Blossom: Cast Photo - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

Blossom aired from January 1991 until June 1995 on NBC.

life as seen through the eyes of a sassy, adventuresome, 13-year-old girl, 90's style..

Though the youngest of the three Russo children, Blossom ( Mayim Balik), was mature beyond her years. Her family was distressingly modern: her dad, Nick ( Ted Wass), was divorced, her oldest brother, Anthony( Michael Stoyanov), was a recovering substance abuser and her brother Joey ( Joey Lawrence) was a teenager raging with hormones. His favorite expression was " "woh." In an early episode Nick, her studio musicaian Dad was served with final divorce papers which the kids tried to keep from him-hardly the sort of comic situation viewers would have seen in the 1960's.Joining the family in the fall of 1991 was Grandpa Buzz ( Barnard Hughes), , a freewheeling oldster undergoing a delayed mid-life crisis.

Blossom, herself, was not the prettiest girl on the block and she often dealt with life and her family situation through fantasies in which she got hilarious advice from celebrities including Little Richard, Sonny Bono, Phil Donahue, and even ALF! Her thoughts were related each day to her "video diary." Six ( Jenna Von Oy), so-named because she was the sixth child born into her family, was her best friend and Vinnie ( David Lascher), was her streetwise boyfriend. Rhonda( Portia Dawson), was Anthony's girlfriend for one season. Although not a regular, Melissa Manchester appeared periodically as Nick's ex-wife, Maddie Russo.

During the 1993-1994 season, Anthony, who was a paramedic, began dating a black girl named Shelly ( Samaria Graham). They were eventually married and had a baby, Nash, during the November 1994 sweeps ( of course). For a time, they lived in a garage apartment, but in March of 1995, they moved back east. Nick began dating a worldly British woman named Carol ( Finola Hughes). They were married in the fall of 1994. A new face was added to the family in the form of Kennedy ( Courtney Chase), Carol's six-year-old daughter. Joey, who was not real bright, somehow managed to graduate from high school and went on the road with a minor-league baseball team while becoming engaged to girlfriend Melanie ( Margaret Moreau).

In the May 1995 series finale, dumb Joey abruptly proposed to Melanie who said yes, Carol announced that she was pregnant and Nick arranged to sell the house so that he and Carol could move into a place of their own. Blossom, seeing the family as she knew it coming to an end, at first tried to sabotage the deal but finally realized that it was all about " moving on."

Blossom was first seen in a single pilot telecast on July 5, 1990.

A Review from USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH

'Blossom' needs time to flower

" You're very unusual" an admiring teen-age jock tells gangly Blossom Russo.

And so Blossom is, even if the show is no bed of sitcom roses. Mayim Bialik, who made a splash as the miniature Bette Midler in Beaches, plays Blossom-no shrinking violet.

She's more a loud and precocious nosegay who know's life is no garden party. Bialik, whose wry attitude is telegraphed with a wrinkle of her coltish features, may be the most appealing teen since Doogie Howser M.D. hung his shingle.

The show, however, needs some surgery, especially in the gag-oriented scripts that too often stimulate your gag reflex.

Worst offender: Blossom's brother Joey ( Joey Lawrence), one of those smarmy, girl-crazy teen cads that populate brain-dead kid-coms like Growing Pains. Less typical but a little more appealing is older brother Anthony ( Michael Stoyanov), a recovering drug abuser who uses his rehab experiences as punch-line folder.

Let's hope it doesn't become a trend-like the cliche of the missing mom, this time singing in Europe, leaving dad ( likable Ted Wass) in charge.

Luckily, Blossom is above most of this: " I could have a better conversation with hand puppets," she says of her siblings. There's a difference?

Her witty fantasy life helps. Needing to talk about the onset of puberty with a woman-Eileen Brennan's Brillo pad of a neighbor isn't much help, but she's funny-Blossom conjurs up perfect Cosby mom Phylicia Rashad to draw a sexed diagram on sheet cake.

Blossom has edge, which means Blossom might develop one over time.

An Article From USA TODAY
Published on January 7, 1991

Bialik: This 'Blossom' is no shrinking violet

By Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY

At 14, Mayim Bialik is already the star of her own sitcom, Blossom.

Blossom is a new coming-of-age story about a teen-age girl who lives with her two brothers and musician dad played by Soap's Ted Wass. Tonight, it moves to its regular home at 8:30 EST/PST on NBC.

" I hope we last seven years," says the "very opinionated" Bialik. " We're teaching kids about life in a funny way. And showing what happens to a girl when she grows up."

Executive producer Don Reo's idea for Blossom was to do The Wonder Years from a girl's point of view. In Mayim, he got a girl who spends off-set time studying algebra, physics, Spanish and English; practicing piano, trumpet, guitar and singing; shopping for clothes and riding roller coasters.

