Why Wasn't Natalie Mocked For Being Obese?

Because Natalie would threaten to sit on their face, if they ever mocked her.

The late 70's/early 80's wasn't as judgmental a time as it is today with body issues. Natalie was considered chubby back then but would be considered obese by today's standards. Hollywood didn't hide chubby girls behind furniture back then & gave them more of a fighting chance with opportunities. How many chubby teenage actresses can you count being hired on the big 3 networks today? Mindy Cohn wasn't even an actress when she was discovered by Charlotte Rae but her personality & Charlotte's personal recommendation was enough to get her career going. Can you imagine something like that taking place in today's Hollywood? Also it's a stereotype to say that all girls Natalie's size don't have dates & just stay home & eat to their hearts content. All the ones I went to school with had no problem with getting boyfriends. I think in 2015 it might be harder for them in today's mindset but since I don't know any teenage girls on social media I'm no expert on such matters.

[quote]Hollywood didn't hide chubby girls behind furniture back then

I disagree

Who the h*ll is Ann Sothern & how often did she have to hide behind furniture?

Ooops

Because it was a TV show and not real life?

Who exactly would be doing the mocking? Her best friends?

She certainly had fewer story lines involves boys and dating. But, it was an all-girls school, so dating itself was never really a huge emphasis.

Also, wasn't Nat the first to lose her virginity? Wasn't there a very special episode on it?

I disagree R2. My sister and me, (I'm a guy,) were both "chubby" and frankly thinner than Mindy Cohen and we were mercilessly bullied and ridiculed for being fat. Decades later my niece is the same weigh her mother was at the same age and once again she's mocked for being fat.

Disagree - those if anything were less PC times and there was little to no fat acceptance and no one tried to couch it in soft terms. And there was no "skinny shaming" and "scary skinny watches" either - it was before eating disorder awareness really took hold and actually the thinner the better. The actresses of that time didn't have trainers and such but the look back then was generally to be flat and rail thin. They were almost all what we consider today "scary skinny."

To note: People magazines of that era always mentioned an actresses height and (usually very low) weight. Could never get away with that today.

[quote]Oreo and butter ice cream

Please make this happen.

R4 Do you come here just to flaunt your ignorance?

R9 again...also meant to mention there was some Patty Duke TV movie about losing weight circa late 70s and from today's eyes it's totally grotesque - the portrayal of fat people (or not even necessarily fat, just not model thin), dieting, the terms used, etc. but that's how those times were.

Because Blair was fat, too.

Shame on your sister R8 for allowing that to happen to your niece.

R14...

What is there to disagree with about my post R8? I was speaking from my own personal experience. All of the chubby/fat girls in my age range went to the junior high proms & whenever they asked a boy to dance, he did (including me). They had movie dates & steady boyfriends. I can't speak about any high school proms because I never went to any. This was also in the Midwest US. Maybe it was different in image conscious California, New York or Florida. I bet it's a higher percentage of kids being bullied for their weight today then back then. I know it wasn't at 0% when the Facts Of Life was on but it sure wasn't 100%.

Straight guys love chubby girls. They put out with little or no resistance and are happy for any attention they get.

[quote] Also it's a stereotype to say that all girls Natalie's size don't have dates & just stay home & eat to their hearts content.

Tell me about it!

Fat girls always have "dates" because they put out. Blow jobs, in the pussy, up the ass, DP, they do it all.

My college professor was married to a woman on the Facts of Life writing staff, mid-series. The only rule was that weight was never, ever to be mentioned, for ANY of them.

We're the girls in denial about their weight problems?

^Were

Because she looked like a swollen water buffalo, that's why. She was morbidly obese. These fatties need to be called out. It will save their lives, and my eyes.

Most of the actresses were under pressure to lose weight. Wenchel was under a lot of pressure, Blair was supposed to be the hot one. Cohn lost weight at some point and was the same size or thinner than the others. She had to wear layers of oversized cloths, she was supposed to be the funny fat girl.

Tootsie turned into a butterball as well. Even the biker chick looked 20lbs heavier than when she started.

Didn't Joan Rivers call them the 'fats of life'?

Then why was Natalie raped, well she wasn't really raped, cause they couldn't do that back then but they made the creep attack her sort of.

Then when they wanted a show about loose girls Natalie again was it?

Why? Because no one would believe someone as ugly and fat as Natalie would be in that situation.

R26 she was the victim of attempted rape, an adult woman who worked on campus was raped. We never saw her it was just talked about. You're an idiot. Rape isn't a sign that someone is the prettiest, eighty year old women get raped. Rapist go for the easiest target. Natalie was walking alone in an unpopulated area.

What loose girl storyline are you talking about? Natalie lost her virginity at 21 to her boyfriend of a year. She held out longer than most people do in real life. The other three never had sex. The producers wanted to have Blair consummate her relationship with her long time boyfriend but Wenchel refused on religious grounds.

There was an episode where one of Natalie's dates told everyone she was a slut. Natalie went along with it for awhile because it made her popular.

[quote]Natalie went along with it for awhile because it made her popular.

My point exactly. Fat, slutty girls may not be popular like, say, cheerleaders but they're not lacking for company. And you'd be surprised: There are some pretty hot guys who'll climb on for a bouncy ride on the human waterbed.

Natalie was the one who would have had all the gay friends. By the end, she wasn't even what I'd call unattractive or fat. She was never a star beauty but she certainly wasn't Gabourey Sidibe.

