Was Natalie from Facts of Life considered a great big fat person?

In 1980 she was considered FAT.

By todays standards she is PLUMPISH.

She was homely, but compared to those prettier cunts, she was a more likable teen.

Also, of the four girls, SHE was the one who almost got raped on Halloween, even though she was dressed as Hitler.

If you're rape-able in the Age of AIDS, then you're clearly not irredeemably ugly!

R2- She wasn't ugly . She was just average looking.

Nell Carter was enormous when Gimme A Break premiered in 1981

What is up with that pink ribbon?

The only other famous people fatter than her (AT THAT TIME) that I remember were Dom Deluise and Rerun from What’s Happening.

Oh honey R3, she was ugly. Ugly ugly ugly.

R6 and Fat Albert, and Barry White, and Jabba the Hutt

This is today's attractive woman.

What am I R6, chopped liver??

She was a jolly fatso.

Hello!

Media outlets at the time applauded her for daring to appear on national television being bigger than a size 00, yes. Blair was the babe of the series though.

Yes, she was.

I rarely want to tell DLers to be kind, but Mindy posts here and we should at least keep on her good side in case she ever decides to spill some tea

She was roomy in the hips.

Blair and Jo had way too much lezzie sexual tension to be sexy. And metal-mouth Tootie was too young and bony to turn on anyone but Michael Jackson. Mrs. Garrett was a stud, but she wasn't around often enough to spring wood in viewers.

[quote] Yes, she was. I rarely want to tell DLers to be kind, but Mindy posts here and we should at least keep on her good side in case she ever decides to spill some tea

If she post here. She is well aware that Datalounge is a toxic waste dump, and she therefore knows what to expect.

She had a bush the size of East St. Louis

We all love Natalie / Mindy.

R18 And tits as dull as the Cahokia Mounds

If you’ve seen her Instagram she loves nasty gay cunts. And she’s friends with ex-DL superstar Josh Kilmer-Purcell so I’m sure if she’s ever wandered over here he warned her off

Mindy Cohn still sorta has a career, even if it's just in indie films put out by her gay friends. When's the last time you saw these other trollops?

Of course but when the rest of the cast blimped out she was just one of the fats of life.

Tootie got fat?

In 1982 all of the girls were fat on that show!

R6- Shirley Hemphill and Mabel King were both OBESE too, bigger than Rerun.

R24 Yep for the early 80’s Tootie was considered fat although she was half boobs.

She wasn't all that great, but she was definitely big and fat.

Now how in the hell was Tootie ‘bony’ with those size F tits?

I blame Facts of Life for my childhood obesity. All those bitches talked about was FOOD. Cookies, croissants, quiches, hamburgers, pizzas…they were always shoving something in their pieholes.

We used to call her Fatalie.

Blair will always be a Blay-uh due to Cousin Geri.

With Blair's cousin Geri you go two for the price of one- A RETARD and a LESBIAN.

R32 You're not supposed to use that word anymore.

Please, call her a DYKE.

Blair looked like Miss Piggy.

Mindy Cohn lives a charmed life. She's a rich girl who has never had to worry about money a day in her life. She just wafts along from rich people's place to rich people's place hanging out with her rich gay pals and being the ultimate rich white Jewish fat fag hag.

Mindy gets lot of cock. Don't be jealous

Did Natalie’s pussy stink?

R34 Mindy was a huge bitch to Molly Ringwald because Molly was far beneath her. Molly had to hustle and work to support her family from age 5 (since her dad was a blind out of work musician and her mom was a “cook”) whereas Mindy did the show for shits and giggles.

In comparison to the average bull dyke on DL. Natalie is gorgeous with a rockin body.

I remember a joke from the 80s to the effect of: What has eight legs and weighs 1000 lbs? A: The Facts of Life.

Mindy seems like an exceptionally nice person.

No

She was disgusting. She looked like a troll or ogre

She’s a big girl, yes

R39, lmao 🤣😂

At one point in the series Mindy Cohn's Natalie was thinner than the rest of the girls. I thought she was the most likable of the girls.

