{"id":107583,"date":"2022-11-27T23:21:22","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T17:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/what-happened-to-melissa-joan-hart-the-actress-who-stopped-being-sabrina-but-found-her-place-directing-christmas-movies\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T23:21:22","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T17:51:22","slug":"what-happened-to-melissa-joan-hart-the-actress-who-stopped-being-sabrina-but-found-her-place-directing-christmas-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/what-happened-to-melissa-joan-hart-the-actress-who-stopped-being-sabrina-but-found-her-place-directing-christmas-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened to Melissa Joan Hart, the actress who stopped being Sabrina but found her place directing Christmas movies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>An entire generation knew her as Sabrina.<\/strong>, but Melissa Joan Hart was also Clarissa and the occasional iconic character until her flame seemed to die out beyond a few cameos here or there.  Many of us wonder <strong>what happened to Melissa Joan Hart at 46<\/strong>, but we didn&#8217;t expect to find this particular answer.  Welcome to a life that will surprise you.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 1 --><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-asset article-asset-normal article-asset-center\">\n<div class=\"desvio-container\">\n<div class=\"desvio\">\n<div class=\"desvio-figure js-desvio-figure\">\n<p>     <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>destined for success<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;I know she won&#8217;t run out of Melissa&#8221; is a part of the Allman Brothers song that gave our protagonist her name. <strong>Melissa Joan Hart was born on April 18, 1976 in Smithtown.<\/strong>a town in Suffolk County, New York, where his mother, Paula Hart, a then talent director, and his father, a carpenter, purveyor and oyster farmer, <strong>they decided very early on that he had talent.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 2 --> <\/p>\n<p>so much that <strong>at the age of four he already appeared on his first filming set<\/strong> to advertise a bath-time doll named Splashy, a baby that floats and splashes at you if you press on its knees.  At nine she appeared in episodes of television series such as &#8216;The equalizer&#8217; (later covered by Denzel Washington in the cinema) and <strong>at thirteen he shared a Broadway stage <\/strong>with Martin Sheen, William Hurt or Calista Flockhart.  Come on, success did not stop knocking on her door.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 3 --><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-asset-image article-asset-normal article-asset-center\">\n<div class=\"asset-content\">\n<div class=\"base-wrapper-image\" style=\"padding-top:75%;\">\n                 <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sf-lazy centro_sinmarco\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.blogs.es\/c54517\/the-equializer\/450_1000.jpeg?w=788&#038;ssl=1 450w, https:\/\/i.blogs.es\/c54517\/the-equializer\/650_1200.jpeg 681w,https:\/\/i.blogs.es\/c54517\/the-equializer\/1024_2000.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/i.blogs.es\/c54517\/the-equializer\/1366_2000.jpeg 1366w,\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.blogs.es\/c54517\/the-equializer\/450_1000.jpeg?w=788&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The Equalizer\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><br \/>\n  <noscript><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Equalizer\" class=\"centro_sinmarco\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.blogs.es\/c54517\/the-equializer\/450_1000.jpeg?w=788&#038;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In 1991, at the age of 15, Melissa Joan Hart <strong>landed the lead role in &#8216;The Clarissa Stories&#8217; <\/strong>(&#8216;Clarissa explains it all&#8217;), a Nickelodeon series that TVE used here as an attempt to keep the audience that left with &#8216;Blossom&#8217;.  Although she felt embarrassed by the role, she recorded two albums based on the series and filmed a pilot for a spin-off where she told her adventures in college. <strong>But what awaited him was much more magical.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 4 --><\/p>\n<h2>a bit witchy<\/h2>\n<p>Sabrina, the teenage witch, was born in 1962 in the Archie comics, and got her own series in 1971. In fact, a year earlier she had already starred in her own 31-episode animated series.  Nevertheless, <strong>this time Sabrina Spellman was going to return in style<\/strong>with a movie (which made Melissa Joan Hart drop out of college, by the way) that served to tie her in with a role that <strong>would not leave until seven seasons later<\/strong> and turned it into a true international phenomenon: &#8216;Sabrina, things of witches&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 5 --><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-asset-image article-asset-normal article-asset-center\">\n<div class=\"asset-content\">\n<div class=\"base-wrapper-image\" style=\"padding-top:66.65%;\">\n                 <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sf-lazy centro_sinmarco\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.blogs.es\/9c12ce\/sabrina\/450_1000.jpeg?w=788&#038;ssl=1 450w, https:\/\/i.blogs.es\/9c12ce\/sabrina\/650_1200.jpeg 681w,https:\/\/i.blogs.es\/9c12ce\/sabrina\/1024_2000.