I think the show writers were trying to show an ideal world in which characters differences weren't mocked like kids cruelly would in real life. Cousin Jerri, Natalie's weight, Tootie being the only black kid. If I recall correctly, although Tootie had some plotlines involving black history and culture, the other girls never talked about her being black, never questioned it. . .they just were friends. Same with Natalie. She would have been ridiculed in school--come on, who was the idiot who said people weren't as body obsessed? She would have been picked on. But in the world the show portrayed, characters didn't put one another down because of weight or looks or race.. They might put them down for not being smart or for being vain or for having bad values but those unchangeable characteristics? They just accepted them. Try finding that on TV today; you'll find the exact opposite.

I find it so funny--we see so many examples on sitcoms of average-looking, overweight men scoring model thin and gorgeous wives (The King of Queens, The Honeymooners, Jim Belushi's show, Still Standing, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Newhart, Happy Days, it even happens in cartoons like The Flintstones), and no one blinks an eye. Yet I've seen multiple message board threads about a single show that allowed a cute, chubby girl to (gasp!) have a social life.

R31: I don't remember it that way at all. They went at each other's differences all the time.

The running angle was the class warfare between Jo & Blair. There were also 'very special episodes' about Natalie being Jewish. I also recall an over the top episode revolving around the idea that tootsie's family didn't like the fact that Natalie was dating her cousin.

It's not the weight that confused me; it was those teeny tiny eyes and teeth.

She WAS mocked. She was known as "the fat one."

Also, Tootie wasn't so much fat as she was big titted. They drowned her in sweaters to cover up the twins.

Um, she was fat, R36. That's why you couldn't see her eyes.

Because it was television and TV's not real.

It's funny that Natalie was the first one to lose her virginity because it was definitely strongly implied over the years that Blair and Jo were not - especially once Blair was dating Cliff. And even Tootie with that illiterate Jeff. Required a huge suspension of disbelief.

She wasn't mocked because she ate good pussy.

Where did she find good pussy in Peekskill? Seems unlikely.

HELLO!!!

Heh. Low!

Cloris Leachman and Joan Collins are notorious fat haters.

She wasn't that fat compared to Rerun from [italic]What's Happening[/italic] or Nell from [italic]Gimme A Break![/italic]

She was an ugly girl, and I don't mean her weight, her face was unfortunate. It would have been cruel to have her mocked for her weight, just because it probably would have happened in real life to some extent depending on who she encountered, does not mean they had to do so on the show.

R31, what do you mean they never questioned Tootie being black? How the hell do you question that? Who do you think she was, Rachel Dolezal? News flash: Tootie really was black.

Molly called her a "fat Jew bitch with P*l*st*n**n blood on her hands" and then she died when Natalie sat on her and ate all the evidence. That's why she wasn't in that reunion episode with those other three no-talent goysiche bitches who were rightly fired after the first season.

I have read this "Cloris Leachman hates fatties" many times, here....but she adores Mindy Cohn. They've both talked about this. Mindy considers a mentor -- more so than Charlotte.

That's interesting since Charlotte was the one who discovered her.

Because people were more mature.

[quote] Because people were more mature.

When I think "mature," I always think of a baseball cap with two lightning bolts sticking out of it.

Natalie had way too many dating opportunities for being, ugly, fat and a Jew. In real life, she'd have been home answering the phone for Blair and Tootie.

Natalie got cock -- what are you talking about, OP? And, she even had her own "lose my virginity" episode with Snake.

How dare you, op.

Because unlike the other girls, Nat put out.....easily. Just buy her a pizza and a shake and you were IN.

For as bad as she looked naturally, they did a good job on her makeup when she got her makeover with the perm and the highlights. They contoured and highlighted the fuck outta that face and shaded her eyes nicely. Those were actually well done thinly "pulled through a cap" highlights and not at all frosty looking.

Didn't Mindy grow up and become Adele?

NO

because she wasn't obese, just plump.

R58 while that is true, her face was fug.

Remember when she worked at Señor Sombrero, and her manager was the same guy who later played Mr. Ha Ha on [italic]The Golden Girls[/italic] that same season? What kind of Mexican restaurant gives out state flags of Utah?

R49 actually it was Rae and Norman Lear who discovered her

Cohen also said in interviews that during the early seasons of Facts, Lear would watch the dalies and get so frustrated at Mindy laughing at her jokes all the time that he would finally send memos to the executive in charge of production Al Burton (who also worked on All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, One Day at a Time and Diff'rent Strokes, that "Mindy has to stop laughing at her own jokes".

When they first came back after the four-week tryouts, you could tell who was going to stay by who got the best lines. The writer of the Emily Dickinson episode, Stan Dreben, died unexpectedly some time after the taping (I wish there were accurate taping dates available online and not just original air dates).

Nat ate a whole bag of Oreos after she lost the role of Nellie Forbush in [italic]South Pacific[/italic] to Tootie.

Joan Rivers always referred to the show as "The Fats of Life".

[quote] Joan Rivers always referred to the show as "The Fats of Life".

All that plastic surgery ruined her diction.

Mindy Cohn gave me herpes.

Uh, average to fug people get dates. Have you looked around?

She had a great personality.

Fugly people in high school don't get dates, they have to wait till the go to college and become rich computer nerds

She was raped. Well not really, but only because they couldn't have a girl actually raped, but she was as good as raped by a guy into Charlie Chaplin chicks. They gave her all the humiliating plot lines.

Didn't Natalie find love with WKRP's Frank Bonner in Paris? I seem to remember him playing a Hemingway type writer who falls for Nat.

[quote] I seem to remember him playing a Hemingway type writer who falls for N̶a̶t̶ Fat

FIXED IT FOR YOU

But did Natalie's pussy stink?

You guys are all pretty mean.

What's the 2015 Thread Bump Cunt trying to distract from today? The massive hacking scandal his boy Trump let happen on his watch?