Summer TV Press Tour 2000
As most of us already knew, the new season will see Sabrina graduating from high-school to college. She'll have a new best friend (Soleil Moon Frye, of "Punky Brewster" fame) but is leaving her longtime boyfriend Harvey behind. However, Aunt Zelda (Beth Broderick) will still be in the cast, along with Aunt Hilda (Caroline Rhea). Rhea was absent from the WB's press conference this week, and there was some speculation that she might depart "Sabrina" if she gets "the Kathie Lee gig."
Not likely, said Paula Hart. "She's under contract." "She's in Boston, actually," added Beth Broderick brightly. "She broke her toe."
The cliffhanger "Sabrina" season finale on ABC had Harvey discovering that Sabrina is a witch, and the premise of the season premiere on the WB is that Harvey's gone because he didn't want to be involved with a witch. Isn't that kind of cold, finishing off good old Harvey by turning him into a cad? It's really not consistent with his character, either. If Darren, who always seemed about to explode with sexual rage, could handle life with a witch, then surely so could easygoing Harvey. "We had to kill him off," Melissa Joan Hart said briskly. "We thought it would be more tortuous to bring him back for a few episodes and then get rid of him rather than just start fresh."
"Harvey was kind of the baggage of high-school that she needed to leave behind," Paula Hart said.
Naturally, those cheesecake pictures of Melissa Joan Hart in Maxim were brought up. The cover shot raised some hackles at Archie Comics (which owns rights to the Sabrina character) a few months ago by associating the wholesome teenaged icon with a drooling lad magazine. "We didn't do anything wrong," said Melissa Joan Hart. "Maxim put 'Sabrina' on the cover. It wasn't my fault. And if it weren't for Regis and Kathie Lee talking about it every morning and the New York Post printing it every week, no one but older gentlemen would have read the magazine."
"Which, by the way, a lot of gentlemen watch the show, especially gentlemen in prison," Beth Broderick added helpfully. "I get lots and lots of very articulate letters from them, and I just really try to picture these big prison men watching 'Sabrina,' but they do. And I'm sure they read Maxim too!"
Also, Melissa Joan Hart speaks out in an interview with "Access Hollywood" about the departure of "Sabrina" from ABC. The actress was reportedly unhappy about the alphabet net, complaining that TGIF got old and ABC destroyed it. "They never promoted us anymore...Premiere week [became] Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday," said Hart, "and [promotion] really makes a difference." Hopefully, Sabrina's move to the WB this fall will bring some new life into the series.
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