R44, I always got a inner raging fat girl who hides behind the jolly .

I think she's really pretty.

Kim Fields was not fat, she was pregnant with her "sister."

I love Mindy.

Would rather see her on TV than the Trumpy Susan Olsen.

She was curvy

I remember binging on Battle of The Network stars back when Trio existed (I had never seen any in full before), and Kim Fields was on one - she and Michael J Fox were on the NBC for the relay. And all I was thinking was how the hell could she even run with those huge tits? Probably around ‘84.

By the time of the OOH years she had grown into a very pretty “woman” (I think she was only 15 or 16, but..)

[quote]she was the most likable of the girls.

By a mile, and dare I say it, the most charismatic, too.

Why is Mindy red now though? She’s still fat but in her 50s and red. Maybe she always had money but she never poured in into eating disorder therapy, nutrition, or a gym membership. I don’t keep dumpy hags. They’d better be able to be glamazons or I’m not interested.

met her at a party a few years ago. her face has chubby features but she's a normal sized person. Maybe she could lose 20 lbs but thats true of most of us

She was a big girl. I think she’s a doll, and she was always my favorite character on that show.

Always looked svelte to me.

She was anorexic!

Give that girl a plate of cheeseburgers!

Blair and Tootie starred in one of those Hallmark Channel movies in 2014.

R5 Don't even get Deirdre Hall started!

She was cute and chubby as an adolescent and like ALL of us except on camera went thru an awkward phase. Towards the end of the run of the show she slimmed down and looked great. Again I think her journey was normal. Except in press in front of millions. Imagine that.

Regarding her career, she had the last laugh. In addition to Facts to also did cartoon voice over work. Bitch made bank.

I just caught one of the college episodes, and they are all fat, even Blaire.

The bar wasn't set as high.

As a straight guy, she was fat and not considered attractive back in the '80s. Hard pass.

She looks like the long lost sister of Chris Chan.

To answer your question, yes, she was considered fat in those days. Most high schools in those days had 1 or 2 fat people. Saw an old I love Lucy episode with Tennessee Ernie Ford. He was being forced to marry Ensey(sp) or Weensy(sp). These two women came out and were considered so fat then the audience broke out into spontaneous laughter. They would pass for an AVERAGE high school student now.

[quote]Shirley Hemphill and Mabel King were both OBESE too, bigger than Rerun.

I heard they ate Raj.

All the girls - and Mrs G - were beefy. Blair was considered the “hot” one because she had that blonde hair and a button nose.

[quote]What is up with that pink ribbon?

She supports breast cancer research, Rose.

Sorry - OT

The post about Shirley and Mabel had me go to IMDb to check out Whats Happening!! - Haywood “Dwayne” Nelson’s still handsome in his profile pic!

Looking through Haywood’s other pics, I came across the linked picture below.

Does anyone know WTF this would have been from?

Was it a spoof??

Mindy Cohn was the only one likeable back then and as it turned out, the only line likable now. Look at how Blair turned out to be some fundi god freak.

The funny thing is all the girls got fat by the end of the series. The producers tried putting all of them on a diet. - Craft Service.

The reunion movie is pure DL funny. They are now grown and mid to late 20s/early 30s. Natalie is a journalist in nyc and being pursued by one totally hot dude and one rich man. Tootie is an actress or news person. Blair has bought Easton and turned it into a hotel. Jo is a no show but they have her doppelgänger daughter who rides a motorcycle. Edna hooks up w the head chef. It’s on YouTube. Get high and watch it.

I look forward to seeing the photos of all of our respondents, 1 through 70 thus far.

Since you are all perfection personified and can render judgement on Mindy and, indeed, humanity, I look forward to immersing myself in the images of your stunning beauty.

R71 There's no doubt that I'm fat, even obese. You wanted an opinion on someone from more than 3 decades ago.

We gave it.

