Melissa Joan Hart Meets World

Melissa Joan Hart explains it all on a brand new episode! How did her mom pay $1 for the rights to Sabrina? Which PMW host did she briefly date as a teenager? What’s going on in that infamous movie premiere photo with Britney Spears? And what will she be working on with Will in the not-so-distant future? Plus, time travel to the back of a limo with Melissa, Danielle and *NSYNC during the early ‘00s. It’s time to sit down with a real witch on the newest Pod Meets World…

This episode was recorded on June 14, 2023. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode was recorded on June fourteenth, twenty twenty three.

(00:21):
So it's happened again. I can't really say I'm excited
about it. I don't know what's happening. But Jensen has
found yet another clip of some sort and is here too.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
We have no idea what this is.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
No no, and it's yeah no And the last one.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Made you ex husband of this podcast. So what's going
to happen now? Is my question?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, Raju boy, that was a worthy one.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Freshway was worthy. It's just crazy because I'm losing sleep.
I'm spending twenty four hours a day trying to find
footage of you guys in compromising situations or shows or
cork you now regret. But this week I bring you
something from outside the sphere of Boy meets World that
somehow found itself back into Boy Meets World.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
What, oh my gosh, what is this?

Speaker 4 (01:09):
Okay? I have to shout out a listener of the podcast.
Her name is Bree. She's the one who brought this
to my attention.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Hi Brie, either hib or how dare you? Thank you?

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Or we're gonna find you, Bree.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
I think you will like this. It's from a twenty
eighteen podcast. She sent us a clip and the podcast
is called Home and Podcast and it is a home
improvement rewatch show by two funny dudes named Adam and Jordan,
and they got through the whole thing. They clearly predate us,
so they maybe created the rewatch podcast question Mark, but

(01:46):
they're great and they had a bunch of the talent
from the show come on, which is awesome. And one
of the things they did is a two part interview
with Patricia richardson the mom on the show. I'm sure
you had some sort of interactions with her, or at
least seen her around. You know, she was flying high
in ninety sitcom world. There was no bigger than Home Improvement,

(02:07):
which we've learned.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Betsy Randall was on Home Improvement playing her friend or something.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
That's right, you guys. Richard Caran also showed up on
your show. It was kind of a nice relationship you had,
and so the hosts asked her for any behind the
scenes gossip that she might have, and she was very
hesitant to bring up any of like the real stuff,
but she did say that she could give you one.
And this one made me go because it's some pretty

(02:37):
good team and it involves our beloved Danielle Fischer.

Speaker 5 (02:42):
Let's hear the I know one thing that I could
tell that's a kid's story. Apparently I was sort of
half aware of this. Jonathan, Zach and Tarn were all
madly in love with the same girl, and she was
next door on Boy Meets Her.

Speaker 6 (02:57):
Oh her name is Danielle FICIALI yes, yes, And every
time she would come backstage, they would be all a
buzz and be going.

Speaker 7 (03:08):
To a close. I have to try my clothes.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
I tore something different.

Speaker 7 (03:11):
Danielle's coming, Danielle's coming. Another boy come in, Dandie's coming.

Speaker 5 (03:14):
I wore something different, She's coming, Daniel's coming, Daniel's coming,
And they'd be in the makeup room all like, she's
coming over, She's coming over, fix my hair, fix my hair,
and all three boys.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Apparently we're just wid.

Speaker 8 (03:23):
I felt the same way growing up. Oh definitely, yeah,
I definitely did. Yeah, are you serious? I was so
absolutely yeah.

Speaker 9 (03:35):
No.

Speaker 8 (03:35):
She was very important to me as well.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
I would say around that time, So.

Speaker 7 (03:39):
Where where is she now? What is she doing?

Speaker 3 (03:41):
A good question.

Speaker 7 (03:42):
I think she's on she was on Girl Meets World, right,
I think they're both both.

Speaker 10 (03:46):
Yah, she's married. To someone that does a lot. He's
like a comedian. He does a lot of podcasts. I
can't think of his name, but she's she's around. I
get some shrapnel there. Yeah, that is that. That's news
to you, right, that all three boys liked you.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
I didn't know that Taren had a crush on me.
I knew that Zach and Jonathan did. I did not
know that Tarran did. That is news to me.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
I mean to have all three boys on one show.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Your moves, yeah, till Danielle around. Oh man, there is makeup.

Speaker 7 (04:24):
Close.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, JTT won that battle.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Well, I mean Zachary was cool.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Zach was cool. Yeah, Zach was cool, and then Jonathan,
You and Jonathan obviously got along stir well, and and
Taren was a little terror back in the day. I mean,
I do you remember what, oh man? So remember we
would all play in the in the the room next
to our set had the it was a trailer where
we had the ping pong paddle off and he took

(04:51):
all the ping pong paddles home and put nails through them.
Don't you remember that? And you would walk around and
like smack the walls and stick the thing with like
the nails into the thing.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
We were all like, was this the kid from Home
Improvement or Dummer.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, he was a significantly younger, younger younger.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
And he was he was a little he was he
was a little restaurant. I think he's he's a vegan
vegan or something or something.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, something, I mean obviously grew out of it. But
he went through a little terror station.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
You don't think his restaurant just has tons of paddles nails.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
He called the battle.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Now he's just waiting for Will to come in exactly.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Well that's my COT this week. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
That was very sweet. Thanks guys, all right, thank you.
Welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm rather strong,
and I'm Wilfredell our guest this episode is a television

(05:56):
icon who most of the world met as Clarissa Darling
in sixty five episodes of Clarissa Explains It All, a
fourth wall breaking Nickelodeon classic that dominated kids TV for
five seasons, and that would be enough for most actresses
of the nineties, but not here. She then outdid herself
as Sabrina Sawyer, also known as Sabrina the Teenage Witch

(06:16):
for one hundred and sixty three episodes, the highest rated
sitcom in the TGIF block during its four year run
on ABC. Wait in four years A four years?

Speaker 3 (06:28):
How can you see that many episodes?

Speaker 11 (06:29):
Tien?

Speaker 1 (06:30):
I know, I don't know, but they were also so
highly rated. Maybe that's why they just kept churning them out.
We were basically just her opening act. It would eventually
move to the WB only because it became too expensive
to keep near shows like ours, which also led to
an animated spin off and a PlayStation game. She even
slummed it with Us, appearing on a Boy Meets World

(06:51):
episode as Sabrina for season five in hopes she could
bring a little of her ratings magic to our little
show that was always on the bubble. You may know
her from movies like Drive Me Crazy, or the long
running Melissa and Joey or Cover Your Ears, Will tons
of recent fan favorite Christmas movies. She is the greatest
actress to ever share a screen with a talking cat.

(07:12):
Please welcome to Pod Meets World, Melissa Joan Hart. Hi, guys, Hi.
We start all of our interviews kind of the same way.
So I'm going to ask you how old were you
and when did you get into acting.

Speaker 7 (07:32):
I was four, okay, and.

Speaker 9 (07:34):
I wanted to be in a I wanted to be
on the show Romper Room back. Yes, because what I
did was I did some math and I realized, like, well,
maybe not math, but little research. And by watching the show,
I realized that what was her name, Mss Maryanne would
never say Melissa in the Magic Mirror wasn't a very
popular name at the time. And I figured out that
what she was doing was she was saying the names
of the kids sitting in front of her, like it

(07:56):
was like a nursery school read along or something.

Speaker 7 (07:57):
I don't remember what it was really, but like all
the kids that were there, I'm like, she's saying their names.

Speaker 9 (08:03):
If I'm there, she'll say my name, So my mom,
I had to be on TV and that's how it started.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Did you end up going on er Room?

Speaker 9 (08:10):
I never did, but I just found out my best
friend Kelly Martin did, and I'm like, I'm so now
friendship over yep.

Speaker 7 (08:17):
Yeah, I was like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Like my dream?

Speaker 7 (08:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:22):
So you are one of eight kids. Were you always
the most dramatic do any of your siblings?

Speaker 11 (08:28):
No?

Speaker 7 (08:28):
Definitely not the most dramatic.

