8/12/09 - Show Ruby Some R-E-S-P-E-C-T

RUBY & THE ROCKITS and HANNAH MONTANA have a lot in common. Both series have the ongoing themes of music, "back-in-the-day" music stars as fathers, and even Austin Butler. I suppose the only major difference is Ruby hasn't made up a secret pop star identity yet, but I guess that's going to have to be another case of "wait for it". Though as it turns out, it appears both sit-coms (yet another commonality) have much more in common than even that.

Last night ABC Family aired episode four of RUBY under the title, "It's My Party, and I'll Lie If I Want To." Ring any metaphorical bells? Funny thing because back in 2006, Disney Channel aired episode five of HANNAH under the exact same title.

To be fair, it seems RUBY chose to go down the same road as HANNAH series-wise and decided to go with the song-parody episode titles, reminiscent of '80s ALF. Both series are under the Walt Disney Company roof, and both do center around music, and it definitely does make sense. But then why not take that as an opportunity to choose a different supply of song titles as the series engine, such as episode two of RUBY, "Save The Last Dunce For Me". With the amount of music past and present, genre to genre, I would think there would be an abundance of options. So why stick to the same sort of ideas?

The only reason I can figure is to make a pop culture crack because they can. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. ABC Family dubbed episode three of RUBY, "Do You Want To Blow A Secret?" The network's newest drama series, MAKE IT OR BREAK IT, also sprinkles various Disney Channel references throughout the series. Understanding that legality and rights aren't an issue, I believe it's truly meant as a joke on ABC Family's part with the best of intentions.

It's cute to be sure, but, and excuse me for the pun, cute is not always what we should aim for. Let's dare to do something completely new and different for once and make it the best we can possibly make it. Because I don't know about you, but as much as I love HANNAH MONTANA, when I sit down to watch RUBY & THE ROCKITS, that's the show I want to watch at that moment. And I really do like ABC Family's new series; I believe it has great potential. So let's match the potential RUBY already has with stellar episode titles. She deserves it.