Blossom was an edgy teen sitcom that ran on the NBC network for 5 seasons in the early 90s. The show premiered its first episode on January 3rd, 1991. The final episode aired May 22nd, 1995. Blossom was produced by Witt/Thomas Productions and Touchstone Television.
The show follows Blossom Russo, a spunky teenage girl living in a male dominated house with her divorced father and two brothers. Blossom’s attitude gets her through a turbulent childhood as she learns hard lessons about abuse, drugs, alcohol and various other hot-button issues.
Nick Russo, the ever present father character, is a struggling musician left in charge of the teenage kids after his wife leaves to pursue her career. He is equally doting on Blossom’s best friend Six Lemeure. Joey, the middle child, is a “dumb jock” character often serving as comic relief for the serious subject matter of the show. Six and Blossom’s eldest brother, Tony, have a particularly hard time overcoming various addictions throughout the seasons. The real world dynamic between all of the main characters was considered a bold move for TV at the time.
Blossom creator Don Reo had to fight to get the show on TV the way he wanted. His original concept in 1989 focused on the cool dad character interacting with a Holden Caulfield-esque son named Ritchie. NBC advised him to keep Ritchie’s character but to make him a girl, and replace the hip, single dad with two conservative parents. Reo got NBC to pick up the show using this formula in a pilot, before changing the parents back to a single musician father for the actual airing.
In recent years, Mayim Bialik, the star of Blossom, found her way onto another hit sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. Her character will sometimes make references back to Blossom.
Cast
Mayim Bialik
Joseph Lawrence
Jenna Von Oy
Ted Wass
Michael Stoyanov
David Lascher
Photos
Image courtesy of dailymail.co.uk
Featured Image: The Indie Music Channel