Cast Confessions Facts of Life

right now on cast confessions the facts of life good news about me is getting repetitious it was one of the definitive sitcoms of the 80s and we got every dirty and hilarious detail from the cast and crew themselves you know talk smack so you know I well from the train wreck first season there were seven girls plus teacher in the headmaster and Charlotte it was like carnival to the cutthroat decisions that saved a series from extinction of course it's the only black person we the first to die in a movie so of course I'm like I bet you ain't going back to the drastic measures they took to keep these girls in line every day would producers of the riders would gather around the scale and I would have to get on there so they could see whether I had lost or gained any weight that day plus sex scandals it's just ridiculous you can't have these girls having all these boyfriends and nobody does anything foxy guest stars hi you know I have often said that if I had known he was going to turn out as fine as he did I may have worn makeup to the set more often and the shocking departure of the woman who started it all they wanted me to stay a couple more years they offered me Millions it's all coming up on cast confessions the facts of life 1979 President Jimmy Carter is in the White House Michael Jackson releases off the wall mother Teresa wins the Nobel Peace Prize and a sitcom hits the airwaves that'll give primetime some serious girl power the Warner is like a delicate souffle yeah white and empty facts of life was one of those just quintessential 80s shows these are our golden girls that are designing women there are Sex in the City they were that for that period of time for an entire generation of young women in this country it's sort of a defining show for people come up to me go okay fat's life is totally my guilty pleasure sent people into a dark room to watch it when nobody could discover them but enough people watched them that they stayed on the air ultimately the television audience had the last word and they identified with the characters and they watched and they watched for a really long time when in fact life started NBC was in a very precarious state was really trying to figure out what it was going to become in the 80s basically I think the highest-rated show at that point was Diff'rent Strokes it was the only comedy that was working on the network the show came from the idea of doing a spinoff with the housekeeper from different shows moving over to the show it was a classic kind of spin-off he said look the network wants to spin you off on a new series the concept was simple mrs. Garrett would land a second career as a house mother in the private Eastland School in Peekskill New York but what's a house mother without a house full of girls now if you're into school you're gonna have to have a lot of girls and that was the original four we didn't even really have a script yet we weren't sure what any of the girls worth we were hoping everyone would bring a certain persona with them my audition for facts of life was very interesting I was nine years old and I'd been working since I was about seven but was the only black girl that at audition for the show and I was kind of run t'ish in terms of my size and I just thought what am I doing here take me home mom take me home I don't belong here and my mother politely took me to the restroom and would tell me you know don't let anyone or anything intimidate you you just go and do your best and they liked what I did originally the part of Blair was for a fast-talking naive girl from Texas but there was one line in the audition process that I looked over at the girl beside me who happen to be Sue Ann and I made some kind of snide reference to her backside perhaps being large he sounds heavy-duty not any more heavy duty than you dear and they liked the reading so much that when I eventually come to the table reading for the pilot episode they had rewritten the entire character around that one line reading so now she was a very stuck-up sophisticated girl from New York it wasn't long before the remainder of the cast had fallen into place Felice Schechter landed the part of sophisticated girl next door Nancy st. Louis native Julie Piekarski became the boy-crazy Beauty Sue Ann the role of tomboy Cindy was filled by Julie Ann haddock and for the fast-talking Molly they plucked a venn unknown actress from an off Broadway cast of Annie named Molly Ringwald the cast of facts of life was nearly complete but there was one last actress to join the mix and they found Mindy Cohn in the most unlikely place an actual girl school we weren't looking for anymore cast members we weren't looking for girls but we wanted to find out how they felt about things what's it like to go to a school no boys what's it like to wear a uniform I was with a gaggle of girls he said we talked for about an hour I kept going back to this little girl Mindy comb because she was so adorable and she had that adorable little voice I'd asked her a question and she go wow I don't know but it seems need it and she's so cute and funny and I said she'd be a great complement to those other girls next day I get a call from the Headmaster's office is saying these people want to talk to you and Charlotte said I have fallen madly in love with you I want to create a role for you on the show we're gonna call you Natalie and do you want to do this and I was like I don't know I'm an eighth grade lady like what do I know is this going to like mess with my tennis