Speaker 9 (08:31):
Just the craziest, crazy enough to get into the business.
They all of them kind of followed my footsteps at
some point or another, mainly because of convenience.

Speaker 7 (08:41):
My mom driving me.

Speaker 9 (08:42):
I lived in Long Island, New York, and then driving
to Manhattan every day was it was almost like two
hours there, two hours back. So in order for her
to take me, she kind of had take everybody. So
I have a little sister who's two years younger than me.
We kind of looked the same growing up, and we
would compete on everything together.

Speaker 7 (09:00):
But I was more of a ham and she was
a little bit like little I don't like this.

Speaker 9 (09:05):
You know. So I would get everything, but she would
be dragged along to the auditions. So and then my
other sister was a singer, and so she did some
Broadway and like with like Lacy Shabt and some of
her other friends that did Broadway stuff. And yeah, and
then my brother was actually on Saturday Night Live. He
got to say Live from New York at Saturday Night,
but he had his mouthful popcorn at the time. He

(09:27):
played one of George Bush Senior's grandkids, so technically he played.

Speaker 7 (09:33):
Jeb I think he played.

Speaker 9 (09:37):
So he got to say my favorite line ever, and
he had a mouthful popcorn and ruined it. And then
my little sister Emily was actually she had quite a career,
but she hated it so she quit. She was cousin
Amanda on Sabrina. She did the voice of Sabrina for
the animated series, and then I think she was like
pretty high up there in the people for Lizzie Maguire

(09:59):
and like all these shows.

Speaker 7 (10:00):
He was like, I don't want to do it.

Speaker 11 (10:01):
And yeah, my.

Speaker 9 (10:03):
Sister Ali was in the TV show Deadwood. Actually she
was in No Sammy. My sister Sammy was in the
pilot for Deadwood.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
And then everybody's working this is awesome.

Speaker 11 (10:12):
Oh.

Speaker 9 (10:12):
I think one of my sisters, her her ultrasound was.

Speaker 7 (10:16):
On a soap opera.

Speaker 9 (10:18):
And then when the woman in the soap opera had
to have a baby, they were like, they went to
my mom, Hey, when you have the baby, can we
have her for a few days.

Speaker 7 (10:24):
And she was like sure, I'll.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Bring them all.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
She's a few weeks old.

Speaker 7 (10:27):
And they like bring her to set.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
And you guys have a dynasty, well.

Speaker 7 (10:31):
I mean sort of.

Speaker 9 (10:32):
They all sort of were like they all have their
own thing going on. One's a chef in Paris. One's
an art curator in Paris. One's uh a stay at
home mom in San Diego. One my brother's an electrician
among island.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Like, you know, it's like, well, talking to your mom.
Your mom is like, I am always somewhere in the
world with one of my kids, driving somewhere, flying somewhere.
She's like, that's all I do all the time.

Speaker 9 (10:53):
She calls herself a Boomerang grandparent. So she has apartments
all over the place, and then and then and then
a sprinter van and her and her husband like wrap
my stepdad. They like, they'll drive to Nashville see me.
They'll go to New York. They head back to San Diego,
they fly to Paris for a few days, they come
back through New York. They you know, cool, and they
had ten grandkids and seven kids.

Speaker 7 (11:14):
Yeah, what a great life.

Speaker 9 (11:17):
Yeah, I know right, they're kind of if you follow
them on Instagram, I mean I feel like they should
have like, you know, the bucket list family, Like they
should be like the Boomerang grandparents, like they were cute.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, what a great idea.

Speaker 7 (11:26):
I'm gonna get on that actually right after we.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, write that down how did Clarissa come? Do you
do you remember the audition?

Speaker 7 (11:34):
Mm hmm, yeah.

Speaker 9 (11:35):
I was actually auditioning for Blossom simultaneously as.

Speaker 7 (11:40):
The role of six. Oh my gosh, I was auditioning.

Speaker 9 (11:43):
Blossom and Clarissa, and I think I got to like
three auditions on both.

Speaker 7 (11:47):
I remember laying in bed at night, a little girl,
dear Lord, please let me just get the job that's
meant for me. And right and Clarissa was the way
it went, and and I loved I loved that character
so much.

Speaker 9 (11:59):
It was just a lot of work, know, working at
that age, high school SATs, college applications, all that stuff
that kind of gets fed on top of I mean,
thank God for Will.

Speaker 7 (12:08):
It was like my heart thrub and all my books
at I heart Will.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
When I was like, oh, we did it like a
teeny bopper romance.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
We do?

Speaker 3 (12:17):
Did I don't even remember. I remember just coming up
on Nickelodeon and we were both nick kids, and we'd
be at those events. And then we were in Florida.
You were at.

Speaker 7 (12:26):
The studio when I was filming. You must have got
something there.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
I was shooting something there. I think it was a
new pilot after don't you sit there ended. I think
we were doing out of time or something like. I
don't remember what it was. But then I was with
you for like your fourteenth birthday or you remember. We
went to someplace where we were it was those big
tanks you could drive where you shoot the tennis balls
at the other. Oh, yeah, that was us there.

Speaker 7 (12:50):
Okay, the only time I ever had fun in Orlando.
I never really got to do anything. I was.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah, And so we went out for that and we
were like making google eyes at each other and by
the end of the night we were dating and like.

Speaker 9 (12:59):
All that kind of and we called each other a
few times on a landline or yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
That kind of number. I'm sure I did. Yeah, we did.
It was it was. It was a whirlwind romance. I
don't think we even kiss.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Do you even kiss?

Speaker 7 (13:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Maybe I think we might have.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
We might have.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
I don't even rememorable.

Speaker 7 (13:15):
Well, I know that I found a notebook and I
was like, and it was just I heeart will I
heart well.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Like all oh, like who's will?

Speaker 7 (13:24):
And then something came to me. I was like, oh
my god, I know that.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, so it was the thing I remember is then
we so we every year, we would have the ABC
parties and when uh you know, when Sabrina started, there
was a tap on my shoulder and turn around at
one of the parties and it's you and you're like,
do you remember me? I'm like, are you kidding? Like,
of course I remember you. And we ended up talking
that whole night too. So yeah, that was that was fun. Yeah,

(13:48):
it's known you a long time, known you a long time.
Were you called Nickelodeon and funds a parade together?

Speaker 11 (13:55):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (13:55):
No, we hosted that. That opening of of of I
was like the three hour live opening of Disney something
we did together. No, that was in Orlando, Orlando.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
We went down to Disney fifth anniversary for Disney something
like that.

Speaker 9 (14:09):
I think Ben and I hosted one of their Christmas parades.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, I hated hosting parades. Ben and I did a
Toy Story parade and the worst experience.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah you know that.

Speaker 9 (14:21):
J and I like petitioned Disney when we got an
ABC family, were like, we want to host a Disney
parade and.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
They were like, no, no, no, we don't want you
to do that.

Speaker 7 (14:29):
I want younger people.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
I was like, come on, when did you know Clarissa
was a success, Like, do you remember the moment where
you were like, oh, wow, we're a hint.

Speaker 9 (14:39):
I had a weird relationship with that whole thing because
before that I had done theater and like, you know,
just kind of showed up in commercials and soap operas
and movies and stuff.

Speaker 7 (14:49):
I had done a show called The Equalizer.

Speaker 9 (14:51):
I got a lot of attention from older people on
that one, but with Clarissa, because it was Cable and
not a lot of people like cable at the time.
I I felt like, and in New York City, especially,
people weren't really watching nick you know, run a lot
of adults in New York City.

Speaker 7 (15:05):
I wasn't really around kids my own age. I didn't get.

Speaker 9 (15:08):
Recognized for a long time, I feel like, and then
when I was, it was so bizarre. I remember being
like apologetic the fact that they watched Nickelodeon.

Speaker 7 (15:16):
I was like, oh you what, Niphony, Like, I'm sorry,
you know. I think at that point I was too
cool for Nickelodeon. It was like for the kids.

Speaker 9 (15:23):
I was like fifteen, and I was like, I don't know,
I'm sorry about that, but it just felt weird. I
didn't know what to say. They're like, oh, I love
you on that show. I'm like, really, I'm sorry. I
think that's probably my first like real fan encounter. Yeah,
but but I you know, I appreciated her.

