Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993 TAG: 9308070275
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT MOORE THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By age 5, she had appeared in 22 commercials, including spots for Rice Krispies, Arnold Bread ("I yelled `Mom' really loud at the end"), Fritos, General Electric and Tylenol. By 13, she was providing a voice and teen-age role model as the title character of Nickelodeon's "Clarissa Explains It All."
Now 17, Melissa (and Clarissa) is at the cusp of a teen-age frenzy that even she cannot explain. Not that she has time for that, what with summer treks to the beach near her parents' home on Long Island's South Shore, hanging out at the alternative music concert Lollapalooza, collecting Shirley Temple memorabilia and watching television - she favors "The Simpsons," "Roseanne" and talk shows.
"I hang out with adults all the time," said Hart. "I like to hang out with kids more" in the summer.
That's not always easy. "Clarissa," and thus Melissa, is well known and watched among teens and preteens, with more than 2.5 million viewers per week. And the target audience is known to be enthusiastic when the blond, blue-eyed star is spotted.
After all, Clarissa Darling is not just the subject of a Nickelodeon sitcom (Saturdays at 8 p.m.), she is the dispenser of advice and face-to-the-camera commentary about fashion, dating, parents and annoying younger brothers (she calls hers "Ferg-face").
Anything else of note is included in the 64-page, Nickelodeon-produced "Clarissa's All-in-One Perfect Complete Book of Everything Important."
No wonder she was mobbed recently at a New York-area water theme park.
"I felt like Luke Perry or something," Hart said. "They say it's boys (who are her biggest fans), but I notice a lot of girls 10 to 14."
Children 6 and under, Hart noted, watch the show, but don't care much when they spot the actress. "(Younger) kids are into themselves," she said.
"Once in a while I quote Clarissa," Hart said. "But I don't remember the lines. I used to. But now when people ask me to do a piece of it, I can't. My brain's on overload."
She can, however, reel off her nearly decade-old monologue for a clever Connecticut Natural Gas advertisement, in which the young "homeowner" used a doll house to provide examples about saving energy.
More recently, Hart appeared on Broadway in "The Crucible" and starred opposite William Hurt in an off-Broadway production of "Beside Herself."
Whether acting as babysitter or sister, Hart knows the role. She has experience as a $3-an-hour babysitter, and since her mother-manager and four siblings - "with one on the way" - are in show business, she is familiar with sibling rivalry.
Melissa has been on "Saturday Night Live" three times, but (her brother) Brian "got to say the line I want: `Live from New York, it's Saturday Night,' " she related, adding with a bit of delight that his mouth was full of popcorn at the time.
Because she was so young, Hart had to leave right after her one live performance on "SNL."
Hart has since become a staple on Saturday evening television, with 50-plus episodes of "Clarissa" having been completed and a dozen more scheduled to be shot at Universal Studios in Orlando this fall. The show has no doubt helped countless kids work out their problems, and may help Hart get into New York University next fall.
"I need three minutes of videotape, and I've got plenty of that," she said.
First, she has to complete a final year of a special high-school program in Florida. "It's easier in some ways and harder in some ways," she said. "It's only 15 hours a week, not a lot. But it's with one tutor for the whole 15 hours, one on one."
Hart also has been studying out of class. "When on the set of `Clarissa,' I watch the lighting crews, and I know all the terms. . . . I hope to direct, and produce, maybe.
"I wrote a couple of ideas for "Clarissa' (some of which were incorporated into scripts), and I've asked the producers to direct, but they won't let me," she said good-naturedly. "It seems like hard work."
There also is a change in Hart. "I notice I listen to the other characters as they read their lines," she said. In the old shows "I knew my lines and how to react to other characters, but I never really listened to what they were saying."
by CNB