Editing Helen Hunt (section)

===1970s–1980s===
[[File:Helen Hunt "It Takes Two" (1982 ABC press photo).jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Hunt as Lisa in [[It Takes Two (American TV series)|''It Takes Two'', 1982]]]]
Hunt began working as a child actress in the 1970s.<ref name=tca/> Her early roles included an appearance on season 2, episode 3 of TV series "Family" (first aired Oct 26, 1976), playing Robin Trask, a classmate of Kristy McNichol.  She also had an appearance as [[Murray Slaughter]]'s daughter on ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'' in the 1977 episode “Murray Ghosts for Ted”, as the daughter of [[George Segal]]'s main character in ''[[Rollercoaster (1977 film)|Rollercoaster]]'' (1977), alongside [[Lindsay Wagner]] in an episode of ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'', an appearance in an episode of ''[[Ark II]]'' called "Omega", and a regular role in the television series ''[[The Swiss Family Robinson (1975 TV series)|The Swiss Family Robinson]]''.<ref name=tca/> She appeared as a [[cannabis (drug)|marijuana]]-smoking classmate on an episode of ''[[The Facts of Life (TV series)|The Facts of Life]]''. In 1982, Hunt  played a young woman who, while on [[Phencyclidine|PCP]], jumps out of a second-story window, in a made-for-television film called ''[[Desperate Lives]]'' (a scene which she mocked during a ''Saturday Night Live'' monologue in 1994),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://snltranscripts.jt.org/93/93pmono.phtml|title=Helen Hunt's Monologue|date=October 8, 2018|access-date=January 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180807111504/http://snltranscripts.jt.org/93/93pmono.phtml|archive-date=August 7, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> and she was cast on the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] sitcom ''[[It Takes Two (1982 TV series)|It Takes Two]]'', which lasted only one season. In 1983, she starred in ''[[Bill: On His Own]]'', with [[Mickey Rooney]] and played [[Tami Maida]] in the fact-based production ''[[Quarterback Princess]]''; both were made-for-television films. She also had a recurring role on ''[[St. Elsewhere]]'' as Clancy Williams, the girlfriend of Jack "Boomer" Morrison ([[David Morse]]), and had a notable guest appearance as a cancer-stricken mother-to-be in a two-part episode of ''[[Highway to Heaven]]''.

By the mid and late 1980s, Hunt had begun appearing in studio films aimed at a teenage audience. Her first major film role was that of a punk rock girl in the sci-fi film ''[[Trancers]]'' (1984). She played the friend of an army brat in the comedy ''[[Girls Just Want to Have Fun (film)|Girls Just Want to Have Fun]]'' (1985), with [[Sarah Jessica Parker]] and [[Shannen Doherty]], and appeared as the daughter of a woman on the verge of divorce in [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s ''[[Peggy Sue Got Married]]'' (1986), alongside [[Kathleen Turner]]. In 1987, Hunt starred with [[Matthew Broderick]] in ''[[Project X (1987 film)|Project X]]'', as a graduate student assigned to care for chimpanzees used in a secret Air Force project. In 1988, she appeared in ''[[Stealing Home]]'', as Hope Wyatt, the sister of Billy Wyatt, played by [[Mark Harmon]] and a cast featuring [[Jodie Foster]] and [[Harold Ramis]]. ''[[Next of Kin (1989 film)|Next of Kin]]'' (1989) featured her as the pregnant wife of a respectable lawman, opposite [[Patrick Swayze]] and [[Liam Neeson]].