Mayim Bialik Reflects On 'Blossom' 25 Years Later

The actress shared personal photos from her time on set.

ByABC News
July 5, 2015, 12:59 AM
Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo.
Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo.
NBC/Getty Images

— -- Twenty-five years ago on July 5, the world was introduced to "Blossom," a TV show starring Mayim Bialik as the titular character.

The actress, who now appears in "The Big Bang Theory," only has positive memories of her time on the set.

"It was a safe environment to grow up in," she told ABC News. "We were each other's social group. We were each other's junior high and high school. It was very positive experience and I’m grateful for a clean set where we didn’t see drugs and alcohol and grew up as normally as we could."

Bialik, now 39, was just 15 when "Blossom" premiered. Don Reo, who created the series, developed the main character, a teenager named Blossom, with Bialik in mind after catching her star-making turn in the 1988 film, "Beaches."

While Bialik never expected it to become a cultural phenomenon, she recognized that the series was special.

"It was centered around a girl which at the time was shocking. 'Clarissa Explains It All' was the only other show about a female and that wasn't a network show," Bialik noted, adding that the show also tackled mature topics, including safe sex, that in 1990, weren't typically discussed on TV. "It was very, very ahead of its time."

It was also a set of like-minded people. Bialik developed friendships with her co-stars Jenna von Oÿ, who starred as her best friend Six, and her on-screen brothers, Michael Stoyanov and Joey Lawrence. She and Stoyanov were especially close, while von Oÿ had more in common with Lawrence.

"We got along nicely," she said. "Jenna and I took dance classes together on set for several years and we had a good time. Michael and I had a lot of really memorable important conversations."

They also went through a lot together. During season three, their director, Bill Bixby died, as did the wife of Ted Wass, who played Blossom's father. The experiences taught her life-long lessons.

"We had an emotional third season," she noted. "Those memories stand out in that they were really hard. That was hard to deal with as a young person... but there were a lot of good laughs too."

Today, Bialik, who was only able to snag two souvenirs from set -- a pair of earrings and a t-shirt worn by her on-screen boyfriend (played by David Lascher), stays in touch with Stoyanov, and reconnected with von Oÿ recently, when the two became mothers. And while she hasn't caught any re-runs of the series lately, she might in the future, as Bialik, who unfortunately doesn't remember all the choreography to dance she does in the opening credits, said she's also waiting to introduce the show to her two young sons.

"They’ve seen the doll and that’s freaky enough! My older son when he first saw it when he was three and he just called it a 'Mama doll.' He thought everyone had a doll that was their mom," she said. "But they’re going to laugh their butts off."