Null and Void : Old Crush of the Week 11/29

Fresh off the success of the All American Kelly Kapowsi, we are taking things back to our first ethnic crush. So for this Throwback Thursday, our Old Crush of the Week is a reader's choice.

I was never a big Cosby guy(only seen like one episode completely), so my first exposure to a black family was a delightful story about a Fresh Prince in a town called Bell Air. Obviously the show followed the capers of Will and Carlton, especially the first couple of seasons where Will was a fish out of water. Out of the cast of course Hillary was the natural eye candy back then, but there was a diamond in the rough, (neither Aunt Vivs), Ashley Banks was our longitudinal study of how a hottie develops, and so for giving me first inkling of jungle fever, Ashley Banks this week belongs to you.

I'm am so honored to be chosen.

Jungle Fever!!

I don't know why it surprises me, but she is older than me. I had no idea she was born in 1979, all I know is when she first made her debut on Fresh Prince or FPBA as us Uncle Phil aficionados call it, she was a spunky 10 year old who wanted to learn what it was like growing up on the mean streets of West Philadelphia. She was young and impressionable and was pretty much there to complete the family, much like the younger kids in Family Matters that disappeared. She was pretty much there for the cute factor alone, but things change and in this case change is good, very good.

Will can you teach me how to fight?

See cute as cute can be, but with any child actor there is always the possibility that they will grow into an ugoh. No offense to child star ugohs, but you start off so cute and then eww. Here is a sad example of a cute kid turning into an ugoh.

Should have let the robbers get him.

As the seasons went on, her character started to increasingly be part of the main story lines. She became a lot less sheltered and then she started to get hot. This led to many awkward situations like: her dressing too provocatively for Uncle Phil, her dressing too provocatively for Carlton, Will hitting on a "fly honey" and her turning out to be Ashley to his horror and our amusement. Her hotness also led to plenty of romances on screen. She went on TV dates with such famous actors as Urkel and Ruf-I-OOOOOOOOOO.

Did he do that?

Lookie, Lookie, I got her cookie?

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As the show started to wind down she got hotter, which was fantastic for us, but she also started to push her music career, which wasn't fantastic for us. She also was dating Jonathan Brandeis for the longest time, the kid from the awful karate movie with Chuck Norris, Sidekicks. She also went to Harvard, though it seems like child TV stars either go to Ivy league schools or to Crack-town once their careers are over(Hi-C thought).

The left one is Carlton and the right one is Will

Her acting career after the Fresh Prince really wouldn't wow anyone, besides maybe Hillary. She was in Glory Road, and whole lot of stuff you probably wouldn't know at all. Lets not forget her memorable appearance as Nick Cannon's mom in a music video, "fuck Nick Canon" (Chapelle). She is currently on a TV show called "Love That Girl!" on TV One, whatever the hell channel that is. And now I think she is a little bit crazy from this quote alone of her talking about her character, "One thing that I do love about her is that she is really multidimensional", what does that even mean?.

Dammmmmmmmmmmmn!

Though the two best things about her is she is still pretty darn cute, and she is willing to be seen with weird looking guys, so she's telling us there is still a chance.

Exhibit A

But in all seriousness she has turned into quite a smoking hottie, even though she is forgotten by most, we still carry a torch for her and we wish her more success so we can see more of her on the big screen. So Ashley, thanks for not just being our Old Crush of the Week, and still looking fine, but being my first mocha princess. Oh what the hell one more piece of eye candy to show her off.