She was considered fat and unattractive. Next thread.

I think she's tremendous!

She always seemed to be squinting, unless she was trying to convey shock or surprise. Even in OPs pic, she is squinting.

On the VERY early episodes of Facts Of Life (1979-1980) Blair was totally slim and beautiful but by the fall of 1980 when Joe first appeared on the show she was already a BIT chunky.

One of my favorite episode of The Facts Of Life was the episodes where Joe is the new girl and they all end up in jail and this LESBIAN ( who looks like a character from one of those Womans Prison movies from the 1940's) tries to steal Blair's watch and then Joe ( also a DYKE) tells the other LESBIAN that she'll rework her face if she doesn't give Blair the watch back- a FUNNY and good scene.

Great interview

Blair Warner is a human roach nest!

i so so wanted old ole Mrs. Garrett to get some loving from Cliff, the male stripper boyfriend of Blair! now that would be a true facts of life! or at least get some regular dicking from the other male strippers at "wedgewoods"!...

It puzzled me, R26, how Mama snagged that hot ex-husband?

Lisa Whelchel has made a few Hallmark Channel movies over the last few years. Lisa and Kim Fields were in one called "For Better or For Worse".

BLAAAAIR!!! I love how everyone forgot about Jerry Jewell. Can we just admit now that no matter how well Intentioned it was to put a "comedian" with cerebral palsy on the show was a complete flop?

R82. Are you new to DL?

I'm not familiar with Natalie so I can't comment if she was considered fat but by todays standards she is slim.

I cant even imagine Lisa Whelchel as a life coach. I can't, I just can't. Who's calling her? Fat Fraus from flyoverstan to ask what's it's like to go to a debutante ball?

R75’s comment made me look it up.

Submitted for your perusal:

Natalie’s squint and whale sweater. Tootie looking like a kindergartener. Molly Ringwald’s thin lips and mushroom ‘do. Mrs. G’s giant helmet. The random dude who disappeared and was never mentioned again. Blair’s fabulous swoop/combover. The “tomboy” who isn’t butch.

Mindy Cohn was obese.

Why do woman of that age often go for that bullet proof hair? Is it some kind of statement about gun rights? A subconscious helmet of armor?

R88- Are you referring to Liza Minnelli's hair? She's been wearing that SAME hairdo like a helmet since 1972.

Geri Jewell was not a flop on Facts. My all-time episode is when Blair is jealous (but not ashamed) of Geri. Geri only disappeared from the show (after season 5 or 6) because she wanted a big salary increase.

^^all-time FAVORITE episode

R69, Lisa Whelchel was absolutely gorgeous and thin on several seasons of Facts including the final. And, as for being a Fundi freak, she seems to have left much of that behind when they dumped her for becoming more.progressive.

R92- Two and a half years before The Facts Of Life premiered she appeared on The NEW Mickey Mouse Club- her hair style looked like a mop and she wasn't pretty.

What's your point? We're talking about the FoL years.

Lisa Whelchel was at her most beautiful the first season of FOL, apparently during the writer's strike she went back home to Texas and ate her feelings and when she returned, which coincided with Jo's being added to the cast, she was quite plump. By the end of the series she had lost all the weight, but she definitely had a Brooke Shields' CK ad thing going on in that first season.

If you listen to the interview R77 posted it sounds like Whelchel moved on from alot of the beliefs from her first marriage and isnt nearly as fundie as she was before. It sounds as if she involved past it. It also sounds like she and Mindy Cohn has gotten closer in the past few years and I wouldn't imagine that would be the case if she was still that way.

People change involve and grow and it sounds like she did as well.

R90- She was supposed to be Blair’s cousin but she seemed SO lower middle class while Blair was an UPPER class Park Avenue princess 👸.

R86- I thought that RANDOM dude was cute 🥰. I’d do him back then.

Admit it, no one like Geri Jewell. She was the black fly in our Chardonnay.

