Joey Lawrence and Melissa Joan Hart ‘s new sitcom Melissa and Joey, will have its premiere on the ABC Family Channel at 8pm on Tuesday, August 17, according to TVGuide.com

The new series revolves around a politician (Hart), who winds up taking in her sister’s two kids (Taylor Spreitler and Nick Robinson) and hires a man (Lawrence) to become the family’s nanny. The channel has ordered ten episodes of the series.

Doesn’t this show sound familiar?

Melissa Joan Hart has banned her kids from showbusiness until they finish high school – because she doesn’t want them to follow in her footsteps and become child stars.

Hart made her acting debut at the age of three in a TV commercial, and went on to become a teen star with hit U.S. TV series Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina, The Teenage Witch.

A comedy called “Melissa & Joey,” starring and produced by Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence, received a 10-episode order from ABC Family and will premiere this year.

Hart, who starred in “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” from 1996 to 2003, will portray the grown-up former wild child of a political family who is now a local politician herself and is forced to care for her teenage niece and pre-adolescent nephew after her sister is jailed and her brother-in-law flees after a scandal hits.

Lawrence will portray the family’s nanny. He starred on the “Blossom” sitcom in the 1990s and appeared in “Brotherly Love” and “Half & Half.” Hart and Lawrence co-starred in the 2009 ABC Family movie “My Fake Fiancé,” and network President Paul Lee said the new series was developed with them in mind.

Melissa Joan Hart is known for playing teens on television, but the 33-year-old actress might be playing an adult if a pilot she’s making gets picked up.

“I’m going to be doing a new pilot with Joey Lawrence,” Melissa told Access Hollywood of the potential ABC Family show. “Hopefully it’ll go to series.”

Melissa revealed the show is currently untitled, but as for her character, she is very far removed from the actress’ days on “Clarissa Explains It All” or “Sabrina The Teenage Witch.”

“It’s going to be a fun little sassy character for me,” she said. “It’s going be different ‘cause I get to play a little bit more of a grown-up, a politician, kind of a bad girl politician.”

Former child stars Melissa Joan Hart and Soleil Moon Frye have known each other “pretty much our whole lives — we met when we were 5 or 6, on a movie,” says Melissa.

Since then, they’ve gone from girls “riding our scooters down the street,” says Soleil, to teens hanging out in Manhattan. “We’d take long walks and drink lots of coffee.”

There was even a time when “we tried to be wild” by hitting up nightclubs, Soleil says, before adding with a laugh, “It’s a little different now!”

The reason for the change? Melissa’s sons (Mason Walter, 3 ½, and Braydon Hart, 17 months) and Soleil’s daughters (Poet Sienna Rose, 4, and Jagger Joseph Blue, 17 months), who get together for L.A. playdates — over organic lollipops! — at either Melissa’s candy store SweetHarts or Soleil’s children’s boutique The Little Seed.

“We’re lucky both Poet and Mason have younger siblings,” says Soleil, 33. “When they play together with other children, they know to be nice to each other.” Uh…sometimes. “There’s accidental whacking each other in the head with toys,” says Melissa, 33.

The former “Clarissa Explains It All” and “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” star, Melissa Joan Hart,  said she was left feeling “horrified” by some unflattering pictures of her lounging beachside last summer. The mother of two told People magazine in its June 2009 issue, it was then, “I realized I didn’t have to be heavy just because I have kids.”

Despite expectations for Hollywood moms to reclaim their svelte figures mere weeks after giving birth, Hart, 33, said it took her 14 months of hard work to shed 42 pounds of post-pregnancy weight and reach a slim 113 pounds.

“I still read blogs about me discussing how fat I’ve become,” the former Sabrina, the Teenage Witch star revealed to People magazine. “Everyone still thinks I’m huge,” says Hart, 33, who has Mason, 3, and Braydon, 14 months, with husband, Course of Nature singer Mark Wilkerson. “But I’m not anymore!”

Former teen star Melissa Joan Hart considered baring all in a shoot for men’s magazine Playboy during her heyday in TV hit “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”

The actress was desperate to shed the good girl image she earned though roles in kids TV hits Sabrina and “Clarissa Explains It All,” and came close to accepting Playboy boss Hugh Hefner’s $1 million offer.
(more…)

The day before her oldest son Mason’s 3rd birthday – which was celebrated at Disneyland – OK! magazine caught up with Melissa Joan Hart at the Art of Elysium 2nd Annual Black Tie Charity Gala on Jan. 10 at the Vibiana in L.A

(more…)

Alyssa Milano and Melissa Joan Hart served food at a homeless shelter this Christmas Eve.

“Mason is almost three,” Melissa Joan Hart explained. “He’s starting to understand about Christmas. We have the ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ charts, so he gets good and bad checks when he’s good and bad, and depending on how many he has at the end of the month, he’ll get so many presents from Santa.

“So he’s just starting to pick up on that, but we’ve gotta start with the movies like Frosty and all of that stuff.”