On the set, she has amazed co-workers with her timing and memorization skills.

" When you see her walking around the studio, you see a typical 14-year-old girl," Reo says. " But...get her on stage, and she has the timing of a 50-year-old comedian."

Mayim is best known for Beaches-she played Bette Middler's character as a girl.

She convinced her parents to let her try acting full time three years ago after making a splash in her school plays. Barry, a drama teacher, and Beverly Bialik sent Mayim's picture to agents, touting her as a " Bette Middler/Barbara Streisand " type, and Hollywood bit.

Mayim has appeared in the movie Pumpkinhead, TV's Beauty and the Beast, Empty Nest, Murphy Brown, The Facts of Life, Doogie Howser M.D. and MacGyver. She also starred in Fox's short-lived summer series, Molloy.

On the set, her mother is always by her side. In spare time, the Bialiks-Mayim has an 18- year-old brother, Isaac-like to sing songs at the piano and watch TV. Mayim likes Columbo, In Living Color and her time-slot mate, NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. " I got to do a promo with the Fresh Prince," she says. " It was really neat."

She finds most of the kid sitcoms " really stupid. When you start adding little siblings to the cast, that's a sign."

Musically, she loves jazz (' big bands), Sinead O'Connor and Madonna. " She's strong and opinionated."

Bialik gets to sing and play ( I Got You Babe, I've Got You Under My Skin and Michael Jackson's Thriller) in an upcoming episode of Blossom. But don't look for her to croon Middler's Grammy-winning hit, Wind Beneath My Wings.

" If they write it into the show, I'll do it."

But would you like to do it?

" I don't care."

You either want to or don't.

" I don't, OK?" she snaps.

" It's too high for me."

An Article from Entertainment Weekly
Published on March 8, 1991

Television News
Mayim Bialik: 'Blossom''s Fresh Bud
Mayim Bialik: the young feminist -- The 15-year-old star of ''Blossom'' makes sure her show is truthful and a good example for other young women

By Meredith Berkman

In NBC's new comedy Blossom, 15-year-old Mayim Bialik plays an offbeat, sensitive teenager dealing with such adolescent traumas as her First Period and How to Talk to Boys. Bialik herself is quick to report that she has more important issues on her mind. When a script for a recent episode of the Monday-night series included jokes about Blossom's flat chest, Bialik immediately called one of the show's executive producers, Don Reo, and complained.

''I gave him a piece of my feminist mind,'' says Bialik, who in her triple-pierced right ear sports a small gold Venus symbol (the universal sign for womanhood). ''Flat-chested jokes are lame-o. It's important for young women to have positive role models. Blossom is someone who is smart and interested in things other than shopping and boys. She represents how girls are and how they should be.''

During a production break, Bialik slouches in a red-leatherette booth at a Thai restaurant near the Hollywood studio where Blossom is taped. She is dressed in a black wool sailor's jacket, faded jeans, and black suede cowboy boots, an outfit more subdued than one her flippantly funky character might wear. Yet Bialik is less naïve and more hard-edged than the hip-but-insecure Blossom: ''Excuse my posture,'' she says, pausing for effect. ''I'm entitled.''

Well, it has been a busy three years. At 12 Bialik had her first major role, in the movie Beaches, making a splash as the fast-talking, wisecracking, tap-dancing girl who grows up to be Bette Midler. From there, she did guest spots on such shows as Murphy Brown and Doogie Howser, M.D., and then Reo wrote the pilot for Blossom with her in mind. ''Mayim is a comedy savant,'' he says. ''She has the subtlety of an adult. I don't think there's any question that she'll be in this business as long as she wants.''

But first, Bialik has some growing up to do. She lives in Los Angeles with her parents, Barry (he teaches drama and English at a performing arts junior high) and Beverly, and her 19-year-old brother, Isaac, a student at UCLA. Bialik's close family tries to insulate her from the pressures of early success. ''My personal life is my personal life,'' says Bialik, who laughingly refuses to state ''on the record'' if she has a boyfriend.

Beverly, a slim, blond woman who favors oversize tweed jackets, is always on the Blossom set — and though she and Mayim banter like friends, she pays close attention to what others say in the presence of her daughter. After rehearsing a scene in which Blossom lies to her father about going to her first ''make-out'' party, associate director Nancy Sherman tells Bialik, ''I not only want to be here for your Sweet 16, but when you're 21 — and when you lose your virginity.''

The cast and crew laugh and cheer, but Bialik is uncharacteristically quiet. She smiles self-consciously and looks nervously over Sherman's shoulder; Mom has heard every word. ''We're out of here, Mayim,'' Beverly says in a voice that indicates she's only half kidding. ''Would somebody tell Nancy to watch her mouth?''