team schedule you know they asked me to meet her and she came in and I remember saying please please talked my parents into this so we did she had the part I walked into the office there was the casting director and Charlotte and Gary Coleman who I was just like oh my god it's Arnold you know I was totally starstruck and Kim was in there I totally remember meeting Mindy and I couldn't believe that she had never been on TV before and I was like wow they just picked her up out of a school how did that happen well you know where's your classes and that sort of thing your acting training I literally got the call sheet for the next day like they were starting putting together a great cast is one thing but putting on a show is something else entirely and that first season saw a whole lot unintentional sitcom mayhem on set and behind the scenes the show had a really rocky start and the scripts were really not great I have yet it can be difficult when you have a large cast the writers need to develop stories and a foresee actresses want to have stories and what's the point of having somebody wander around if they didn't never do anything there were seven girls plus Jon Lawler and Jenny O'Hara who was teaching and Charlotte it was like carnival rehearsing the facts of life was like choreographing a ballet there were so many of us that you know down sit up sit and we had to like have everyone just in the right place and crossing at the right time so we didn't bang into each other it's very difficult in the first season the show was pretty disorganized there was a show that we shot one week and then turned to right around and shot the exact same episode a second time to make it better because it really was a train wreck the first time I've never seen it before once we started filming the show first of all there was just a lot of people being the youngest and the smallest it can feel you know kind of overwhelming the character was to be 12 years old and that was nine and I was a small nine and so they put me on rollerskates the first season of the show so that I was taller I had to roll this gate around in a rehearsal hall to show them that I could actually function on skates I think in the beginning she learned how to stop I almost just not crashing into things yeah I just kind of slam him into it catch herself and eventually I think they got her stoppers or she learned at least how to stop a little more gracefully they didn't say anything about going up and down you know stairs and that sort of thing that was kind of trial by error but you try come dessins someone else that was in some rollerskates oh the joy of Children's Hospital and while Kim had trouble staying on her feet Mindy had even bigger problems Mindy didn't have the technique early on and she had not gone to acting school I just remember being in the rehearsal hall and the director saying okay Mindy if you can just go upstage and I must have looked you know I went deaf dumb and blind I was like I don't know what you know I've taken chemistry but I have never heard upstage you know and I remember Kim dissapoint go just just take two steps up that way and she goes I got your back hilarious how bold was I at nine years old telling someone who was a little bit older than me I got you I can help you oh I'll work with you you bet right kids stick with me she was a natural when it came to delivering the lines but where you could tell she had just been plucked from the school was when she would then laugh at her lines or say them while smiling and it took her forever to overcome that there was a scene where she had a line where we were all caught drinking you've got beer and wine in sticks has this big smile on her face like she you can see you're chuckling going and why and I cracked up the executives saw that and from then on my note was always like to stop smiling and she's cracking herself up while the cast fumbled through that first season this show fared even worse in the ratings the facts of life hit the airwaves on August 24th 1979 and the initial response was anything but positive from what I recall it was kind of a sputtering start the show did not do very well when it first came out it did not have good ratings the reviews weren't so good either one of you were even called it worthless and barren and even said that this is gonna be the show that is going to ruin NBC as a network it was a sense that you know this may not last coming up the cast gets some devastating news I remember when the call came I was in the basement oh and I couldn't believe it when cast confessions returns but first a cast quiz no you gotta make him easy oh but not buttercup uh I remember that episode that's first season in the barn we had to get her out of the barn cuz it was raining I remember the whole up is up but not that no what's his name chestnut oh it's not anything like Buttercup what are you kidding chestnut with a charming cast of young actresses the facts of life hit the airwaves in 1979 but the first season saw havoc on the set and confusion in the script viewers and critics were not impressed the network gave them a second chance and one more season on the air but there would have to be big changes if this series was going to survive the first year was very shaky and there's no way it would have been given the chances that it was given back then in today's climate but from what I understand NBC was pretty desperate at that time for shows we didn't have a lot of shows that were working on the schedule well you're a last-place Network you