"New York Times Article"

This article relates to Melissa mother Paula Hart, (March 30, 1997)


Stage Mothers Who Shatter the Stereotype

By STEPHEN HENDERSON

LOS ANGELES --

Sing out, Louise!" Mama Rose shouts during her daughter's audition in the musical "Gypsy." It's a theatrical moment that Broadway has always cherished, but in Hollywood, where art imitating life spins on a continuous loop, no character type is quite so reviled as the stage mother. There she sits, utterly scorned, in the casting director's waiting room. She's the "pushy one" whose son has hair gelled into a complicated disarray, whose little girl is wearing too much mascara.

It's no wonder, then, that both Paula Hart and Pam Warner, a couple of television's most successful parent-managers, resent any suggestion that they might resemble this stereotype. And in all fairness, they don't. True, each has steered a child to stardom: in Ms. Hart's case, Melissa Joan Hart, formerly of Nickelodeon's "Clarissa Explains It All" and now of ABC's "Sabrina, the Teen-Age Witch"; in Ms. Warner's, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, formerly of "The Cosby Show" and now of UPN's "Malcolm and Eddie." But each mother has also gained enough experience to become a producer of a successful sitcom and an industry player whose business interests go well beyond those of her child. Of such clout Mama Rose could only dream.

Most telling, neither Ms. Warner nor Ms. Hart gravitated to show business because of unrealized acting ambitions of her own but instead followed her child's lead. "That first night, when the numbers went through the roof," Pam Warner said recently of her son's debut in 1984 as Theo Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," "I didn't even know what 'numbers going through the roof' meant."

Ms. Hart says she was ignorant about the entertainment industry in 1980 when 4-year-old Melissa expressed a passionate wish to be on the children's television show "Romper Room," then being produced in New York. "I was a housewife, living in the suburbs," Ms. Hart said. "I thought: 'What is it, a trip into the city? What have I got to lose?' "

Apparently, she had a great deal to gain. On a recent Friday, well past 9 P.M., the "Sabrina" production offices were still buzzing at Viacom's studios at Universal City. A dozen writers argued noisily while their assistants simultaneously transcribed script changes and ordered Chinese takeout. Amid the tumult, Ms. Hart appeared tranquil if a bit weary. How could she be anything but, with a 140-member cast and crew to worry about here, and seven children (including Samantha, a 4-month-old) at home? This was a long way from "Romper Room." Or was it?

As Ms. Hart tells the story, no sooner did she venture from Long Island into Manhattan with Melissa than the child began to appear in commercials, with 22 national spots in her first year. Bit parts in theater and television followed, leading to Melissa's starring role in "Clarissa Explains It All," and to Ms. Hart's increasing savvy as a talent manager and her desire to become something more than the traditional parent-manager.

During the five seasons that "Clarissa" was on the air, Ms. Hart learned more and more about safeguarding Melissa's career, but she also spent time studying comedies like "Bewitched" and "The Munsters." Hoping to produce shows with the same appeal as these vintage sitcoms, she started her own company, Hartbreak Films.

After "Clarissa" ended in 1994, Ms. Hart offered the networks "Sabrina: The Teen-Age Witch," a comic-book property she had bought and developed for Melissa, who is now 20. A bidding war ensued.

In assessing her daughter's career, Ms. Hart said: "Melissa has a great memory and takes direction well. What I'm most proud of, though, is that she is a good person." This is somewhat bland praise, but rather typical of Paula Hart's understated style as mother-manager. What does she think, then, of parents who try to strong-arm their babies into the business?

By way of answer, Ms. Hart described a recent casting session for "Sabrina." A young child had read for a part and was dismissed. Minutes later, she returned, holding a wedge of white plastic. This was her "flipper," or dentures for toothless toddlers. Her new smile firmly in place, the girl volunteered to audition again. Undoubtedly, her mother had put the child up to this second attempt, Ms. Hart theorized, and when a parent is that cunning, it always spells trouble. "No matter how much they may want it," she said, "if their child doesn't, it won't work."

It so happens that all of Ms. Hart's children want it. In addition to Melissa there is 19-year-old Trisha, who is the co-producer of a movie that will star Melissa and has just been sold to NBC. And four of Ms. Hart's other children are filming a movie for Showtime that also features the rap star Hammer. But the jackpot is still "Sabrina," which Paula Hart hopes to nurture until it goes into syndication. "Melissa knows how important it is to finish at least 100 shows," Ms. Hart said. "If that happens, she'll never have to work again."

Because syndication is television's ultimate brass ring, it is especially important to carefully screen children who are up for leading roles. "You hope to be in business with this kid for five years," said Caryn Mandabach, president of Carsey-Warner Productions, the company responsible for "Roseanne" and other successful shows. "To find out what a child is really like, you spend time with the family."

The Los Angeles-based casting director Sally Stiner, who has a background in child psychology, agrees. She says a large part of her job is to be as aware of what's going on outside her office as inside. And she has an impressive track record at finding appropriate children. In recent years, she found Jonathan Lipnicki for "The Jeff Foxworthy Show" (he's also the boy who upstages Tom Cruise in the movie "Jerry Maguire"), but she is also the person who discovered Malcolm-Jamal Warner for "The Cosby Show."

He was the last child to audition, Ms. Stiner recalled, and because it was the end of a long day, she had him read while she returned telephone calls. "He didn't flinch," she said. "I've never seen anyone so focused in my life."

Such discipline was created by his upbringing, suggested Jay Sandrich, who was Mr. Warner's first director on "The Cosby Show." "Malcolm was, from the very beginning, a serious, hard-working actor," Mr. Sandrich said. "He knew he had a responsibility. Later, I got to know Pam quite well, and saw that she'd instilled a strong work ethic in him."

Ms. Warner said she could do this because, early on, she made sure that acting was strictly an extracurricular activity for her son, who is her only child (she was divorced from Malcolm's father when Malcolm was very young). When, at the age of 9, Malcolm joined a drama workshop sponsored by the California Parks Department, she increased his homework and household chores to test his enthusiasm for theater.

"If Malcolm finished these jobs and was still anxious to get to his workshop, I knew he really wanted to do it," she explained. Even so, she added, theater "was not a career, just something to keep him occupied."

In fact, when an agent first expressed interest in signing Malcolm, Ms. Warner took the agent's card but let a year pass before she met with him. "At the time, it just seemed so unimportant," she said one day recently at her home in Sherman Oaks.

Ms. Warner's nonchalance continued even when her son tried out for Bill Cosby, she said. When Malcolm landed the the part of Theo and called and said he had "gotten it," she wasn't exactly what he meant. "Got what?" she asked.

Because the role required a move from Los Angeles to New York, Ms. Warner quit her job and began to manage Malcolm's career. Her professional ambitions have grown ever since. While her status as a producer was, she said, "unofficially official" on "Here and Now," a short-lived sitcom her son did after "The Cosby Show" ended in 1992, it was a central part of the contract she negotiated for "Malcolm and Eddie."

This arrangement pleases Mr. Warner, who is now 26, but he said, "I don't necessarily recommend it to people." In their case, he said, it has worked because of the extremely close relationship he has with his mother. "From the beginning," he said, "Pamela made it clear that she wouldn't make all my decisions for me. She'd drag me, a 15-year-old kid, to these long meetings with my accountants. She wanted to be sure I understood the scenario and all my options."

Ms. Warner now manages 14 actors in addition to her son, and Mr. Warner says he is proud of the work his mother does. "I look at her now and see that she's a player," he said. "Now I call her office, and they put me on hold."

Copyright 1997 The New York Times


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Eric Last, 25/5/97

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