Speaker 7 (15:39):
I knew how smart she was.

Speaker 9 (15:40):
And then of course, years later when the writers go
off to do like one of the writers went off
to do the Office and one went off to friends,
and you know, in these like you realize how brilliant
these people were around you, and how smart that show was,
and how wild the costumes were, and how loved she was.
You know, it took on a different tone from me.
But it was just work. It was just another job

(16:02):
really at first, and I was making good money. I
knew was going to be able to go to college,
you know stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, and your mom was your agent, right.

Speaker 9 (16:11):
She was like my manager, and then she segued into
producer right when Clarissa ended. Okay, so that's what got
us to Sabrina.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
Got it. So she has wild stories about Sabrina. She
has wild stories about selling Sabrina.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Lisa goes on for five seasons, and we talk a
lot on this podcast for technically it was four. Yeah, Okay,
it was like the pilot was considered a side on.

Speaker 11 (16:32):
That it was like a weird thing.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Okay, so technically four seasons. And did you ever, like
all three of us, at different times, have experienced whatever,
some version of burnout, whether it be because of mental illness.
For Will with you know, anxiety writer and I both
when boy Mee's world ended, we're like, we really need
to stay, like we just want to go to normal
life and go to school or whatever. Did you experience
any sort of burnout after Clarissa before you started Sabrina.

Speaker 7 (16:59):
I can't say that.

Speaker 9 (17:00):
I experienced it as burnout. I'm sure it was of
some level, but it was more like, I mean, my
whole life, I've been told about the child star disasters, right,
the people that didn't make it through, the people that
got addicted, the people that you know, that kind of thing,
like the kind of the.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
The horror stories.

Speaker 9 (17:20):
Yeah, like careful, like the I forget the I can't
think of the word right now, but you know, like
the warnings about what can happen as to a child
star then, and so I feel like I was very
cautious of that, but I also kind of had always
heard and especially being in like the theater world.

Speaker 7 (17:32):
I think maybe I always.

Speaker 9 (17:34):
Saw that it was it was a tough business, and
you know that it's not something you can really rely on.
So I was always trying to find a backup. Like
I was very good in school. I wasn't smart, but
I was like a good student, and I took that
very seriously. And then when I couldn't go to college
because of Sabrina, I got really upset, Like, actually it
wasn't Sabrina. I got offered a movie right after Clarisa ended.

(17:54):
I got offered a TV movie with your friend Jason Marsden,
this movie.

Speaker 7 (18:00):
Called Oh My God. He was a character.

Speaker 9 (18:04):
We did a movie where I played his love interest.
And it was the first time I didn't have to
be like doing all the work, Like I was like
sort of like the girl that just kind of pops
in and his love interest, but he's with his family
the whole time.

Speaker 7 (18:14):
What was it called family reunion? A relative nightmare is what.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
It was called.

Speaker 9 (18:17):
Okay, And so he was the star, and he was like,
and I was the kind of the girl that he
meets on vacation.

Speaker 7 (18:23):
So it was fun to kind of like be the
heart throb, the girl inside a little bit of bad Girl.

Speaker 9 (18:27):
But before I got that part, it meant I was
gonna have to sit out my first semester of college.
And I took college very seriously. I was like, if
I don't go to college, that'll be it for me,
Like I'll be one of I'll be one of the
you know, the stories of people that kind of went
down the wrong road or something. But I really waited,
and I was like, all right, if I take one
semester off, I'll go the next semester. So I did

(18:49):
sort of. And it's because of my mom too. She
was very careful after Clarissa. She was like, you built
a fan base. She kind of understood branding before it
was called. He was like, you built a fan base.
I don't want you going and playing Lolita or this
or that, because that's gonna those people that have watched
you and loved you are not going to follow you
to that. So she kind of kept me in her

(19:10):
management skills, kept me in that lane of like where
do you belong in the scope of things now?

Speaker 7 (19:16):
And that's how Sabrina came about. It came about pretty quickly.

Speaker 9 (19:19):
It happened like I did that movie with Jason that fall,
like wrapped in the spring on Clarissa, or actually it
was the year before. So I finished high school and
I went took a summer abroad. I went to Paris
on a bike.

Speaker 7 (19:33):
Had I think my boyfriend, my long term.

Speaker 9 (19:36):
Boyfriend, had broken up with me and or cheated on me,
and so I was devastated. And I went to Paris
and like got over that heartbreak. And then I came
back and like I did this movie, went to college
and then immediately went to Sabrina. So every semester it
was like boom, boom boom. So I fought to get
my college degree. I planned someday to be the eighty
year old who throws her cap in the air at NYU,

(19:57):
and but I went for seven years, never quite got
even halfway.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
In my credits, that's okay, you you were, you were,
you were a little busy. So the Sabrina started as
like a Showtime movie, right, and then ABC turned it
into a show.

Speaker 9 (20:14):
So that's what happened. So I went to college in January.
I think by March I had to leave to shoot Sabrina.
But I was able to kind of fit it in
with my schedule with spring break or something. So I
stayed in college, but I went to Vancouver and shot
this movie, came back and by that fall we had
a series because my mom had My mom had used
our Clarissa contacts at Viacom, which owned Showtime, and she said, Hey,

(20:36):
this would be a great Showtime movie. And as we're
making the movie, she kept telling Viacom executives this would
be a fantastic series and they're like, yeah, but we'll see,
we'll see, we'll see. So when she was in the
editing bay with the movie, she cut together a trailer.
So then she took that trailer play and showed six
different networks and in the three offers amazing.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, so it's not just that, isn't didn't she all?

Speaker 10 (21:00):
So?

Speaker 3 (21:00):
So growing up? You know, when I was growing up,
I loved Archie comics. I was just a huge fan
of Archie comics. And Sabrina was one of the kind
of the inserts of the Archie comic and then became
a spin off of the of the Archie world. Didn't
she walk into kind of the Archie people and say
I want the rights to Sabrina and they said, yeah, okay,
well this is never going to do anything. So didn't

(21:21):
she get them for a dollar.

Speaker 11 (21:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (21:24):
Yeah, they kind of have an exchange.

Speaker 9 (21:26):
So she was like, I'll give you a dollar, you
give me the rights for six months, I'll see what
I can do with it, and boom she had a
movie and boom she had a series.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
And yeah, wow, savvy mother.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah she's awesome. Yeah she's awesome. It's great.

Speaker 9 (21:39):
Yeah, she's she's Yeah, she's a go getter. I mean
she's a scrappy New Yorker. You know, it's seven kids,
so she's.

Speaker 11 (21:45):
A dollar a dollar.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (21:48):
So she's someone on the playground of my siblings school,
like in New York City, like a public school in
New York. Someone there was like had the Archie comic
and said, hey, this would be a great project for Melissa,
and she like opened it up and looked at it
and she was like, yeah, would And so then she
figured out how to get in touch with the Archies.
She talked about a calm and they put it with
showtime and boom we had a movie.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Incredible, that's so cool.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
Yeah. So I mean it doesn't happen like that anymore.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
No, that is not the business anymore, not at all.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
I mean the role of Sabrina was like then seen
by an entire generation. Was working on an ABC show
a lot different than your experience at Nickelodeon.

Speaker 7 (22:25):
Oh yeah, well, there were so many differences.

Speaker 9 (22:27):
It was hard for me to see sort of the
network difference because I was seeing the difference between six
days a week, seventy hours with school and whatnot, and
then all of a sudden, having a cast of characters
to play against instead of monologues.

Speaker 7 (22:39):
And driving mostly dialogue now, all of a sudden.

Speaker 9 (22:41):
Instead of memorizing my monologues all week long because Clarissa
was heavy on monologues and it was all to one camera,
so it had to be exact.

Speaker 7 (22:48):
I couldn't. There was no editing it. I had to
get four pages out at least every week. So then
there was the.

Speaker 9 (22:57):
U with Sabrina. It was like, there's this cast of characters.
I'm older, I can go out and party.

Speaker 7 (23:03):
I bought my own house.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
You know.