An Article from USA TODAY
Published on April 26, 1993

Blossoming Joey Lawrence

TV hunk's disc makes sales soar, teen girls swoon

By Tom Green
USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES-Joey Lawrence just turned 17 and to celebrate ,his record company gave him a complete set of Glen Miller.

" I just love it," he says in the same slightly dopey voice he uses to play Joey Russo, TV's favorite dimwit teen on Blossom.

But '40s big band music? Not the stuff your ordinary adolescent sex simble slips on the CD player. " My grandmother introduced me to it when I was about 8," he explains. " Chattanooga Choo Choo sold 1.2 million copies in 1939. That would be amazing today."

But guess who's doing the amazing today? His Nothin' My Love Can't Fix , on his Joey Lawrence album , is No. 20 on the Billboard hot singles chart this week.

He's been popping up in Target stores around the country, drawing up to 4,000 female fans who can't wait to hear his trademark " Whoa!" from Blosson.

" It's pretty great. My best friend calls me and says, " Man, Joe, you are the luckiest guy in the world!" I go ' You're right.' It could be anybody, but it's not. It's me."

For his first video from the album ( he co-wrote nine songs), he dances bare-chested, enhancing his hunk status. But his uniform on and off camera is a T-shirt, motorcycle jacket, flannel shirt tied at the waist , ripped jeans . With 40 pairs he's the Imelda Marcos of ripped jeans.

Unlike many young magicians , he favors PG love songs that both a 4-year-old brother and his grandparents can listen to.

" I didn't want to write about taking a girl into my back room...It's not really inside of me."

Lawrence spent ages 6 to 11 on Gimme a Break. He got famous but nothing like what has happened on Blossom, which stars Mayim Bialik as his sister. TV gossips are buzzing that Bailik and her mom are livid Lawrence has hit bigger; some have Bialik refusing to speak to him.

He is diplomatic. " We talk. We don't go out after or do anything outside of the show, but that's because...we spend eight or nine hours five days a week together."

Lawrence-who takes high school honors courses-likes playing doofus Russo, whom he says is still a virgin, " as much as he talks about big breasts and big butts."

There's no time for a real-life girlfriend, Lawrence says. If he can find a date, he plans to go to his school prom. Shouldn't be hard, considering he gets 12,000 fan letters a month.

One zealous fan sent him perfumed bras and panties. Another wrote him a 32-page love letter. That one he phoned and she nearly had a heart attack. " It was pretty wild," he grins.

A Review of The Blossom in Paris Movie by Variety

Posted: Fri., Sep. 24, 1993
Blossom in Paris
((Fri. (24), 8-10 p.m., NBC))
By TODD EVERETT

Videotaped in Paris and Los Angeles by Witt/Thomas Prods. in association with Touchstone Television. Exec. producers, Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, Don Reo, Judith D. Allison, Rob Lazebnik; producer, Joe Bergen; director, John Whitesell; script, Don Reo & Judith D. Allison; technical director, James Horky.

Cast: Mayim Bialik, Joey Lawrence, Michael Stoyanov, Jenna von Oy, David Lascher, Ted Wass, Melissa Manchester, Gail Edwards, Jacques Coltelloni, Chantal Delsaux, Tom Gallop, Gerard Ishmael, Stephen Root, Jonathan Schmock, Eric Viellard, Victoria Wicks, Jaclyn Bernstein, Don Bloomfield, Nikki Cox, Kelli Kirkland, Megan McGinnis, Brittany Murphy, Riff Regan, Jodi Peterson, Erik Reo, Penina Segall, Aquilina Soriano.

Fourth-season opener finds Blossom Russo (Mayim Bialik) off to France, fleeing boyfriend Vinnie (David Lascher) and looking to stay with her estranged mother (Melissa Manchester), now a cabaret singer in Paris.
Subplot, evidently inserted mainly to keep teen idol Joey Lawrence onscreen as much as possible, finds Blossom's brothers (Lawrence, Michael Stoyanov) working as couriers to gain passage to Paris; they're carrying contraband and become involved with cops 'n' robbers.

After quickly finding mom, who's disinterested in her child's welfare, Blossom develops romance with handsome waiter Laurent (Jacques Coltelloni). Vinnie, who's managed to get to Paris himself, stumbles on Blossom and Laurent in amazingly short order.

Meanwhile, Russo pere (Ted Wass) stays home with girlfriend Sharon (Gail Edwards); and grandfather Buzz (Barnard Hughes) has disappeared altogether, having been demoted from regular to recurrent; and co-star Jenna van Oy pops up in her regular role as Blossom's best friend (and Sharon's daughter), Six -- and also as Blossom's conscience and as a look-alike French salesgirl.

