TVSquad

No, it's not Fran Drescher. But wouldn't that be something? Her laugh could send shock waves though a person's brain and paralyze them for several minutes.

Actually, it's Madeline Zima, who played the youngest kid that Nanny Fine had to take care of on the sitcom. She's all grown up now and co-stars on Californication. On Heroes she'll play a college student who somehow gets involved with Claire. I guess that means that Claire is back in college and our heroes are no longer on the run. She'll be on for several episodes.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

Barney Miller is one of those sitcoms I never think about anymore. When I make my mental list of the best sitcoms I never even think of it, even though it was a very good show. I guess it's out of mind because it's not shown on TV that much. I'm surprised it's not part of the regular lineup of TV Land or Nickelodeon. Of course, they don't show The Dick Van Dyke Show much anymore either even though they own it, so nothing surprises me about those two channels anymore.

• Barney Miller - Season 3
• The F Word - Series 2: Uncensored
• Ghost Hunters - Season 4, Part 2

Everyone who has been laughing at the idea of Fran Drescher taking over Hillary Clinton's Senate seat for the state of New York, you can stop laughing now. It's not that wild an idea, not when you consider that Fred Grandy -- Gopher from The Love Boat -- was a Congressman from Iowa, and pro wrestler Jesse Ventura was the Governor of Minnesota, and there's a really good chance that Saturday Night Live alum Al Franken (remember Stuart Smalley?) has won the Senate seat for Minnesota, too. (They're still recounting the votes!)

Oh, and let's not forget the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger from the great state of California. In other words, why not Senator Fran Drescher!

Funny ladies Rosie O'Donnell (Nip/Tuck) and Fran Drescher (The Nanny) are working together on creating a new "fun, happy, family comedy" for TV. On Rosie's website, Fran and Rosie teamed up on camera to talk -- primarily about Fran's "cancer schmancer" campaign for public awareness -- but at the end, Rosie and Fran revealed a sitcom they are planning in which they'll star together.

There's no question that Fran and Rosie are funny women with loyal fans. The Nanny was a CBS hit for six seasons. Rosie, who more recently has been a source of controversy like her very tumultuous time as a cohost on The View, has also been a success on TV. While she was on The View, the ratings were higher than ever before or since. She also had an Emmy-award winning daytime talk show for six years straight which had a vociferous following.

It's a typical night in Moscow. You have just finished supper and are now ready to sit down with your wife, children, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to watch some television. On the screen a sad-faced shoe salesman is anchored to his living room couch watching his own TV. Strutting behind him is his gaudily-dressed, shockingly red-haired wife. To the side his ditsy blonde-haired daughter and fairly intelligent son, who dreams of something bigger in his life, bicker over something or other.

Sounds a bit like Married... With Children, doesn't it? Well, truth be told, it actually is. The name of the show is Schastlivy Vmeste (translated to Happy Together) and it is an authorized copy of the former FOX sitcom featuring Russian cast members and dialog. It is also a huge hit in Russia, especially among younger viewers. According to a spokesperson for Russian channel TNT, Vmeste is the most popular scripted series among the 18 to 30 crowd.

Fran Drescher either has superior genes or a great plastic surgeon, because, at 48, she looks like she could pass for 35. I mean, this is a woman who was in Saturday Night Fever, for Christ's sake. But the former star of The Nanny seems to be aging very, very slowly, to the point where you have to wonder if she's got a got a photo of her aging self stored away in her basement somewhere.

You can tell she knows she's lucky; she's taking any advantage she can to show herself off. Not only does she like to go to parties in outfits that don't leave a lot to the imagination (see the picture with this post), but she has no compunction about stripping down to her bra and panties on stage, as she's doing right now in the Off-Broadway play Some Girl(s), which is written by Neil LaBute. In this New York Observer profile, Drescher talks about the play, her non-dating life, her former relationship with a younger man, and the chances that her current sitcom, Living with Fran, is coming back (she doesn't think it is, and doesn't seem to mind).