Mayim Bialik is ready to bring back “Blossom” but is having a hard time finding a home for the rebooted series.
The actress tells EW that she and “Blossom” co-creator Don Reo have an idea to revisit the floppy-hat-loving character but have been met with resistance.
“I guess I’m allowed to talk about this now, Don Reo and I do have a limited reboot that we would like to do. We’ve had a lot of trouble getting our network onboard,” she says.
Reo created the role specifically for Bialik after seeing her play a young Bette Midler in “Beaches” in 1988. The sitcom, which aired on NBC from 1991 to 1995, followed the teenage Blossom growing up in a household with a single dad and two brothers after their mother abandons the family and moves to Paris to pursue her career — something that was “a huge deal” at the time, Bialik says.
Now, the actress believes there’s an audience out there waiting to see where Blossom has ended up.
“It’s been really fascinating. At a certain point, I may just start a grassroots fan campaign to see if we can do it because we absolutely would love people to see where these characters are,” Bialik says of the reboot idea. “[Reo] and I talked about it and we kind of decided after literally years of trying to work on this that I would probably just say it out loud. We do have a well-formed idea and we would love someone to let us do it.”
Bialik looks back at the show with fondness, revealing “We were very consciously selective about the way we presented this character because it was important to all of us that Blossom still looked like a teenager.” Because the creators were never asked to make the teenage stars “sexier,” she says it allowed the cast — including Joey Lawrence, Jenna Von Oy, and Michael Stoyanov — “to have a really lovely, kind of normal, teenage experience as actors in Hollywood.”
Though the series focused on wholesome storylines, “Blossom” didn’t shy away from topics like teen pregnancy, sexual assault, and addiction.
Revealing the series was “constantly needing to ask for permission” to cover certain topics, Bialik explains that some of their subjects were “scandalous” for the early 1990s in a family sitcom.
“For example, we wanted to talk about safe sex, which is a very important thing to be talking about,” she says. “This was the era that Rock Hudson died. The fact that we wanted to talk about condoms and safe sex was considered very scandalous.”
Despite her fond memories of the series, Bialik “has no plans to relive that part of [my] life” by rewatching the show now. “I didn’t even really watch it back then but we have a lot of fun episodes that I hope everyone enjoys,” she explains.
And you can believe she won’t put on a signature “Blossom” hat if the reboot ever finds a home.
“Of anyone, I should not be seen in those hats. I did it once and I’m done. Other people can wear them but I will never wear one again,” she adds.