Speaker 9 (23:04):
It was like being like a grown up, but also
having like an easier job, and you know, the budget.
I wasn't really aware of the fact that the budget
was big until I started going to parties and stuff
and they would buy my clothes for red carpet events.
And like it was this budget given to me for
just shopping, just for when I'm not on camera, and
I was like.

Speaker 7 (23:24):
That's wild, Okay. I never really trusted it.

Speaker 9 (23:28):
There was this I don't even want to tell you
how much it was a ridiculous amount of money to
spend every season just on red carpet events.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 9 (23:34):
Sometimes I'd have the costumer like build me a costume
for my own party, Like I had a masquerade ball
and she built me like a Renaissance stress, like from scratch.
So deciding like what fabrics I liked and whatnot, she
would build it for me. And that was part of
the but I never They were like, you still have
money in your budget. You want to go to Jimmy
Chu and just buy some shoes. And I was like, yeah,
but is it really coming out of like what is

(23:54):
it like coming out of my salary.

Speaker 7 (23:56):
Or something like that.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
I can't understand how this works.

Speaker 7 (23:58):
And they were like, no, if you don't use it, it
goes back to them.

Speaker 9 (24:00):
I'm like, but are you sure, like just like taking
a credit card and going, yeah, give me five thousand
dollars and wow.

Speaker 5 (24:10):
We had none of that negotiating as a matter of fact,
at the end of the season, if you were like,
could I take this T shirt?

Speaker 1 (24:20):
They were like, well, which T shirt are you going
to give us an exchange?

Speaker 3 (24:23):
And we'd have to trade our clothes.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
And we literally have to bring a T shirt from
our closet. Yes, are you serious? Serious?

Speaker 3 (24:30):
I got called Paula, you need my mom, dude. I
got called after the show ended, like two weeks later,
and they were asking about a single pair of socks.
What that's not a do you have these socks? Where
are the socks that you're down? One black pair of socks?
I was like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
While we were a fellow T G I F show,
we were more of the O town to your Backstreet
boys exactly.

Speaker 7 (24:56):
Well, let me tell you.

Speaker 9 (24:56):
We started out as the I don't even ot junior.
We were like we were brought in as like I
remember like the side of here.

Speaker 7 (25:06):
Wait, I'll show you up in my up here.

Speaker 9 (25:08):
I have the side of the bus that was that
advertised the but and so then I can see that
I'm on my back drop.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 9 (25:16):
But the Sabrina bus the other side was clueless. But
most of the that was one of the few when
it was like split evenly. Most of the time it
was like clueless or like in People magazine clueless and
at bottom the bottom, like the bottom eighth of the
page would say and then stick around for Sabrina and
we were like the little you know train.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
A hit movie.

Speaker 7 (25:35):
So it was like, this is going to be.

Speaker 9 (25:37):
Huge, and then somehow it flip flopped where Sabrina got
the attention. People loved it, so the advertisers, the guest stars,
you know, the music people started coming.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
So it was yeah, we were not even on the page.
You might have had the bottom of the page. We were.
They were like, please, don't even be buy our magazine.
It wasn't like it was like that.

Speaker 7 (25:53):
It was the hour. It was like the eight to
eight pm hour or whatever. With that block.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
We stured out and.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Then we went to nine or nine thirty nine.

Speaker 7 (26:05):
You guys did go to the later, Yes, I think
we were.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
We went to nine thirty.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
We made fun of it, don't you remember me for
the little kid who comes in going they're trying to
kill it, They're trying to kill the show. Yeah, it's
that one of the actors, a little boy, is making
fun of the fact that that boy Mets World is
constantly being moved. So when Corey asks him, Corey's like,
baby sitting a kid, these babies and a kid. He's like,
you can't be watching the show. It's too late. He's like, well,
it used to be on an eight thirty, now it's
on at nine thirty, and couruses, well, whin and he
goes cause they're trying to kill it. They're trying to

(26:31):
kill the show.

Speaker 4 (26:32):
Kendall joke.

Speaker 7 (26:32):
I feel like that's a David Kendl.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
It might have been a.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
Joke.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
It does. Yes, yes, I know.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
And you know Kendall from Melissa and Joey.

Speaker 9 (26:41):
He was our showrunner from Melissa and Joey along with
Bob Young and but David and I just had such
a bond and we both so we would shoot Melissa
and Joey on Thursday nights. This is what I love
about Kendall. On Thursday nights, we'd shoot our show. And
I think Melissa Joey is the only time I've ever
really grieved. Well, first of all, it's the only time
I've ever known a show was definitely ending.

Speaker 7 (27:02):
Every time we left to see someone weren't sure if
it was ending, So.

Speaker 9 (27:04):
It was the only time I really knew it was ending,
and I knew I was never gonna play that character again.

Speaker 7 (27:07):
And I loved playing mel On that show. She was
such a hot mess and it was so much fun.

Speaker 9 (27:12):
And while my family was in Connecticut and I was
shooting in La it was difficult for me. I was
very torn between like working and being a mom, and
so that was really really tough on me. Like that
created a lot of depression in me, and I went
through a lot of stuff with that. But ultimately, when
the show went to end, I grieved that character so badly,
and I think I cried to David so many times,
and I was like, no, you don't understand.

Speaker 7 (27:34):
When I go home and I make a school lunch,
nobody thanks me.

Speaker 9 (27:37):
Like you can tell me how pretty I look at
my dress and how funny I am, and you're kind
like making me feel good.

Speaker 7 (27:43):
And when I go home, they're like, Mom, you suck.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Mom, You're not you know, I don't care.

Speaker 9 (27:46):
You know, I play them a great birthday party, but
the cake doesn't look right, or I do you know,
I their school event but I didn't.

Speaker 7 (27:52):
Show up on time, or like, you know, nobody thanks me.

Speaker 9 (27:54):
Nobody says, So every once in a while, Thursday nights,
he'll text me and go, you're pretty and you're funny.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Sweet.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
One of the things I loved about Melissa Joey, where
I just thought it was so strange, was I don't
know if you remember this, but back in the day
he used to hate being called mel You were not
a fan of being called mel and I was one
of the few people you allowed it. You're like, no,
you like you softened it a bit, so it's okay,
but you're like, I can't. And so when that show
came out and everyone was calling you mel, I was like, oh,
I wonder how she feels about that. So I remember

(28:24):
that You're like, I don't like when people call me Melton.

Speaker 7 (28:26):
I must have really flipped up.

Speaker 9 (28:27):
I mean, there was a time in my life I
remember asking to be called missy and what's his name?

Speaker 7 (28:32):
Who was on uh say by the bell the principal.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Mister Belding.

Speaker 9 (28:38):
Yes, but he would call me missy because we worked
on a movie together in Mississippi when I was ten,
and he would call me missy.

Speaker 7 (28:43):
And that's at the time when I wanted to be
called missy.

Speaker 9 (28:45):
But him and like one other person would have called
me missy after that, and I'm because I was like
hardcore missy for a year.

Speaker 7 (28:51):
And then I did not want to be called missy anymore.
Now I hate missy, But I don't know when I
the melting.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
That's interested you flip fluff the mel.

Speaker 7 (28:58):
My dad would never call.

Speaker 9 (28:59):
All of a sudden, my dad calls me mel for
the last like ten years, and he never called me
that before, and I found out, like a lot of
guys want to call me mel but I always thought
it was like kind of a masculine sounding thing, but
now I'm kind of like into it, So yeah, I
think like it became like a fun nickname because Melissa
is so freaking long, right, it's like a lot.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
I remember that, you bet you said that to me specifically.
You're like, you can call me that, but that's it.

Speaker 7 (29:20):
It's like remember that.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Well, you joined us for a crossover episode. Do you
remember being on our set? What do you have? What
do you remember about that last night?

Speaker 9 (29:30):
And do you know that I don't remember anything about
it because I was like, where am I in this episode?

Speaker 7 (29:35):
Why is it Candae Cameron? What's going on here?

Speaker 1 (29:37):
I know it's a it's a bit of an I
remember thinking it's the episode.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
I don't remember it.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
It's a Halloween episode where you're tied to the thing
which yeah, yeah, which is which is Spember. I remember
the time, wh yeah, which is a Pember? Yeah yeah.