you tend to give shows a lot longer time to find their legs my writing partner Linda marsh and I had written several episodes of one day at a time and they liked our work so they asked us to come in for an interview and they had us watch episodes of facts of life he said so what do you think of the show and we said well we have three issues the first issue is that we felt the show was close to being kiddie porn the first season because they had girls in short shorts and tight tops doing cartwheels in the middle of winter you have to remember in 1979 when you're looking at television you're thinking about the biggest hits Three's Company and so the Charlie's Angels the shows that have sex all over them so that was all over television in the late 1970s we were sexed up a bit we really were we were wearing short shorts and I was wearing tight tight jeans hey when Roger sees me in these he'll go crazy I shorter the tighter the better there were times when we would run up the steps we'd have to run up to our rooms that I remember kind of running and kind of tucking under my body to make sure nothing was showing one day we were backstage waiting and there was a hook up where you could hear what they were talking about in the control room and myself some of the other girls were listening and we heard the producers commenting about our clothing and I was like we shouldn't do they think that really in girls like that sex sells even if you're 15 years old it was really offensive to us if that's what it was we would just not work on the show the second thing is you got to get to tee off those roller skates and they said to us well she's so sure the camera can't see her and we said nobody wears rollerskates in the house and we said the third thing is that the girls there's too many of them their personalities are so close that we think you need to cut down the number of the girls they began to realize that certain girls were emerging and that there was something missing and that it required releasing a few of them there was this creative meeting the facts of life summit very much like NATO let's narrow it down to four types that we can create robust characters around and tell stories about it was a bold plan to save the flagging sitcom but a painful decision would have to be made which actresses would stay and which would go ain't called and said that they were going to make some changes and even at age nine I was like Oh am I gonna go of course it's the only black person I mean you know Lee the first to die in a movie still of course I'm like I bet you ain't going back and so I was surprised when they told me that I was coming back and the revised version of the show I found shooting the series the focus there was Lisa Mindy and Kim but we had Story 2 dealt with the other girls but they didn't seem to click they got rid of Molly who like five years later she was on the cover of Time magazine they got rid of Nancy they got rid of Cindy and they got rid of Sue Ann I remember when the call came I was in the basement of my home and my mother turned to me and said you and Molly and Julie and Julie are not gonna and I couldn't believe it and at that age I took it personally I took it very personally being I guess kind of a naive person I am or whatever I was like oh wow well I would love to say goodbye you know and and do that kind of thing and they're like okay let's not have the done out here on Ella and showbiz you know it's like thank you but we're moving on the executives never talked about it well she sucked and we didn't know what to do with her it wasn't about personalities it was always about the show and then they told us that they were going to be adding a new character and that we should go see the movie little darlings they wanted to have a character that was really a contrast to the wealthy snobby girl which was you know a tough earthy biker chick little darlings was the inspiration for the character of Joe because you had Christie McNichol playing the scholarship case opposite Tatum O'Neal they're a rich preppy they came to us and they said we're gonna call the new girl foxy and we said oh god no we really hate it and so they gave us a list of girls names for the new scholarship student who was going to come in and shake things up and we said gosh we don't like any of these names at all and the executive producer at the time said you know the four girls and the host mother it's like a little women it's like what about a name like Joe so we had the auditions it was down to two girls one of them was Nancy Nancy McKeon had done some episodic work she was getting some good reviews she was in a hallmark commercial where she cried on cue but if she wanted to land the part Nancy would have to wow them at the audition I remember sitting in the booth and being very very impressed with her work and then the question in the room came up is that can she be vulnerable she had to do a telephone call to her mother and where her mother was telling her that she's got a new boyfriend I asked Nancy as Joe could she do that telephone scene and not cry it was written cries and she said okay I mean like it was nothing yeah hi mom yeah I'm fine who's Jack oh yeah how long has he been living there she did it and I want to tell you in the control room the people from NBC and everybody else who were behind me you could hear them going you know and reaching for handkerchiefs we all went that's it so I thought to myself well there's no way in the world this girl is not going to get this role and she did talk