From catch-clarissa-errors@tcp.com Sat Sep 27 18:21 MET 1997
Message-Id: <970927115817.22c00527@HIRAM.EDU>
Errors-to: catch-clarissa-errors@tcp.com
Precedence: bulk
X-Resent-by: catch-clarissa-errors@tcp.com
X-Admin-Addr: Majordomo@tcp.com
X-List-Software: mlist v2.6 by James Lick with Majordomo
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 11502
From: ARMENIOJA@HIRAM.EDU
To: clarissa@tcp.com
Subject: Transcript of Melissa's 9/19 appearance on "Home Team with Terry Bradshaw"
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 11:58:17 -0400 (EDT)

     Actually, it's only a transcript of her interview segment. As has been 
mentioned, she stuck around for the rest of the hour and served as a guest host
of sorts. I'll leave the transcription of those segments to someone more
dedicated than I!
     All comments in parentheses are mine. Corrections, clarifications,
and snide remarks are welcome.
     Melissa came on right after Mr. Bradshaw gave a brief opening monologue--

Terry: ....commercials actually launched the career of my very first guest.
She started with a nude scene-- can you believe that?-- a nude scene
(mock-dramatic pause) at the age of four and currently plays (laughs) a teen
with magical powers-- sorry about that (refering to the "nude scene" bit)-- on
the hit comedy "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch." Please welcome Melissa Joan Hart!

(Melissa enters to cheering from the crowd; we have the standard talk-show
enterence sequence, as Terry says hello, gives her a peck on the cheek, and
motions for her to sit down. She's wearing a short black dress with little
flowers on it; her hair is fairly loose and conventionally worn, parted
down the middle-- no squid-on-the-head stuff here.)

     Terry: Got 'em on that "nude" part, didn't I? (laughs) You thought I was
teasin'--
     Melissa: Yeah, thanks, thanks for that. You ruin my image.
     Terry: Nah-- now how, how does a kid get started at such a young age to,
ah, to be an actor-- actress.
     Melissa: Well, um, I didn't have much to do with it myself. But, um, my
mother had a friend whose daughter was in acting and she got a manager and my
mother signed me up with that manager, and I went on auditions and I booked my
first, my third, my fifth, and so on, so--
     Terry: Well obviously when you got there you weren't intimidated by the
lights, the cameras, and all the mess that was around-- (I think that's what he
says, at least)
     Melissa: Nah, I was too little-- are you kiddin'? I was a goofball! I was
like (does a little dance in her seat-- a "goofball" dance, I suppose) all
over the place-- 
     Terry: So it worked, and then you liked it--
     Melissa: Yeah, I loved it! It was, y'know-- it became kind of a hobby, it
was, y'know, I went to girl scouts, I went to dance classes, I went to
auditions-- it was like, normal everyday after-school stuff, so--
     Terry: Did you-- did you know that you were being paid?
     Melissa (laughs): No, I--
     Terry (with mock-anger): See that-- see that's where-- that's where they
gitcha, right there! Little four-year-old, you probably got thousands of
dollars out there you oughta go look at.
     Melissa: Oh, ah-- commercials? I dunno--
     Terry: You oughta ask your mom, "Mommy, did I get paid when I was--"
     Melissa: Y'know, y'know I'm gonna go home right after this and ask her.
That's a good idea.
     Terry: See-- "That Terry Bradshaw, he's such a conniver--" (they laugh)
Now, when you're so young and talented and everyone is wanting you to be in
everything, and you go throughout your entire teenage life-- young adult, all
the way up, obviously you've gotta sit back at some point in your life and
say, "I've missed out on my adolesence, teenage--" I mean, do you feel as
though you've been cheated maybe just a little bit?
     Melissa: Well, not cheated, but, uh, I had a different life I think than
a lotta people-- than what they call "normal." But, um, y'know, it--it-- for
me growing up when I was younger was pretty normal because like I said, I went
to school and then I did, y'know, auditioning, acting, whatever. I took days
off from school sometimes to act, but it was like a regular after-school hobby
for me. And then as I got older, I got a show called "Clarissa Explains it
All" on Nickelodeon and that's when things really started to change, 'cause
that was high school for me and I wasn't really hangin' out with, y'know,
people my own age. I was working, so-- I was working and going to school, so
it was tough.
     Terry: Yeah-- but, and I mentioned the kids that-- that weren't working
and going to school but just going to school were probably jealous-- did you--
did you sense a lot of jealousy? I think jealousy at a young age is pretty
easy to sense. You're making money and you're becoming famous, your picture is
on television and on billboards and whatnot. I mean--
     Melissa: Yeah, um, I don't-- I don't know, 'cause I really hung out with a
lot of people that were older that were working on the set. There weren't a
lot of kids around me that were my age, so I didn't really sense jealousy and
if I did it was probably-- I probably perceived it more as, they didn't like
me, I wasn't cool, as them being jealous.
     Terry (talking over her last phrase): Let me ask you this: would you give
up what you've accomplished to go back and have a normal--
     Melissa (dismissively, drawing laughter from the crowd): No, no.
     Terry: Okay. It's okay, isn't it?
     Melissa: You kidding? Yeah, I'm havin' a great time, I wouldn't change
anything.
     Terry: Okay. Your mom-- your mom-- I love-- y'know, I love my mom and dad
and they're out there watchin' and, uh, I never had the opportunity to
work with my mom, who was a housewife, and my dad was a welder. So there's not
a lot-- kids don't get to do those things, but your mom is the producer of
your show. Now, is that a problem?
     Melissa: No--
     Terry: I mean, Mom's Mom, then Mom's the producer.
     Melissa: Yeah, well, sometimes that gets in the way a little bit, it's
like, y'know, which one does she-- which hat does she have on today? But, um--
     Terry: You know that beforehand.
     Melissa: Yeah.
     Terry: Do you ride to work with her?
     Melissa: No, no--
     Terry (extremely chagrined with himself): Oh, you live by yourself now!
     Melissa: Yeah, I live by myself.
     Terry: Oh, you're a big girl! Of course you are! How stupid!
     Melissa: I only play seventeen!
     Terry: All right-- I mean, you're--
     Melissa: Sometimes I do, I mean if my car's in the shop--
     Terry: Okay, sometimes you ride to work. (to the crowd, who's been
laughing through this exchange) There ya go! (laughs)
     Melissa: But, y'know, I see her every day, if I'm having a bad day on the
set-- one day I was really sick on the set, I was--I was actually throwing up
on the set and-- and, y'know, I called and I was like, (in a very cute
whiny-little-girl voice) "Mommy, you gotta come down and help me." She's like,
"Okay," y'know, "Have some ginger ale, I'll be there in a minute," and, so--
     Terry: So Mom can be Mom and still be-- and still have the big hat.
     Melissa (talking over his last phrase): And still be the producer, can be
like, "She'll be at work in a minute, she's throwing up right now. You gotta
hold on."
     Terry: Do you ever feel like Mom-- do you ever feel like because you're
Mom's daughter, star of the show, that Mom perhaps gives a little too much--
     Melissa: Nepotism?
     Terry (softly): Yes ma'am, yeah.
     Melissa (through a smile): No, I don't think so-- I think if, if
anything--
     Terry (with mock-anger): Aw bull! You know that-- c'mon, give it to
us! (they laugh, the crowd applauds) 
     Melissa: I get away with murder!
     Terry: Mmm-hmm. Now what are the advantages of playing a witch?
     Melissa: Let's see. God, I can do anything. You kiddin'? I mean, y'know,
this week on the show, the one we're doing-- I just got done with rehearsal--
we, uh, my little cousin turns me into a doll, so I have to play a doll this
time. So I'm in this big dollhouse, there's, like, huge crayons around and
there's a huge teddy bear that talks to me and stuff. It's-- it's, y'know,
it's surreal, it's really cool though, to be in that-- y'know, we get to do
anything.
     Terry (says something first that I couldn't get-- sounds a bit like
"woona beenin"): I wish I-- I wish I were a witch for one day. There are some
people I would like to do some stuff to-- (they laugh) Can I have an "amen"
out there, yeah! (crowd applauds) We have a clip-- we have a clip--let's show
this clip right now.
     Melissa: Okay.
     