Speaker 9 (29:51):
And so I saw that and I was like, because
my husband was like, I think this is the episode,
So we started watching it. I wanted to watch it
with my ten year old last night, who loved it.
But of course he was like, are you sure you're
in this episode? Like I thought I was, But maybe
it's just because it says witches that this is the one.
I think I'm in because I don't remember what I
did on it.

Speaker 7 (30:05):
But then when I watched it back, it was just
Will and I in.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
The yeah tag, so just us on the balcony.

Speaker 7 (30:11):
It must have been I mean we must have shot
it in half an hour.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, I think he ran in and and balcony is
what is the set? Our balcony it's when you and
it's when when Corey are Sean and Jack and Eric
live together for that four episodes or whatever it was,
and we have a balcony on our apartment set, which
is supposed to be where the witches perform this kind

(30:34):
of ceremony.

Speaker 9 (30:37):
Came in and next door and they just want to
use your balcony. So she pretends to fall in love
with Maddie and then like yep, to go on the balcony,
and then she starts a seance on the balcony. But
then at the very end, it's just and it's so
funny now because like I can't tell you how many
people in like Bible study and whatnot will say to
me like I wasn't allowed to watch your show because
it was about witchcraft. But then you think about Candace,
who is such a devout Christian and she's known for

(30:59):
that now, and.

Speaker 7 (31:00):
She was playing like the Satanic quitch.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, really satanic.

Speaker 9 (31:04):
In that yeah, And I never, as Sabrina, I think,
ever played Satanic.

Speaker 7 (31:07):
So it's hilarious to me.

Speaker 9 (31:09):
But but then you know, I pop in and we
just make like a little rib about which because you
say something about like, well, you're not a witch, are you, And.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
I'm like, well, right, yeah, yeah, because I'm.

Speaker 7 (31:18):
Actually Sabrina in the episode.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Right, Sabrina in the episode yeah, And the.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Audience cheers, I think when you turn it because it's
like we're hugging or something. It's supposed to look like
we're kissing.

Speaker 7 (31:27):
But we did very awkward will We did not did.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
We did not do a good job at all. Yeah,
it's super up.

Speaker 9 (31:33):
You become like in your chest and then I'm like
I'm here.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Like yay. It was weird.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
We did.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
We did a crossover episode with you where we I
guess you weren't in it though, because didn't we time
travel through the.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Nineteen that's film of the Cat and the World War two.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Or the nineteen fifties one the World War.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Two a world War.

Speaker 9 (31:55):
I wasn't on them because I went on teen Witch,
which was on tg IF at the time, and I
went on what's the other what other show?

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Was Your Your Angel? Teen Angel?

Speaker 7 (32:04):
Whoa you Wish?

Speaker 1 (32:05):
You Wish?

Speaker 7 (32:05):
And teen Angel teen Angel and You Yes you Wish Yes.
I just saw those in my IMDb lists.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, they were just trying to get you on every
They're like, just put her on every show and see
if you can bring the radio.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
But those shows were basically created in response to Sabraina
doing so well. They were like, exactly, if we have
somebody with magical powers, we have.

Speaker 9 (32:22):
A show and you can tie it and you can
do all that, and that was like old.

Speaker 7 (32:25):
Like nineteen seventy stuff.

Speaker 9 (32:26):
I feel like Gary Marshall's shows that we did that right,
wasn't Robin Williams like ye work.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
On He came on as Mork and then they Yeah,
I did Happy Days as work and then went over Yeah,
I did all the everyone there was all spin offs
of all the Gary Marshalls.

Speaker 9 (32:39):
I think they were trying to do that with tgif
like the through line of like through line through all
four shows something. But I it's weird that I was
only because that's what I thought I did. Was I
thought I came on your show for the for that,
but because I don't know any of the other parts
of it. But then I mean the other shows I
was on, But I guess it was just the cat
with you guys a cat.

Speaker 7 (32:58):
Maybe I couldn't shoot them all in the same.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, exactly. They really were spreading you very thin because
you were the popular one. So you were like guys
was yeah you wish.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
And teen Angel both Michael Jacob shows.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
You Wish was right, teen Agel was not.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yeah you Teen Angel wasn't okay, Okay, I knew, Okay,
I didn't know if they were all.

Speaker 7 (33:14):
I think because of Sabrina.

Speaker 9 (33:15):
They were probably trying to go out there with all
the sort of magical escapism.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
And teen angel he chokes on or dies because of
a bad Hamburger and that's who he becomes an angel.
So the kid's actually dead. Yeah, it's like a kid
dies and then comes back to haunt his best friend.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
So then they're like, yeah, yeah, wow, let's start with a.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Teen dying contecuts as an angel you'd be protecting.

Speaker 11 (33:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
I visited the Sabrinas at once when and Sink made
their guest.

Speaker 7 (33:54):
Apart, of course, I have some stories to tell about.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Tell those stories.

Speaker 9 (33:59):
You and I were on a Limma on our way
back from San Diego, you and I, yes, okay, Pantera
Sara of course, Okay. You were leaving a concert down there,
and I remember you telling me like, why won't he
why won't Lance.

Speaker 7 (34:15):
Make out?

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Like yeah, there's nothing happening, do you understand?

Speaker 7 (34:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (34:20):
And I was like, girl, I don't think I really
knew either, but it was like I was trying to, like.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
You know that there was something not quite normal about
a teen boy and a teen girl in that situation
you were well, I was.

Speaker 9 (34:34):
Like, yeah, I just think maybe you need to give
it time or just chill. It'll be okay, Like thanks
for comforting me, don't focus on the wrong things.

Speaker 7 (34:43):
And then years later to go.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
We All. I think had a version of that conversation
with Danielle at one point where it's like, hey, can
I ask you a question?

Speaker 7 (34:52):
I mean, I'm like, you, I have the worst gatar
in the world.

Speaker 9 (34:55):
Like I've always had crushes on on gay men and
never really never put it together same.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
I'm looking back over the course of my life that
my first crush in elementary school, my mom was like, oh, sweetie,
yeah misson Universal of Florida.

Speaker 9 (35:09):
When I was doing Clarissa and no one would tell
me straight out what was going on.

Speaker 7 (35:13):
I just was like, he's so cute. They're like, he's
much older than you. Usted of it, Like.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Right, okay, okay, we'll move on. Then is everyone on
that show?

Speaker 9 (35:20):
Everyone that worked on Clarisa, I feel like was twenty
three and I was like fifteen sixteen, But I'd always
have crushes on all the boys around, but of course
it was always the ones that Now looking back, I'm.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Like, I bet they were getting.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
Yeah, yeah, that was a Nickelodeon thing. Why was that
a Nickelodeon thing? Where we were always thirteen or fourteen,
but the people that were working, It's like you get
to ABC and everybody that's working is thirty five or forty.
You get to Nickelodeon and it's like you're fifteen and
everybody's twenty two.

Speaker 7 (35:45):
College.

Speaker 9 (35:45):
You know, people in Orlando, like I know some of
my friends that I'm still Like the girl who did
wardrobe on Clarisa and her husband who was the executive
assistant executive producer's assistant.

Speaker 7 (35:55):
They got married, but they just got out of college.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Yeah, Orlando.

Speaker 9 (36:01):
So I think it's like a big Like if you
just graduated college and you're like twenty two, twenty three,
you get a job at Nickelodeon or Disney, you know sense, Yeah,
it work.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Your way up to a network job too. Back then,
you know, like network job was the thing to get.

Speaker 9 (36:14):
Well, Like Sabrina Are, we had we had some young
people on the crew, but they were mainly people that
had already had family members in the industry. The rest
of our crew had come from murder, she wrote, and
so a large part of our camera and sound department
had come from Murder, she wrote, And I think because
of Sabrina going by second season, we knew it was
going to go four seasons. They were basically like, we're

(36:35):
going to ride this out to retirement, like they had
already done Murder. She wrote for like ten years or
something nine years, and then they were like Sabrina for
seven and then they were all retired. But you know,
I just think there's older crew, and there's so much
need in La whereas Orlando and the studios they were
all really new, so a lot of college kids, you know,

(36:56):
wanting to stay close to home.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
I think I also think, and I could be wrong,
but I'm not. I think Angela Lansberry was actually killing
all those people for all those years for sure. I mean,
totally honest with you around her. Yeah, and she's like,
oh wow, another murder in our small town. I'll make
a book out of it. Yeah, she was a serial
killer and we all know it.

