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Digest: Appearances

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This is a collection of comments about things MJH has done professionally (i.e., as an actress) plus a few things she's done as ``herself''. Specifically excluded, however, are references to profiles and interviews with MJH. These are collected in the Digest page about Articles.

Note: Melissa's third name is spelled ``Catherine'', not ``Katherine''.

  • Jim Davis said on Fri, 5 Feb 93:
  • Jim Davis said on Sun, 14 Feb 93:
    During a ``Nick Studio Update'', they had kids say which Nick star they wanted as their Valentine -- of course someone chose Clarissa. Two girls chose Ferguson, started to argue over it, and Jason Zimbler stepped in and said there was enough of him to go around!
  • Jim Davis said on Thu, 18 Feb 93:
    An ad for this Sunday's NNW5 says they'll have a behind-the-scenes look at CEIA.
  • Adam Lieberman said on Sun, 21 Feb 93:
    Who: Melissa Joan Katherine Hart What: Feature Story Where: Nick News W5 When: Tonight at 8/7 central Why: Because it's what you want to know.

    [Warning: This is not a comprehensive report. It does not mention that Ms. Hart said that she prefers mass transit to driving or that she isn't very much into computers. I leave that for others to say.]

    They actually claim that Clarissa is fourteen years old. However, I still believe that this has been conclusively contradicted. [...]

    In a previous message I warned: ] [...] Remember, in ``What Mom Doesn't Know''
    ](my title) after her mom realizes that her computerized test was rigged,
    ]Clarissa tells her, ``I don't even know half the things I like. All I
    ]know is that I like to change my mind-- all the time.'' [...]

    They actually repeated this scene-fragment on W5, and Melissa confirmed my suspicion. She says her tastes are constantly changing; [...]

    As for the name, while Linda Ellerbee introduced her as simply ``Melissa Hart,'' Melissa herself used a longer form.

  • Jim Davis said on Sun, 21 Feb 93:
    Subject: Nick News W5 interview.

    Interesting stuff -- though fairly short, about 4 minutes:

  • Adam Lieberman said on Sun, 28 Feb 93:
    And was it MJH or Linda Ellerbee who said in the Nick News W/5 presentation that Clarissa is a ``typical teenager''? Of course, they also pointed out how typically atypical of her it was to fall in love with a weatherman. When Clarissa presented herself to the children in the Family Volunteer Day episode as a typical teenager, I had the impression that she was not being quite honest.

    MJH appeared briefly in a ``Plan It for the Planet'' spot, saying, ``Oh, I definitely think kids have power'' [quote may not be entirely accurate]. Jasn Zimbler appeared later.

  • Jim Davis said on Sat, 13 Mar 93:
    Universal Studios is running a couple of spots on Nick, one for some contest, and a generic one that they've shown for a while but now with a Way Cool twist. After mentioning all the neat things to do, and that it's also the home of Nick Studios, the announcer says ``And watch us film hit TV shows like Clarissa Explains it All'', while one of the big-letter ``CEIA'' shots used around the commercial breaks pops up on the screen. (It's the one with her green jacket and plaid hat.) Interesting they pointed to CEIA, of all the shows taped at Nick Studios!
  • Jim Davis said on Thu, 15 Apr 93: [about Kids World Council]
    There's a chance that Clarissa and Ferg may show up as part of the KWC hoopla too. One of the ads says something about 'hourly updates from Nick correspondents' and puts up pictures of various Nick teens, including Ms. Hart and Jason Zimbler.
  • Jim Davis said on Sat, 17 Apr 93:
    I was pretty sure Ms. Hart would show up as part of the Kids World Council proceedings -- has there been a major Nick event she hasn't been involved with? -- so I put the VCR in loiter mode this afternoon. Sure enough, she was in spots at 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30, and 4:00. (Jason Zimbler was on earlier with one of the 'Welcome Freshman' kids, and after that Dog and Cat SNICK show and ``Afraid of the Plot'', too.)

    Her spiel was to reveal the 'power pledge' phone number, 1-800-233-2600, where kids could call and press buttons to pledge various Green Things. She also recorded the message you heard when you dialed that number. (Though the recording sounded like she was on helium!)

    She cropped up a couple of times after the power pledge line closed at 4:00 too, to point to a 'power pledge' postcard address.

