Was TOOTIE a TARD?

I think she might have taken several head wounds on those skates

Considering the character was only supposed to be like 11 in the first season, the 7 year thing makes sense. Jo and Blair were supposed to be the same age but years ahead of her, and even Natalie was a year or two ahead in school.

She was the baby of the group. This was all explained.

Natalie was one year ahead of her and one year behind Blair and Jo. But they altered the time line to keep Nat and Toots in Eastland longer.

Nats got into Princeton so it just goes to show if you're a Jew you have connections.

Tootie spent all her school time auditioning for parts and free candy bars from her boyfriend who refilled the machines.

R2, I am strangely attracted to you. How do you feel about the post-Mrs. Garrett days?

I saw her in an IHOP once! really

I liked it better when Mrs. Garrett was taking care of a bunch of girls in dorm, instead of the focus on just 4 girls. All of a sudden all of the other girls disappeared. And the show never did an episode about getting your first period. And how good have Eastland been if they were accepting "Jo types". Eastland was no Miss Porter's.

No, R3. Natalie was a good 2-3 years behind Jo and Blair, and Tootie was a year behind her.

R5, while I respect and admire Clorox Bleachman, Beverly Ann was just not the same as Mrs. G. And don't even get me started on the annoying Pippa. Blerggh.

Thank you, R8. You are my current favorite DL troll.

I'm curious how the planned spin-off would have gone down. You see it in the last couple of episodes. Blair takes over as headmaster of Eastland, and they decide to let in boys. Seth Green and Juliette Lewis played students.

By then, Mrs. G was gone and the main 4 girls (especially Jo) were fading into the background. There was more emphasis in Beverly Ann, Andy, and Pippa that few cared about. Refocusing on Eastland and its students could have been interesting.

R10 was me.

Not THIS Tootie!

Not only were Lewis and Green students at Eastland, but fresh off of her Beaches success Mayim Bialek was also part of the crew. Tootie was supposed to be 14 when the show started, but Kim was 11, that's why she was put on roller-skates the first season to make her look taller.

And then those huge tits showed up; Goodbye, roller-skates!

[quote] Natalie was a good 2-3 years behind Jo and Blair, and Tootie was a year behind her.

No, once Blair/Jo went to college and Mrs Garrett went into her own business, Natalie was a junior in high school. That would mean she was one year younger. Both Nat nnd Toots repeated high school grades to keep them younger.

OP = Kenya Moore

Natalie was a junior when Blair and Jo went to college. She was a senior when Mrs. Garrett opened Edna's Edibles. I believe when Mrs. Garrett mentions leaving Eastland, Natalie makes a comment about can't Mrs. Garrett just stay one more year... and Tootie interjects she should stay for 2 more years.

[quote]Natalie was a junior when Blair and Jo went to college.

Sorry, that should have read she was a Junior when Blair and Jo graduated.

I would say graduating high school at 21 & having s sister for a mother at the very least nominates you for tard status

Mindy Cohn (Natalie) is the only one of the main 4 that didn't turn out to be some weirdo religious fundy.

We all know about Lisa, of course, but Nancy and Kim are both very religious too.

Natalie forged her own brand of fundamentalism when she took to her neighborhood bodega and shouted 'curveh' at the passers by while hurling cinnamon rolls at them (after kicking off all the glaze, of course)

^she would lick up all the glaze after kicking it

Lately I've been wondering if Dudley Ramsey from [italic]Diff'rent Strokes[/italic] could possibly be Tootie's cousin.

I also realized that even with all the Strokes/Facts crossovers, Kimberly and Jo never had a scene together. Kimberly was at public school by the time Jo enrolled at Eastland.

OP, Tootie was the youngest of the girls. She was 3 years younger than Blair and Jo, and 1 year younger than Natalie.

Their high school graduation years were:

Blair and Jo - 1983

Natalie - 1985

Tootie - 1986

Tard school lets them graduate?

When Kim Fields was on Living Single, they made two notable "Facts of Life" references. In a Thanksgiving episode, one of Kyle Barker's many girlfriends mentions that she went to Eastland, and Regine (Kim's character) admits that she never heard of that school. In a later episode, Regine is a juror in a trial involving a beloved female celebrity, and her friends refuse to believe that said celebrity is a criminal. Regine, who can't reveal to her friends that she is a juror, says "Don't confuse the character with the actor." To which Kyle scoffs, "Yeah, tell that to Tootie."

The dates don't match because when they moved to Edna's Edibles, the younger two repeated the same grades. They did that to keep them in Eastland longer, like they added Andy and that dykette Kelly to keep the "youth" on the show.

I'm oddly fascinated by these FoL threads. I'm also very happy to see that the four actresses have turned out well.

I watched a Hallmark Channel movie last year that starred Lisa and Kim was in the cast... for some reason I loved this. Now, it would have been a lot of fun if there had been one scene (just one) where Nancy and Mindy just walked by on a town street chatting away like old friends and Lisa and Kim stopped, looked, and decided they didn't know the other two.

BTW - what ever happened to the DL poster who used to start threads about Lisa? He was great. What was name he'd give? "From the Twittering Mind of Lisa Welchel"?

No but Kim gets on my nerves.

Was tootie supposed to be in 5th grade when the show began?

That's the only way she graduated on time since 7 school years would have elapsed by her graduation day...

#$^/÷÷@#$Mr's G #$$$@×4%%=$$I am Geri

Geri gives GREAT drool...

I will always be fascinated by Facts of Life.

Watching it as adult, it is clear that it's mostly an unwatchable cheesy mess, but the nostalgia factor makes it special. I was stuck in a podunk rural town in Oklahoma, and the thought of going to an upstate New York boarding school seemed to be the very height of class and elegance.

It's also fascinating to me that it ran for NINE YEARS. That's as long as Seinfeld and just a year less than Friends. Today a show like that wouldn't last a single season, yet they kept bringing it back.

As stated before the girl's ages were all over the map. Remember how in the first year, when Mrs Garrett taught sex ed, ALL the girls were in the same class.

To be fair, when I went to High School you could have different grades mixed. I was a freshman and had junior in my biology class.

So that isn't a reliable indication of age in some schools.

Furthermore we know Tootie probably got promoted because of her race and Eastland wanting to push the minority agenda.

I loved it as a kid and I like it now as I rewatch it on Logo. Jo was a pretty good actress. Natalie was terrible but so damn likable. I heard Mindy Cohn is literally Angelina Jolie's only female friend. It's crazy to think Mrs Garret was barely 50 when the show began.

Yes, she was, OP.

Her tone deaf screeching singing on this series certainly pointed toward tard

I beg your pardon, R38!

Andy turned out to be kinda hot

None of the girls played their actual ages. Lisa played two years younger, Nancy played one year older, Mindy played one year younger, Kim played one year older.

Tootie really dials up the tard after motor boating the egg nog bowl

The day I brought home the 12" single in R39's link was the day my parents' dreams of being grandparents died.

Did Jo ever come out as a bull dyke. As a teen I used to imagine her fucking everyone with her strap-ons including Mrs G and George Clooney and Clorox too. All the casts anuses were edible for that super butch.

Tootie was the tard, but Jo was the Aspie

I'm forever haunted by Tootie's Nellie Forbush. Horrifying. So bad it's not even on youtube.

R46 "Some enchanted evening when you find your true looooooove"

Remember when Blair's father was a KKK member and Tootie was all cool with that.

R44, this episode does reference Jo as a dyke. Watch!

[quote] Horrifying. So bad it's not even on youtube.

Not so fast R46.

Tootie has a stronger and more musical voice than Ms human tampon herself Jabba Jackson.

r49

They actually did a good job on the overdub.

Fucked for life was so fucking funny my two sex toys popped out of my blackish snatch and semi-black anal hole. When Mrs G sings raaaaaaaaaape my anal beads just popped right out. Tootie wishing she was the one to get raped caused my 'black jack' ten inch muff destroyer to pop out. I ain't laughed so hard since my brother's second high profile pedophile 'allegations' court trial.

Anyone watch tootie's rockin' the tard away New Year's Eve bash and celebrity softball match?

I can't stand Kim Fields. She entered some poetry reading/rap crap contest that was shown on You tube several years ago & what did she slam in her little number? That's right "alternative lifestyles". She's one of those born again Christians that loves Pat Robertson & a bunch of other nuts & goes after us from time to time. Since The Facts Of Life is being shown all the time on LOGO, I bet she has laid low on her venom & quietly sent her residual checks from LOGO viewers to many right wing causes. Her real life mom who use to play a cartoon character on "The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam" is even worse & probably where she gets most of her views from.

[quote]Her real life mom who use to play a cartoon character on "The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam"

Excuse you for not calling her by her name, Chip Fields, to whom everyone knows and loves. Great actress... loving mother... okay, so maybe we just love her for what shed id to Janet.

Toots got tard

Tootie could never

Mrs Butterworth, I loves ya.

R56 Just shows you can take the Gary Indiana Jabba out of da ghetto but you CANNOT take the ghetto out of ...... Jabba.

Tootie's mother taught Janet Jackson a thing or two.

Let's talk about Kim having a baby during the series run and passing it off as her "baby sister."

R62:

That mirrored her own life...

Chip Fieids is actually her sister which is why she ended up tard!!!

I seem to recall this whole, Alexis is Kim's daughter not sister thing.. what was the evidence? Something about a mysterious birth certificate?

I think it also had to do with Tootie's breasts leaking during an episode when she got angry with the other girls for 8,000th time about them treating her like a baby.

Someone Google Jere Fields and get back in here and explain...

These are some inbred freaks. The tard must flow strong through the entire tree.

No wonder they are bigoted, ignorant fundies...

Since Alexis was born March 3, 1979, the idea that Kim would have been pregnant at 9-10 is absurd on its face, and it also does not jibe with her being on [italic]Baby I'm Back[/italic], Demond Wilson's post-[italic]Sanford and Son[/italic] flop sitcom, and the [italic]Diff'rent Strokes[/italic] backdoor pilot which would have been taping around that time (it aired two months later).

R58, that was a riot! It's so awful it sounds like a long lost song from that horrible '80s movie, Teen Witch.

Actually, I bought Lisa Whelchel's cassette album via Columbia House back then, and I had no idea it was a Christian album. It was bad. Really bad.

R68 there was something posted somewhere about a false birth certificate for Alexis with a link to her actual Birth Certificate which had her born in the 80's.

I would have cast Natalie as Nellie over Tootie in a heartbeat. I never understood what was better about Tootie's audition. Natalie had heart, charm, and a perfectly acceptable singing voice. Tootie had nothing but ego.

Didn't Blair reluctantly take over as headmaster of Eastland because she bought it as it was about to close for lack of funding?

[quote]Didn't Blair reluctantly take over as headmaster of Eastland because she bought it as it was about to close for lack of funding?

Yes. It was also her idea to go co-ed.

Other than Nancy's non-participation and the script's getting the year of their arrest for grand theft auto and underage drinking wrong, the thing that bothered me the most was how blithe they acted about Eastland's closing. They drove by, Blair said something to point out it was closing, and they just drove off. Seriously? It was the thing that brought her together with her best friends. She was harvest queen practically every year since she was 12. She put her law career on hold and risked a good chunk of family fortune for that school.

In the reunion, that is.

I was watching this episode tonight and Tootie really looks pregnant here. Especially around the 17:13 mark. I guess add another one to the NBC cover up pile.

Holy shit. She's also cupping her belly. I wonder how many times the director told her, "Kim, that's what pregnant women do, let the shirt work for you." Then you have Lisa Whelchel grabbing at the shirt, and wham, baby belly.

Tootie was black.

If you look very closely when she's seated on the chair, you can see the baby crowning

The episode airing on TV Land right now is the one where they spend a half hour cramming this relationship between Jo and her dying teacher down our throats.

R78:

A great example of Jo's insufferable cunty approach to life.

'How dare you get sick. Don't you know how that makes ME feel?'

I hated Jo. Such a man!

I found that as the series progressed, I appreciated Blair & Natalie more and hated Jo & Tootie more...

So true, R79! It's just funny how we had never heard of that teacher ever and all of a sudden everyone is throwing cliched lines of dialogue at us so that we know they are VERY VERY CLOSE.

Just another opportunity for Nance to let the waterworks roll!

Jo was always whoring herself out to the teachers in her life for grades.

Remember the photography professor with the son?

Jo had a penis

Wrong, R85.

When they talked about how Jo's teacher had gotten her to "eat raw fish", I snickered and thought of you, Datalounge.

LOL R87! That teacher was rather pingy.

I don't know if Tootie was a tard, I certainly don't think so, but the thread title makes me laugh... however, I didn't realize until recently that Natalie was adopted and with her mother's help, tracked down the bio-bitch who gave birth to her!

Was that also a one-off episode? Natalie's adopted, yea we all know, let's never discuss it again?

Why would it be a daily topic of conversation, R89?

