While Mayim Bialik re-entered the world of stardom with her role on “The Big Bang Theory,” and short-lived time as the host of Jeopardy!, most Gen-Xers remember her as “Blossom” — the high energy teenager who danced to a killer theme song and had weekly adventures with her family and best friend, Six. But “Blossom” likely wouldn’t be the show fans remember today unless another show had failed a year earlier. Before Bialik would be cast in the titular role on “Blossom,” she was set to star in a completely different sitcom as the title character, “Molloy.”
The show followed Bialik’s character as she moved from New York to Los Angeles to live with her father and stepsister, played by another future star: Jennifer Aniston. The show never got off the ground and was canceled after just seven episodes. In a Washington Post interview from 1991, Bialik said that was fine by her. “Basically, there were a lot of changes done in the show that we didn’t necessarily agree with,” she said. “When ‘Blossom’ came along, it was what I wanted to do and I was really committed to doing it.” Bialik said if push came to shove, she would have left “Molloy” for “Blossom,” but it’s unclear if contractually that would have been allowed. Thankfully for Bialik and her career, it didn’t come to that.
Mayim Bialik wasn’t the only cast member who came from a failed sitcom
Once “Molloy” was officially canceled, “Blossom” producers moved to secure Mayim Bialik as the star. Creator Don Reo told Yahoo News that without Bialik, the show wouldn’t have worked. “I never considered anyone else,” Reo said. “There was never any doubt in my mind, from the moment I first laid eyes on her, that she was the character. Same thing is true of Jenna von Oÿ.”
Ironically, Jenna von Oÿ almost missed out on “Blossom” as well. Von Oÿ was starring in a sitcom of her own, “Lenny,” when her offer came in. “I started doing ‘Lenny’ and about halfway through the first season I got a phone call,” she said in the same interview with Yahoo. “[Blossom producers said] ‘We realize you’re on this other show but we tried to recast it and we just can’t get our heads beyond this Six we already had.'” Soon after that call, “Lenny” was canceled and von Oÿ joined the “Blossom” team.
“Blossom” ran for five solid seasons and is remembered fondly, even though a potential reboot has been shot down. Bialik credits the show’s success to its originality. “There wasn’t another show about girls, so it was very unusual and kind of amazing for Don to be brave enough to do that show,” Bialik told Yahoo News. “Obviously we had plenty of male characters, but the notion that you could have a TV show about girls was not easy.”
