Melissa Joan Hart Movies
After spending the 1990s as a TV teen star, Melissa Joan Hart set her sights on feature films. Born and raised on Long Island, Hart began acting in TV commercials as a child. She further honed her skills in New York theater in the late '80s as the youngest member of the Circle Repertory Lab Company. Hart then broke through as a cable TV favorite (and a CableACE Award nominee) in the role of the precocious titular preteen on the Nickelodeon series Clarissa Explains It All (1991-1994). After the series ended, Hart moved to network TV stardom in 1996 as the supernaturally gifted title teen on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Maintaining her pert primetime persona while revealing her range, Hart also starred in several TV movies, including Family Reunion: A Relative Nightmare (1995), Twisted Desire (1996), The Right Connections (1997), and the college date rape drama Silencing Mary (1998). Though Hart continued to produce and star in Sabrina, she also attempted to parlay her TV fame into movie stardom with the romantic comedy Drive Me Crazy (1999). The film, however, failed to perform as well as the Britney Spears tune that gave it its title. Hart raised eyebrows that same year when she tried to shed her squeaky-clean adolescent image with a racy photo spread and interview in men's magazine Maxim. Neither gambit affected Sabrina, although Hart and the series moved from the family-oriented ABC lineup to the youth-savvy WB in 2000. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide- 1995
As a ratings gimmick, radio talk host Sandy Latham (Elizabeth Ashley) invites her listeners to volunteer as her daughter Claire's prom date. It is the latest in a long series of public humiliations for Claire (Melissa Joan Hart), who has spent her life as a pawn in her selfish mother's rise to fame. Hired as Sandy's personal assistant, Monica (Roma Downey) teams with the radio star's on-air sidekick--who happens to be Tess (Della Reese)--to repair the relationship between mother and daughter. But it may be too late: The resentful Claire has gotten mixed up with a bootleg-CD scam in order to earn enough money to leave home for keeps! Future film star Jack Black appears in a key supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
In this frenetic made-for-television outing, a young boy tries to get into the crazy, competitive spirit of his relatives' annual "Family Olympics," but finds himself more interested in the enigmatic runaway who seems to come out of nowhere. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melissa Joan Hart, Jason Marsden, (more)
- 1985
Adapted from the phenomenally popular best-seller by Jeffrey Archer, the three-part, seven-hour CBS miniseries Kane & Abel is the tale of two tycoons -- one a self-made man, one born into wealth -- who both came into the world on the very same day. The illegitimate son of a Polish baron, Abel Rosnovski (Peter Strauss) is forced to fend for himself from childhood. Escaping from Siberia during WWI, Abel emigrates to America, where he builds up a multimillion-dollar hotel business. Meanwhile, Boston brahmin William Lowell Kane (Sam Neill) is carefully groomed to take his place in both society and the financial world, succeeding on both counts in the banking business. Though Abel and Kane might have become friends in any other circumstances, an accidental slight on Kane's part earns him the undying enmity of a vengeful Abel -- and thus is set in motion a tense, feud-driven power struggle that will consume both their lives for the next 25 years. Filmed on-location in Canada, England, and France, Kane & Abel originally aired from November 17 to 19, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Strauss, Sam Neill, (more)