No, being adopted was always consistent with Natalie's background.

and in the ep, we never even saw Natalie meet her bio-mom

I forgot Eve Plumb played Blair's sister

R93 and like Judy Winslow never existed again.

r91 is correct. Natalie being adopted was the subject of the episode "Adoption" in Season 1 (the pre-Jo season). The episode first aired in April 1980.

The reason she was called Tootie was that she had an uncontrollable urge to fart all the time. She ate nothing but cauliflower, brussels sprouts and lentils, which kind of explained it. And yes, she was most definitely a 'tard, as were most of the writers of that stupid show.

That the best you can do, R96?

At least she got a two-parter R94

And then there was Blair's other sister Bailey... who was also forgotten and never existed!

Bailey didn't live with Blair, you know. And she did get a whole episode where she was lost, so you don't know what you're talking about.

Yes, because that's what we 're talking about.. that Bailey lived with Blair.

Bailey was also in the episode where, "Blair learns a valuable lesson when she becomes trapped in an elevator with Bailey and a concentration camp survivor."

So, Bailey made two in utero appearances, and then three more eps (birth, elevator, lost) after that. I wouldn't call that forgotten.

Maybe Natalie was too tired to discuss her adoption again.

And then Bailey was never mentioned again.

Wasn't Bailey mentioned more than Edna's deadbeat son who was a roadie for Neil Diamond?

Blair and Jo were definitely one year ahead of Natalie and 2 years ahead of Tootie.

I think I'm in the minority in that I preferred the 1st season (watched most of the show in reruns). I didn't like Jo that much. Blair was always a good friend to her, but Jo was always a bitch back, even in the later years. The show went on for too long also.

They tried to do a lot of spin offs, but none of them seemed to take. I thought the one with Jo's NJ relatives might have shown some promise with the cute guys.

Blair and Jo graduated at the end of season 4. Natalie graduated at the end of season 6, and Tootie at the end of season 7.

r25 and r107 are correct. Blair and Jo were 3 years older than Tootie, and 2 years older than Natalie. Their high school graduation dates were as follows:

Blair and Jo: Class of 1983

Natalie: Class of 1985

Tootie: Class of 1986

Norman Lear and Charlotte Rae discovered Mindy Cohn at a real all girls school in LA.

Lear was also responsible for discovering Geri Jewell and foisting Cousin Geri on to the public

A FOL thread has passed 100 posts.

Life is good.

R107 and R108, yes their Graduation dates have been established. However, I believe that the discussion stemmed from their Graduation dates not making sense. There is some discrepancy as to whether or not they pulled a 90210 with Natalie or Tootie and changed what grade they were in to keep them at Eastland longer.

FOL fantard troll:

Do you know which grade tootie found herself in as season 1 began?

R95: I always thought it was a cop-out that Natalie didn't pick up that phone. That's why I'm glad they readdressed that in season 4. Yet though we learn about her real mother, we never actually see her. It is ironic that Natalie's adoptive parents weren't fat and neither was her grandma, and doubly so considering her father died young.

Season 1 seemed to start OK, and it was still funnier than [italic]Hello, Larry[/italic], which isn't saying much, but after one of the writers, Stan Dreben had died (right after writing the Emily Dickinson episode), there seemed to be a pallor over it, and the flaws in the writing got worse. If nothing else, Jenny O'Hara at least brought some acting ability to her underdeveloped role. The episodes focusing on the other girls lacked snap. Even Molly Ringwald, other than the one episode with her father (William Bogert, before he played Brandon Brindle on [italic]Small Wonder[/italic]), rarely got much to do except speak quotes the writers fished out of Ms. Magazine. The class differences between Blair and Sue Ann just weren't as strong as those between Blair and Jo, and they didn't really need three blonde girls. The marijuana episode must have caused a stir somewhere along the line, and not because of Mrs. Garrett's cognitive dissonance in saying there ought to be a law against selling bongs to kids but then after The Group get expelled, turns around to Mr. Bradley and says "there must be a better way of handling this than treating these girls like criminals."

NBC didn't put it on after [italic]Diff'rent Strokes[/italic] at first because they did everything they to make [italic]Hello, Larry[/italic] happen. They put it on Friday nights between [italic]Here's Boomer[/italic] and the torturously unfunny [italic]Pink Lady[/italic]. And it was up against [italic]The Incredible Hulk[/italic] on CBS and [italic]Fantasy Island[/italic] on ABC. That ultimately worked to its advantage because once NBC said goodbye to [italic]Larry[/italic] they put it after [italic]Strokes[/italic], and with the new writing staff, right off the bat you could see the life come back into the show, and over time it became less of a show about a prestigious girls' school in decline and more of a teenage comedy of manners. At least they never forgot the first year never existed; I always assumed Nancy, Sue Ann and Cindy were older and thus graduated before Blair and Jo.

R113 Nancy, Sue Ann and Cindy recurred in Seasons 2 and 3 but not 4. I always assumed they graduated at the end of season 3 in 1982, a year before Jo and Blair.

I also recall an episode toward the end where everyone but Molly came back for a reunion.

Of course Jo was a cunt out of jealousy and kept clashing with Sue Ann

R115 you're talking about the episode, "The Little Chill," which was bizarre as they all acted like they had never met Jo before, even though they were all around when Jo showed up to Eastland.

That really was embarrassing, R16. Poor continuity and bad writing. They all went to Eastland with Jo. They would have known who she was.

Well, R117 they did mention, "you remember, Jo." However, they still acted like they had only ever met her one time.

In that episode where they had the reunion... it also seemed odd how they brought up Molly. Instead of not bringing her up, they made it a point to bring her up... but when they talk about what she's doing all they say is that Tootie called her mom and the only answer they got was that she was, "busy." Just seemed strange that they even bothered.

Once Blair and Jo enrolled in Langley, they really ratcheted up the beefcake quotient. After rewatching the pizza episode, I now want Hacksaw to fuck me up the ass until I scream.

R120... I watched that same episode last night and thought the same thing. Hacksaw would have been a hot fuck.

BTW.. do yourself a favor and do NOT look up what he currently looks like.

Maybe tootie got held back a grade somwewhere?

R121: It's no coincidence; Embassy hired a gay casting director around that time. GLAAD named an award after him after he died of AIDS.

I don't know if this is what you meant(121), but Hacksaw died last year--so he would probably look even worse

The actor who played Hacksaw, Tony Longo, also appeared in Sixteen Candles and Splash. He balloned up to 300 and died last year in his sleep.

[quote]BTW - what ever happened to the DL poster who used to start threads about Lisa? He was great. What was name he'd give? "From the Twittering Mind of Lisa Welchel"?

He (she?) simply went by The Lisa Whelchel Troll. I think LWT was the one who first made Datalounge aware of Lisa's hot-sauce approach to discipline.

[quote]In that episode where they had the reunion... it also seemed odd how they brought up Molly. Instead of not bringing her up, they made it a point to bring her up... but when they talk about what she's doing all they say is that Tootie called her mom and the only answer they got was that she was, "busy." Just seemed strange that they even bothered

That was supposed to be the joke, R119. (a wink-wink, inside joke). When they shot that episode in 1986, Molly Ringwald was arguably one of the two or three biggest teen movie stars on the planet, having starred in three hit John Hughes' films in three consecutive years (1984,1985, 1986).

Molly was busy -- being a famous movie star.

Yeah, I figured that, R127, it just seemed weird to even bother mentioning it.

[quote]I think LWT was the one who first made Datalounge aware of Lisa's hot-sauce approach to discipline.

And she didn't give me any credit!

I think they only brought up Molly, because she was in the old clips they used.

[quote]Molly was busy -- being a famous movie star.

And then she came crawling back to television with the rest of us plebeians.

Oh, you're right R130. That makes sense.

[quote]Hacksaw died last year

What about Victor, the fat frat who ate a whole pizza? Is he still alive?

R133.. yes, and he's aged magnificently!

R133 yes. I meant him about 10 years ago at the now closed Virgin records in Tomes Square. He was a manager there. Believe it or not. I told him that he looked familiar and he told me that he used to be actor in LA. Michael something is his name

Michael Zorek, R135:

She's in troubl-l-l-l-l-le…

Madonna dated Tony (Hacksaw) Longo while separated from Sean Penn in 1988 for a few months

this thread is very entertaining except for the title which is unnecessarily insensitive.

I love the silliness of these girls all still living together well past graduation.

Blair was a spoiled rich girl, but remember that Eastland was an upstate New York boarding school. Natalie and Tootie's parents would have been loaded too. Jo was the only one portrayed as poor. Regardless of how close they all were, three rich girls would have wanted to move out and get their own place.

Jo was the only one for whom it made sense to keep living over Ms Garrett's shop.

R139 = Geri Jewell

Jo was such a cunt. I'd have told her to go fuck herself and given her such a punch to the teeth.

I created the original "From the Twittering Mind of Lisa Whelchel" thread, but I'm not the official Lisa Whelchel Troll.

LWT had been posting for years by that point, over multiple threads. But during some DL glitch, a bunch of stuff disappeared, including the current Lisa thread, so I started a new one to continue the conversation, basing it on posts from her Twitter feed. I don't know if LWT still posts on DL, but he was awesome.

Lisa used to put up a big blog post ("Coffee Talk", I think) on her website every couple weeks. These blog posts were a goldmine of hilarity -- but also of sweetness, confusion, earnestness, neediness and desperation. It was everything. LWT would copy and paste these posts into a DL thread, but with a twist: sometimes he would alter the posts, threading through more and more outrageous details as the post went on. But because Lisa's actual posts were often so batshit crazy, it was hard to tell which parts were real and which parts weren't. Other times, LWT would just copy and paste her blog posts with no additions -- those tended to be the nuttiest posts, and people would swear the content was made up, but if you went to Lisa's blog, you'd see an exact match.

LWT, wherever you are, I salute you! You're a funny son of a bitch, and you started a entertaining conversation that continues years later.

Re-watching some of the episodes... I never noticed how annoying Natalie was. She was pretty selfish and a bit of an instigator.

I also can't with how everyone SHOUTS their lines.

But most irritating is Tootie who says every line as though she's in hysterics and about to break down and cry.

I can't help but love Natalie. Maybe it's the inherent comraderie gay men have with fat girls, as we are both outcasts in our own way.

Or maybe it's the fact that Mindy Cohn is the only one of those actresses who isn't a religious nutcase. I applaud that she came forward to do the sex episode. It was completely ridiculous for grown women (as they were all adults by the end of the series) with boyfriends NOT to be having sex.

Then again, it was ridiculous for them all to live together as long as they did, so...

R145 Natalie was looking pretty good during season 6 and especially season 7. She dyed her hair red around this time and lost a ton of weight.

She was pulled into the producers office and was actually told to stop loosing weight and try to gain some back because she was hired for a "particular look".

Meaning big fat pig who laughs at her own jokes.

I recall reading how mindy's first love was dance and she lost the weight in later seasons as she tried to transition to dance from acting

[quote]Meaning big fat pig who laughs at her own jokes.

No. She was hired for the fat part... the laughing at her own jokes was a surprise bonus.

I remember those, R143! I LOVED LWT! They were hilarious.

R145: In season 6, they did an episode where Tootie offered to put out for Jeff, who was visiting from Penn State, but he turned her down. Jo wasn't in that episode; IIRC Nancy pulled the same walkout-for-a-raise move on Embassy that Carroll O'Connor, Redd Foxx and Gary Coleman pulled to get raises.

[quote]I recall reading how mindy's first love was dance and she lost the weight in later seasons as she tried to transition to dance from acting

Did she love to tap too?

Would it be blasphemous to say that this show had better episode-to-episode continuity than [italic]The Golden Girls[/italic]?

Natalie lost a ton of weight? Yeah, she went from being obese to obese.

[quote]However, they still acted like they had only ever met her one time.

IIRC most of the old writers had left (Linda Marsh and Margie Peters were now writing for [italic]Valerie[/italic], and Jerry Mayer left for [italic]Punky Brewster[/italic] to give Henry Warnimont a similar late-life career change) and the new ones must have assumed "Gossip" in season 2 was the only time they'd cross paths. Still, they never actually shared a bedroom with Jo, so naturally they weren't as close to her as they had been to Blair, Natalie and Tootie.

Most sitcoms become broader and wackier as they get older and this one was no exception—although I must say I actually enjoyed this show's late-life sojourn into the fantastic and the surreal—but one wonders whether the later years would have been better had Norman Lear not sold Embassy to Coca-Cola. At least it never got as bad as the later years of Garry Marshall's Milwaukee shows, the final seasons of [italic]Diff'rent Strokes[/italic] and [italic]Gimme A Break![/italic], or the utterly abominable late-era [italic]Simpsons[/italic] episodes. I'm not sure the "Eastland Goes Coed" attempted spinoff would ever have worked, although it may have altered the trajectories of Mayim Bialik and Seth Green's careers significantly if it had gone to series. But we'll never know; NBC wanted [italic]Empty Nest[/italic] instead despite its disastrous backdoor pilot. Even though its ratings were down, it was still winning its time slot when it went off the air. When the cast did a set of "Truth Behind the Sitcom Scandals" interviews, which are not online, for Fox, Kim Fields still seemed kind of disappointed their finale didn't get more fanfare. I found an article about Coca-Cola's mismanagement of its messy patchwork film/TV production companies, and it says the one guy at Embassy whom Nancy particularly disliked ended up becoming a bigwig at Columbia Pictures Television after the two companies merged and Embassy ceased to exist as anything other than an in-credit copyright holding company, ignoring Nancy's suggestions while giving preferential treatment to [italic]Who's The Boss?[/italic]. Maybe this was how her salary negotiation tactics came back to bite her—and the show—in the ass.