Speaker 12 (37:12):
That's brilliant write that script.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
After one hundred and sixty three episodes of Sabrina, the
series ended with you almost being married but instead running
off with Harvey. So, looking back thirty years later, what
do you think about that ending now, and do you
think it was the right choice?

Speaker 9 (37:39):
I do, Actually, I very much think that that is
the reason why I don't want to do a reboot,
because I think it was the perfect ending. It was
like because she made the decision to leave her wedding.
It wasn't like she saw Harvey and decided he was
She just decided this wasn't the right match for her
and she needed to not make this commitment.

Speaker 7 (37:58):
And she walks out the door.

Speaker 9 (37:59):
She kisses him by and it's like, I'm sorry, and
he goes, I understand if I'm not the one for you, and.

Speaker 7 (38:04):
I walk out the door of my own free will.

Speaker 9 (38:06):
And then there's Harvey who pulls up and goes, I
think I'm supposed to be here or something, and I'm like,
I think you are too, And then I run kiss him,
get on a motorcycle. We drive off to No Doubt playing,
And so I just think it was such a perfect
tie up. Oh and then our our soul stones roll
away and connect and you can see that we're meant
to be together. And but the thing is, it had

(38:26):
been a season of build up of me getting married
to this other guy, so it was kind of crazy,
Like what's so funny about that is that for those
that don't know, like I got married right after that,
like I was engaged that I was engaged for the
second half of the last season. So the whole time
we're playing, it's like is art impertaining life or life
imittaining art? Because I'm trying, like Sabrina had probably ten

(38:49):
episodes were about this wedding.

Speaker 7 (38:51):
So I'm in I'm Bridezilla.

Speaker 9 (38:53):
In one episode and I'm trying to I'm kidnapped by
a troll in one or something.

Speaker 11 (38:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (38:58):
I can remember much than I do, but I don't
know if you guys, did you ever watch your episodes
back because I've never.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Read are now we're yeah riders, never seen them.

Speaker 9 (39:07):
We were working on Friday nights, like we don't get
to watch it and it was given to you on
like a VHS unless my Saturday is like watch the
show that I fought films.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
Wasn't given to us, Melissa. We had we had to
pay for the v.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
We did a lot different than we were Friday.

Speaker 7 (39:26):
Someone would come around and hand us the VHS.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Here's at the end of the season. They would charge
us like three hundred and fifty dollars to get to
get six VHS tapes with four episodes per tape. We
had to pay for them if we wanted them.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
In the clothes we paid for ourselves.

Speaker 7 (39:44):
What you guys should come over and stolen all my clothes?

Speaker 1 (39:47):
I know, had we known, we would have been asking
for favors if you, well you were.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
You also weren't wearing jewel toes at the time, which
is all that I wear. It wasn't, So that's the thing,
Well there is.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
I'm so excited to be able to ask you about
this because I don't know if you've ever been asked
to about this before, but there is a somewhat infamous
photo of you that makes the rounds every year, and
people sometimes dub it as the most nineties picture ever.
And it is you playing the Sega Dreamcast in what
looks like a Hollywood video. Let's show the picture. Oh yeah, yeah,

(40:20):
look at you. Do you know how this picture came
to be?

Speaker 7 (40:24):
I think I was invited to some Nintendo party and
they're like, show up. I think I is this.

Speaker 9 (40:28):
I think it's two thousand and two where I've just
met my husband, because I think he's there with me.
And they're like, hey, come to this Nintendo party. I'm
like okay, and then a port the photographers Sega.

Speaker 7 (40:39):
Okay, so is that not Nintendo or that is a.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Company?

Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yea, yeah.

Speaker 7 (40:45):
So they were like, come to this party. And I,
you know, before we really knew.

Speaker 9 (40:48):
And obviously I'm just in like my casual clothes and
have some freaking things in my hair. But I guess
I was playing. And they're like there's a photographer and
You're like, yeah, okay, I'm here for Sega. I love Sega,
you know, and like take the picture, and I have
no idea.

Speaker 7 (41:00):
It was so iconic though.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Though it is such an iconic photo. People love it
and it goes around every year, and so I had to.
I had seen it here.

Speaker 7 (41:08):
And there, but I didn't realize the thing.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
I still have a working Sea Dreamcast.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Of course you do. Was never so rid of anything.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
I have a working I have a working Atari Jaguar,
I have working Nintendo Cube, I have all those stuff.

Speaker 7 (41:23):
I have all that's wild that you have it.

Speaker 9 (41:25):
We just got my son for his birthday a big
like gaming station thing like it has four controllers and
it's it's like, you know, some guy built the encasing
and it's like an a cute monitor, but it has
like thirteen thousand games in it.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah, that's what you.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Want to get. You want to get something like that
because I have all the new games, like the PlayStation stuff.
I can't do any of that stuff, but the old games.
All play those all day long.

Speaker 7 (41:46):
Yeah, that's so funny.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Well, a Google image search of you is literally one
of the most fun rides you can ever take. You
were the you were the coolest definition of nineties. Like,
it's it's very it's very so I wanted to see
in reflection now, what emotions come to you when you
see these. This appears to be a girl's night out
with Tiya Tamara, Genevanoy, Andrea Barber and Jodie Sweeten. Let's

(42:10):
go to pick two. Yes, look at you.

Speaker 9 (42:13):
This is my first red carpet I had. I think
just finished.

Speaker 7 (42:17):
It's the Kid's Choice Awards, I believe, No, not Kid's
Choice Awards.

Speaker 9 (42:21):
It was called the Youth and Film Awards, right, I think, yeah,
maybe it.

Speaker 7 (42:24):
Was Nicholas Film.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
There was Kids Star, then there's Nigolaton Kid's Choice or
Young Star, Young Star Awards, Youth and Film.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
Yeah, this is when I was dating Jenna. This is
what Jenna was my girlfriend at this time. I think
I was supposed to go to this with her.

Speaker 9 (42:39):
Yeah, she like we were in the limo together and
she like put this to You can see how uncomfortable
I'm Look at my look.

Speaker 7 (42:45):
They're all like posing, smiling. Look at Jenna with her
hands out right and that like arms down, Like, what.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
The hell is going on?

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Oh my gosh, Okay, here's another one. It's a very
cute shot of you and Britney Spears picture three about.

Speaker 9 (42:59):
You if you look at my eyes. I had been
crying all evening. Why this was like one of the
at the time, I thought this was like the worst day.

Speaker 7 (43:08):
Of my life.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
Oh my gosh, tell me the details.

Speaker 7 (43:10):
Okay, this is to drive me crazy. New York Premiere.
We'd already done the La premiere.

Speaker 9 (43:14):
I was dating a boy in the movie I was
supposed to fly off to. So I was breaking up
with the boy that night because I decided I no
longer wanted a relationship with him. So that was a
little heartbreaking. I was with my family. We had done
so much press. I'd been up since four am doing
like Bregius and Kathy Lee and all the press.

Speaker 7 (43:31):
I had to wait on the red carpet.

Speaker 9 (43:32):
They wanted me to wait in my car for like
an hour for Brittany to show up so we could
do photos together. And I was like, can I just
go start doing the press, Like, Nope, you gotta wait
for Brittany. Then as soon as the movie started, I
was whisked away to a limo. I was supposed to
go shoot the movie scary movie in Vancouver. I was
supposed to be the opening, the vivacious, big breasted one
that's like murdered or something in the beginning. And I
was putting a limo and taken away and I just

(43:54):
broke up with my boyfriend while we were in the movie,
and I'm like crying and I'm upset, and my little
brother was there and I've remembered just like being like
I never get to see him. And I got to
spend like ten minutes with him and had to leave
my family. So got in the limo. I'm driving in
the airport. Now I gotta go fly shoot this movie.

