Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 2, 1994 TAG: 9403030005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By STEPHEN LYNCH ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As Fishman walks down the block to show off his elementary school, he waves to a group of friends playing street hockey.
The whole scene seems lifted from a Steven Spielberg film, a portrait of the perfect subdivision.
Fishman, 12, fits right in with his colorful shirt, black jeans and worn tennis shoes. His face is splattered with freckles; his hair simply cropped in bowl formation.
For Michael Fishman, a self-defined "child on television," not child actor, who plays D.J. on the hit sitcom, it's just another day in the suburbs. And another example of his passive schizophrenia: He's a kid, he plays a kid on TV, but in the whole process he's become very much like an adult.
Fishman throws water balloons, keeps his room messy and has a distaste for schoolwork.
But he also memorizes scripts, saves Golden Globe Award seat assignments for posterity and considers a day when he'll stop being an actor.
For the past six years, he has grown up in the spotlight on ABC's "Roseanne," playing the Conner family's youngest member.
In the hyper-reality of a TV family, Fishman has been exposed to the issues of sex, marriage, spousal abuse, unemployment and, he is quick to point out, teen-age angst.
Referring to his 14-year-old sister, Robyn, "She's a teen-ager - she only uses part of her brain," he said.
"I'm getting to that stage."
Fishman is well aware of the stages he's passed through, the uniqueness of his job and the realities of his situation. Yet, as his face reminds others, he's spent half his life on a controversial show.
"From my standpoint it's normal, 'cause I'm used to it. For people who I've known since kindergarten, they're used to it, it's a normal thing," he said, balancing on a low fence.
"For new kids, it's a little strange. I mean, how many child stars did you go to school with?"
Through it all, Fishman is looking to stay normal and put to rest the belief that child actors are more famous for being victimized by their adolescence rather than relishing it.
Fishman indeed acts like any kid, wandering as he walks through lawns and examining everything out of the ordinary. Yet even his childhood curiosity has its awareness, as if Fishman is compelled to be young to make up for lost time.
"I'm a kid; I'm supposed to be easily distracted," he said matter-of-factly.
Fishman speaks little about his infamous co-star/boss, making waves because ABC reportedly didn't like her kiss with Mariel Hemingway in an episode that aired Tuesday.
But if Darlene Fishman didn't understand the word "hiatus" when Michael started the show, she sure understands the term "sweep" now.
"When it happens in February I always look at it with a jaundiced eye," the Cypress College nursing professor said.
"They have always tackled subjects that people go, `Oh, my God, why did they do that?' and then they manage to handle it in an OK way."
One of the most controversial instances occurred in the fall, when "Roseanne" addressed masturbation. Darlene Fishman said that because the episode featured Michael so prominently, she was given a script ahead of time. But after she prepared to explain the situation to her son, she discovered he had already read it.
"`They must have made a mistake, because the messenger already delivered it,' he said," Darlene Fishman related. "I said, `Well, if you already read it, do you have any questions?' He said, `No, I understand, Robyn explained it to me.'"
Michael is nonchalant.
"[Roseanne] only talks to me if she feels there's something in it I won't like," he said. "But I just want to enjoy it.
"Work is basically a big playground for me. It's all what you make out of it. I make work a game. This game never ends. But someday it will end, and I'll be sad about it.
"And there's also the fact that for every great show, there's a spinoff."
by CNB