R143, I loved those threads! I feel like we started out having a good laugh at how crazy her posts were, but I think we all fell in love with her a little bit. Their was just so much underlying sadness in her posts, and she just seemed so naïve and sweet.

She doesn't blog anymore, but from her recent tweets and instagram posts, she seems like a different person. I think the best thing she ever did was get divorced and move to LA. Even her hair looks better now. She no longer looks like a Texas hausfrau. I wish her happiness.

[quote]I think the best thing she ever did was get divorced and move to LA.

Didn't she always live in LA?

R156, no, they moved to Texas at some point in the mid 2000's.

how is clancy?

Oh, okay R157... I know she was living in a suburb of LA for a long time. A friend of mine was her neighbor.

Lisa Whelchel would do the gardening in her drawers. Not fancy sleek ones but big old shit stained granny bloomers.

You're safe, R152. The fact that Golden Girls has little continuity is always brought up. The only show I can think of with bigger continuity gaps is...wait, I can't think of any.

Why wasn't Lauren Tom ever made a regular?

I think her mom/sister beat Penny but you didn't hear that from me.

DAMN!DAMN!DAMN!

Because Miko was as fucking annoying as that street bitch they tried to add later (the one who was shaking down EE with "The Lords of Discipline"), R162.

R165:

That was Pamela Segall

Oddly enough, both became regulars on king of the hill a decade later...

Miko was in love with Jo. There should have been an episode where Blair got jealous and told her off.

I was ok with Kelly (the little dyke who invented the "Lords of Discipline"), who...well, also seemed to be in love with Jo. Seriously, she was doing all those "crimes" to get Jo's attention ("How else could I get you to pay attention to me?") and tells Jo that she remembers the first time she saw her at the motorcycle shop a year prior. It's Kelly's "Ring of Keys" moment, if you will.

The most annoying and unnecessary character in the history of television is Pippa. WTF was with that plotline. The girl stole some other girl's identity and showed up at their house in Peekskill in the middle of the night. Her father was worried because he couldn't find her, so he flew up FROM AUSTRALIA, and then Pippa is like "no I want to stay here" and he's just like "oh ok, if this is where you're happy", as if it were some kind of refugee camp. Then they enroll her in Eastland (the girl whose identity she stole was supposed to be attending Eastland)

All her character did was use Australian slang for laughs. So, SO dumb.

The other weird character was Kevin--the "Man in the Attic"--played by Ryan Cassidy. That was just a strange plot line.

Don't even get me started on Andy. Though Pippa is still WAY worse.

Remember that princess they introduced in "A Royal Pain"? (she also makes an appearance in the Graduation episode). I always thought that was really bad casting. She was supposed to be an Italian princess, but she looked like the most ordinary, unglamorous looking thin I had ever seen. Her clothes were drab, her hair was drab, her looks were drab, and she was a terrible actress. The first time I saw it I remember thinking "ah, she's going to end up being an imposter, just you see", but...no. She was actually supposed to be a Princess. Blair was about 10000x prettier and more glamorous than she was. Also, I thought it was weird that they didn't have her room ready, so they set up a sleeping bag for her to share with the girls (Natalie ended up switching with her). I mean, she's a Princess, everyone is so excited to have her here, but--you're making her sleep on the floor? in a sleeping bag? above the cafeteria? in a room with four other girls? Not the greatest of welcomes.

The "princess" introduced was a blatant attempt to replace Blair.

There was serious talk of giving the Blair and Jo characters their own spin-off as they left for college. This would've left Natalie, Tootie and Mrs Garrett, so they wanted to get some other girls to replace Blair on Jo as they would be leaving. But the spin-off never happened, so there was no need to keep the princess.

[quote]The most annoying and unnecessary character in the history of television is Pippa. WTF was with that plotline.

She was obviously added to cash in on the huge Australian invasion of the 80's.. well, those damned Crocodile Dundee commercials and Olivia Newton John's ridiculous clothing stores.

Wasn't Miko just a convenient plot device for Tootie to essentially monologue too about how the others treated her like a child? Did Miko ever have her own storyline, the only episode I remember her in is when Tootie runs away to NYC and hangs out with teen hooker Tami Lauren. The Miko episodes ran at about the same time that my second grade class was being taught the Japanese language, which my teacher explained was because essentially Japan was taking over the whole world (this was 1982, so...) and we'd better learn to communicate with them (at least that's how I understood it) and so I sort of co-related Miko's casting on FOL with impending Japanese world domination. Again, I was in the second grade.

I watched the show religiously until the Over Our Heads era, at which point I was probably twelve or so and I just couldn't abide that much change. Plus I hated Andy, if there was going to be a pre-teen gay boy that was going to get to hang out with the Facts girl, it was going to be me or no one.

I want you all to know that Tootie was my favorite on The Facts of Life.

R170 the only Miko storyline I can remember was perhaps her first episode where her father came to visit and they had issues over her "Americanization."

I think the episode was actually called, "The Americanization of Miko," or something like that.

R172 and that was the worse episode of the otherwise excellent Season 3

Even the 2 "spin off attempt" episodes were better that season.

If you put all of Blair's ex-boyfriends in the same room together, how many of them would end up having sex with each other?

[quote]if there was going to be a pre-teen gay boy that was going to get to hang out with the Facts girl, it was going to be me or no one.

Andy was the only one of the late-era characters I actually liked—I was 5 when the show was cancelled and I had a mad crush on Mackenzie Astin when USA Network brought the show back in (irregularly scheduled) reruns, and I saw [italic]Iron Will[/italic] in theaters twice, so that had something to do with it—but it's nice to know I wasn't the only one not fooled by him claiming to have a crush on Tootie.

The "Tootie is almost kidnapped into prostitution in NYC" season 3 episode was written by Bernie Mac, Yes THE Bernie Mac before he became successful. Under the name Bernard Mac.

That episode is a camp delight! I love Tootie going "Oh Kristeeee", with her big ass braces after she finds out that that "glamorous actress is actually a HOOKER".

That waitress Bernice was telling all the business!

At least this show's Andy turned out better than the one on [italic]Family Ties[/italic].

Hey, gurls!

Who the HELL was in charge of producing that Lisa Whelchel record? You can barely hear her voice at all. She never sounded that bad on the show or on [italic]The New Mickey Mouse Club[/italic].

The delivery guy who was "retarded" was recycled into Blair's cokehead boyfriend. He was a good actor. He was on a really good show that didn't last long called, Boone. He played an Elvis type.

R180: Thomas Byrd was his name. He also appeared on [italic]Gimme A Break![/italic] with Michael O'Leary right before he joined [italic]Guiding Light[/italic].

Wasn't Julie Anne Haddock also on [italic]Boone[/italic]?

I remember reading Patty Duke's autobio, which came out at the time FOL was running with Mackenzie, and she wrote how when she had her own show she never paid attention to the ratings or anything like that, but that her son Mack always new the latest numbers for his show FOL. I remember thinking, of course he does, because he love SHOWBIZ! (cue Rip Taylor throwing confetti!)

Julie Anne Haddock also appeared as the daughter of Robert DuVall and DL's long suffering martyr, Blythe Danner in The Great Santini.

thomas bird naked...

Nothing much to see

Just saw the episode where the cunt Jo ruins a teacher's life with a false accusation of an arrest at a cocaine party.

Cindy & Sue Ann were right there cheering her on

Exactly how many times did the tard known as 'Eddie the sailor man' go AWOL so he could give Jo a ring be blight on time payments from the K Mart?

Hahaha, Eddie. I guess that's where Jo got her peacoat.

Byrd certainly isn't packing. But he'd probably look more average in size if he manscaped.

That's not exactly what I would call a big byrd.

On a related note, Astin is a gay as the peacock network. As l said on another thread, please don't let the current bearding situation distract you.

None of those Embassy sitcom boys were 100% straight.

Miko reminds me of that annoying Family Ties I Gotta be Ming episode. I guess that kind of shit was all the rage back in '82.

I'm just waiting for the inevitable parody thread: WAS TARDIE A TOOT?

Did adults watch this show? I was a kid and it was my favorite.

[quote] Did adults watch this show?

My dad never liked it; my mom watched it every once in awhile; I found a rerun of it on her DVR when I went home for Hanukkah. All in all, it made me laugh more than [italic]The Brady Bunch[/italic] ever did. Watched that too, though, since it proved gay men can be trusted with children.

Bump.

Why subject is rude, to cuzin Jory? You should make fun of tootie for name but not for mental retardation.

R197, I teach ESL. I am willing to give you a discount.

If you're hot.

I was a kid when it ran and I watched it, I'm pretty sure I had to watch it on the tv in the kitchen so that my parents could watch what they wanted in the tv room. Though, I'm pretty sure my mom never watched it, I do recall her making the occasional walk-by and commenting on the girls' fluctuating weight. It's really hard for me to imagine adults watching this show at the time (now, of course, because the initial audience is grown up) but I can't see what the appeal would be for adults back when it originally aired. Same with shows of that time like Different Strokes, Punky Brewster and Webster, (though, I do recall my mom liking the repartee between Clark and Karras on the latter, so who knows)

I'd still sit through any of those post-[italic]Brady Bunch[/italic], pre-TGIF kidcoms before I suffered through one second of [italic]Full House[/italic].

How would kids today respond to this show? What would it be like for them seeing a world with no cell phones or internet, where computers are looked upon as something new and exciting, where homosexuality is only hinted at in subtext and never talked about, where premarital sex is still considered shocking to some extent but not as much as in the 1950s, where overweight and obesity are less prevalent than today (I never thought I'd write that when describing this show) but heading in that direction, or where the downside of show business aspirations is not ignored the way Disney Channel or Nickelodeon sitcoms tend to skirt over it?

R200 Exactly. I was born in 1982 so I was the target age for all those TGIF shitcoms of the late 80s and early 90s and even then I knew what shit they were.

Give me The Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, Webster etc. Over that crap any day.

I was born in the late 70s and I agree that 80s kid sitcoms are better than shows like Full House, Step by Step etc... They weren't as saccharin. I loved Mr. Belvedere though and I think that was part of the TGIF Block.

As for Thomas Bryd, I think he was on Family Ties too. It's funny actors/actresses showed up on multiple shows. There were also people who went on to bigger things. Joanna Kerns and Ilene Graff both guested on Three's Company too, Martha Plimpton and River Phoenix both were on Family Ties and Dicaprio and Brad Pitt were on Growing Pains.

It gives an interesting insight into how fat Americans have become that such big deal was made about the girls' weight on this show.

Aside from Natalie (who would now look practically normal), the other girls at their fattest are thin as rakes compared to what you see in most American high schools today.

I had a dream last night. Dreamt i was a lesbian in an episode of The Facts of Life and Jo pulled a Cosby on me and drugged me and raped both my holes with her 4 dildoed sex toy. She fucked both my holes for hours as Tootie and Blair egged her on (like the rape scene from The Accused). Best dream i ever had!

R205:

Proof that the lesbians are just as kinky as anyone else.

Maybe so, r204, but how many overweight teens do you on tv nowadays? Not many. I think the 80s was more tolerant than today.

r205 was Natalie in your dream, or did she go down to the kitchen for a midnight snack?

And if Natalie was in your dream, was she dressed as Charlie Chaplin, because...well, you know...

Natalie did have a poster of Charlie Chaplin in their room. And the mask at Over Our Heads. A super fan. They never explained how Edna's Edibles burned down or what happened to the Cassidy brother who lived in the attic. I think it might have been related

You would think that somebody would've been a little sensitive to the fact that Natalie was attacked while dressed as Charlie Chaplin instead of continually decorating Natalie's bedroom and her place of employment with images of Chaplin.

Maybe it's her coping mechanism. That and the emotional eating.

This is where John Lawlor had ended up by 1987. This looks almost like it could be a Mexican sitcom, and the theme song sounds like the producers said, "hey, how much can you make the theme sound like "I'm So Excited" without actually being a ripoff" before they ran out of money and scrapped the show:

How many times do you think George had Mackenzie?

[quote] You would think that somebody would've been a little sensitive to the fact that Natalie was attacked while dressed as Charlie Chaplin instead of continually decorating Natalie's bedroom and her place of employment with images of Chaplin.

Whom would they replace him with, Fatty Arbuckle?

I think Natalie was just a superfan of Chaplin. I'm watching the Clooney years and his head shake is distracting as fuck. He looks like baby Jay Leno.

