Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa) appeared on the British (BBC) TV programme Live and Kicking on the 4th of March 1995. Live and Kicking is a three hour long live Children's TV programme that runs from around 9am to Noon on Saturdays. As well as general messing around the show includes performances by pop groups, interviews, informative film reports, and a number of regular cartoon series. For some weeks, Live and Kicking had been showing first season episodes of "Clarissa Explains It All".

Just prior to interviewing Melissa, they showed a retrospective including her first ever TV appearance in a commercial for a gas company.

They first showed a collection of clips from various first season episodes, then came the commercial (her first appearance), and then a few highlights from a filmed interview with Melissa in New York City which they had shown the week before.

The filmed interview included Melissa driving her car, and talking outside the front of the New York University where she is currently studying.

They then returned to the studio where they interviewed her live. The first topic of discussion was the compliation they'd just shown.

Andi: ... And there she was! Wow, and that clip that was you!

Melissa: I was... I was so little, I was like ...

Emma: You were saying that was in a commercial, but not for the dolls house?

Melissa: No, it was for Connecticut Natural Gas.

Emma: Obviously, it goes without saying really.

Andi: Exactly.

Andi: Is this your first time in the UK?

Melissa: No, this is my second.

Andi: Your second. What do you think of it?

Melissa: I love it. Actually, London reminds me a lot of New York.

Andi: Really?

Melissa: Yes.

Andi: And it's so cold at this time of year, as well, it's absolutely freezing. So do you spend most of your time in New York or LA or..?

Melissa: New York. I love New York.

Andi: So you're a New York kinda girl?

Melissa: Definitely.

Emma: Now at the moment as we heard from your fact file, you've taken a bit of time out from acting and you're at New York University.

Melissa: Yes, I'm going to college but I'm also kinda working on the side.

Emma: Oh right, so you're still keeping a hand in there.

Melissa: I'm only going part time to University.

Andi: Right, and we saw that film all about you last week on lifestyles. What happened to Gabe, 'cos we wanna hear the gosip...

Melissa: No, there's no gossip.

Emma: He's genuinely just your best friend?

Melissa: No, he's just my best friend.

Melissa: "So what, she's pulling up in a limo?"

April: (to camera) "Hi, we're here at the studio!"

Melissa: (to people in trailer) "I don't know that I've ever been interviewed by a fan... that wasn't, like, five years old."

[as she talks, we see that she's apparently in the middle of lunch; in front of her is a clear plastic container, opened up, with a prepared sandwich of some sort (roast beef or something, regular-sized bread, cut diagonally) on one half and some fixings (lettuce, I think, and two tomato slices) on the other; these might seem like trivial details, and they are, but given all her talk recently about dieting, etc. (the recent 'Good Hoousekeeping' article mentioned she was drinking a Slim-Fast), I thought it would be of some interest what she was actually eating -- or not eating, in this case; okay, back to our story]

April: "I hope, I hope I really speak in coherent sentences in a minute." (laughs)

[she passes right under Melissa's nose, but doesn't know she's being watched by her from behind the window of the trailer]

April: "Oh, my Go-o-o-d!"

Melissa: (calmly surveying the situation) "Cool."

[April walks into the studio; shot of Melissa coming out of the trailer drinking from a water bottle; various shots of April walking through hallways, etc.; she ends up on the generic classroom set (i.e., with the regular desks and chalkboard), where she will interview Melissa]

April: "Oh, my God! I'm so excited, I mean, I... my God! I mean, look at where we are. We're on the actual set for 'Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'. This is _so_ cool."

[their favorite thing is to get the fan to talk about the impending meeting while the celeb sneaks up on them; this is what they do to April...]

April: "I had no idea. I thought I was just gonna have [a] quiet, relaxing evening at home (her voice is vavering) and be totally normal and..."

[as she's been talking, Melissa has walked right up beside her; all at once, someone off-camera interrupts her to point out that Melissa's there, she notices Melissa out of the corner of her eye, and Melissa says...]

Melissa: "April."