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/i.blogs.es\/9c12ce\/sabrina\/1366_2000.jpeg 1366w,\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.blogs.es\/9c12ce\/sabrina\/450_1000.jpeg?w=788&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sabrina\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><br \/>\n  <noscript><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sabrina\" class=\"centro_sinmarco\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.blogs.es\/9c12ce\/sabrina\/450_1000.jpeg?w=788&#038;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The pilot, which was totally different from the movie, <strong>it was viewed by more than 17 million people in the United States.<\/strong> By comparison, the last season was watched by only three million.  In between, several changes of showrunner, of actors (with the departure of Sabrina&#8217;s aunts right at the end), two movies, an animated series (with more private merchandising), six video games, a lot of books and comics and <strong>a chain variation (from ABC to The WB) that ended up condemning it to low budget.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 6 --><\/p>\n<p>At the end, Melissa Joan Hart (who sold a reality show about her wedding) was known throughout the world, but typecast as Sabrina.  She repeated the role in &#8216;Me and the world&#8217;, &#8216;Teen angel&#8217; or the series &#8216;Out of the loop&#8217; and <strong>in some seasons he decided to direct some episodes.<\/strong> He would not do it again until a decade later, but he was already bitten by the bug.  It took her a while to get them to stop seeing her as the teenage witch, but in the process, in addition to dancing on &#8216;Dancing with the stars&#8217; (she was ninth), <strong>ended up starring in the Christmas movie &#8216;Holiday in handcuffs&#8217;<\/strong> along with another broken toy of the industry: Mario L\u00f3pez.  It was the beginning of his future.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 7 --><\/p>\n<h2>Happy New Year and happiness<\/h2>\n<p>From 2010, <strong>the actress starred in the series &#8216;Melissa &#038; Joey&#8217;<\/strong> on ABC Family, a rather mushy thing that didn&#8217;t leave much of an impression on the little over a million viewers who watched it over five seasons.  In between, Joan Hart wrote her memoir (&#8216;Melissa Tells It All: Stories From My Abnormally Normal Life&#8217;), <strong>totally failed trying to finance a movie, &#8216;Darci&#8217;s walk of shame&#8217;<\/strong>on Kickstarter (raised just 2.6%) and opened a candy store in California that was later sued for racial discrimination.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 8 --><\/p>\n<p>In addition to these minor disasters that damaged her public image, the actress earned a reputation for being a Republican (albeit pro-gun control) and very religious (she&#8217;s a Presbyterian). <strong>In fact, he starred in the very ridiculous &#8216;God&#8217;s not dead 2&#8217;<\/strong>, the second part of the infamous trilogy.  And in between, he got what he wanted most: directing again, in this case also starring opposite Jaleel White in a Christmas movie, <strong>&#8216;Santa&#8217;s Promise&#8217;, which received surprisingly positive reviews<\/strong> to be a tape of this genre so&#8230; let&#8217;s say, particular.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 9 --><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-asset article-asset-normal article-asset-center\">\n<div class=\"desvio-container\">\n<div class=\"desvio\">\n<div class=\"desvio-figure js-desvio-figure\">\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"What happened to Jamie Lynn Spears, the sister of Britney Spears whose acting career did not take off after being a teenage mother\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.blogs.es\/2b7710\/jamie-lynn-spears--\/375_142.jpg?w=788&#038;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>And the rest is history: in 2022, while preparing the reboot of &#8216;Clarissa&#8217;, <strong>Melissa Joan Hart has become a professional Christmas movie director<\/strong> like &#8216;Feliz NaviDAD&#8217; (again with Mario L\u00f3pez) or this year&#8217;s &#8216;Santa Bootcamp&#8217;, about a training camp for Santa Claus in a shopping center starring Rita Moreno.  It is not that her acting career has been left out of Christmas: also <strong>It appears in &#8216;Dear Christmas&#8217;, &#8216;Mistletoe in Montana&#8217;, &#8216;Christmas reservations&#8217;, &#8216;Broadcasting Christmas&#8217;, &#8216;The shop of illusions&#8217; or &#8216;A very nutty Christmas&#8217;<\/strong>.  We can say that the teenage witch has become the Christmas adult.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BREAK 10 --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An entire generation knew her as Sabrina., but Melissa Joan Hart was also Clarissa and the occasional iconic character until her flame seemed to die out beyond a few cameos here or there. Many of us wonder what happened to Melissa Joan Hart at 46, but we didn&#8217;t expect to find this particular answer. Welcome<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":107584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10746],"tags":[10873,23168,20179,13617,24649,11465,14388,30466,27394,11511,10997,13777,24655,13356,19392,13336],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.blogs.es\/080f5e\/623c57df6287b\/840_560.jpeg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}