In season 8, both Mrs. Garrett and Tootie have dreams about Blair committing homicide. Was that somehow symbolic of their fears of the 1% trying to destroy the middle class?

Lisa is shooting another Hallmark Channel movie.

She looks great.

Why did Mrs Beverly not work? She closed the store but no job. How did she make bank to support kid?

R220 = Miko's dad

R221 you just made my day

Wouldn't she still be getting alimony from her ex-husband since they'd been divorced fairly recently?

I love the idea that both Edna's Edible's and Over our Heads were silently subsidized by Miko's father, mainly in an attempt to keep the nosy, overweight western girls from having too much influence over his daughter. "I give you anything you want, just stay away from my daughter san."

Lisa looks great in that pic, R218.

I wonder if she tried to put the moves on hunky Michael Shanks.

Has Lisa's ex-husband found his Mr. Right yet?

R226, omg.

What's with the girls wearing white dresses, was this some kind of purity ball? I hope not...

I with I had LOGO to see if it still holds up, maybe I can download it. But I doubt it does. I remember it as slightly better than Mama's Family, just junk to pass the time when we had fewer options. Love all the girls though, including Lisa, who is quite pro-gay now after breaking away from her fundie church and arranged marriage.

Um, no R228. She is not "quite" pro-gay.

Watch the video with the gay guy interviewing her very carefully. After some of the nasty homophobic things she has said in the past, and given how so many gay men of a certain age worship Blair, I feel that gay guys were way too positive about that.

She was cleary very uncomfortable with the suggestion of lesbian subtext between her and Nancy McKeon, and seemed to be doing her best with the very tired "Who am I to judge?" routine.

It seemed very calculating, and not gay friendly at all. She just looked very uncomfortable the whole time.

Link me or show me anywhere that she has explicitly said "I support gay marriage" or "there is nothing wrong with being gay" and I will eat my words.

R228, most of the episodes are on youtube. I think it holds up surprisingly well, actually.

R229, you saw what you saw, and I disagree. I do agree that she can be expected to say she supports gay marriage though. Plenty of evangelicals do. Why would she say her dream sitcom gig would be joining Modern Family though, if she doesn't? I'm sure she does, she just hasn't been asked. The interviewer's question was specifically about the lesbian chemistry between her and Nancy. And I didn't think she looked uncomfortable at all.

R229, I don't think she looked uncomfortable, but she may have been a little nervous. Since FOL ended, she has made a living by traveling around the country speaking at churches. After her divorce, a lot of churches cancelled her appearance or refused to book her. I think she knew that making any pro-gay statement could cause her some backlash by the Christian community. Justin Root has also said that Lisa asked him not to edit out any of the gay stuff. And I don't think she's merely catering to the gays--for what purpose? We're not the target audience for her books and appearances at churches. She also will only commit to "wholesome" acting roles, so it's not as if she needs our support there. She doesn't NEED the gays. We're not her target audience for anything, honestly.

After the Supreme Court ruling last year, she "favorited" a "love wins" tweet with a rainbow flag. A few months ago on facebook, someone mentioned something about being homophobic, and her daughter Haven commented that her mother (and the rest of her family) has no time for homophobia. Last year, a gay fan commented on her twitter that he wanted to see her when she appeared in his town, but it was a women's conference. She replied and told him to come anyway, she'd love to meet him, and she would just tell them that he's helping her husband at the merch table. Also, I can think of at least two instances on twitter and facebook when someone flat out asked her about gay people, and she responded favorably. So, short of her being the grand marshal of the NYC Pride parade, I'm satisfied that she's not a bigot. She's done a 180 since her divorce and follows (and regularly retweets) some VERY liberal Christian speakers. It seems that she's worked hard to get to a place where she doesn't care what other people think, and I'm happy for her for that. I think seeing first hand (the backlash after her divorce, criticism on photos she's posted of her drinking alcohol, etc) just how hypocritical these fundies are helped open her eyes (and yes, I think her husband is probably gay and that had something to do with it, too).

And as for the way she answered the question about Jo/Blair--I mean, what should she have said? She basically said they could have gone that way with it, that that would have been one option. She doesn't have to say "yes Blair and Jo were definitely fucking"...she acknowledged that she could see how people could perceive it that way, and that's good enough for me.

Also, I've been on DL for 16 years and all I have to show for it is an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Lisa Whelchel's life. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

She never seemed that anti-gay. Isn't there only one incident, making a comment promoting ex-gay therapy on her blog, which she quickly removed? Her biggest crime was belonging to a fundie church that was very anti-gay. So did her prayer circle partner Donna Summer, who I think was also misunderstood.

"helping her husband at the merch table" is going to be my new euphemism for bearding. There was an episode when ALL of the girls had mullets, including Mrs Garrett (using an arrangement of hairclips).

She was never one of those assholes who camped outside of Chick-Fil-A and proudly posted pics, or any BS like that. I don't think she was ever hateful towards gays, just very misguided.

But that was before Chick was so strongly associated with homophobia. Going there now makes an anti-gay statement, with Sarah Palin proudly displaying her bag for the camera, but it didn't then.

Sorry, I misread r236's post. We're in agreement, but she did promote Chick on her blog a lot, a long time ago.

I've noticed Lisa retweets and instagrams a lot of Richard Rohr quotes and Rohr is a very, left leaning Franciscan, I was really surprised to see her so fond of him, because he is kind of the anti-thesis of the right wing evangelical stuff I had always associated her with.

R237 either way, 5 years ago when all that was going on, there was no mention of it from her (and she was tweeting her every thought at that point)

R238 you are correct, although since those blog posts were "pre-Chick Fil A scandal" and she was living in Texas at the time, I'll give her a pass!

Yes, that was my point r240 and r241. She appropriately distanced herself when the time came. She really did seem very likable in that interview. I might even check out her Hallmark series because of it. She said she had one in development.

r229, would you like some wine to wash down your words?

Lisa Whelchel: "Christians have earned their anti-gay stigma".

Um, 243? Hon?

That is the very vid I discussed in my previous post.

You guys are so desperate to see something positive (and I agree that she sounds slightly more positive in that vid than she has in the past), that you are seeing right past all the xtian doublespeak.

Look, I was raised evangelical Christian and I know how these people think. I have no doubt that she is trying to evolve on this issue, but there is NOTHING impressive in this video. She has a friendly Texas charm. Big deal. Those types are a dime a dozen in the South.

Look very very carefully at her words. Again, she never once explicitly states homosexuality is okay or that she endorses gay marriage. She even says it is a choice at one point. And--noticing that using the word choice would be a hot-button issue--she doesn't even reallly contradict herself. She just points out that it is a "lightning rod issue" and then deflects again by stating "that isn't what Jesus taught." Again...never once in this entire interview does she ever state that she is personally okay with homosexuality. She is giving the same "I don't judge" bullshit--she's just doing it in a really diplomatic package. And I'll give her this: she's good at it. She should be a fucking diplomat.

I hate being right about this. I am the above FOL Fantard troll and want to believe she will come around one day. But she hasn't yet. And that video proves it.

So I won't be eating my words just yet.

I'll still take the wine, though.

She could very easily have corrected herself and said "Oh, no. I'm sorry. I didn't mean that it is a choice. It clearly isn't a choice."

Then you would have a point.

But she didn't say that. She very neatly and cleverly walked around having to admit that she still thinks homosexuality is a sin and a choice, just like when she was advocating for ex-gay therapy.

r244/r245, most people in this thread disagree with you.

Just because you are repetitive and verbose does not mean you are right, dear.

R134 I worked with Michael Zorek at the Virgin Megastore in Sunset Blvd. He was kind of a jerk, abrasive, not well liked. And he was known not to have the best hygiene.

Once we had Julie Newmar doing an in-store to judge a drag queen contest to promote To Wong Foo. Zorek was explaining something to her, and she waved her hand in front of her nose and commented "You've been eating Greenblatts!" The other employees loved her for that.

She seems to be trying to have it both ways by being a bible-believing Christian while she can't possibly be naive to how many gays grew up with this show.

Tootie was totes a tard.

I'm still in therapy over Natalie's two-tone Guess denim overalls. Sheeesh...

And R246, you can choose to believe whatever you want. It doesn't mean you're right.

If my post had too many words for you, I'll break it down more succinctly:

Link me to any video or website where Ms. Whelchel explicitly states that she supports gays, supports gay marriage, believes homosexuality is not a choice, etc.

If you can find any evidence, I'll eat my words. But I'm not as fooled by her charm and doublespeak as most of you are. I spent too much of my childhood around people like her who will smile in your face and call you "sweetheart" to your face--then cut you down the moment your back is turned.

The season 3 episode 'New York, new York' was this program at its worst. The clash of the classes was eye roll inducing as both Jo & Blair are harassed by the old neighborhood for having changed.

It was so ham fisted and poorly done, but also very much in keeping with the preachy nature of 80s sitcoms.

Between the berating of the help in Manhattan and the harassment of the Puerto Ricans in the Bronx, it was prophetic about the rise of the Donald...

R252 that episode was just on LOGO. Jo ' s friend was played by Alexa Kenna WHO WAS In Pretty in Pink and who was killed in 1985 in her Manhattan apartment by her ex boyfriend.

Blair ' s friend Dina Becker was played by Dana Kimmel of Days Of Our Lives soap opera fame and as the star of Friday The 13th Part 3D

Alexa Kenin

Jon Cryer, on Alexa Kenin: "There are several sorts of mysteries about her death. At the time, we were told she had an allergic reaction to an asthma inhaler. But I heard years later that she had actually been beaten by her boyfriend or something like that. To this day, I don't know exactly what happened."

NYT says cause of death was never released. If beaten I would think it was obvious?

I guess that bitch finally messed with the wrong Puerto Rican

Norman Lear was involved with Facts much more then a lit of people think. Executive in charge of production Al Burton basically said Lear was an uncredited executive producer during the first 6 years of the show (79-85) he didn't take a credit, instead the production company he created Embassy was credited.

Lear was responsible for hiring Mindy Cohn and Geri Jewell he also brought over Jamie Gertz from his recently canceled other series Square Pegs in Season 5.

Both Andy Borowitz and Paul Haggis, writers on Facts, credit Lear WITH bringing them on board.

Facts was also Lear ' s idea

And here I thought power couple Alan Thicke & Gloria Loring were the brains behind the operation!

And of course, R257, the girls' dorm set from season 1 is Maude's living room set, tweaked just slightly.

R258 Actually in an Entertainment Weekly piece from last year, Alan Thicke credits Lear for hiring him to write the Facts theme song after Lear had hired him to write and sing the Diff'rent Strokes theme song

There have also been rumours that Kenin's death was a heroin OD. Nobody knows what happened.

How can they not know what happened? Or does cops not care?

In Norman Lear ' s autobiography from a few years ago, he refers to Facts as "my show" and talks about casting Geri Jewell as cousin Geri and his continued friendship with her.

Well, we all know it wasn't Charlotte Rae's idea

I murdered Alexa Kenin.

Norma Lear is publicity whore. He did nothing for his shows. Many failed. Got lucky for mostly.

R248, I wonder if that's because it seems she still makes the bulk of her living through speaking at churches, etc. I mean, mamas gotta eat, right? If she starts getting a lot of acting roles again, I wonder if she'll be less wishy washy about it (though I'm perfectly content with her remarks as of now). Some may say it's hypocritical, but she's not lying, and she has bills to pay, so...

R258, LOL!

R252, aw I actually like that episode. Sweet ending, when Jo and Blair at the coffee shop. I love that look they exchange...it's the realization of "oh shit, I guess we're more alike than we thought." And it's sweet the way Jo goes and carries Blair's bags at the end. And then Jo fingerbangs Blair on the train ride home. I love that part.

Was Mrs Garrett's time with Arnold and Willis ever mentioned again?

Watch and see, R269!

Why didn't they have Kimberly Drummond attend Eastland?

[quote]Why didn't they have Kimberly Drummond attend Eastland?

Eastland has some standards, you know.

Kimberly did attend Eastland, then they had a DS episode where Kimberly wanted to attend public school to be like "normal" kids with Willis and Janet Jackson.

Tipsy Tard Tootie takes twenty-two tan tarantulas to Tahitit to tango.

*Tahiti. Got hung up on T.

While judging the show from 35+ years on makes it an easy target, there weren't many shows on about young women back then. And I think Linda Marsh and Margie Peters did a great job rejuvenating the show for Season 2 until even their touch as consulting producers ended in Season 6. (Their tenure as executive producers ended in Season 4.) I think Season 5, when they went to Edna's Edibles, was a strong season. Despite the pleasure of seeing male strippers, that's the weirdest, most uncomfortable episode of them all.

And yes, if you read all the teen magazines around 11983/984, THAT'S when her beloved "baby sister" was born. Not 1979.

Anybody catch Mackenzie Astin in one of the fional episodes of "Mad Men" as the angry ex-husband of Boring Waitress who was onto Don't game right from the start?

Did Norman Lear ever shoot any of his sitcoms on film or was he too cheap?

[quote]And yes, if you read all the teen magazines around 11983/984, THAT'S when her beloved "baby sister" was born. Not 1979.

