Long Live the Ghost of Ann Jillian

The other day in the shower I started singing the theme to JENNIFER SLEPT HERE, and why not...right? What the heck is JENNIFER SLEPT HERE? It's an old sitcom from the 80's about an actress named Jennifer (played by Ann Jillian) who gets run over by an ice cream truck, dies, and then continues to reside in her Hollywood mansion as a ghost while a family from New York moves in. Oh...any only the teenage son can see Jennifer. It's comedy gold, I tell you! I remember watching this show often when I was younger, but according to my crack Internet research only 13 episodes ever aired, back in the 1983-84 television series. I must have just been on the right channel at the right time. Apparently the ratings were pretty good, and it even popped up in the Top 10 shows for the summer of `84. But NBC yanked it after it's initial run. Still, it was a good show and I'd be first in line to buy a DVD set of the entire series. Ya think that might happen!?



Honestly, beyond the catchy theme song and the fact that the boy usually talked to Jennifer in the attic, I don't remember much about the show. But here's my favorite episode titles:

• Boo
• One of Our Jars is Missing
• Rebel With a Cause
• Do You Take This Ghost
• The Tutor Who Came to Dinner
• This was Ann Jillian's big role after appearing in the very successful film MR. MOM. After this show, it was pretty much TV movies, guest appearances and another great forgotten sitcom IT'S A LIVING - where she played a waitress working at a fancy restaurant on the top floor of a skyscraper. That was a great show too!

The Brady Brides

Let's just talk about one of the greatest TV shows to ever grace the small screen. I'm talking of course about THE BRADY BRIDES. A short lived series from 1981, this isn't something I discovered in my later years, I actually remember watching every episode of this delightful program when I was a wee-seven years old! It all started with a made-for-TV movie called THE BRADY GIRLS GET MARRIED. As it turns out, oldest daughter Marcia and middle daughter Jan both announce their engagements at the same time! So they decide to have a double wedding and of course have it on the astro-turf of the Brady's backyard. This movie is the ONLY time that all nine original cast members came back for a reunion story. (Jan passed on THE BRADY BUNCH VARIETY HOUR, Cindy was a no-show for A VERY BRADY CHRISTMAS, and Marcia sat out THE BRADY's)

Anyhow, back to the movie...as it also turns when it comes to house hunting for both the couples, Marcia and Jan both fall in love with the same house! But neither of them can't afford it. BUT if they pooled their money together they could buy the place and all four of them could live there! BUT here's the rub...Jan and her husband are real uptight "play by the rules" kind of people, Jan's husband Phillip is even a college professor! Marcia and her husband are kind of wild "eat ice cream out of the container" kind of people! And get a load of this, Marcia's husband is named Wally and he works at a toy factory. The friction that's going to happen when these two couples move in can't be contained in one two hour movie! So THE BRADY BRIDES continued their adventures as these two nutty couples trying to make a go of things in a crazy world they call 1981!

Sadly, THE BRADY BRIDES never lived to see 1982. After six episodes the show was cancelled and we wouldn't hear from the Brady's again until 1988's A VERY BRADY CHRISTMAS...which is also a fantastic little flick!

THE BRADY BRIDES is long overdue a deluxe DVD edition of it's own!