[April loses it =)]

April: (almost hysterically) "OHMYGOD!!!"

[she doubles over and backs away with her hand over her mouth, then composes herself somewhat and shakes Melissa's outstretched hand]

Melissa: (laughs) "Hi."

April: (still flustered) "Hi, Melissa!"

Melissa: "Nice to meet you."

April: "It's so nice to meet you!"

Melissa: "How are you?"

April: "I'm great. How are you?"

Melissa: "Good... good. Welcome to our set."

April: "Thank you. It's so cool... (Melissa laughs) It's like, you have _no_ idea, this is the coolest thing, I'm sorry..." (she takes a breath)

Melissa: (laughs) "That's fine."

April: "So, d'you wanna sit down?"

Melissa: "Sure! Yeah..."

April: "'Kay..."

[cut to shot of them sitting across from each other on STTW "director's chairs"; obviously, the fans are asked to do a little introduction of themselves and the celeb when they start the interview; April begins...]

April: "Um, I'm April Lovatich (sp??) and we're here with my _idol_ (Melissa laughs) Melissa Joan Hart, and I am definitely, by _far_ her Number One Fan, no, no questions asked. Oh, gosh, this is just so great to meet you! I..."

Melissa: "Thank you."

April: "I hope you don't mind, but I..."

Melissa: "No..."

April: "I've kinda prepared some questions that I wanted to ask you."

Melissa: "Yeah! Sure."

April: "Okay, um... What can we expect from this next season of 'Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'?"

Melissa: "There's gonna be a family secret on 'Sabrina' this year, um... She has to figure out the family secret, so every week there's gonna be -- or, every couple of weeks there's gonna be a new celebrity-weird-family-member guest, so..."

April: "Oh, cool!"

Melissa: "That'll be kinda neat."

April: "All right, that sounds cool."

Melissa: "Mm-hmm!"

April: "Um... What celebrity would you like to meet and why?"

Melissa: "My idol is Shirley Temple, and I, I had always wanted to meet her and I just met her about two months ago."

April: "Oh, wow!"

Melissa: "I went to her house, and that was _so_ cool!"

April: "You got to go to her house?"

Melissa: "Mm-hmm!"

April: "That is _so_ cool!"

Melissa: "It was _so_ neat! And I was like... trying to plan what to wear (April laughs), what to do with my makeup, and I, I was like, 'This is bigger than my wedding day...' (April laughs) and, 'Hope it doesn't _rain_...' You know, I was all nervous."

April: "Wow."

[cut to next question]

April: "Did you learn anything playing Clarissa that you have applied to your own life?"

Melissa: "When I started 'Clarissa', I was just getting out of -- or, I was _in_ junior high, and, uh, I was having a hard time fitting in, and... I didn't dress like anyone else did, and I was just kind of... my own person, but... weird. I dunno, it was weird. I guess I was a little bit younger than everyone else. I felt like I was more immature than everyone else. And, uh, and doing 'Clarissa' made me feel, like, I got to meet all new people I go to start over with a whole new group of people. And they really made feel accepted and, and, I learned from the show and from the _character_ just that, how... peer pressure's not important and you, is... (she's fumbling for the right words) if you can, it you can, um, step away from that kind of pressure, and, and really be an individual, then you'll be that much stronger when you're older."

April: "You know, I w--- that is like the thing that you have changed entirely about my life through that character, because... I had the same problem in junior high and high school. I didn't fit in. I didn't dress like anyone..."

Melissa: "Mm-hmm."

April: "You know... you had to wear the Polo shirts and the loafers, and..."

Melissa: "You had to get the perm, and..."

April: "Yeah! The perm, and th..."

Melissa: "Part on the side..."

April: "And the... Remember those silly auto (?) purses and stuff?"

[sorry, but I don't know _what_ she's talking about, so I have no idea about the phrase "silly auto"; might have been something else entirely!]

Melissa: (laughing) "Yeah!"