I'm glad someone remembers that! I remember seeing some old articles about it posted once which pointed to interviews Kim did in the 80s talking about the birth... now I can't find any of them. Hell of a strange reason to backdate somebody's birth... nobody wants to be older in Hollywood!

[quote]Did Norman Lear ever shoot any of his sitcoms on film or was he too cheap?

Only [italic]Palmerstown USA[/italic] and [italic]Square Pegs[/italic], and neither ran more than a year.

Pretty sure Toody went on to become a stay-at-home-actress.

WEHT Woody Brown?

I just watched the episode where Tootie bombed in her one-woman show as Eleanor Roosevelt. There was a fat, bald queen in a pink tie gleefully denigrating the whole thing at Edna's Edibles where the afterparty was being held, and I swear that man is Datalounge incarnate.

You have me a good laugh R283

So George just left. Did they give him a back story, or did he just disappear like the Cassidy kid in the attic?

George's character just said in one episode that he was leaving for some adventure. That was it.

I thought George went off to fight in the first gulf war and steal treasure with ice cube & that fella from the funky bunch

I just watched a clip from one of the Facts of Life Reunions... something about them all gathering for Thanksgiving at Eastland before it was going to be demolished (I couldn't get past the first 15 minutes).

They mention at the hotel, apparently now being manned by Raymond, that they couldn't keep a Handyman... "Ever since George they just keep running to Hollywood hoping to catch a break."

George left to be Cinnamon's roadie. Stacy Q is sort of cute.

That Cassidy. The only Cassidy with absolutely no talent. A truly BAD actor. I'm sure they thought they couldn't go wrong. And got the surprise of their lives.

I saw that Cinammon episode today and I swear im not one of the skinny police but that girl had some serious kind of eating disorder - she looked ill. Hope she got better!

Tootie should have referred cinnamon to that diner pimp.

2 birds/1 stone...

You're right, R291. Stacey Q (Cinnamon) was disgustingly thin in both appearances.

Just watched the episode where Blair's boyfriend Nick is a coke head.

I would have totally let him score that coke and then made him work for it.

Blair's cokehead boyfriend was also the retarded artist Leo that Blair tried to "save" a couple of seasons earlier, LOL.

What happened to Tom Byrd, anyway? He was hot as fuck.

FOL Fantard Troll,

Have you read the autobiographies of either Geri Jewell or Charlotte Rae? Any thoughts on those?

Interesting you should ask R296! I just received Rae's biography (The Facts of My Life) from Amazon a few days ago and just started reading it.

I'm not too far in, but know some general things. She had one rough life and is a tough bitch. Poor. Special needs child. Married to and divorced a gay man. That and she knew SO MANY cool people of her era. She was good friends with Paul Lynde, and--as a side note--you should definitely check out his biography Center Square. Juicy but very sad read, that one.

I will keep you posted!

Did Rae hang with Alice Ghostley, too? All three of them had very similar personas (and I know some have said that Lynde pretty much just ripped his off from Ghostley).

Rewatching some of these episodes and now it seems really clear that Blair was a lesbian. She never actually seemed that interested in guys and she was always weirdly jealous of Jo's relationship with Eddie.

Retarded or on coke.. who wouldn't have sucked off Blair's boyfriend???

Remember when Tootie's brother asked out Natalie and Tootie was against it and Natalie yelled at her, "You don't want me to date your brother 'cause I'm a fat Jew." And Tootie looks at her and says "You're two thirds of the way there." LOL

No, R301.

R299 YES. That's one of the things I find interesting about the show. Everyone always says what a dyke Jo was, but Blair managed to fly under the radar as a giant lesbian.

-In Jo's very first episode, she finds Jo packing her things and is genuinely upset about Jo leaving. She says something like "I thought we were in this together." I also like that Jo felt comfortable enough with Blair to cry in front of her.

- the very next episode is when the guy Blair is dating asks Jo to the dance at the country club, and tries to rape her. When Blair finds out, she verbally attacks the jerk and physical lunges at him; Jo literally has to hold her back. And this was a rich guy from a good family who Blair had known her entire life, but her instinct was to defend Jo (who she barely knew at this point)

-"Teenage Marriage", when Jo tries to elope with Eddie, and Blair is absolutely devastated. Blair doesn't like Eddie right away and feels that Jo deserves someone better. Her exact line is "I never told you this before, but I think you have real potential" in that scene in the bathroom. (also, note that when Jo introduces her roommates, Eddie says "oh yeah, Park Avenue. You wrote me about her". Kind of interesting that Blair is the only one of her roommates that Jo mentioned). Anyway, everyone gives Jo a "wedding" present-a bible, a photo album, and a journal. But Blair? Blair gives her lingerie (which she said had been planning on unveiling at a slumber party--what straight girl wears lingerie to an all girls' slumber party?) If Jo was going to have sex with Eddie, the lingerie was Blair's way of being "present" on her wedding night.

-Let's see...a few episodes later, Jo's father is out of prison (which she keeps a secret from everyone at first). Blair is like "I want to get to know your father!" why, exactly? She says variations of this at least twice in that scene.

-season 5, The Christmas Show. Blair leaves to go skiing in I think Aspen, Tootie and Natalie are going to DC to be with Tootie's family, leaving Jo alone with Mrs. Garrett on Christmas (Jo's mother got called to work in Florida last minute). So Blair, changes her plans, and goes back to Peekskill to spend Christmas with Jo. if you haven't seen this scene--go to Youtube, seriously, it's vey gay. It's the end of the episode The Christmas Show.

-Cruisin'. My God, look at Blair's face as she's singing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" to Jo. especially the very beginning. Also, an interesting bit of dialog towards the end, when Jo says "I was hoping to meet someone out there like him". Blair says "maybe there was" in this flirty as fucking hell way, and they exchange a look. It's REALLY homosexual, you guys.

-when they graduate Langley, the school doesn't allow Jo to make the speech that she wrote due to some controversial remarks. They ask Blair to make a speech instead. What does Blair do? She reads Jo's speech. That scene is actually adorable, go watch it if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

--after Natalie graduates, she and Tootie get an apartment together, leaving Jo and Blair alone at the house (Mrs. Garrett was in Wisconsin or something and Beverly Ann wasn't on the show yet). Blair redecorates their bedroom in this romantic style, complete with matching headboards (oh yes, their beds still remained two feet away from each other despite all the extra room). They're like a married couple the entire episode, with Blair complaining that she's afraid that Jo is "getting bored with her". I swear I'm not making that up. That episode is like fanfic come to life. It's called "the Apartment" for anyone who is curious.

--Down and Out in Malibu, Jo runs off to California. The episode begins with Blair rummaging through the closet looking for Jo's catcher's mitt. She finally finds it and hugs it to her chest, and confesses that she missed Jo. The phone rings, it's Jo (surprise!), who asks Blair to wire her some money. Blair...goes to California to bring it in person and she's, like, giddy about it.

I'm linking to a clip of the song in "Cruisin"

Anyway...yes, Blair was always trying to break up Jo and her boyfriend, and vice versa (look at how Jo overreacts about Cliff being a stripper in "Dancin' as Fast as I Can". Even Mrs. Garrett tells her to chill) In the episode when they go to Atlantic City, Blair keeps trying to find a way to get between Jo and Flyman.

I can think of about a zillion other examples, but I look pathetic enough right now, so I will leave it at that!

And remember Jo's small act opf kindness when Mr. Frog suffered smoke and water damage.

While the show was definitely past its prime by its final seasons (as most shows in the 80s were by a ninth season when exiting cast members, producers and what have you caused shows to barely resemble themselves), the final season episode when Blair has the car accident is notable for the scene when Jo stays in the hospital room to talk to Blair through the night. Jo had the big perm the final season but I preferred it to her mullet of the previous two seasons.

But damn, Tootie was sporting the ugliest wig in that episode.

R306 yes, I love that scene! Jo wasn't even supposed to be there, she snuck in.

R305, oh yes, Mr. Frogg!

Blair was better at showing her emotions, Jo had big issues hiding her real feelings. Look how hostile she is in Brave New World, when she insists on sharing Blair's dorm room by sneaking in at night. She also keeps kicking guys out of Blair's room. It's sooo clear that she's jealous and afraid that she and Blair will grow apart if they live separately, but the anger and hostility she displays is astounding. Every inch the jealous, butch girlfriend. She physically drags Blair from a card game with her friends into their dorm, and then just insists on moving in. She's not even nice about it, she puts her shit all over Blair's room, in her drawers, etc. Jo had a difficult time showing any loving emotions, so the Mr. Frog thing was very sweet. Also, in Another Room, when Jo decides she's going to move out but they opt to renovate the attic instead, Jo SELLS HER BELOVED MOTORCYCLE so that she can stay. When Blair finds out, she gives Jo the bed by the window (which Blair had spent the whole episode insisting she needed...something about how the morning sun flatters her. Which, well, why would she care how she looks in the morning light if she's just sharing a room with her "friend" Jo? She didn't care about it when Natalie and Tootie's beds were up there...) Jo was also sweet to Blair in Magnificent Obsession (the one when Blair was dating that emotionally abusive guy), staying up with her all night to make sure she didn't call the jerk. And, the time that Blair was taking the LSATs and Jo bought her a study guide and stayed up with her all night.

File this under, "You learn something new everyday....." Kari Michaelson, of GIMME A BREAK, "dated" Michael J. Fox, right before Nancy McKeon??! How did I not know this?? (Three NBC actresses in a row....but I'm sure that's just a coincidence).

Do love this picture, though -- mainly for Mindy Cohn hugging on "little" Jason Bateman. That's a little slice of awesome.

Rewatching the episodes and you don't just realize that Blair was the lesbian in love with Jo... you realize that Jo was the bitch. She was always really hostile, uncompromising, judgmental and more often than not, unfair to Blair. Blair was actually the reasonable one with an open mind who was willing to step outside her box, learn something new, and learn something about herself.

Totally agree R309.

Remember the small claims episode where Jo stole blair's watch, broke it in a basketball game, and acted like she was entitled to do so because Blair had other watches she could use?

R310 Jo makes me so mad in that episode.

And I agree-Blair was honestly VERY patient to put up with Jo.

The first headmaster was hot. Whet?

[quote]And I agree-Blair was honestly VERY patient to put up with Jo.

She wasn't patient.. she was IN LOVE. People like Blair always put up with abuse from the ones they love!

Mr. Parker was hotter.

Kim was a lot younger than the other girls, only 9 during the first season. That's why they put her on roller-skates, it was to make her appear taller.

Did they ever explain what happened to Mr. Bradley?

Tootie's mushroom hairdo was all the rage.

[quote]Did they ever explain what happened to Mr. Bradley?

They never specifically explained why there was such a high turnover of headmasters and Bradley's immediate replacement, Mr. Harris, was only seen once and must have been an interim headmaster. Bradley himself replaced Mr. Crocker, who was headmaster when Kimberly Drummond went there and IIRC was relatively new and not well-liked; they called him "the Crock."

Eastland was always a school in decline, and not merely because the idea of sexually segregated schools was starting to become inherently dated and outré—even the real-life Westlake school in LA it was based on has gone coed and merged with a boys' school—but also because they were not immune to the economic decline of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Still, with the board of regents censoring the library and there constantly being some kind of financial issue — after Mrs. Garrett left Eastland, they switched to an industrial food supplier — you can guess that this place has seen better days, and if they were facing bankruptcy five years after Mrs. Garrett quit to open her shop, the whole administration should have been sacked years ago and the revolving door of headmasters is just one of many symptoms of their overall incompetence.

They also changed how old the school was at one point. In the first episode of the series proper, Miss Mahoney said the school was 54 years old, which in 1979 would have put its founding date at 1924, but then the Oldest Living Graduate said she kissed a Bates Boy in 1916 and graduated in 1918.

R318 the Headmasters obviously took their titles seriously and were all fucking the students.

I remember thinking the whole Blair/Mr. Bradley scenario was kind of hot.

I wonder whether Julie Piekarski ever read for the role of Katie Kanisky on [italic]Gimme A Break![/italic]. She's actually of Polish extraction, which Kari Michaelson wasn't. Interestingly, they had Julie Anne Haddock make a guest appearance in their first season as the girl into whose private clique Julie Kanisky wanted admission.

[quote] I remember thinking the whole Blair/Mr. Bradley scenario was kind of hot.

That might have been a factor in his dismissal.

All the girls had such luxurious hair during season one. Felice Scatcher's long, thick, bouncy, wavy, raven locks were particularly enviable.

I always thought Blair looked like she had the potential to be really stunning in Season 1 and then in Season 2 something happened where she wasn't as attractive. Maybe it was weight gain.

She had one of those faces that still looked good even with a little weight on it, like Ann Sothern and Delta Burke.