Speaker 7 (44:10):
I get a call in.

Speaker 9 (44:10):
The limo on one of those phones, yes, and they're like,
you've been fired from the movie. You can go back
to your party because I was there was a party
at Planet Hollywood, but I wasn't, and they were like
putting in my like some of my clothes were being
dedicated to that Planet Hollywood. So they call on the
limo and they're like, Okay, go to your party. I
was like, yes, I go to my party. And while
I'm at the party, that's at Planet Hollywood, that's where

(44:31):
that photo is taken. I think she showed up at
the she showed up at the party after and that
picture was taken, and they tell me my lawyer shows
up and goes that you did a photo shoot for
Maxim magazine.

Speaker 7 (44:42):
I'm like, yes I did.

Speaker 9 (44:43):
They're like, well, you're being sued and fired from your show,
so don't talk to the press, don't do anything like
this hit at that moment. So I get a phone
call on my cell phone from my mother, my producer,
who's like.

Speaker 7 (44:53):
What did you do. I'm like, I don't know.

Speaker 9 (44:55):
Whatever my publicist told me to do on the red
cart like or at the photo shoot, like I did
a photo shoot for Maxim.

Speaker 7 (45:00):
It's Maxim, Like, of course you're gonna be in your underwear.
They're like, what did you do? What did you do.

Speaker 9 (45:03):
I'm like, I don't know. They're like we're being fired
from the show. Like, oh my god. So I'm crying.
Then the movie lets out and everybody shows up, and
I'm just and then my dad, who is not really
like the warm, cuddly kind of dadd He's never really
He lived in New York while I was in La,
so he wasn't really around for emotional stuff.

Speaker 7 (45:18):
And he comes up to me. He goes, you okay.

Speaker 9 (45:19):
I was like no, and like he hugs me, and
I'm like crying even harder because my Daddy's hugging me,
and like I'm being.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Fired from my show.

Speaker 7 (45:26):
I was just fired from the movie. I just broke
up with my boyfriend.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Oh my god.

Speaker 9 (45:29):
I went to a hotel room. They were like, you
can have the hotel room here for two more days
or something like that. I just hid in a hotel room.
Woke up the next day with like chocolate ice cream
from my cheek. Like there were like three people in
my room, scattered amongst the room, in the bed and
all of the floor, like some of my co stars
and friends, and like everyone just like slept over my room.

Speaker 7 (45:47):
We just like pigged out, like drank and like.

Speaker 9 (45:50):
Yes, I had Like I woke up like in a
rock star moment the next day of like, what's going
on in my life?

Speaker 3 (45:54):
And so that was the yeah, what was that at
the end of like was that?

Speaker 11 (46:01):
Okay?

Speaker 9 (46:01):
I think came of it, But of course in the moment,
I didn't know what was going on, and what happened
was then it became like they had no ground to
stand on. What happened was the magazine wrote, I actually
have it here. The magazine wrote Sabrina your favorite witch.
With that I've never heard of anyone being on the
cover of magazine not using their real name.

Speaker 7 (46:19):
They use Sabrina.

Speaker 9 (46:20):
So my Hearchie comic uh contract it said I would
never play the character naked, and so here they were
thinking I'm in breach because I'm playing the character. I
was like, no, that was supposed to be me promoting
my movie. It wasn't supposed to be character. I didn't
I had no control over.

Speaker 7 (46:35):
What they wrote cover. So I wrote a bology letter
and it was all gone. But that's the wee week
to the next few weeks.

Speaker 9 (46:42):
So the golden like the silver lining here is that
for the next few weeks, the top News. I mean,
Regis and Kathy Lee talked about it every morning. Jay
Leno talked about it every night. Can Melissa be sexy?
She's twenty three? Is she allowed to be sexy? What
is what's going on here? Is this allowed? Is this okay?
Why is why she being fire from our show and
all the drama? But it made for drive me crazy

(47:03):
to come out and be a huge success.

Speaker 7 (47:07):
It was insane.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Wow, what a backstory to That's why.

Speaker 7 (47:12):
My eyes are read in that picture?

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Oh my gosh. Okay, Well, here is another adorable shot
of you and a very tan Ryan Reynolds. I didn't
think there is a picture. I didn't think it was
possible for Reynolds to not have a good picture. But
there's a great picture of Ryan Reynolds and you look glorious.

Speaker 9 (47:29):
This is ever set of our movie. This is Sabrina.
This is the first movie we did for Sabrina in Vancouver.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
And this is the big Hawaiian He looks Hawaiian? Does
he looks.

Speaker 9 (47:41):
Or the big fluffy eyebrows. I'm not really sure, but yeah,
he was. Uh he was already like six foot so
he's very tall.

Speaker 7 (47:46):
I'm very short, and yeah he was.

Speaker 9 (47:50):
He was the guy I was chasing in the original
Sabrina movie. And then like we have a moment in
the car where he wants to make out and I
don't want it, and he gets mad at me and
I leave the car and he drives away or something.
You know, some some crazy boy and girl you know
traumatic story where it sends me running back to Harvey.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
Well, I also love this picture of you in ell
Coolja at what looks like possibly that same Sega dreamcast.

Speaker 7 (48:13):
So because my hair almost got.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
That same headband, the double headband.

Speaker 7 (48:17):
So funny.

Speaker 9 (48:18):
Look at me, no makeup, just like weird. It's not
even double headband. It's like two ropes around my head.

Speaker 7 (48:23):
I think, like pieces. I don't know what that is.
I thought it was a thing at the time.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
How much fun was the nineties?

Speaker 3 (48:30):
Man?

Speaker 1 (48:30):
How much fun hair?

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Right?

Speaker 7 (48:32):
We did some crazy crap to our hair, like twisted
it in different ways. A little butterfly clips.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
That's what't even get me started on the butterfly clips.

Speaker 7 (48:40):
That's what I thought you were gonna show before, was
the butterfly clips?

Speaker 1 (48:43):
Oh yeah, no, we we have tried to explain it
on the podcast. But being like a child actor in
the nineties was really like a club where we looked
to each other for friendship and advice and common ground.
Did you find it comforting to have a lot of
in the industry?

Speaker 9 (49:02):
You know, It's funny because I feel like as much
as I hung out with people, I never really got
close to anyone, but the crew on Sabrina, the cast
we were close.

Speaker 7 (49:12):
We were really close.

Speaker 9 (49:13):
But I also sort of I'm like the more the
merrier kind of person. I always invite too many people around,
so I never really get to know anyone really well
one on one, and I've my fifteen year old is
much better at it, and I'm like, way to go, dude,
Way to like invest in relationships one on one and
really know that person and have them know you. And

(49:35):
I feel like I was always kind of around too
many people. But the people that I got closest to
were my hair and makeup wardrobe, like those are my
rider people, you know, and the camera crew. I would
go with the Dolly Grip. We'd go skiing every winter
to We'd be like, you want to go to this?
I have a house in Tahoe for eighteen years because
he and I were like, never been to Tahoe.

Speaker 7 (49:53):
Me, neither. Let's go to Tahoe and snowboard. You know,
so we've snowboarded.

Speaker 9 (49:57):
He and I have snowboarded all over the country and
and so, you know, I feel like I was always
closer with the crew, having actor friends around.

Speaker 7 (50:05):
I don't know, I think I never trusted them very much.

Speaker 9 (50:10):
I felt like it could be a competitive I never
felt that, or I never like allowed that into the
space of Sabrina. I feel like I was never a
competitive person with other people.

Speaker 7 (50:20):
I was always very like.

Speaker 9 (50:21):
Let's play, let's have fun, and so I think that
that led to a good environment on the set. But
at the same time, I was a little weary of
hearing stories, especially from other actors, like you know, Alisa
Donovan or or solet move like my friends kind of
telling me about other kind of rivalries they'd had and stuff,
and I was like, I don't love that.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
Like, right, I think I might get very high school.
It could get very high school after a while, there
were clear I feel.