April: "And that just was not me! And then, here comes Clarissa, this crazy girl who dresses like, oh... And I... There's this one sweater that you used to wear on the show. It's like a crochet, like, colorful sweater. And I looked everywhere for that. I went to California to look. I went to Texas..."

Melissa: "Oh, no!" (laughs)

April: "And I just... and-I-mean, I just _loved_ the way that your character dressed!"

Melissa: "Well, thank you!"

April: "And she really taught me, you know, not to, not to care about what all those other people think about you..."

Melissa: "Yeah..."

April: "You know, if they can't see past the outside, then they're just not worth it."

Melissa: "That's, that's kinda what I learned from the charatcer, too! (laughs) Yeah, so, like, you know, it made me realize that, uh, I... I didn't have to fit in. Fitting in wasn't important. It was..."

April: "Exactly."

Melissa: "...Who you are."

April: "Who are the people, I mean, besides your family, that you enjoy spending time with the most?"

Melissa: "The people here on the set."

April: "Really?"

Melissa: "They're my best friends."

April: "You guys, a---is it like a 'home away from home' kinda atmosphere?"

Melissa: "It, it's like... we, we call it, like, a little Girl Scout troup. (April laughs) It's our little Girl Scout troup. We, we have, just such a great time. We have so much fun together, and... A bunch of us went to Rome this summer to shoot a..."

April: "Oh, wow!"

Melissa: "...'Sabrina Goes to Rome' movie for, for Disney."

April: "Ooh."

Melissa: "And, uh, that'll be on, like, October 4th on ABC."

[she says that quickly, in a manner that suggests, 'I know it's a blatant plug...' =)]

April: "What do you remember about your first acting job?"

Melissa: "I remember being _really_ embarrassed! It was, it was a doll commercial. A bathtub doll. And I had to, uh, get undressed. You know. (April half laughs, half winces) So I had a bathrobe and some slippers. And I remember sitting in a cast chair, looking at the bathtub, and they were like, 'You're gonna have to get in the bathtub and play with the doll...' And I could keep my underwear on, but I had to be topless, and I was _so_ embarrassed..."

April: (simultaneously with following) "How old were you?"

Melissa: (simultaneously with preceding) "I was 4 years old."

April: "Four? Okay."

Melissa: "And I was like, 'Oh my God! I'm gonna be topless... (April laughs) ...in front of this whole crew! I don't know any of them...!' I was all embarrassed."

April: "Wow, I bet that was really was embarrassing."

Melissa: "Mm-hmm."

April: "I know that you're a really, really active volunteer. What do you get out of volunteering?"

Melissa: "Well, you know, in this business there's so much being thrown at you... there's so much going on and it's nice to take a break and... really be able to help people with, you know, what you do, and to see that you can make a difference, and to actually go out there and do it."

April: "You have inspired me to really get involved with children, especially with, um, the AIDS virus. When I was growing up, in 6th and 7th grade, they taught us in school that, you know, AIDS was bad, you got it doing bad things, and anybody that had it was automatically a bad person in my eyes."

Melissa: "Mm-hmm."

April: "So, you know, I looked up to you so much and I found out that you did work with the Pediatric AIDS Foundation..."

Melissa: "Mm-hmm!"

April: "And I was like... you really inspired me to actually dress up like a clown and go to the Oklahoma City Children's Hospital..."

Melissa: "Wow!"

April: "And visit these kids who were -- have cancer and AIDS and..."

Melissa: "That's great. I, I've done that myself. I go to hospitals and stuff and it's, um, it's upsetting, but it's also... you know that you're doing something good."

April: "I mean, just the joy that you see from them..."

Melissa: "Yeah..."

April: "Is just enough, just to make you want to go back and do it again!"

Melissa: "Yeah."

[cut to the ending]

April: "Melissa, thank you _so_ much for letting me interview you, I mean..."

Melissa: "Sure!"

April: "This is like a dream come true. I really appreciate it."

Melissa: "Sure."

April: "And good luck on..."

Melissa: "Thank you very much!"

April: "...Your next season of 'Sabrina'!"

Melissa: "Thanks."

April: "Thank you so much!"