I bought the DVD box set about a year ago and rewatched the entire series. It really went downhill in season 8 when Irma Kalish took over as showrunner (which coincided with Charlotte Rae's exit). Each episode began to focus on one character, instead of the whole gang, and often times, there wouldn't even be a B-plot. And during season 9, the writers began recycling plots they had just written! For instance, Rick and Jo's dad meet and don't get along at first. A couple of episodes later, Snake and Jeff meet and don't get along at first. A couple of episodes later, Tootie and Jeff's grandma meet and don't get along at first...

Irma Kalish was also a producer and then executive producer on the post-John Amos [italic]Good Times[/italic] episodes. Some of the other writers from that era were veterans of that and other Lear shows who hadn't left to join the ranks of any of the Embassy expatriates like Mort Lachman and Howard Leeds or resign themselves to working for the Miller/Boyett bilge machine.

The only episodes I really remember in season 9 were the fantasy/off-kilter ones, although I still remember all the words to that "Bad Girls in Trouble" song. I don't think any of the old guard were still around by that point. They'd pretty much said everything they had to say, and under this writing staff, the attempted "Blair Warner's School" reboot would probably have ended up another [italic]Golden Palace[/italic], instead of a [italic]Mayberry RFD[/italic] or an [italic]Archie Bunker's Place[/italic] like they hoped it would be. They also spent a lot of time at some youth community center, much like the "help centah" at which Louise Jefferson was always volunteering.

Did Andy ever have other male friends? I can't really recall any specific ones.

[quote]Remember the small claims episode where Jo stole blair's watch, broke it in a basketball game, and acted like she was entitled to do so because Blair had other watches she could use?

But Jo was right, Blair was being a bitch about it.. If I broke a matchstick, why would you get mad, just use another matchstick. To Blair her watch was as common as a matchstick.

Do you think Jo broke that particular watch because she hated disco?

R326:

Jo was acting like an entitied cunt.

Blair wasn't mad about the watch, she was mad about the total disrespect from the mullet.

[quote] Jo was acting like an entitied cunt.

You mean the way Blair does every day of her fucking life?

Blair carried Jo for years. Unless they really were lovers, Jo brought nothing to the table other than a scowl and a 'gimme gimme gimme' attitude.

Her working class hero schtick was tedious.

Girls! Girls! You're both cunts!

r325, isn't the community center where Blair met that Casey dude? He was so not her type.

Also, what happened to the Over Our Heads store? I don't remember it at all in the last seasons.

[quote]Did Andy ever have other male friends? I can't really recall any specific ones.

Yeah.. he had at least one friend... the friend who wanted to take him "camping" over their summer vacation and Andy wussed out.

Blair actually didn't act like an entitled cunt. As stated upthread, Blair actually was the most evolved out of them. She was generous. Jo was the entitled cunt who felt she had a right to help herself to someone else's property, break it, and not apologize or offer to pay for it.

As I said way upthread, Jo was a bitch throughout. Blair always tried to help her and was so much nicer than Jo ever was in return.

R334 enjoys W&W

Jo was totally in the wrong in the broken watch episode. It didn't matter if Blair had 20 Rolexes, the point is SHE BROKE SOMEONE ELSE'S PROPERTY, and had a very nonchalant, flippant attitude about it just because the owner of the watch was rich. Jo could be even more bitchy than Blair sometimes. In fact, the only times that Blair truly made me angry was when she treated her sister-by-marriage (played by Eve Plumb) like crap because she wanted to become a nun, and the other time was when she was on her moral high horse about her boyfriend who was secretly a stripper in order to pay for school.

I'm still gobsmacked that Nancy McKeon turned out, for all intents and purposes, to be straight. She was so dyke-y in just about every season except that last two, that it was hard to believe that she actually wasn't one.

R338 who said she isn't one?

You can literally see how embarrassed George Clooney was in this clip from the 1:02 mark until the end. This NEEDS to be played if ever he is roasted...

Remember Tootie's EPIC tantrum when she wanted to go see Jermaine Jackson and Ms. Garrett forbid her to? She literally freaked the fuck out. And it wasn't even MICHAEL!

R341 Tootie freaked out every single fucking line she ever spoke on that show. She literally played everything like she was having an hysterical tantrum.

Was the episode, JO'S COUSIN, where they have a birthday dinner with Anne of Greenpoint, Megan Fellows in the Bronx, attempted spinoff? The guy who played Tony was hot as hell. I forget what 80's movie he was in.

R332, Beverly Ann and the girls decided to close Over Our Heads at the beginning of the show's final season. It wasn't turning a profit, and the girls were too busy with other things to help her run it. Also, they needed room for Andy.....and later in the season, Pippa (ugh). The OOH space was converted into bedrooms for Andy & Pippa.

As for Casey.......wasn't he basically supposed to be a male version of Jo? Working-class guy from Brooklyn (or was it Queens?).

[quote]The guy who played Tony was hot as hell. I forget what 80's movie he was in.

Grant Cramer. He was in a ton of '80s cheese films, from HARDBODIES to KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE.

The equally hot DW Brown was also in that episode. He really was scorching hot in his tighter-than-tight Jordache jeans. He played the guy who deflowered Jennifer Jason Leigh's character in the school dugout in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. Also, the dad in that episode was played by Soap/Golden Girls hottie Donnelly Rhodes.

How much of a demand was there in Peekskill for those expensive knick-knacks and novelties from New York City?

Grant in The Facts...

[quote]The OOH space was converted into bedrooms for Andy & Pippa.

And just a few episodes after all of that, all four girls announced they were moving out!

I fucking hated the series finale. It should have focused solely on the girls. In fact, Natalie was already living in SoHo and wasn't even in the last scene! WTF?

[quote]she was on her moral high horse about her boyfriend who was secretly a stripper in order to pay for school.

Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Blair also ticked me off several times in season 1, when she was truly a mean girl. The time she accused Cindy of being a lesbian was one of them.

[quote]Jo was totally in the wrong in the broken watch episode. It didn't matter if Blair had 20 Rolexes, the point is SHE BROKE SOMEONE ELSE'S PROPERTY, and had a very nonchalant, flippant attitude about it just because the owner of the watch was rich

No, Jo was right.

Again, if I took a matchstick from you and broke it and then thought nothing of it, and you said, "You broke my matchstick, those things cost money, you need to take better care of them." You would say, "Get over yourself it's a matchstick that sells for 50 matchsticks for a penny, stop being a cheap ass and a greedy.

To Blair her watch was just a matchstick.

Blair had many, many, MANY matchsticks, she wouldn't even have missed it.

Let's look at this from an another angle. Rich people work hard for their money. So why should someone that earns 100,000 dollars pay MORE in taxes than someone who earns 10,000. Is that fair? But you would say, "They can afford it, so they should not care." Blair can afford another watch so she shouldn't care.

[quote]The time she accused Cindy of being a lesbian was one of them.

Why is it bad to call someone a lesbian? Is it shameful?

Jo took something that wasn't hers when all she had to do differently was ask first. But she brought up a good point: how many watches does Blair need anyway, and why does she have as many as she does? And who wears wristwatches anymore?

[quote]Beverly Ann and the girls decided to close Over Our Heads at the beginning of the show's final season. It wasn't turning a profit, and the girls were too busy with other things to help her run it.

So what did she do for money? She couldn't get a job if I remember? Is that why she fostered Andy for the government money?

[quote]the point is SHE BROKE SOMEONE ELSE'S PROPERTY,

And Blair acted like a cunt. When Elizabeth breaks a cup of Hyacinth's Royal Doulton China, Hyacinth show class by saying, "It's OK." Even though she's distressed at the cost of replacing it.

[quote]No, Jo was right.

No, she wasn't. It's the principle of the situation. So what if Blair has more watches and/or could afford more? That's not the point. The point is, Jo was careless with someone else's property, broke it, and acted as if she didn't care. If she had said "My fault, Blair. I'll help pay for a new one," then Blair would have probably chalked it up to an accident and said forget about it. The fact that Jo took an "I don't care, you're rich and can afford more" stance is why she was taken to court. And in the end, she did apologize. Which she should have.

[quote]Why is it bad to call someone a lesbian? Is it shameful?

If it isn't true, it's slander. If it is true, it's homophobic when done with such an accusing tone. They couldn't even bring themselves use the word in that episode, but they still wanted to say it was okay for girls to touch other girls. Keep in mind it was 1979; Anita Bryant and "Save Our Children" were still a threat to gay rights, and three years earlier NBC had pulled a show with a gay character called [italic]Snip[/italic] before the first episode aired. That they even managed to do as much girl-on-girl touching as they did is amazing, all things considered.

[quote]And Blair acted like a cunt.

As she should have, given Jo's nonchalant attitude.

R351 thinks Bernie sanders is a capitalist pig

Maybe it was something she ate.

R337, what is a "sister-by-marriage"?

She's her stepsister.

Eve plumb made a career of playing step sisters who take abuse.

They wanted Blair to be the one to lose her virginity, but given the fact that Lisa Welchel is a Christian, she refused to do it. Mindy Cohn has said that she happily volunteered to be the one to lose it first. Natalie was secretly a little slut, anyway.

Big broads bone better

Natalie and Tootie can both dish it out to each other better than they can take it; Natalie actively tried to sabotage the production of [italic]South Pacific[/italic] when she didn't get the part, but then later when she tried to be as nice to Tootie as possible about how bad her Eleanor Roosevelt play was and offer constructive criticism to improve it, Tootie refuses to listen and buries her head in the sand. The show bombs, and they fight over it at the afterparty.

They all looked great during the last couple of seasons, despite the cartoonishly big hair and shoulder pads. Mindy had lost a tremendous amount of weight and her newly dyed red hair looked good on her, Lisa was thin with a tiny little waist and her hair was the best it ever looked, Kim had grown into a beautiful young woman (the breast reduction did wonders) and Nancy, whose transformation was probably the most dramatic, finally became feminine. Jo looked good in miniskirts and make-up with big curly hair and long nails. Even her personality had changed. Jo wasn't nearly as brash and in your face in the last season as she was in previous seasons.

All the money they spent on shoulder pads and hairspray must have taken a huge chunk out of the profits of the store.

Did Andy's parents die? Why did he call Beverly, "Mom?"

She adopted him in season 8. Up to that point he had been in foster care.

[quote]Why is it bad to call someone a lesbian?

Teenage girl in jr high/high school in the 70s... Yes it could certainly make life difficult.

R337, I agree. Blair didn't expect Jo to pay for it--it wasn't about the money--Blair felt very disrespected by Jo, and I don't fucking blame her. Blair was very loyal and trusting when it came to Jo, and I think she was deeply disappointed by Jo's complete disregard for her feelings.

I also agree with you on the Best Sister episode. My God, you would have thought her sister was about to go on a murdering spree. I just don't understand reacting so negatively to finding out a relative is going to become a nun.

In "Dancin As Fast As I Can", I always thought Blair's reaction had more to do with the fact that Cliff had kept this from her, rather than the morality thing. Jo, on the other hand, freaks the fuck out about Cliff stripping. She's trying SO hard to break them up, she's like "That really sucks doesn't it Blair? I mean what a creep he is. Haha, soooo, you're breaking up with him, right?! What do you mean you're not sure???"

I'm curious, what do you think about Blair in the Gamma Gamma or Bust episode? She freaks out on Mrs. Garrett over the catering order for the party. I know that we, the audience, are supposed to be appalled by Blair's behavior, but honestly? I think Mrs. Garrett was kinda wrong. Blair hired Mrs. Garrett to cater, and Mrs. Garrett chose the entire menu and started cooking without even consulting with the people paying her. I mean I've had things catered many times, and the menu was chosen by me. She just started making Mexican food. Granted, it wasn't Blair's finest moment, but I can understand Blair's frustration. A simple "Hey Blair, I was thinking about Mexican food, what do you think?" would have sufficed.

R344, yeah, I always thought of Casey as the male Jo. To me, it was very telling that Blair was attracted to him. She also showed zero interest in marrying him until Rick proposes to Jo.

Blair didn't show much actual interest in the usual Ken dolls she dated. The only times she ever showed REAL interest in men were when they were...well, like Jo in some way. Casey, as stated earlier. Cliff was studying to be a doctor, but was working his way through school and didn't have a lot of money. Even the autistic guy Leo, before Blair realized he's "special", he says something like "we're not in the same class" (meaning school), and she says "don't be silly, I don't mind that you work in a bakery." I think Blair evolved SO much, and learned to appreciate and respect those who work hard and don't have everything handed to them.

R350, there was a huge change in Blair beginning in season 2--after Jo came on board. Although with the lesbian thing, I can forgive her for that; she was 15 and probably trying to come to terms with her own growing feelings about girls at that point (yes, this is a scenario that I made up in my head)

And as for the matchstick analogy--if I broke someone's matchstick, I'd be like "sorry, I broke your matchstick." It obviously wouldn't be a big deal, but I would still offer an apology. Blair really just wanted an apology, some sort of acknowledgment. Jo was 100000% wrong.

And Blair was extremely generous. The biggest example is in The Christmas Show. She bought Jo that plane ticket to Florida and, knowing that Jo would have a fit if she knew Blair did it, she rigs this whole raffle ticket scheme so that Jo thinks she won the ticket. She wasn't showing off or looking for accolades, she was genuinely doing something nice for a friend. And how does Jo act? As ungrateful as possible.

