TV turnaround
Comebacks can be costly. Melissa Joan Hart starred in a couple of hit TV shows in her career, Clarissa Explains It All (1991-1994) and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003), both aimed at the teenage demographic. After that, she wasn’t quite so young anymore (just 15 at the start of Clarissa, surprisingly), and thus wasn’t the best choice to sell TV shows to said demographic anymore. Consequently, her acting career sort of floundered in the years post-Sabrina. Sometime in 2006 and shortly after the birth of her first son, Hart hired talent manager Kieran Maguire to help bump her up to the lucrative 25-to-36 demographic and win back her bygone star power. This tactic turned out to be successful: in 2010, Hart premiered her TV show Melissa and Joey, a family sitcom about parents and motherhood and raising kids and junk. (Aside: That I, a 23-year-old male, have no interest in watching the show is testament to its intended marketing segment.) Nevertheless, things were looking good for Mrs. Hart in her successful transition from teenage idol to sitcom matron.