Mayim Bialik Responds To Melanie Hutsell's Apology Over Fake Nose Controversy

Actress Mayim Bialik did ultimately get an apology after criticizing the 1994 "Blossom" sketch on "Saturday Night Live" that poked fun at her nose.

The sitcom featured Melanie Hutsell playing Mayim’s titular character of Blossom. Mike Myers and Sara Gilbert also participated in the sketch, but Melanie was the only one wearing a prosthetic nose that made "The Big Bang Theory" alum feel "ashamed" of her appearance.

In 1994, Melanie Hutsell was the only one wearing a "fake, big nose" to portray Mayim Bialik's character of Blossom during a sitcom sketch on "Saturday Night Live."

“The actress portraying me was dancing and mugging for the camera and she was hilarious,” Mayim recently told Variety. “But. She wore a prosthetic nose. In order to truly convey that she was ‘Blossom,’ she wore a fake, big nose.”

“I don’t know if it was significantly larger than my real nose and I don’t care to remember. I remember that it struck me as odd. And it confused me. No one else on the show was parodied for their features,” she continued. “In MAD magazine, everyone is caricatured, but in this rendition of parody, it was just me that was singled out. More specifically, it was my nose.”

The "Jeopardy!" co-host also addressed why she never addressed the incident up until now. “I never thought to talk about it and mostly I tried to forget it. I hoped no one noticed," she said, adding, "All of my friends in high school watched SNL. It wasn’t subtle. They would all see it and I felt ashamed.”

She also wondered how it would make other women feel to see how she was portrayed. "Girls all over the world used to tell me that they had never seen a Jewish girl like me on TV before they saw me on Blossom," she explained. "Many said they knew I was Jewish and it made them proud to be. That was so touching to me, and it still is… I wonder how those girls felt when they saw an actress playing me with a comically prosthetic nose."

“I’ve had many conversations with myself about my nose in the past 40 years. I have not always loved it, but I also have never wanted to change it,” she added. “My nose is undeniably Jewish, and I am as well. Is it because of my nose? Perhaps. But I don’t have to know because we will always be one and the same.”

Following the statement, Melanie Hutsell told Entertainment Weekly, "I was absolutely horrified that they wanted me to wear a prosthetic nose to play Mayim Bialik's character, Blossom. I knew it was wrong." She went on to claim that producers threatened to fire her if she refused to wear it, adding, "I remember so clearly that when I expressed that I did not want to wear the prosthetic nose for the sketch, I was told if I refused, I would be fired."

Melanie also said that she had apologized to Mayim around ten years after the sketch had taken place. "The whole situation haunted me for years, but thankfully I had an opportunity at an audition about ten years after the fact to look Mayim in the eye and apologize for what I did, to which she responded, 'I release you!' I took that to mean that she accepted my apology and that meant more to me than she will ever know."

Fortunately, it looks like her apology was accepted. "Thank you Melanie Hutsell for this - I did not intend to disparage you or SNL and I really appreciate your thoughtfulness around this!" Mayim wrote on Instagram. "It made for an interesting essay (which I was asked to write many months ago on the topic of antisemitism) and with everything going on in the world, I’m virtually hugging you and appreciate you very much!"

Fortunately for fans of “Blossom,” the 47-year-old actress recently opened up on plans for a reboot after noting that the original creator and most of the cast are eager for the sitcom to return in a totally new format.