"Ain't Misbeholden", when Jo loses her scholarship, and REFUSES to apply for the Warner Foundation scholarship because she's not taking anything from Blair's family. Jo makes me so mad in that episode. I think Jo REALLY didn't understand Blair--didn't understand that not all rich people are assholes. I mean it was season 4, that had lived together for almost three years by that point, did she really think Blair would carry that over her head? Of course Blair goes and applies on Jo's behalf and saves the day.

Blair explained her cuntness about her sister becoming a nun.

She explains its because she felt angry at God over he prayers being ignored vis a vis her parent's divorce.

Just reading these responses makes me realize that while it was an 80s show, it wasn't as shallow as people make it out to be.

I did feel Jo was a little nonchalant about Blair's watch but she did say that after years of Blair rubbing their faces in everything, she kind of felt like it WAS no big deal. I still love the courtroom scene.

Andy was never mentioned as being a foster child until the episode when Beverly Ann adopted him. There was even an episode earlier in that same season when they showed his grandmother (played by Billie Bird) who plagiarized Natalie's story.

Such a miscarriage of justice how Nancy Mckeon lost out to David schwimmer for the role of Robert Kardashian in the upcoming FX series about the OJ trial!

Another thing that shows that Jo was the one that was an entitled cunt...

In the season when they first get to Langley and Jo is stuck without enough Financial Aid to cover her dorm... what does she do?

She forces Blair to let her stay in her Dorm, even though Blair doesn't want her... and it could get both of them kicked out. She totally disregards Blair's needs and doesn't care about jeopardizing Blair's Academic standing at Langley. All Jo cared about was herself and took what she wanted... as usual.

Blair wasn't the entitled one.. Jo was.

No, Jo was right. The fact you're ignoring is to the watch was meaningless to Blair, just as a matchstick is meaningless.

You all know well and good, if I broke a matchstick and you said, "You should pay for it." you would all say that making someone pay for a matchstick is just being a jerk, as matchsticks are of such little value. The watch to Blair, had as little value as a matchstick has to the rest of us.

Blair was simply being a cunt because she was showing off.

It's like when Elaine (Seinfeld) gives the muffin "stumps" to the homeless and the head of the homeless shelter points out, "They're just the stumps." To Elaine she thinks the homeless should be grateful for any consideration no matter how humiliating it is.

I suppose you think making homeless people bark like a dog is fine because they're poor anyway. That is what Blair was doing, making Jo bark like a dog cause she had money.

And Blair never earned most of her money, except what she got from the store. She was always throwing her "generosity" toward Jo and even Mrs Garrett up in their face, with money she hadn't earned and was given. As Archie Bunker said, "It's easy to be generous when it's not costing you anything."

[quote]She forces Blair to let her stay in her Dorm, even though Blair doesn't want her... and it could get both of them kicked out.

And Blair could have reported her, so she wasn't forced to do anything.

[quote]Andy was never mentioned as being a foster child until the episode when Beverly Ann adopted him.

His story was rewritten a few times when the storyline needed tweaking but who remembers a thing like that.

But she didn't R380... because unlike Jo, Blair wasn't a cunt!

The matchstick troll keeps describing the very essence of entitled.

Jo gets to decide how Blair values her own property only in the mind of a greedy cunt.

Blair should have paid Leo to pop out Jo's eyes with a rusty spoon...

R379, ok, let's agree that the watch is meaningless to Blair...it's her friendship with Jo that's NOT meaningless. She didn't care about the stupid watch, she cared that Jo had no regard for her feelings. If Jo had simply said "hey Blair, look I borrowed your watch without asking and I broke it. I'm really sorry", Blair wouldn't have taken her to court. Also, I really don't think Blair through her generosity in anyone's face after about season 2 or so...she really started to grow (no bitches, I'm not talking about her weight). The "Shoplifting" episode in season 2, when Blair insists on getting her own expensive gift separate from the girls? Season 5 Blair wouldn't have done that. Like I said upthread, the fact that she concocted that whole raffle scheme to get Jo's plane ticket to Florida in The Christmas Show proves that she wasn't just throwing her money in people's face. Jo never would have known it was Blair.

In the Atlantic City episode, they take a BUS to AC. Blair says something like "a bus to Atlantic City, how glamorous...gee you think we can make a stop in Trenton?" But they take the bus, Blair doesn't mention it again...if she was that high and mighty, she would have hired a driver. Hell, I wouldn't even take the bus to AC and I'm even closer to it than Peekskill.

Blair took Jo bowling fpr Jo's birthday. This is talked about in "The Interview Show" episode. Jo says something like "she's always surprising me. She took me bowling for my birthday. Now I love bowling, but Blair? But, she got out there and did it. Ten frames, no complaints."

And yes, of course there are instances where Jo displayed friendship to Blair..."Magnificent Obsession", when she stayed up all night to make sure that Blair didn't call that asshole abusive guy; "This Is Only a Test", which she helped Blair study for the LSAT; the episode when Blair's boyfriend is a cokehead, etc. And, ultimately, Jo asked Blair to be her maid of honor in her (sham) wedding. But in general, Jo reminded me of a stubborn straight guy with a very understanding and patient girlfriend.

R378 you are right, though I honestly think Jo was feeling scared. Scared that she was out of her element (Langley is a "rich" school...Blair is really the only wealthy person she knows and is comfortable with), scared that she and Blair would drift apart and Blair would find a serious boyfriend (since she really hadn't had any at that point), etc. Look how Jo kicks that guy (named "Guy", which I swear the writer's used as a metaphor to represent ALL guys) out of Blair's dorm room, puts her stuff everywhere, etc.

And don't forget--Jo DID ask Blair for money in "Down and Out in Malibu", so she clearly had no problem taking Blair's money when it was convenient to her (and Blair missed her so much that she flew to CA to deliver it personally)

I'm going to chalk most of this up to Jo coming to terms with her sexuality...

Oh, and lets not forget how Jo PUNCHES BLAIR IN THE FACE. I know I said this upthread, but it is worth repeating. She PUNCHES BLAIR IN THE FACE (the nun episode), and Blair forgives her immediately.

I honestly think Blair was fascinated by Jo immediately upon meeting her. That scene in the jail cell when Jo defends Blair against that bully that steals her watch? Look at Blair's face when she thanks Jo. That girl fell a little bit in love. I don't think anyone ever made Blair feel as safe and secure as Jo and Mrs. Garrett did.

Any fans of the movie Bad Santa? The actress who played Miko played to visor-wearing girlfriend of the midget. This is one of my favorite pieces of Hollywood trivia ever because I LOVE that Bad Santa character.

[quote]Tootie's mushroom hairdo was all the rage.

Put Tootie in a cowl neck and she's a negative of Bonnie Franklin.

Does anyone know where I can find a blue satin jacket/ slacks combo to accessorize with my banana clip and white sneakers?

[quote] Any fans of the movie Bad Santa? The actress who played Miko played to visor-wearing girlfriend of the midget. This is one of my favorite pieces of Hollywood trivia ever because I LOVE that Bad Santa character.

Love that movie. Yet another full circle moment with [italic]Facts[/italic] for her since Cloris Leachman's in it, too.

Jo and Blair both would have been charged with contempt of court in real life.

Hey Dick Moll:

Don't forget our beloved tootie! She was never more tard than during her court appearance that day!

Wow... Miko did NOT age well.

It doesn't matter that Blair had a million watches. If a rich person has five houses, is it okay to break and enter into one and steal something or break something inside (by mistake, perhaps) because they have 4 other houses and the house wasn't that expensive compared to the other ones?

No. It's illegal to take someone else's property without their permission. If you dare to go that far and then you BREAK it, you should be eating a whole hunk of humble pie.

R393 you don't get it. If I have a matchstick and you...

Can I use my matchstick to ignite the matchstick troll?

Season Nine is coming to DVD. And Fucking PIPPA made the cover!

Ugh, Pippa was SO annoying and unnecessary with her vegemite speak and shit.

Clooney was SO hot on this show. When I was a kid, I used to pretend that I was Andy (Mackenzie Astin), who would always get to cuddle close to George, even sitting on his lap once I believe.

If I hear the word "matchstick" one more time....I'LL FUCKING CUT A BITCH!

How do you suppose Jeff died?

[quote]How do you suppose Jeff died?

CTE.

Speaking of Jeff, remember there was an episode when he was helping Tootie do inventory and she found out he couldn't read? But then, barely a season later, he was a student at Penn State majoring in marine biology. That boy is a fast learner...

Matchstick Troll = Jo Polnizaczek

Mr. Bradley from season one was creepy. He always seemed a little TOO eager to remind the girls that he was their "headmaster and you must obey me." I'm not kidding, he says some variant of that several times during the season.

I remember thinking it was weird that they turned the Over Our Heads space into bedrooms for Andy and Pippa. It was so far away from where everyone else slept, you just know those two teenagers were totally having sex.

[quote]ok, let's agree that the watch is meaningless to Blair...it's her friendship with Jo that's NOT meaningless. She didn't care about the stupid watch, she cared that Jo had no regard for her feelings.

No it's not that Jo had no regards for Blair's feeling, it's just that Jo had no regard for Blair's concept. Blair was WRONG to feel that way. The watch was meaningless to Blair and Blair wanted to rub the fact that she had money and Jo didn't into Jo's face.

[quote]No. It's illegal to take someone else's property without their permission. If you dare to go that far and then you BREAK it, you should be eating a whole hunk of humble pie.

But Blair did the same to Jo so if you're going to bring that into the frame, then all the girls and Mrs Garrett should be in jail because they all borrowed and used each other's stuff. That point shows how illogical you are.

The bottom line is the watch was of no value to Blair, so why is she harping on it. Because she is throwing her wealth in Jo's face.

So the guy who CORRECTLY pointed out the matchstick analogy is a troll simply because he is CORRECT?

Not one of you has yet to refute his theory. If you change the word watch with the word matchstick, not ONE of you would side with Blair. It is simply the fact the watch has value which makes Blair mad, even though money means nothing to Blair, mainly because 99.9% of her money was given to her by her father, mother and racist grandparents.

Funny how Blair doesn't give that money back.

[quote]If a rich person has five houses, is it okay to break and enter into one and steal something or break something inside (by mistake, perhaps) because they have 4 other houses and the house wasn't that expensive compared to the other ones?

No and Jo did not do that. Saying that Jo stole the watch from Blair is not an apt analogy. I suggest you read Miller analogies and learn what a proper analogy is.

How nice of the ghost of Hugo Chavez to come and brighten up this thread!

Jeff died?

In the reunion movie, he's apparently dead, R410.

There was no word of Snake. Scott Bryce was replaced by another actor.

The actress who played Pippa was cute and they could have done more with her than have her just use Aussie slang. Most likely, they wanted to aim her into a spinoff. But the writing was on the wall the final season. The "Down and Out in Malibu" episodes were terrible and were just a way to get some "synergy" with a hit NBC TV show (something "Facts" never was) although Jo looked good with her mullet grown out and before her big hair perm. But there were some decent episodes even in the final season. Granted they were fewer and far between and they didn't feature Andy, Pippa or Beverly Ann. Poor Cloris Leachman. So great in so many things before and since but the producers had no idea what to with her here. The show could have just ended after Season 7 but they beat a dead horse. Season 7 wasn't the best but at least Mrs. Garrett was still around for about 75% of it.

[quote]everyone else slept, you just know those two teenagers were totally having sex.

hahaha. No, just no.

[quote]No and Jo did not do that. Saying that Jo stole the watch from Blair is not an apt analogy.

She also didn't "JUST" take a matchstick.

Which one was Jeff? Was Mrs Garrett's lying, musician, son ever given another episode?

You mean her lying musician son?

R415, no, Jeff was Tootie's boyfriend (whose name, for some reason, was Zack when they first met)

R416, no, that was me

R418, I'm the only Alex that matters.

I remember being really depressed after the Cynthia commits suicide episode. That one was a bit too much for my 8 year old self to take, though it did educate me on the signs a person is going to commit suicide, i.e. giving a random black girl from school a locket right before you go through with it.

I have logo on in the background as I do some file purging and there is cunty, entitied Jo:

Helping herself to one of blair's Langley sweaters because after all, Blair has 4 of them...

This is why the matchstick troll is way off.

The matchstick analogy suggests a one time mistake. That's inaccurate because Jo showed a continual pattern of feeling entitled to whatever she decided Blair didn't really need.

If the same person kept breaking your matchsticks over and over, you might feel more justified making it an issue after the 100th time...

R421 you have a point. I like Jo, but...she doesn't make any sense. She always claimed to never want to take anything from Blair--to the point where she was willing to be kicked out of Eastland because she refused to accept a scholarship from the Warner Foundation--yet Jo had no problem breaking Blair's watch and not apologizing. Look, I lived with roommates too when I was that age, and we borrowed each other's shit all the time (often without asking)...but of COURSE you should apologize if you destroy something that doesn't belong to you!