  • Adam Lieberman said on Sun, 18 Apr 93:
    I don't know what you saw, but the announcements of upcomming episodes I've seen (I've hardly seen any recently) say ``THIS WEEK...,'' ``CLARISSA EXPLAINS...,'' and have an announcer give some description of what ``Clarissa explains'' in the episode, then switch to a clip from the episode, and usually show a short portion of video from some other scene while the announcer speaks again-- as far as I can remember. I don't think any of them had footage that wasn't shown in the episode (I'm not referring to the Valentine's Day episode special promos, most of which I haven't seen). But where does Clarissa say ``Normally I can explain everything, but my friend Clifford...''?
  • Jim Davis said on Mon, 19 Apr 93:
    For the recent new episodes they've made separate promos with something sort of, but not quite like, what is in the show. So for the Bustier Kid, they used one of the sets and similar dialog to what ended up in the show, but it wasn't identical. Same for the Star Trek promo: same Enterprise set, but slightly different dialog and action. ESP 'R US, too: Clarissa and Olivia have several scenes pretty close to what went into the promo, but it wasn't a clip from the show. And the announcer voiceover's been restricted to the end; Clarissa (or Ferg, for the Bustier Kid) starts out talking to the camera.

    Now the Commitment promo was further away from the show than those were -- I don't think she even wore that outfit (or hairstyle, come to think of it), and the little Clifford paintbox insert wasn't in the show. It looked like she was on a Generic Kitchen set, too, instead of something specifically tied to the episode, and the promo dialog (``Normally...'') was further away from the show dialog than the other promos.

    I suspect the new spot style is another sign of success: they can afford fancier promoting now. Sort of like the general trend towards fancier sets, more extras, and more people on staff (or at least in the credits). In fact I don't recall any promos for specific first-year shows, other than for the Valentine's Day episode; just the general ``my show's on at'' weathermap-thing, and later the general Red-sports-car(-and-Red-lipstick) spot. Anyone else?

  • Adam Lieberman said on Tue, 20 Apr 93:
    The Valentine's Day episode wasn't a first-year show-- it was the first non-first-year show. They had promos for specific first-year shows, but they all had the format I described, using no new footage. It may be that they didn't actually have them when those shows were new-- I didn't see them until later. There were _two_ red sportscar promos, and I think there was another early promo that you haven't mentioned, but did any of them exist in 1991?
  • Jim Davis said on Sat, 24 Apr 93:
    Looks like SNICK will be taken over by 'Nick takes over your school' next week -- though the ads listing the Nick stars in attendance give Clarissa top billing, so Saturday won't be completely Hartless...
  • Jim Davis said on Mon, 26 Apr 93:
    A Reliable Source -- thanks, Philip! -- points out I got confused over this 'Nick takes over your school' thang. I got the impression from the ads that it would preempt SNICK altogether, but ``Total TV'' is listed for CEIA next week, so they'll probably just work in clips from Nick's visit to Wilder Elementary during the shows.
  • Jim Davis said on Fri, 7 May 93:
    This weekend's afternoon SNICKs might well rerun the 'Nick takes over your school' stuff they did last week, so here's were Clarissa shows up in it: First, before CEIA, she does an intro bit about the contest and contest winner (Christine somebody of Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary); the other Nick luminaries include Mark Summers, (``Wild & Crazy'') Donnie Jeffcoat, a couple of ``Roundhouse''ers, a couple of ``Afraid''sters, and several people dressed up as Ren and Doug (mercifully they don't get much air time). At the CEIA commercial break they had one kid from the school sign ``Clarissa''. She's in a little bit after CEIA where the ``Roundhouse'' kids trot out a dance they called the ``SNICK''. After that it's Jeffcoat, the ``Afraid'' kids, and slime by the gallon until just before ``Afraid'' starts, where she's in a dance line for a (rather bored looking) Kris Kross (Cross? whatever) perfunct -- er, performance. The dance bits are rather short, but I thought she was well worth taping! She has one line in the wrapup scene after ``Afraid'', too.

    It's remarkable how different Ms. Hart looks between this promo and the ``Kids World Council'' thing a few weeks ago. For KWC, she introduced herself as simply ``Melissa Hart'', and in jeans, teeshirt, minimal makeup and ponytail she did pretty much look (and sound) like an ordinary teen. Quite a change from the full Clarissa character, clothes, and voice, in the Takeover...

  • Adam Lieberman said on Sat, 8 May 93:
    Jim Davis suggested that there would be four different episodes of CEIA shown this weekend. The information I have gives a different view.

    SAT 2/1 Central: Nick Takes Over Your School, w/ ``Total TV''
    SAT 8/7 Central: New episode about family vacation
    SUN 12/11 Central: Rerun of ``Total TV'' expected
    SUN 2/1 Central:
    According to the New York Times' Television section:

    ``Nickmania Kids' Choice Awards; Roundhouse; Are You Afraid of the Dark?''

