Interview: Alyssa Milano Talks ‘Romantically Challenged’, ‘Charmed’, ‘Ghostbusters’

Back in 1984, the nation was introduced and shortly developed a crush on Alyssa Milano, playing the daughter on ABC’s Who’s The Boss. Since then, Milano has practically grown up in front of the camera, doing Boss for 8 years, and then moving onto the WB’s Charmed for another 8.

Now, Milano is making her return to the multi-camera styled sitcom in Romantically Challenged. This time, she’s the lead, and not playing the typical straight-man. We got the chance to talk to Alyssa about the show and other things including her role in Ghostbusters and Charmed.

The Flickcast: With your brand new show, Romantically Challenged starting tonight, what can you tell me about the show?

Alyssa Milano: Well, it’s about a group of friends that are basically so bad at dating that they will make anyone’s love-life look good. It’s a show about people trying to find their “happily ever after”. What I love about it is that I think everyone will be able to relate to it.

I play Rebecca Thomas, a newly divorced mother of a 15 year old son who married her high school sweetheart, which means she never really dated. Overall it’s really just a humorous look at what single people have to go through every day to find love.

TF: With the style of a mulit-camera sitcom not as popular as it used to be, what was it that attracted you to this project?

AM: I have a long relationship with ABC dating all the way back to Who’s The Boss. When Charmed was over back in 2006, I had actually done 3 pilots for ABC that didn’t make it on the air. With this show, I was so attracted to the writing. Our creative showrunner is Ricky Blitt from Family Guy and I was struck at how funny the female characters were written.

Usually the female characters are written pretty straightforward, like the straight-man but with Ricky’s writing, the women get to be equally as funny. That was what hooked me. James Burrows, who’s our director, is another major part of what attracted me to the show.

It just seemed like a really good package and something that I could commit to in the long-term.

TF: Given the fact that Romantically Challenged is on the same network that Who’s The Boss called home, do you think we’ll get any nods to the fans or special cameos?

AM: Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe. I think the thing I feel so blessed about in my career is that it stands generations because of Charmed, which a lot of younger people watched. There are a lot of younger people in their teens who don’t even know about Who’s The Boss, so I’m not sure. If we’re on long enough, I’m sure anything is possible!

TF: Speaking of Charmed, I know Zenescope has announced that they’re putting together an official Charmed comic. What kind of involvement did you have with that?

AM: Well, I approved some of the artwork for the rendition of my character, and it looks awesome. I’m very excited. A show like Charmed has been such a lovely part of my life simply because the fans have been so loyal. That’s why we were on the air for as long as we were, on a network that wasn’t bringing in great numbers at the time. So I think that anything to continue the legacy that we had is awesome.

Anything that gives the fans more of what they love is just great.

TF: About a year ago, there were a lot of rumors coming up that you were going to be in the upcoming Ghostbusters sequel after your success stepping in as the female lead in the video game. Is there any truth to that?

AM: Yeah, I don’t even know where that rumor started. I guess someone said something to someone else in an interview, but I was never approached. [laughs] I don’t even know if there’s a script out there yet. But I did have a blast working on the game. I LOVED Ghostbusters growing up and I got to work with Annie Potts recently, who was incredible in those movies.

The experience doing the game was pretty odd though, because you’re in a room alone, and they just describe the actions that you’re supposed to then react to with grunts. So it’s a lot of running around and going “Ah! Ugh!” [laughs]. But it was really fun, and I played the game, which was a blast.

TF: Is there one character that you’d love to return to, if given the chance?

AM: If there were a Charmed reunion, I’d definitely want to be apart of that. I did really love “Phoebe”. I thought that she was fun and had a great sense of humor about life, demons, and all the ridiculous situations that they were put in every week. That would be the one character that stood out. It was such a big part of my life, it was pretty much all of my twenties.

“Romantically Challenged” airs tonight and every Monday at 9:30 ET/PT on ABC.