Jo also had zero problem asking Blair for money when she was homeless in "Down and Out in Malibu".

Like I said, I really like Jo--but she was wrong, wrong, wrong. Jo is an angry lesbian with entitlement issues. I'm sure she calmed down as she got older, at least I hope so, for Blair's sake, because by my calculations they've been together for like 30 years, so...Blair grew into such a mature, generous young woman. What a transition from season one.

I will defend this to the death. You break something, you apologize-YES, even a fucking matchstick.

A lot of people who grew up poor have trouble accepting help from others, even voluntary help.

R422, but those instances all happened far from one another. The Jo who wouldn't take the scholarship was Eastland, angry Jo who felt like an outsider. Jo who broke the watch was Jo when she was a sophomore in college, was popular, well-liked by the community and was getting arrogant. The pizza business, the scoreboard mishap, the watch - these were all when Jo was hot shit in college. Asking Blair for money wasn't even hard for ehr as it was the tail end of the show and she and Blair had put a lot aside by then and she had helped Blair study for her LSATs. Note how Blair didn't even hesitate to help her or even try and guilt her.

I guess if you watch the show start to finish, there IS a pattern that emerges.

Jo and Blair both sucked, they seemed to like being mean for the sake of being mean. Natalie was where it's at.

Blair wasn't mean after the first two seasons. She was hardly mean the second season.

Jo was just an outright bitch all the time though.

And Natalie was NOT where it was at. Out of the four of them, Natalie is the one I would have liked the least. She was constantly instigating things and always way too wet below.

Has any of the original Facts of Life girls passed away yet. Why have they not done a reunuion show yet. Would be so sad if one of the girls passes away before that.

Why haven't they done a reunion show? Are you on crack R427?

Gee, R427, if only there were some way to find out information. Maybe one day someone will invent it.

Which is the episode when Jo is ranting and ranting about the bike shop and Natalie is telling Mrs. Garrett to do something and Mrs. Garrett says, "OH Jo, it sounds like you're planning to bomb them!" and Natalie says, "She IS!!!!" It's shown in the 5th season season-ender clip show. Can't find the episode though.

That sounds kind of like "A Woman's Place" from season 4. It's the only one I can think of right now with a bike shop in it.

No, R431, I saw that one last night and I thought that same thing but that was a garage, not as bike shop. Jo was specifically here talking about blowing the place up and "motorcycles everywhere!!!"

Okay, here's the dialogue. Jo didn't get a job but it's not from "A Woman's Place." Anybody recognize the episode? It probably wasn't the main plot.

Jo- A clock I need a clock Nat- Jo wait! Jo- Mrs. Garrett I'm taking ya egg timer oh and I need a fuse and I'll mix up some chemicals in the science lab. Mrs. G- whada making a bomb? Nat- YES! YES! Mrs. G- What! Jo- i'm gonna roll it through their front doors and then POW boy pow dead Kawasaki's all over the place. Mrs. G- I take it you didn't get the job...may I have those matches please Jo- That's right I DID NOT GET THE JOB. did anyone miss that I DID NOT GET THE JOB! go ahead Blair hit me with your best shot go head!

R432 you might be thinking of:

"The Facts of Life: A Friend in Deed (#3.4)" (1981)

Blair's mother arrives on a surprise visit and Blair is ecstatic until dire news is revealed about her mother's health.

[quote]I'm gonna roll it through their front door, and POW! BOY, POW! Dead Kawasakis all over the street!

That's it, thanks., R434.

Is it time for a "Is Jo a Terrorist" thread?

R436 LOL!

R433, I like the rest of that scene too. After Jo tells Blair to hit her with her best shot, Blair says something helpful like "if anyone doesn't like you, don't you know that's there problem?" Jo then says "you know Blair...you are what you are. And that's good enough for me."

Jo was horrible. I used to work with someone like that. Just a sour cunt, for no reason.

[quote]The matchstick analogy suggests a one time mistake.

Give it up the guy who with the matchstick analogy was right, just give it up and admit it already.

My guess is Lisa Whelchel posts here and is still bitter that Nancy go the "end / as" credit which Whelchel wanted so badly.

The matchstick troll is the real tard.

Probably a 56yo 'bernbro'

I'm surprised no one mentioned how Jo forced herself on Blair. She couldn't afford the dorm so she moved into Blair's room, who told her she couldn't stay. They got caught and Blair almost got kicked out.

Blair has money which means she doesn't need her education. She can simply return home and shop.

That means Jo had every right to compromise Blair's good standing with the university.

Blair would be a nasty cunt if she dared complain since her family fortune means higher education has no more value to Blair than a safety pin.

Would you complain if someone bent one of your safety pins?

Oh for fuck's sake, commie matchstick, safety pin people. We get it, you don't think rich people deserve anything.

R441 actually, that was mentioned upthread.

There's a cast reunion on the Hallmark channel (some show called Home and Family) this Monday at 10am. Lisa, Kim, Charlotte, Geri Jewell and even Gloria Loring...and Clooney via video!

R445, you didn't mention Todd Bridges.

"Blair has money which means she doesn't need her education. She can simply return home and shop.

That means Jo had every right to compromise Blair's good standing with the university."

Perhaps the stupidest thing I've ever read.

R447:

Then I accomplished my mission as that post was written as a parody of the matchstick troll...

Some great pictures on Lisa's twitter/instagram of the above mentioned Hallmark talk show reunion.

As an old-timey DAYS fan, I really loved seeing the pics of Gloria Loring with them! (Loved me some Liz & Neil, and her Kim/Shane anthem, "Friends & Lovers").

Damn, R446! Todd Bridges looks ROUGH. Like a crack addict, standing in the middle of a bunch of healthy, clean-living peers. Oh, wait.......

Also, apparently, the "big surprise" of this show is that George Clooney sends a video message/greeting to Charlotte Rae for her upcoming 90th birthday. Okay, that's pretty big......or nice, or cool, or something!! While George has never dissed FOL, he's never really said much about it, either -- although they have all told their little (completely innocuous) stories about Clooney.

Alrighty.....after posting that (449)l I found the clip. This is sweet, and seems very genuine......and Charlotte (almost 90) *immediately* recognizes what he's talking about, and is delighted by the memory.

Someone's in trouble…

The reunion on House & Home tomorrow sounds pretty well done! Charlotte, Kim, Lisa, Geri, Goria Loring and Todd Bridges are all in the studio, and they have taped messages from two people who very rarely talk about FOL - George Clooney (who's big enough to be gracious and have fun with it now) and Molly Ringwald (who has ever participated in any reunion and has barely mentioned FOL in 30 years, and has always seemed very bitter about it). Plus, they have a live feed with Nancy, and Mindy tweeted that she participates in a small way, too, though she's not present. It's a pretty impressive line-up.

I, for one, am a little sick of Mindy's attitude towards the show now. If it weren't for the show no one would give a shit about her at all.

R453, maybe that attitude rubbed off from her pal Angelina?

Important question - there is a season 7 episode with an undercover cop played by Demetre Phillips. He doesn't have very many credits on IMDB - does anyone know anything about him? SERIOUSLY hot with a nice deep voice...

I watched the reunion today and it was delightful. Nancy was very gracious as was Clooney. The biggest highlight was Gloria Loring singing the FULL version of the theme song. It would have been a top 10 hit had they released it.

No, dear, it wouldn't have.

R456 Link to the reunion?

There are multiple segments.

Thanks, R459.

I don't care for the Hallmark hostess calling Blair a "love to hate her" character. That was never the case.

Lisa actually looks great.

It's interesting that the older George gets the more and more he looks like his father.

I still can't with Kim's refusal to say her catch phrase. I knew she was gonna pull that!

Gloria brought down the house with that retro Vegas lounge act!

R453......For many years, Mindy did all the FOL stuff. She sat for interviews for all those Cast Confessions/E! Hollywood True Story/Truth Behind The Sitcom Scandals programs. She promoted the initial DVD release of S1 & S2 with Lisa & Nancy -- which Charlotte & Kim refused to do. (Charlotte refused because they weren't receiving any residuals from the DVDs, and I respect that point of view. I can't recall if that was Kim's reason, too). She did the TV Land Awards. She participated in the 35th Anniversary Paley Center Event and Q&A, year & half ago.

To the best of my recollection, the only two cast-"things" in which Mindy has not participated (in the past year), were the Entertainment Weekly Oral History of FOL, and this Hallmark show. At the time of EW Oral History, she made a statement to the effect. "It was great. But I just don't have anything left to say, that I haven't already said, in numerous interviews." She has acknowledged, *numerous* times, that her career is due to FOL (and Charlotte in particular) .....and Tweets old-timey FOL pictures now & then on "Throwback Thursdays". I see no "attitude".......or nothing worse than others. in years past (except Lisa; she seems to be the one who ALWAYS embraces talking about FOL). C'mon....Nancy McKeon refused to talk about show, for like, TWENTY years!! And you're bagging on Mindy, for saying "Enough", a year ago?? I don't understand that.

I own my feelings. Mindy owes her entire career to FOL, Nancy, Charlotte and Kim don't.

Poor Geri...

That face looks like it was mauled by a pit bull!

As an old-school DAYS fan (as well as FOL), seeing Gloria Loring perform the entire theme song was an extra special treat. Loved her on DAYS as Liz Chandler Curtis. She sang regularly on DAYS, in the early 80's, and she had a hit song from the show -- "Friends & Lovers" with Carl Anderson. It was a really sappy duet, but it was my favorite-couple's "song" so......I loved it!!.

So much so that I forgive her for giving birth to Robin Thicke.

That should have read, "So much so, that between it ** AND the FOL theme song ** I forgive her for giving birth to Robin Thicke,"

I'm not disputing that R466......and neither has Mindy. EVER.

But does that mean she is beholden to participate in [b]EVERY[/b] FOL-reunion, that is ever planned?

Love this show. Surprisingly still hold up.

Alright, Mindy at R470-we got it. You don't owe the 90 year old woman who gave you your career anything but a videotaped message since you're so busy at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater.

Charlotte has been a pig toward her treatment of Mindy for 40 years.

Even this morning, she called her the 'chubby jew'

I give Mindy a pass, and even think she has been more than gracious considering she is dealing with a mentally deranged bigot for a 'mentor'

Okay, R472.....as long as you get it.

Charlotte is Jew too, R473.

[quote]Charlotte is chubby Jew too, [R473].

Larry Wilmore guested as a cop a few times (with little hood-dyke, Kelly, played by Louis CK muse and voice of Bobby Hill, Pamela Aldon) and Holy Shit! Larry was fucking hot.

R475:

According to the above mentioned Pamela, Charlotte resented Mindy because she kept her real name and remained practicing. This hostility manifested in her bullying Mindy about her weight.

Think of the legendary story about Charlotte gifting her a book on masturbation and referring to it as a 'big gal's best friend'

R478, where did that story about the masturbation book come from anyway?

Also, what you mentioned about the Jewish thing, I wonder if that's why Mindy/Natalie began wearing a Hebrew symbol on a necklace around season 5 or so.

Interesting point R479. Perhaps that was a type of pushback...

I have no interest in this thread but I have to say that every time I scroll past it, I truly laugh out loud at the title.

Bump.

It's funny that before the show began, Mindy had the least amount of acting experience but was, as far as I know, the only one who had actually gone to a prep school.

[quote] Did adults watch this show?

We live in a world where PhDs dress as Darth Vader to go to the movies. I think that concern is a little bit moot at this point.

Has logo stopped showcasing America's favorite tard and her gal pals?

To be honest, "Tootie" was a horrible actress-I'm not talking about Kim Fields, but last night Tootie was doing "the quality of mercy..." speech and Christ, was she rotten.

[quote] Has logo stopped showcasing America's favorite tard and her gal pals?

If you're not part of a Nielsen household, what you watch has no effect on what actually gets made or rerun.

How does that address my question, R487?

Now that the whole show's on DVD, you don't have to be at the mercy of cable TV to get your fix.

Tootie presented as a genius when compared to TV's SCHNEIDER

Tootie is a sweet girl but she has no street sense, I was street.

Don't know about tard but apparently having a sister/mom causes serial killer syndrome.

Should we talk about her daughter, Alexis?

Well, she was a tard, but it started to wear off, so she had to get retarded.

The OP of this thread is retarded.

Who the fuck says Tard? What are you guys 13? Data-lounge is ran by a bunch of morons.....

R496: Oh, the irony...

Passive voice takes the past participle, R496. You used the past simple form of the verb.

Now who's the tard?

Fuck. We all hop...err, thought you were dead.

Does it hurt to have Multiple Sclerosis?

...I have Cerebral Palsy

Mrs Garrett the retard is answering back to me.

I was

No, but Blair is a CUNT... in real life.

Kim was 9 irl at the filming of S1 of Fol. Her character was 12 in S1. Nancy character Jo was older, Mindy character was younger, and Lisa character was younger than their real ages. I think everyone is forgetting the writer's strike of the 80's that played a factor in the time loop of the show .