about a brilliant move in casting she was akin to when they brought in Heather Locklear to Melrose Place or Kelsey Grammer to Cheers Linda and I wrote a script that was the heart and soul of facts of life and that was the one where Blair thinks she's going to the cotillion with the handsome blond rich boy and he gets one look at Jo and says Oh scholarship student she'll be easy I can have my way with her and he instead asks Jo to the cotillion and essentially tries to date rape her and Blair rips him a new one guess I better leave Naoko buster you stick around here I'll deck you almost instantaneously you could see chemistry just absolute I think the writer saw it the producer saw it like these two are oil and water and it's fabulous this is a sisterhood here and establishing that sisterhood really gave the show its spine season two certainly was a big turning point for the show about mid season of the first season with Nancy ratings started to go and NBC is a network started to really kind of do well all of a sudden oh my gosh we're in second and we actually can become the number one network there was a lot of excitement young energy facts of life had that same kind of energy around it coming up the producers face a growing problem they can't contain the producers tried everything from hiring a nutritionist to come to the set to hiring somebody to come to my door every morning 6 o'clock to run with me I wanted to say save your money I just like food when cast confessions continues but first a cast quiz a Motorhome she moved to wet East Lake I think it was in Wisconsin wasn't it Africa I know that one she went with her guy to Africa okay whew did she really did she leave in a Motorhome and I just knew that one was right after a rocky first season in 1979 the facts of life rebounded with a smaller cast of cute and charming young actresses the addition of Joe the tough kid with a tender heart helped focus the flagging series and turn it into a hit but little girls grow up and by the third season the series was experiencing what can only be called growing pains you start to see over the course of the second season that the Eastland vests are starting to get a little tight and it's not just that we've got budding womanhood on set we've got some you know some size issues when you hire girls and they become women as you go through puberty and they start to happen and here's what happens all the girls at different times gained or lost weight very much a conversation around the production company there was concern I remember we were doing an episode where the girls supposed to be in swimsuits and none of them would get in they were all heavy we did everything under the Sun as you would do with the pregnant woman walk behind the couch to a thing you know I think Lisa had the hardest time because she had started us or the prettiest of them and when she started gaining weight it's very tough on it they cast me to play a character that looked a certain way and when I signed on the bottom line I looked that way so I do not at all blame them for being understandably upset when I went through puberty on camera this got very mean-spirited in terms of what people would say as a cast we did the Hollywood Christmas parade I remember just waving and having we were having so much fun and somebody from the crowd said hey Blair you're getting fat for me that hurt my feelings a lot Joan Rivers coined the phrase the fats of life and it was hurtful there would be times you know we would pick up National Enquirer and then be an article about the fats of life or Joan Rivers would be guest hosting on The Tonight Show and talking about those fatties and especially that you know bundle of blubber Blair it didn't seem to seriously hurt the ratings the fats of life controversy probably helped the show it drew attention to it getting press getting medians talking about you whatever they say is awfully important all of us were racking our brains how to talk them into exercising more eating less eating more healthy whatever the producers tried everything from hiring a nutritionist to come to the set to make sure I had healthy choices to hiring somebody to come to my door every morning six o'clock to you know to run with me the producers tried to have like a real healthy craft service area and like fruits and all kind of stuff and you know take away the cookies they ended up just basically circumventing that big of their cars during breaks and having chocolate bars the production company at one point said you know everybody has some issues so we're going to have a hypnotist there for a few days in the offices and anybody who wants to see him can any problems you might be having with your parents your scale your pets your scale I wanted to say save your money I just like food then they took another tactic and they would bring the scale into the rehearsal hall so that every day when I came to work the producers and the writers would gather around the scale and I would have to get on there so they could see whether I had lost or gained any weight that day they were desperate but they could not make me lose the weight everybody grab in at straws instead of you know realizing um we're teenage girls and this is kind of what happens to our bodies weight gain may have compromised Blair's ultra perfect image good news about me is getting repetitious but the truth is Lisa Whelchel was anything but a polished prep school preppy sometimes we would make fun of Lisa because she was such the complete opposite of her character if she