A Mark and Brian Christmas: The Reindeer Audition Tapes

Classic Gems of Mark and Brian Christmas Past!

As I’ve mentioned before in previous posts, I was a HUGE fan of the KLOS Radio Program featuring Mark and Brian, and would listen to the show religiously every day throughout the years, til the show was unceremoniously yanked off the Hawaii airwaves, an evil act that I’ve never forgiven them for! (Thank God for Podcasts!)

  The Holidays were especially special ones to tune on to, because the show was filled with such warmth and real nostalgic conversations of magical Christmases of childhood, including Christmas songs, stories and movies, not to mention everyone’s memories of Christmas as kids.I've taken the time to rip some of my favorite Christmas skits (that I managed to capture on tape) to MP3s so y'all can enjoy them and get into that Christmas mood, too!

Today's clips is:
The SantaLand Reindeer Audition Tapes

In this scenario, Mark and Brian enter the "Rare Footage" Vault to discover the Reindeer Audition Tapes! The Setup is: We all know Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer was the one chosen to have a theme song for himself, but what is not so well known is that ALL the reindeer submitted THEIR theme songs to Santa for consideration!

Gotta laugh when Mark tries to "Ho Ho Ho" like Santa, and Brian asks, "Ed MacMahon here?" HAHAHAHAHA!

PS: Funny how the electric door to the Rare Footage vault sounds so much like Pink Floyd! :)

Favorite Albums: Fleetwood Mac / Mirage

Around Mid- 1983, I was insanely in love with singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks, and was voraciously devouring anything and everything to do with her. Though I’d always loved her Fleetwood Mac songs and was even a fan of her Bella Donna solo album (especially the rocking Edge Of Seventeen), it wasn’t until her second album The Wild Heart came out that I totally flipped for her and began worshipping her as the rock-goddess she was!

  Back then, out video station of choice was Night Tracks on WTBS, and me and my friends tuned in every weekend to check out the latest videos before heading out for the night’s activities. At that time, my favorite videos were Stevie’s "If Anyone Falls" as well as "Stand Back", but I was curious about another Stevie video that Night Tracks routinely played, and that was the dreamy and mystical Gypsy, which credits told me was off of Fleetwood Mac’s latest album Mirage, which had just come out a few months earlier.

  Mirage? What was that album? I’d heard of Rumours, of course, as well as the big (at that time) album Tusk, but didn’t know anything about this one, nor did I know anyone who’d picked it up. But I really wanted the Gypsy Track, and when my friend Herb informed me that it also had the fun song “Hold Me” on it, I was convinced!

   We went down to Tower Records, and as I waited in line looking over the George Hurell-shot cover, I remember the first thing that shocked me was getting used to Lindsey Buckingham without his trademark afro and goatee! The cover was kind of a wraparound thing, with Lindsey and the girls on the front, and the Fleetwood and Mac group namesakes on the back, looking very much like the wards of the ‘Mac Estate!

We took the album home and immediately dove in. While my friend Herb showed only passing interest in the tracks, I was immediately smitten and would go on to not only repeatedly play that album over and over, but make all my FRIENDS listen to it, too!

  One great thing about having three prolific songwriters in the group is a LOT of diversity, and Mirage is another great showcase of the members’ talents. Christine, Lindsey and Stevie each take turns with their compositions, giving the album a decidedly “White Album” feel to it as they build up a musical “quilt” of song genres!

  With Lindsey Buckingham, It’s funny, that in the first two ‘Mac albums he and Stevie were in, his songs were carefully crafted pop/rock tunes, but by the time TUSK came out, his songwriting (to ME at least) started to sound like that Dana Carvey "Choppin' Broccoli" songwriting character who makes up songs as he goes along, and songs like “Not That Funny!” and “What Makes You Think You’re The One” sounded more like jam sessions with nonsensical lyrics than actual singles. 

The songs he penned for Mirage still have this loose free-form feel to them (as in songs like "Book of Love", "Diane" and "Can’t Go Back”, but they are fun and catchy as hell! There’s this one goofy song called “Eyes of the World”, and with its refrain of “eyes…eyes…eyes” as its chorus, my friend James once exclaimed “What the heck is this crap?!” before dancing around, pointing at his eyes in tune with the song. AHAHAHA! But the one masterpiece Lindsey DID lay down for this album was the cool, rocking song EMPIRE STATE, about his experiences in the Big Apple (as opposed to Sunny California). MAN, I love to blast this one!

  Stevie is the one who’s experimented the most with her songwriting, and though “Gypsy” sounds most like her previous work (almost like a sequel of sorts to “Rhiannon”), her other two songs sound more like the stuff she was writing for her solo albums. “That’s Alright” is a country-tinged kicker that almost seems like a precursor for her later “Enchanted” song, but it’s her third track “Straight Back!” that sounds the most like the “solo” Stevie Nicks songs, a slow rocker driven by some awesome keyboards by Christine. The song fades out too soon; I really wish this song could have been a bit longer for how good it is!

