‘Jeopardy!’ Guest Host’s Classic Series May Return for Reboot

Hawaii Five-0 star Joey Lawrence would be interested in a revival of Blossom, the early 1990s series starring The Big Bang Theory‘s Mayim Bialik. While Bialik starred as the title character, Blossom Ruby Russo, Lawrence played her older brother, Joey Russo. Bialik is interested in returning to the series, Lawrence noted, but that could be difficult. Her Fox sitcom Call Me Kat was renewed for a second season and she was just hired to host Jeopardy! primetime specials and tournaments.

“I would be! There’s been several talks about it. I know Don [Reo], who created the show, is interested and I know Mayim [Bialik] is interested. That’s the three-headed monster that you need to be interested,” Lawrence told Us Weekly when asked about a Blossom reboot. Lawrence spoke with the magazine before his new movie SWIM was released on Tubi Friday.

Lawrence believes now is the perfect time to return to the Blossom world. “It’s just a matter of finding a place to re-enter that world where everybody’s happy. I think we found a pretty good place for my character,” he told Us Weekly. “I always say Joey Russo at 40 would be absolutely hilarious. The fact that he’s basically not changed, I love that.”

The actor said he was “game” for playing Joey Russo again, adding that it would be “fun” to return, even for a limited number of episodes. He noted that a revival would be a good way to give back to the fans who have fond memories of watching the show. “You gotta think about that, as entertainers, that it’s really a way to give back and it’s really cool to be able to do that,” he said. “Nothing bothers me more when I go see a concert and the artist doesn’t want to sing their hit songs because they’re tired of them.”

Blossom was created by Don Reo and debuted on NBC in June 1990, when the pilot aired. The series ran until May 1995. Bialik played a teenager living with two older brothers, Tony (Michael Stoyanov) and Joey (Lawrence), and their father Nick (Ted Wass) after their mother (Melissa Manchester) left to pursue her own life and career. Jenna von Oy also starred as Blossom’s friend Six Dorothy Lemeure. David Lascher, Portia Dawson, Bernard Hughes, and Courtney chase rounded out the main cast. The series is available to stream on Hulu.

In April, Bialik told PopCulture in an exclusive interview that Reo did have a script ready for a limited reboot. She added that the revival was not written like a sitcom, so they have “had a lot of trouble” finding anyone interested in producing it. “We think that sitcom reboots are really trendy and we get that’s a draw, but we felt that for our character and for all the characters of Blossom, that would actually be more fitting to not do a sitcom reboot,” Bialik explained, adding, “Blossom held a very special place in a lot of people’s hearts, so we’re hoping that at some point we could see if that might happen.”