     (They show a clip from "The Troll Bride" (#024); it's the scene where
Harvey first arrives at the castle and Sabrina lets her hair down in
Rapunzelesque fashion to pull him up.)

     Terry: Now, that would be fun. I bet that's fun to do.
     Melissa: Yeah!
     Terry: Um, it's nice to go to work-- you love your job, don't you?
     Melissa: Oh yeah, it's-- it's a blast. We get to do anything, so--
     Terry: Now-- Shirley Temple. You admire Shirley Temple for a lot of
reasons.
     Melissa (as he's talking): Yeah, mmm-hmmm. 
     Terry: Number one-- you obivously are collectible-- you collect-- tell us
what you collect and tell us why.
     Melissa (talking over his last phrase): I collect Shirley Temple stuff--
just, um, basically, it started out, I guess my grandmother at a festival with
me found a pin with Shirley Temple's face on it. I was like, "Who's she,"
y'know, and my grandma's like, "That's Shirley Temple," da da da, showed me
some movies, so I started, like, getting some pictures and postcards and then
I started collecting the porceilan dolls, and, um, just found little things
along the way-- people always give me gifts, Shirley Temple stuff.
     Terry: So then you like Shirley Temple--
     Melissa: Yeah.
     Terry: So you got-- how many items you figure you have? Books, cards--
     Melissa: Oh, God--
     Terry: Hundreds? Or--
     Melissa: Not quite hundreds, um, maybe a hundred. I mean it's gettin'
there, but, y'know-- it's-- it's hard to find the original stuff.
     Terry: I have two little girls. My eight-year-old, Erin (spelling?),
collects these Briar horses (spelling? I have no idea what these are)-- y'all
seen 'em-- Briar horses, she has every one of 'em-- her entire room-- and
these things, y'know, they're, like, spen (I think that's an elision of the
word "expensive," but who knows) so I'm--I'm making sure that when she
outgrows those, that those things are gathered up, placed for-- they gotta be
worth something one of those days.
     Melissa: Yeah, yeah.
     Terry: One last question--
     Melissa: Mmmm-hmmm.
     Terry: Is it hard to have a social life?
     Melissa: Um--
     Terry: Can you pick and choose, and-- and when you choose are you disap
(an elision of "disappointed,"I think, but once again, who knows)--are-- are
you careful?
    Melissa: I guess it's tough. It's tough now, um-- mainly my friends are
the people that work on the show with me. They're my best friends and we hang
out all the time, and, y'know, we have dinner parties and we go to the movies
and stuff. So--
     Terry: (conspiratorially, to the crowd): Yeah, she didn't tell us she has
a boyfriend or anything. And I'm not gonna ask her if you have a boyfriend,
she'll tell me on the commercial break! Ha ha! Well, if you're a collector
like Melissa, stick around! That stuff weighing down your shelves could be
worth a bundle!

     (They show a bumper advertising the next guest-- an antiques expert-- and
go to a commercial.)

     -Joe