Blossom is an American sitcom that aired for five seasons on NBC. Debuting as a pilot preview on July 5, 1990, it premiered as a mid-season replacement on January 3, 1991, and aired until May 22, 1995. Don Reo created the series, which starred Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo, a teenager living with her father and two elder brothers. It was produced by Reo's Impact Zone Productions and Witt/Thomas Productions in association with Touchstone Television.

Premise Blossom Russo, an Italian-American teenager, lives with her single father Nick in a male-dominated household that includes elder brothers Tony and Joey. In the beginning of the series, it is revealed Blossom's family is adjusting in the wake of their mother Maddy leaving to pursue her own life and career. Nick is a session musician who is frequently between gigs and tours, Tony is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who eventually goes on to become a paramedic, and middle sibling Joey is a stereotypical "dumb jock" known for the exaggerated delivery of his catchphrase, "Whoa!"

Blossom's best friend Six LeMeure also plays a significant part in her life. Six, an especially fast talker, is known for her tendency to ramble. Blossom would frequently have fantasy sequences wherein she would receive advice from celebrities such as Mr. T, Phylicia Rashad, David Spade, ALF, Will Smith, and God (played by Don Novello).

Characters

Main characters Blossom Ruby Russo (Mayim Bialik), the youngest child and only daughter of Nick and Maddy Russo. Joseph "Joey" Russo (Joey Lawrence), a not-so-smart baseball player, ladies' man and the middle child of the Russo family. Anthony "Tony" Russo (Michael Stoyanov), the eldest Russo child who is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. Nicholas "Nick" Russo (Ted Wass), the father of Blossom, Joey and Tony. The main caregiver for his three children after his wife, Maddy, leaves the family. He works as a piano player, playing various gigs with a wide range of bands. Six Dorothy LeMeure (Jenna von Oÿ), Blossom's best friend. Frances "Buzz" Richman (Barnard Hughes, season 2; recurring seasons 3–4), the maternal grandfather of Blossom, Joey, and Tony. Vincent "Vinnie" Bonitardi (David Lascher, seasons 3–4; guest seasons 2 & 5), Blossom's on-again, off-again boyfriend. Rhonda Jo Applegate (Portia Dawson, seasons 3–4), as Tony's former on-again, off-again girlfriend. Shelly Lewis Russo (Samaria Graham), wife of Tony and mother of Nash. She is an illustrator who planned to marry her boyfriend Roscoe in Las Vegas when she got drunk, married Tony, then fell in love. Carol Russo (Finola Hughes, season 5; recurring season 4), an Englishwoman with a daughter named Kennedy; she eventually marries Nick and becomes stepmother to his three children Blossom, Joey and Tony. Kennedy Russo (Courtney Chase, season 5), a young, precocious English girl about age eight who is Carol's daughter with her Scottish ex-husband, Graham. Frank (Kevin Jamal Woods, season 5), African American neighbor boy who becomes Kennedy's best friend after they meet in the episode, "The Wedding."

Supporting characters Madeline "Maddy" Richman Russo (Melissa Manchester), ex-wife of Nick and mother of Blossom, Joey and Tony who split from the family to have her own life. Sharon LeMeure (Gail Edwards), the mother of Six who is divorced and dated Nick at one time. Agnes (Eileen Brennan), Blossom's neighbor/confidant who was seen during the show's first season. Mrs. Peterson (Phyllis Diller), an elderly paramedic who is paired up with Tony. She has a habit of smoking, which annoys Tony. Carl Lewis (Ivory Ocean), the father of Shelly Lewis. A police officer, it is humorously revealed he once arrested Nick.

Production

Development In 1988, series creator Don Reo had begun a producing partnership with Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas, in which the latter two were bringing his screenplays to television under the established Witt/Thomas Productions nameplate. Reo conceived of the idea that would become the genesis for Blossom when he attended a family party thrown by his longtime friend Dion DiMucci, lead singer of Dion and the Belmonts. At the party, DiMucci demonstrated a "hip, with-it musician father" family dynamic with his children, inspiring Reo to develop a pilot in which the "cool" father would be a highlight.

Reo was also inspired by J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and wanted to create a series about a wise-beyond-his-years, introspective teenage boy modeled closely after protagonist Holden Caulfield. Reo decided to include both the hip father and Holden Caulfield-esque boy in the pilot, with the boy as the lead character. He first pitched the project to NBC in 1989 under the title Richie. NBC liked the screenplay, but network executive Leslie Lurie suggested that producers change the lead character to a girl "because of the overabundance of coming-of-age stories with boys." In the series finale episode, Reo and producer Judith D. Allison included a reference to the inspiration for Blossom's character when Blossom describes herself as a "teenage Holden Caulfield."

Casting At the time Mayim Bialik filmed the pilot episode, she had recently worked on another sitcom project for Fox, entitled Molloy. The pilot episode of Blossom was taped in the spring of 1990 and was the first of the projects to air, with NBC broadcasting the pilot as a special on July 5, 1990. Four weeks later, Fox commenced a seven-episode tryout run for Molloy, whose episodes had been filmed earlier in 1989. Molloy was canceled for its low ratings, freeing Bialik to commit to Blossom whose ratings for the pilot special pleased NBC executives.

