Melanie Hutsell Apologizes to Mayim Bialik Over 'SNL' Prosthetic Nose

Former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Melanie Hutsell has felt terrible for nearly 30 years about one of the sketches in which she starred — and now she's had an opportunity to set things right.

In a January 15, 1994, sketch, Hutsell lampooned Mayim Bialik's performance as the character Blossom. At the time, "Blossom" was a top-rated sitcom on NBC, the same network on which "SNL" aired.

Hutsell has forever regretted the gigantic prosthetic nose the show had her wear because it was mocking a real-life teenager and struck her as anti-Semitic. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Hutsell, 55, says, "When we were preparing to do that sketch all those years ago, 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."

"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," Hutsell recalls in her statement. "And keep in mind, many of the people who had a hand in creating the sketch were Jewish. Although I had and have always had a strong moral compass, I didn't have the strength to refuse to do the sketch after I was told I would be fired."

"If I could go back and change history, I would have refused to wear the prosthetic nose and taken the risk of losing my job. That would have been the right thing to do."

"SNL" has not commented on the sketch, which is live on the show's YouTube site.

In an October 18 essay for Variety, Bialik, 47, reflected on how she felt when the sketch aired.

"The actress portraying me was dancing and mugging for the camera and she was hilarious. But. She wore a prosthetic nose. In order to truly convey that she was 'Blossom,' she wore a fake, big nose," she recalled. "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. 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."

Hutsell told EW she apologized to Bialik years ago at an audition. "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. Considering I married someone who is Jewish and have two children who are Jewish, the idea that I caused pain to a fellow actor who was a teenager at the time is not something I'm proud of, but I have had to forgive myself."