 Of the three, Christine McVie is the most reliable here, and she exudes the same romantic pop stylings that gave us songs like “You Make Loving Fun”, “Warm Ways” and “Songbird”. Opening the album with the awesome toe-tapping sunshine-y song “Love In Store”, she runs the gamut through tunes like “Out Of My Mind” and the fun aforementioned song “Hold Me” before closing the album with the beautifully melancholy “Wish You Were Here”, one of her BEST ballads, ever!

 High on the album, that Christmas I was THRILLED to find that they’d released a Videodisc concert of their MIRAGE tour, and after I bought it (at the local RCA dealership), it quickly became the most played movie that season! Songs form Mirage like Love In Store”, “Gypsy” and “Eyes Of The World”(!) were all featured here, and the show even had one of the coolest openings ever with “The Chain”, and one of the sweetest closing songs with “Songbird”!

Although I know that albums like Rumours and the eponymous titled Fleetwood Mac albums are probably greater albums overall, I’ve really come to embrace MIRAGE as my own, because while most Fleetwood Mac fans either love the “Bare Trees” era, the Rumours era, or the “Tango in The Night” comeback era, I have never, NEVER met another fan who owns, much less loves MIRAGE as much as me. Which is strange, because it was a bestseller when it came out…where did all those purchasers get to?

Alberto Vargas

Bought a beautiful Alberto Vargas Book which originally sold for $45, but they made a Special Print Run for Barnes and Nobles for an INSANE price of only $14.95!

Man, I’ve loved Vargas artwork since falling in love with the image adorning the  cover that iconic CARS album CANDY-O(as did many of us guys back then) and have always been aware of his awesome artistic skills…

I remember inheriting a whole slew of old Playboys when I was around 13 or 14 years old, and being blown away when I discovered Vargas’s contribution for each issue was to create a saucy and (utterly nude) pinup for each Month! Heck, I was SO obsessed with Vargas’ artwork that I actually TORE OUT all the Vargas pin-up pages to put in a separate portfolio collection...WTH!!! Gads, all those old collectible Playboys ruined…!

Sad to say, in the end, not only did I tear up all those collectible Playboy Magazines, over the years those pages have been lost to time, so I don't even have those pin ups to show for my thoughtless deeds! D’oh! So it was nice to have a slick coffee table book of Vargas works...

144 pages of beautiful artwork that covered Vargas work from the early days 1920's to the Playboy Years 60-70's . the 1940-50's esquire stuff was great, but naturally I have a penchant for his 60's stuff.. such GORGEOUS GALS!!!

Now online looking to see if I can find some of his other works that I might have torn out of a mag before...

Favorite Albums: Dead Milkmen / Eat Your Paisley!

I was first introduced to the sounds of the Dead Milkmen by a local band called X=X. Among the songs in their setlist was a groovy and fun song called “The Thing That Only Eats Hippies”, and when I asked the bassist about the song one evening, he informed me that the song was in fact a cover of a group with the zany name of the Dead Milkmen!

Dead milkmen? Well, that was a sillier name than I could have imagined, but when you consider that this is a band who sings lyrics like:

“What Do they Taste Like?

Some Kind Of Treat?

How Many Hippies Can This Monster Eat?

It Ate Stills and Nash Before they Could Shout

And then it chewed on David Crosby- But it spit him out!”

I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any less!!! HAHAHAHA

 That weekend I made my way to the local record store in an attempt to find the Dead Milkmen album with The Thing That Only Eats Hippies. This wasn’t too hard a feat seeing as how the Milkmen only had a couple of albums out, the other one being “Big Lizard in My Backyard”. The Hippies song was on their latest album, a crayon-drawn cover with the curious title “Eat Your Paisley”!

Well, the title alone indicated that the album would be as much fun as the Hippies song, and not only did it not disappoint, it blew us away! Every song was SOOOO MUCH FUN! Listening to EAT YOUR PAISLEY was like watching a marathon of  “The Kids In The Hall”, it was so zany! And Catchy! Man, that album became the soundtrack for me and my friends that summer!

Days were spent on campus singing the lyrics to “Where the Tarantula Lives”, and nights were spent driving around town loudly singing along to deliciously warped tunes like “Beach Party Vietnam” “Air-Crash Museum”, and the acidic poseur-bashing tune “Moron”, and a favorite to all was blasting the epic album closing song “The Fez”!

Of course, in later years, the Dead Milkmen would gain a larger audience with their peppy song “Punk-Rock Girl (probably the song they’re most known for nowadays), but Man, nothing can top those  college days of Eat Your Paisley!