Episode misses much of the wacky hipness that brings "Blossom" above most teen fare, though there are moments -- as when Anthony describes France to dimwit Joey as "the country that keeps Germany from invading Spain," and when machine-gun-mouth Six describes to Blossom what's been going on back home.

Lawrence gets a rare opportunity to "act"-- Joey still resents his mother's having walked out on the family -- and Joey is allowed to show occasional glimpses of intelligence and insight (though not enough to lose the audience that finds Joey's usual dumb hunk appealing). Manchester sings a few songs, the Blossom-Vinnie-Laurent triangle is resolved, and wheels are set in motion for episodes to come.

Pic looks and moves OK under John Whitesell's direction, though use of Parisian locations isn't particularly imaginative, with action coming to a head on -- where else? -- the Eiffel Tower.

A Review from Variety
November 28, 1994

Blossom: Oh Baby
((Mon. (28), 8:30-11 p.m., NBC))
By TONY SCOTT

Taped at Sunset-Gower Studios by Impact Zone Prods. and Witt/Thomas Prods. Exec producers, Judith D. Allison, Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, Don Reo, Allan Katz; supervising producers, Susan Seeger, Jonathan Schmock; producer, Kenneth R. Koch; director, Ted Wass; writer, Brenda Hampton; creator, Reo; audio, William Kennedy; lighting designer, Alan Walker; production designer, Edward Stephenson.

Cast: Mayim Bialik, Joey Lawrence, Michael Stoyanov, Jenna Von Oy, Samaria Graham, Courtney Chase, Kevin Jamal Woods, Finola Hughes, Ted Wass, Phyllis Diller, Brian George, Darion Basco.

One of the more sharply written sitcoms of the past five years, "Blossom" hits a surface bump celebrating its 100th stanza with Brenda Hampton's script. The bubbly brew's gone flat.
In the seg, pregnant Shelly Russo (Samaria Graham), wife of Blossom's brother Tony, shows up with labor pains. Friend Six (Jenna Von Oy) and brother Joey (Joey Lawrence) are on hand with Blossom (Mayim Bialik), but ambulance driver Tony (Michael Stoyanov) is held up.

At the same time, dad Nick (Ted Wass, who directed the episode to only so-so effect) and British wife Carol (Finola Hughes) are facing an immigration officer for an OK on their marriage. Wass and Hughes share a weak scene in the office of the government rep (Brian George), but it's the program's doubtful best moment.

The big joke supposedly comes off when grown people, including Shelly, crowd into a midget car headed for the hospital: Shelly's baby is on its way during a traffic gridlock. Blossom tries calming everyone, Shelly looks in pain, and Joey and Six are irritants.

Phyllis Diller is around as Tony's partner, but even she can't wrestle much humor out of the feeble material. Stoyanov looks sincere, and Finola Hughes indicates that Carol's a solid comedy character. Blossom's suspended between the Carol-Nick and the Shelly-baby routines without much chance to show any strong comic invention.

Series' humor stumbles with this chapter. As Carol drawls, "I fail to find the humor in this."

An Article from Entertainment Weekly
Published on May 19, 1995

Television Commentary
The Kids Were All Right
''Blossom'' and ''Full House'' air their series finales this week

By Ken Tucker

Goodbye, goodbye to Blossom and Full House, as each finishes out its series run this week. Blossom was a sweet little nothing of a show with one big something going for it: Mayim Bialik, a skillfully perfect embodiment of gawky adolescence, in the title role. The show also yielded a bona fide teen idol in Joey Lawrence, whose Joey Russo was a likable teenage moron who came complete with a catchphrase (''Whoaaaa!''). After a couple of mildly entertaining seasons following its premiere in 1991, Blossom fell into the trap of ''message'' episodes: Hey, kids, don't drink, don't do drugs, don't have sex. (On a recent episode of Friends, Matthew Perry makes a sarcastic reference: ''Tonight, on a very special episode of Blossom....'') But Bialik always remained admirably unfazed, unmannered.

For eight seasons, Full House was one of those shows invisible to adults but circuit-wired into the brains of millions of children and preadolescents. Its original premise — a trio of guys (Bob Saget, John Stamos, and Dave Coulier) raising a trio of little girls (Candace Cameron, Jodie Sweetin, and one moppet played by twins Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen) — was little more than a Three Men and a Baby rip-off, gleaning laughs from the fact that men don't know diddly about kids. But by the time the underrated Lori Loughlin joined the show during the second season, Full House had become a crack ensemble sitcom; you didn't have to chuckle at its preadolescent punchlines to appreciate the skill that went into delivering them. You can't ask much more from a family show.

To watch some clips from Blossom go to http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blossom+tv+show&aq=f

For the Official Site of Mayim Bialik go to http://www.mayimbialik.net/

For a Website dedicated to Ted Wass go to http://tedwass.com/