Mayim Bialik Thanks ‘SNL’ Vet Melanie Hutsell for ‘Blossom’ Sketch Apology
Mayim Bialik has responded to Melanie Hutsell’s apology about the use of a prosthetic nose in a Saturday Night Live sketch parodying Blossom, the sitcom that made Bialik famous.
In the 1994 sketch, Hutsell played Bialik’s Blossom Russo and donned a fake nose as part of her costume. Bialik reflected on the sketch in a recent essay for Variety, noting that no other Blossom character was singled out specifically for their facial features in the scene. Then a teenager, Bialik said she “felt ashamed” after seeing the sketch knowing that peers at her high school watched SNL, and she feared how Jewish Blossom fans would feel about her “undeniably Jewish” nose being the butt of a joke.
Hutsell responded to Bialik’s Variety essay in a statement to Entertainment Weekly on October 20, saying she “knew it was wrong” to wear the fake nose but was told she would be fired if she refused to participate.
Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo in NBC’s Blossom (Credit: Alice S. Hall/NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“I remember so clearly that when I expressed that I did not want to wear the prosthetic nose for the sketch, I was told if I refused, I would be fired,” Hutsell said. “And keep in mind, many of the people who had a hand in creating the sketch were Jewish. Although I had and have always had a strong moral compass, I didn’t have the strength to refuse to do the sketch after I was told I would be fired.”
Hutsell said she would do “the right thing” and risk being fired by refusing to wear the fake nose if she could turn back time. On October 23, Bialik thanked Hutsell and said she appreciated the statement.
“Thank you Melanie Hutsell for this,” Bialik wrote on Threads. “I did not intend to disparage you or SNL and I really appreciate your thoughtfulness around this! It made for an interesting essay (which I was asked to write many months ago on the topic of antisemitism) and with everything going on in the world, I’m virtually hugging you and appreciate you very much!”
Hutsell noted in her statement to EW that about 10 years after the sketch, she apologized to Bialik in person when they ran into each other at an audition. Hutsell said that Bialik replied, “I release you” at the time. In her essay, Bialik said she “never thought to talk about” the sketch after she first saw it, “and mostly I tried to forget it. I hoped no one noticed.”
“Girls all over the world used to tell me that they had never seen a Jewish girl like me on TV before they saw me on Blossom,” she said. “Many said they knew I was Jewish and it made them proud to be. That was so touching to me, and it still is.”