Speaker 9 (50:46):
Like I left high school right when I did Larissa.
I had finished my ninth grade year and in a
public school, and I was done. I was done with
middle school, like I was I hated that experiences, right,
I like hated the pure pressure and all that. When
I was on set, if I was nice to people,

(51:06):
they were nice to me. They didn't care what I
was wearing, what music I.

Speaker 7 (51:09):
Was listening to.

Speaker 9 (51:10):
Because before that, I'm getting teased for liking the monkeys
and wearing I wanted to wear, like like punk clothes,
but all everyone where I grew up was yuppie, preppy,
so you know, and I got teased constantly. But then
I was on set wearing like the Grip's big shirt
and some combat boots, and everyone's like, they don't care
if I roll into my pajamas as long as nice
and I do my job, you know, Right. I had

(51:31):
a really hard time around my own peers, and the
crew always ended up being older. Like you said, well,
like they were always a little bit older, so I
felt like I could, I could hang with the older people.

Speaker 7 (51:39):
It was my peers that I was afraid of.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
Wow, right, interesting.

Speaker 11 (51:43):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
I can't let this podcast go without mentioning our mutual
dear friend Caroline Ray, who I love so much, but
she is one of the funniest human beings I've ever
been around in my entire life. Do you have any
favorite Caroline Ray stories or memories?

Speaker 9 (52:03):
Gosh, well, she's got some about me. I actually made
her record one on my voicemail and I'm keeping it forever.
When we met Lauren McCall, well, she we were in
New York at a restaurant and.

Speaker 7 (52:13):
She was like, there's Lauren McCall. We have to go
say hi. And I was like why. She's like, it's
Lauren miccle we have to go say how.

Speaker 9 (52:18):
I'm all right, And I forget how the story goes,
but I'll have to listen to what she says in
the voicemail again.

Speaker 7 (52:24):
But it's something about me going up to going hi.

Speaker 9 (52:28):
You're really prettier, so, you know, saying something to her
and she's like, It'slauren bacall.

Speaker 7 (52:31):
You don't say or I said something to her like.

Speaker 9 (52:35):
I have a TV show. I forget what I said
to her. But she's like that was embarrassing, Like why
did you say that?

Speaker 7 (52:39):
And I was like I don't know.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
She like I know noone else to say.

Speaker 7 (52:43):
I yeah, I froze, like you have to give me
some prep like I did the same thing with John Trabolta,
Like I freeze.

Speaker 9 (52:47):
When I'm like putting up a situation where they're like, hey,
here's a role model or here's an icon that you
should talk to right now.

Speaker 7 (52:54):
And I'm like, oh, I need Prepper, like I need
a script. I need a memory, like I needed to
have a plan. I can't just go in. I'm not
an impro of person.

Speaker 9 (53:02):
She's Carlin has a really funny story about me.

Speaker 7 (53:04):
If you get her on the Has she been on
the pod?

Speaker 1 (53:07):
No, I've been trying, and she is the world's busiest
human being. I asked her. I was like, do you
have any availability for July? And she was like, July,
it's May. Why are you booking me? I was like,
oh my gosh, Caroline, I'm doing my best here trying
to work around her schedule.

Speaker 11 (53:20):
July.

Speaker 10 (53:20):
What year?

Speaker 7 (53:22):
About the Lauren Becall story?

Speaker 1 (53:24):
Okay, I will. We will talk to her about exactly.

Speaker 7 (53:26):
She remembers it because she's horrified by it.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Still so funny. You have three kids of your own,
if any of them wanted to get into acting, how
would you feel about that?

Speaker 9 (53:39):
Well, the middle one between us has asked me to
get into modeling because he thinks it's going to get.

Speaker 7 (53:44):
Up free shoes.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Reason, good reason.

Speaker 9 (53:48):
I can get a brand to give me shoes if
I model. I was like, okay, I was like, you
can do that to pay for college and then you
but in college you're finding something else.

Speaker 11 (53:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (53:58):
You guys know, it's a tough business.

Speaker 9 (54:01):
Like I don't really wish that on anyone that does
it that isn't super passionate about it. And thus far
my kids are seventeen, fifteen to ten, they have not
shown any interest in it for authentic reasons of wanting
to be an artist or do learn a craft or
a skill.

Speaker 7 (54:16):
My oldest wants to be a pilot.

Speaker 9 (54:18):
My middle one wants to model, but really he's not
sure what he wants to do yet. I think he's
going to be some sort of athlete. And then my
little one is an insane person into minecraft.

Speaker 7 (54:28):
So he's either going to be a lawyer or a criminal.

Speaker 9 (54:31):
But he's just super clever and very like his energy
is like insane. So if he learns to harness it,
he could be a lawyer, but if he doesn't, he
might be a criminal.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
In a courtroom, I like it, yes, exactly nice, he'll
defend himself.

Speaker 7 (54:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (54:46):
But anyway, so he's too young to tell anyway. I
feel like he's so, I mean the minecraft thing. I'm like,
be an architect, be an architect.

Speaker 3 (54:53):
Yeah, I'm kind to.

Speaker 7 (54:53):
Push in any way.

Speaker 9 (54:54):
But because if they ever talk about it, it's always
because they think it'll make them rich and famous.

Speaker 7 (55:00):
It's all for the wrong reasons.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
Right, So you're like, we don't need to push that.

Speaker 9 (55:03):
Yeah, Like, they're all into music, and I would be
okay with that. If they're super passionate about it, I'd
be okay with that. But acting has never been a
thing for them, thankfully.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Well, Melissa, thank you so much for being here with us.

Speaker 7 (55:18):
It's so good to see all your faces.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
And are we going to be seeing you in Tampa.

Speaker 7 (55:22):
I will see you in Tampa.

Speaker 3 (55:24):
Yeah, just fun. We should also we should also tell
them something, Melissa, Okay. Yeah, So Melissa and I are
also going to be doing a film together. We are
partnering up to do a movie that I wrote from
before the pandemic. But we have been working on something
that we're very excited that we'll bring back all of
our nineties friends.

Speaker 7 (55:45):
It'll be a very nineties happy reunion movie.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Kind of movie.

Speaker 7 (55:51):
Yes, it'll tap into all those lovely parts.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Of Hearts Exclusive.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Well, by the way, you're both in it. Sorry to
have to tell you that, but you are so sure.
There's nothing you're going to be able to do to
get out of it. But it makes your axes and
some of your exes and some of our friends, and yeah,
it's essentially a Melissa and I did a movie together
back in the nineties and we never finished it. And
for a bunch of very funny reasons, the director has
to get his cast back together to finish their nineties

(56:19):
movie even though we're all now almost fifty.

Speaker 7 (56:22):
I love bit older, but it's got that.

Speaker 9 (56:24):
Yeah, So it's us now with the nostalgia of back then,
so it'll be It's super funny. Will wrote this great
movie and I got super excited when I read it,
and I was.

Speaker 7 (56:31):
Like, we have to do this. I have to be
in this with you, so.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
So I love it. Well you heard it here first, folks.
Thank you so much, Melissa. It was so fun having you.
Maybe you can come back when we get to season
five and do a recap with us, maybe for the
episode where you make your where you pop your head
in for the tag or something.

Speaker 9 (56:49):
I love to I would love to really dissect that I'm.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
In Yeah, really go deep.

Speaker 7 (56:55):
Yeah, I'm into that. I'm really digging that. Let's be good.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Let's do that for sure, and we will. We will
see you again in Tampa.

Speaker 7 (57:02):
Thanks guys, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Bye wow Will. Thanks for giving us the exclusive about
the That news is exciting.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
We're very excited.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Former teeny bopper Flames back in action.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Playing playing Flames again.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
So it's been a while from the Nickelodeon lunt today exactly.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com,
and we.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
Have merch much I was trying to do Lauren Bacall.
Did that work? No? No, not really.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
I didn't pick up on it. Try it one more time.

Speaker 11 (57:41):
Much?

Speaker 1 (57:42):
Great? Great, that one was better, right okay? Pod meets
Worldshow dot com and will send us out.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is
an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordell
and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman.
Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Taras Sudbach, producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and Boy Meets World
superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton

(58:09):
of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram at
Pod Meets World Show or email us at Podmeets worldshowat
gmail dot com