was walking down the street you'd never go hey that no you don't look good you don't think that at all there were days that I didn't even want to get out of bed early enough to take shower which was fine except that my hair would look greasy so but I learned that just to put a little baby powder in the part then it kind of absorbs some of the grease Lisa would come in with cargo pants which weren't in at the time okay weren't cute yet with a book in each pocket or hair dirty she put baby powder in her hair to take the oil I mean she's just hilarious but quirky personal hygiene wasn't the only thing that made Lisa stand out from the rest of the cast Lisa was the kind of performer who just show me where I'm going okay leave me alone see in four days Lisa didn't like the rehearsal process but once she got it she didn't want to go over it and over and over it every actor works differently which is frustrating some of the space we didn't know times whether material work even would rush and go it doesn't work it doesn't work no no no trust me it'll work she'll she'll deliver she liked to read a lot on the set and sometimes she would do it like in the scene and it's like okay it's your line now you know that sort of thing and you know one day we just kind of all said it's kind of you know awkward when you're reading and we're trying to do the scene my first instinct was a just big tears and you know help dare they I'm doing my job and then it took about five minutes for me to realize that was just totally selfish of me and unprofessional and I was glad that they said something while the cast worked out their differences backstage this series was becoming a hit but in season 5 facts of life nearly lost one of its biggest stars when you start to show different actors and actresses come at different salary structure because they've had different experience levels especially if they're younger like who were in this show but there was one situation with Nancy she essentially went on strike for more money ANSI had gained a lot of popularity she sort of came from nowhere and the character of Joe became a huge success so she did want to renegotiate her management felt that she needed to get more than they were willing to give so she staged kind of a mini walkout and there were threats of lawsuits Nancy was a no-show for two whole episodes while her paycheck problems were resolved that season she wasn't in the first couple episodes until that was settled sitcoms have all kinds of ingenious ways to cover for things that are going on behind the scenes so in this case the Joe character was at home for the weekend you just didn't see her that would have been difficult to maintain if she'd stayed out for a season or a half a season the opinion about it was that's a shame that she's not coming to work because of that is stupid not stupid on Nancy but that's like the cameramen not coming how are you gonna shoot it she's an integral part of our cast so fix it and resolved by paying her from the episode she didn't perform and as opposed to upping her salary they basically said we can't change the whole structure of the show for you so let's call the day and you'll stay at the same structure as the other girls finally they arranged all the salaries to reflect everyone's popularity it was Nancy's representations way of saying these girls are really under paid for what y'all are making we need to work something out it just could have been handled differently but that's no fault of Nancy's that's just the nature of girls not talking about money with each other and when we did we fixed it coming up why in heaven's name would Blair boycott the show I kind of went up to one of the producers and just said I can't do that I'm a Christian and I can't do it when cast confessions returns but first a cast quiz let's show are you talking what oh my gosh I don't remember start with an R I know it starts with an S it has a K sound in it the rock singer that Jeff I'm 7 next what is it yes so close it was what I call I'm in Blair Natalie Tootie and Joe together they formed a fresh-faced and funny core of the facts of life behind the scenes they'd weathered everything from backstage battles to weight problems on screen the bubbly comedy took on some very tough issues too but sometimes delivering a big message caused the show to have an identity crisis one of the challenges that the show faced was that at the same time that it was being this sort of silly sitcom you know it was also trying to impart these very serious messages and sometimes it really didn't work it's always hard to find a balance how much are you gonna have immoral and how much funny do you have first seasons really they had a lot of stuff drugs teen sex teen pregnancy Runaways things like that what we called not to flatteringly disease of the week I'm having a little trouble with my hearing what did the doctor say I don't know you couldn't hear him will to t be deaf forever we don't think so but she's gonna be deaf for this episode for about 10 minutes so that we can let you know the plight of deaf people or educate her it was a suicide episode yeah what's a I was sent here we went up to our room and she's unconscious Huntress I found this empty bottle of pills on the flesh she must have taken them all not universally popular with the network of which I was one of the people the network Jane gee it's not funny enough we did some research and we presented it to the network and the network said but she lives right and my partner says we're not doing a show about