Natasha Lyonne vied for the role of Six, but the role eventually went to Jenna von Oÿ.

Bialik suggested Michael Stoyanov for the role of her brother after seeing him guest star on sister series Empty Nest. Bialik thought she and Stoyanov shared a strong physical resemblance and would be believable as brother and sister.

NBC ordered Blossom as a mid-season replacement for January 1991.

Pilot episode NBC executives thought the depiction of an emotionally intuitive child paired alongside a super-chic father was too radical for its time; thus, Blossom has a more nuclear, conservative family dynamic in the pilot episode. Her father was named Terry Russo and was played by Richard Masur, while her mother Barbara Russo was played by Barrie Youngfellow. In the plot of the pilot, Blossom's parents are married but she suspected their marriage was in trouble."TV highlights". Rapid City Journal. July 5, 1990. p. B8.

The characters of Tony and Joey were also present in the pilot and played by the same actors from the regular series; however, Joey Lawrence's character was then named Donny. Neither of Blossom's parents had musical careers and instead worked in finance. Tony was going through his first drug/alcohol rehab period (in which Terry remarked that "he had a serious problem--he missed all of 1989") and had his own separate scene with Blossom in the kitchen as he gave her sage anecdotes about their lives.Reo, Don; Allison, Judith D. (writers); Hughes, Terry; Junger, Gil (directors). "Pilot". July 5, 1990. Blossom. Season 1. Episode 1. NBC. Shout! Factory.

The airing of the original pilot episode ranked number 3 for the week in the national Nielsen ratings."The Ratings Race". The Palm Beach Post. July 12, 1990. p. 7D. It was one spot ahead of a repeat of the pilot episode of Seinfeld.Williams, Scott (July 12, 1990). "Dog days of summer reflected in ratings". South Florida Sun Sentinel. p. 4E. About two weeks after the pilot aired, NBC ordered more episodes of Blossom.Kubasik, Ben (July 20, 1990). "NBC's Budding 'Blossom'". Newsday (Long Island, New York).

Series run When NBC picked up Blossom as a regular series, Reo successfully convinced programming chief Brandon Tartikoff to allow the lead character to have the chic, divorced musician father he had originally envisioned for the project. Masur and Youngfellow's roles were recast, and Ted Wass, who had previously starred in Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas' 1970s sitcom Soap, was cast as Blossom's single dad Nick Russo. Witt and Thomas persuaded Wass, who was then considering leaving acting to become a director, to take the role on the condition he could also direct multiple episodes. Mayim Bialik had also enjoyed auditioning with Wass the most out of the other actors who were trying out for the role.

Five seasons of Blossom were produced, with a total of 114 episodes.

Bill Bixby became a frequent director on the series in its third season, a role he continued in for several episodes into the fourth, despite his ongoing battle with prostate cancer. On November 15, 1993, shortly after learning that his illness was terminal, Bixby collapsed on the Blossom set and was hospitalized. He died six days later.

Opening sequences In the pilot episode, the song in the opening credits is Bobby Brown's 1988 hit single "My Prerogative", which plays as Blossom dances in her bedroom on home video. When the show went to series, the song “My Opinionation” performed by Dr. John was used as a replacement theme. The title sequence was re-shot so that Bialik's dancing was more in sync with the newer song.

The opening sequence for season two was changed to clips of dance moves by the title character on film and in front of a pastel blue/pink background. Blossom's outfit changed in each dancing scene and her dance moves ranged from belly dancing to voguing. Barnard Hughes was added to the main cast and opening credits under the "With" heading, preceding Ted Wass.

In the third season, the dancing concept was expanded upon and main cast members Lawrence, Stoyanov, von Oÿ and Wass joined Bialik one at a time as she danced. Portia Dawson and David Lascher's names were included, despite the actors not being physically present in the sequence. This version of the intro lasted through the end of season four. Also beginning in season three, many scenes of the show opened and closed with the first frame frozen in a multi-colored watercolor effect. The watercolor stills lasted through the end of the series.

The fifth and final season dropped a full-fledged intro, instead simply displaying the Blossom show logo over the watercolor effect to the opening notes of "My Opinionation". During the 1994–1995 season, NBC began running its credits in the squeeze-screen format; thus, cast and crew's credits were positioned at the beginning of each episode.

Crossovers Because Blossom aired immediately after The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on NBC for a period, NBC cross-promoted the shows on two occasions. Will Smith appeared in the season 2 episode "I'm with the Band" as himself under his rap stage name The Fresh Prince, and later that season Karyn Parsons made an appearance on the show in "Wake Up Little Suzy" as her Fresh Prince character Hilary Banks. Estelle Getty appeared in one episode in season 1 as Sophia Petrillo, her character from The Golden Girls and Empty Nest.

Episodes

Reception

Critical reception Though Blossom provided impressive ratings for NBC, early critical reviews were mixed. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly felt the premise of the show was overdone, saying it is "yet another show about a nice, hapless single father (in this case, Ted Wass) coping with kids." Tucker praised Mayim Bialik and said the show is "raised to a higher level by [her] uncommon charm," but called the other characters bland, saying, "the male characters could exchange each other's lines and you wouldn’t notice — they're all the same generic nice-guy wiseacre."