Development In 1988, series creator
Don Reo had begun a producing partnership with
Paul Junger Witt and
Tony Thomas, in which the latter two were bringing his screenplays to television under the established
Witt/Thomas Productions nameplate. Reo conceived of the idea that would become the genesis for
Blossom when he attended a family party thrown by his longtime friend
Dion DiMucci, lead singer of
Dion and the Belmonts. At the party, DiMucci demonstrated a "hip, with-it musician father" family dynamic with his children, inspiring Reo to develop a pilot in which the "cool" father would be a highlight. Reo was also inspired by
J. D. Salinger's
The Catcher in the Rye and wanted to create a series about a wise-beyond-his-years, introspective teenage boy modeled closely after protagonist
Holden Caulfield. Reo decided to include both the hip father and Holden Caulfield-esque boy in the pilot, with the boy as the lead character. He first pitched the project to NBC in 1989 under the title
Richie. Bialik suggested
Michael Stoyanov for the role of her brother after seeing him guest star on sister series
Empty Nest. Bialik thought she and Stoyanov shared a strong physical resemblance and would be believable as brother and sister. The characters of Tony and Joey were also present in the pilot and played by the same actors from the regular series; however,
Joey Lawrence's character was then named Donny. Neither of Blossom's parents had musical careers and instead worked in finance. The airing of the original pilot episode ranked number 3 for the week in the national
Nielsen ratings. It was one spot ahead of a repeat of the pilot episode of
Seinfeld. About two weeks after the pilot aired, NBC ordered more episodes of
Blossom.
Series run When NBC picked up
Blossom as a regular series, Reo successfully convinced programming chief
Brandon Tartikoff to allow the lead character to have the chic, divorced musician father he had originally envisioned for the project.
Opening sequences In the pilot episode, the song in the opening credits is
Bobby Brown's 1988 hit single "
My Prerogative", which plays as Blossom dances in her bedroom on home video. When the show went to series, the song “My Opinionation” performed by
Dr. John was used as a replacement theme. The title sequence was re-shot so that Bialik's dancing was more in sync with the newer song. The opening sequence for season two was changed to clips of dance moves by the title character on film and in front of a pastel blue/pink background. Blossom's outfit changed in each dancing scene and her dance moves ranged from belly dancing to
voguing.
Barnard Hughes was added to the main cast and opening credits under the "With" heading, preceding Ted Wass. In the third season, the dancing concept was expanded upon and main cast members Lawrence, Stoyanov, von Oÿ and Wass joined Bialik one at a time as she danced.
Portia Dawson and
David Lascher's names were included, despite the actors not being physically present in the sequence. This version of the intro lasted through the end of season four. Also beginning in season three, many scenes of the show opened and closed with the first frame frozen in a multi-colored watercolor effect. The watercolor stills lasted through the end of the series. The fifth and final season dropped a full-fledged intro, instead simply displaying the
Blossom show logo over the watercolor effect to the opening notes of "My Opinionation". During the 1994–1995 season, NBC began running its credits in the squeeze-screen format; thus, cast and crew's credits were positioned at the beginning of each episode. == Crossovers ==