an attempted suicide we're doing a show about a teen suicide the girl dies and there was silence in the room and then someone says where's the funny and Matt Cynthia's dead don't say that it's not true oh yes Judy it is it sparked an enormous amount of fan mail we got about teen suicide we got a letter from one girl who said that she had been secret away her mother's sleeping pills for weeks and she was planning to kill herself and she was watching TV and writing her letters and had seen the episode and you know I don't want to say that like you know the girls talked her down like I won't take that on okay but what I will say is there was something really relatable for her and she didn't feel alone a lot of those message shows were a real good conduit for young people to start writing in and saying you know you know can you introduce me to Todd bridges but also thanks you know I think you know this is one of those like I mean I think we became part of people's lives in that way in season two facts of life didn't just introduce a disease of the week they introduced a whole new character who embodied the plight of the physically handicapped Blair's cousin sherry the idea was to have a handicap character in the show and of course make sure it was in fact someone who's handicapped not so I'm playing someone handicapped Jerry Juhl was in real life a woman afflicted with cerebral palsy who was the stand-up comic I was performing and Norman Lear was in my audience that night we worden the elevator to the parking garage later and he said you're gonna go far kid I guess it was a matter of four months later they wrote cousin Jed and I was born don't worry I'm not drunk I have cerebral palsy when I'm drunk I walk perfectly straight I think they wanted to do something important and I don't know that the audience cared in the long run when I look back on it I was MBC's token actors for the disability they tried very hard to get an Emmy with me and they would never get the Emmy nomination for using me and I think that was a part of the disappointment and as quickly as it was given to me we've taken away Jerry was a daring attempt to address a tough issue on prime-time but one fact of life was almost too hot for this series to handle we're talking about sex before we started the second season we had a meeting with the producers one of them said and this next season we're gonna have Blair lose her virginity it was one that obviously had been discussed for a long time in the logical person because she was the older of the girls was Lisa so I just remember after everybody left that meeting I kind of went up to one of the producers and just said I can't do that um I'm a I'm a Christian and and the Bible says they're supposed to wait till you get married and I can't do it and they were remarkably respectful of my beliefs and didn't write the dirty deed stayed out of the teen comedy that season but for girls nine years it had to happen sooner or later it was the last year that it gets surfaced again it was just getting very weird you can't have these girls having all these boyfriends and nobody does anything it's just ridiculous the next question was well who's gonna do it I went into the production office and I said look here's how I feel of course the pretty girls gonna get nailed everybody does that you know show them net cherry get in pop halfway through the season now we lost our virginity we are adults so it just seemed natural t'en you know and they found the perfect dude to do the job enter snake the character that she lost her virginity to was played by Robert honest who had been in past times at ridgemont high which hid deflowered young women they were looking for somebody specifically for this certain character who was gonna deflower Natalie in the show and I guess I had a little track record at that they said we'd like you to be in a relationship we'd like you to have a boyfriend either that's fine they took me to lunch before one of the producers and said that they were gonna write the Blair character to espouse abstinence in the show I don't know if I made the right decision or not but ultimately I asked to be totally written out of the episode Lisa's apprehension at even doing an episode about it and promoting it was waylaid by my agile miss of it what was bothersome was at that point there's a difference between you as a person and use it after so see episode that Blair doesn't appear with Lisa Whelchel boycotting the show the infamous virginity episode aired on February 6th 1988 naturally they put it in the sweeps because you always put your stunts episodes where the ratings are most important it probably got a bit of attention for the show that it wouldn't have gotten otherwise the sex episode might have raised more I browse backstage than in America's living rooms but in season 7 the producers thought they had a surefire way to sex up the show hi enter handyman George Burnett played by a struggling pretty boy named George Clooney yeah that George Clooney producers and writers liked the idea and recognized the need to have a guy on the show it was a lied I have to say because I think he was too much older than the girls to be a real romantic interest in hindsight I'm mad that they didn't make him a love interest like you know as if I could have even been a candidate haven't been the youngest he had this cool Jeep too we would go in his Jeep to lunch and he was the big brother you know I have often said that if I had known he was going to turn out as fine as he did I may have worn