    Of course, this would contradict the promise of showing all four SNICK shows on Sunday, and of course they didn't have an actual episode of Roundhouse when they first did the Kids' Choice Awards (the Roundhouse crew performed at the awards, they played a speech by MJH, and had one Ren & Stimpy cartoon afterwards).

  • Philip Chang said on Fri, 4 Jun 93:
    BTW, if you look at the current brochure for Universal Studios, Florida, there's a picture of MJH in it.
  • Valerie Clark said on Tue, 8 Jun 93:
    Today on Nick Arcade the CEIA cast was on. It was Melissa and Jason vs. Elizabeth and Joe ( the Mom and Dad). The parents acted like normal people and they also ended up winning the game. When the parents got a ``Video Challenge'' the Dad played the video game and ended up losing all three of his men. At the end of the game usually just the winning team goes on to be inside the video game, but they said since it was a special day all of them would get to go back and play in the video game. It looked like it had been taped a long time ago because Jason looked pretty young.
  • Jim Davis said on Tue, 8 Jun 93:
    > Today on Nick Arcade the CEIA cast was on.

    I taped *most* of it -- but by the time I got a tape in and fastforwarded to a blank strech, I missed the bit where Phil introduced Melissa -- did she have anything interesting to say? I remember Joe said something about canoeing, and Elizabeth said something about playing tennis... One nice thing about this appearance is that both teams were playing for charity: Joe and Elizabeth for Amnesty Internation and Melissa and Jason for a leukemia foundation, if I remember correctly.

    > Jason looked pretty young.

    I thought it had a '92 copyright, but maybe it was '91. Anyway Jason has grown A Lot right since then -- his voice certainly has gotten a lot lower.

  • Philip Chang said on Wed, 9 Jun 93:
    I was reading an article about interactive television today by Charles Haddad from the Cox Newspapers. One of the things it talks about is the Soap Box, in which a video image of Clarissa asks you for your opinion on a topic. This thing must be very new, as I've never heard of it before. Has anyone seen this thing? I've enclosed the Clarissa related excerpt.

    At Universal Studios in Orlando, home to Nickelodeon's creative shop, the network has a working interactive TV display in a kiosk that hundreds of children from around the world play with every day. Called the Soap Box, the kiosk program works like this: A child enters, and turns it on by touching a button on a TV screen. A video image of Clarissa, a Nickelodeon character, comes to life and asks the child to give his or her view on a topic such as the environment. Children are taped as they talk. Viewers can play back and see themselves or other children talking.

  • Adam Lieberman said on Sat, 7 Aug 93:
    The New York Times, Television section

    Saturday 8/14:

    Things That Go Bump in the Night

    Melissa Joan Hart and Andrew Henry star in ``The Tale of the Frozen Ghost'' on Are You Afraid of the Dark?

    9:30 P.M. (NICK) 979917

  • Chip Woods said on Sun, 15 Aug 93:
    Melissa was pretty good in The Tale of The Frozen Ghost but I think she should stick with CEIA for the next ten or fifteen years.
  • Jim Davis said on Sun, 15 Aug 93:
    The Afraid? episode wasn't much of a stretch for Melissa, as Daphne was pretty much Clarissa in casual clothes: same hair and freckle-blotting makeup, a Ferg-like relationship with the little rich kid (and a great if-looks-could-kill gaze just before tossing him out of her bedroom), and a Clarissa-like spunkiness about dealing with the ghost. (Ironically, after about the fifth time the ghost whined ``I'm cold'' I muttered ``Well put a sweater on.'') Like all the Afraid? episodes I've seen, it looked great -- I wish CEIA had their filming budget -- and the premise was a little weak. (What do you need a babysitter for if you send a kid to stay with relatives?) And like all but one of the Afraid? episodes I've seen, this one had a pat happy ending. Melissa's capable of much more.
  • Jim Davis said on Mon, 16 Aug 93:
    USA Today, August 13th, page 3D:

    ``Star Melissa Joan Hart Explains All About Clarissa''

    [...]

    ``[... Clarissa is] a real teen-ager,'' Hart says.

    Just like Hart, despite a resume many adults would envy. She's played Broadway in _The Crucible_ and is the youngest member of New York's Circle Repertory Lab Company. Since age 4, she's logged dozens of commericals and TV guest spots.

    See Alternate episode titles for help with an unofficial title or other episode reference you don't recognize.

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