5 Things That Made Alaina Reed Hall Awesome

5 Things That Made Alaina Reed Hall Awesome
This weekend, while the world was shocked by the untimely death of one of Hollywood’s most sweetly admired starlets, another celebrity death rocked us to our emotional childhood core. Alaina Reed Hall, an actress whose face you have seen in dozens of shows but whose name never become household, passed away at the all [...]

This weekend, while the world was shocked by the untimely death of one of Hollywood’s most sweetly admired starlets, another celebrity death rocked us to our emotional childhood core. Alaina Reed Hall, an actress whose face you have seen in dozens of shows but whose name never become household, passed away at the all too young age of 63 from breast cancer.

Today, we take a look back at Alaina’s life-altering career, in a list we had no choice but to call 5 Things That Made Alaina Reed Hall Awesome.

5. She Was Mary’s Sassy BFF Rose on 227. 227 might be one of the funniest, most underrated shows from the 1980s, specifically one that centered around a stoop. And Alaina was at the center of the neighborhood drama, as Mary’s best friend Rose. Her work was unforgettable, and as this 227 minisode proves, hilarious. Take 5 minutes to watch as Maaaaary tries to set Rose up with her brother, only to have Soooondra steal him away.

4. She Was Married to Predator. It takes a pretty awesome woman to be in love to the Predator, played by the 7′2″ Kevin Peter Hall. He was also Harry in Harry and the Henderson’s, natch.

3. She Nearly Hosted The Greatest Cooking Show of Our Time. It appears as though this show never fully came to fruition. But let it be known that if some genius had had the sense to produce and develop “A Whole Lotta Soul,” Alaina’s soul food cooking show, we would have gladly watched and, as a result, gained roughly 50 pounds. Notable moments include 1:20’s “Girrrl!” and 2:01’s notable “*Grunt*.”

2. She Is The Only Actress To Have Appeared on Both Herman’s Head (in 1992) and Blossom (in 1993). Guess what these two things have in common?

Well if you read the sentence preceding that question, you would know that the answer is this:

According to our 1990’s Automatic Fame Algorithm, this puts Alaina somewhere in between John Stamos and the movie Ladybugs in terms of “Huge Deals.”

1. Two Words: Sesame Street. No lie, as I was searching Youtube for videos of Alaina as Olivia (Gordon’s younger sister) on Sesame Street, I found the following video of her performing “Sing!” alongside a deaf woman. And as God is my witness, I started to softly weep in a Geisha-like way I didn’t even know I was capable of.

On the brighter side, we’ve also found this incredible video from yesteryear of a handfull of muppet cows singing “Proud to Be a Cow,” featuring Olivia and a voice we think might be Mrs. Doubtfire.

In the meantime, we’ve spent the better half of our afternoon crying over Sesame Street clips, such as Big Bird learning of Mr. Hooper’s passing, and Big Bird singing at Jim Henson’s funeral. Yes, you will cry, you can be sure of that. But moments like these also remind you that the creators and actors who helped bring the Muppets and Sesame Street to life for you as a child have also led fulfilling, meaningful lives of their own partly as a result. Who even knows what I’m talking about, I’m sobbing under fluorescent lighting.

Alaina Reed Hall, you will be missed. <3