makeup to the set more often I thought it was cute a good-looking kid and I didn't know anything about his talent because he couldn't tell by the show if you watch his episodes you understand why it took so long for him to become famous it's not good work I judge yeah just stopped by to see everything turned out I think it was always like you know the joke was George enters you know from where to got where's he going why is he here like it was a joke it was like all we know it's George asked to enter so to enter knowing what he went on to it's sort of ironic that he started on a sort of secondary role on a dying sitcom like facts was coming up the girls are rocked by a surprise departure everyone was panicked what do we do yeah it was a scary moment there for the shabbiha didn't which was going when cast confessions returns while the facts of life tried spicing up the show with new cast members they were about to lose the woman who'd started it all before season 8 Charlotte Rae made a shocking announcement oh everyone was surprised I think when when Charlotte wanted to leave she was the heart of the show I felt I had really looked into every nook and cranny of mrs. Garrett and the girls were getting older now they wanted me to stay a couple more years they offered me Millions and I wanted to move on one of the reasons she left was that this shows really started to focus on the girls the pull of the show started to be different and for her she sort of felt like I'm done I remember when Charlotte I'd leave that Devon was panicked what do we do yeah it was a scary moment there for the shout because I didn't which was going what the producers wanted to do was not replace mrs. Garrett and just have someone new play her but they did want to introduce a new kind of maternal character but who could replace the matronly and heartwarming Charlotte Rae how about Emmy and Academy award-winning actress Cloris Leachman they finally found the new character in Cloris Leachman who played Beverly and Stickle mrs. Garrett's sister Charlotte Rae was leaving and I didn't want it to be awkward for anybody or uncomfortable she bought engraved stationery that said Beverly Ann and she wrote to us before she met us in each character I think I just said I'm coming I'll be there and such-and-such a date and like I'd like to see you sure we'll have a lot of fun it was that kind of letter to each one I still have my letter dear Natalie I am in my Winnebago driving to see you girls I'm so nervous I've heard so much about you over the years from Edna but replacing a core character wasn't as easy as it seemed Cloris came in with an entirely different persona and she certainly wasn't the mom I don't know that they knew how to write her either it wasn't the same as Charlotte because Charlotte had dealt with the girls when they were young I think that the audience was not keen on somebody telling a 19 year old how to run her life you know in somebody who was frankly a little ditzy was always a question Who am I to them and look should I be so then they stopped having me advise them but then what for me to do unfortunately there was no time to figure that out in 1988 after more than 200 episodes and without so much as a press release facts of life was quietly canceled I think those last couple years oh boy you know what were we doing still living together really and I think that's why our last episode we all knew it was the last episode they didn't really have I don't think an ending this satisfied the public we had a sputtering start we had a sputtering finish and there was no closure to it the show just kind of left quietly where was our mash series finale and I'm certainly certainly before somebody says no you not put in fact 11 mash in the same category no I'm not but my point is for the longevity and for the impact that we had with the audience it seemed like we could have had something it may not have gotten a fond farewell befitting a landmark TV show but some 20 years after it went off the air blare Joe Tunney Natalie and mrs. Garrett still resonate with fans all I know is them when I bump into people they love that show they want a hug that's it for me it's it's the people I don't care about how they didn't honor us the people honored us it's still to this day right 25 years later for realz I'm recognized just as much still get really nice service everywhere still get perks every now and then when I've met Nelson mandella's a daughter Cindy and she says you have no idea how you impacted the girls in South Africa I mean what when I'm at home in New York and a cab driver several several cab drivers on a monthly basis tell me how they learned to speak English because facts of life was one of the shows that they watch in all honesty that was a wonderful time of my life to come to the set every day to hang out with these girls that were like sisters I mean who wouldn't love that I think that with age that guilty pleasure is kind of like our badge of honor like not to get Jesus all jacked but at least we're getting it and I think if it's well deserved I really do I really do I'm excited to go down memory lane how nice while I still have my memory it's been a long time we're gonna need to duck don't use that shut up haha I need to watch the special today don't know you

Channel: Jarma

Views: 1,250,452

Rating: 4.747201 out of 5

Keywords: Facts of Life, Cast Confessions, Lisa Welchel, Kim Fields, Mindy Cohn, Charlotte Rae, Chloris Leachman

Id: tyd0ip0SQAg

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 10 2016