So was Jo supposed to be a Tomboy in the most innocent of ways being more down to earth than the rest of the girls or did they put that character in there as an intentional baby bull dyke to be more progressive? I mean, they still played her off as being into guys. Did they really understand what they were doing?

Was it secret gays in plain sight like Uncle Author on Bewitched or was it complete lack of understanding of the stereotype?

R100, "Uncle Author"? Seriously? Also, "tomboy" isn't capitalized. OMG, you're uneducated.

Thanks for criticizing me R101 without bothering to answer the question. CUNT!

R100 I genuinely don’t think so - those type of characters were just very “in” back then (regardless of whether the actress playing the character was gay or not or on the QT) - and they were trying to do a redux of Little Darlings. It was about bonding across class differences just as the Tootie Natalie relationship was about bonding across racial differences (and the fact that anyone deserved a medal for putting up with Tootie).

Natalie (Mindy) had trimmed down significantly during the last two seasons of Facts. Blair also had lost her season 2 chunk. Tootie was the one who ballooned up at the end.

Natalie and Jo were the funniest characters. Tootie, Blair, Geri and Mrs. Garrett could be quite annoying.

I read that Marlene Dietrich LOVED "The Facts of Life" and Mindy was her favorite. She had been chubby herself as a teenager.

There was going to be a Belgian production of "Les faits de la vie" starring Delphine Seyrig as Madame Garrecq, but her early death stopped production.

R104- By the mid 1980's the girls hairstyles were FUCKIN UGLY. In 1980 they had nice low key straight hair- as your photograph amply demonstrates.

No, back in the '80s Natalie wasn't really considered at all, OP..

She was supposed to be the fat friend.

You know, in abusive environments, some children pork out in an effort to be less desirable to predators...

The best parody ever! Mrs. Garrett is spot on, Joe is a dude, Blair gets progressively fatter.

Derrida was a HUGE fan of TFOL, and he said it most greatly exemplified, 'Il n'y a rien dehors du texte'

Jean Genet referred to the cast as his "Grosses putes préférées" and then he sucked a dick.

[quote]She was supposed to be Blair’s cousin but she seemed SO lower middle class while Blair was an UPPER class Park Avenue princess

That is because Blair's mother was a bitch who only married men for money then dumped then. This is why Cuzin' Jerry is related to Blair via her mother Monica. Blair's father had the money and her step-sister Jan Brady also had money so must've been related through Blair's father

[quote]Look at how Blair turned out to be some fundi god freak.

So someone who believes in God is a freak? You're a douchebag.

Lisa was about normal weight the first year of Fact of Life. Then she ballooned up, until the second year of the "Edna Edibles" years and dropped a TON. She remained thin and was much thinner than everyone else. But her hairdo (like all of them) were 80s big hair.

Kim Fields was the only one that had charm and talent. She was a scene stealer straight off. But as TV Guide said, when test audiences saw the Facts of Life, the only girls they remembered were Blair, Tootie and Natalie. That makes sense but it seems that Sue Ann seemed to have the most stories and they seemed to be pushing her but it never worked.

Let's face it, the show was destined to fail.

R115 Easy to remember the rich bitch, the fat one and the african american one. I felt bad for Molly.

r117

Molly was the WORST. She was just annoying.

r116

Still bitter because you got replaced

Mindy wasn't an actress before F.O.L. Charlotte Rae found her when she went on a trip to a prep school as part of researching her part for Facts of Life. Mindy was a student at the school who reminded her of a childhood friend, so she cast her in the series.

My granddaughter is NOT fat! The correct term is zoftig.

She was so fat, the family of Charlie Chaplin sued her for using her father's image and disgracing it.

She was fat then and she's fat now. And a raging cunt.

We object!

Bullshit, R115. Both Welchel amd M cKeon are talented. Turn blue!

How did she not win an Emmy?

R104 What the fuck were they wearing on their heads? Jesus, women's hair looked ridiculous in the 1980s.

Is OP Buffalo Bill?

R127

It was all about shag cut mops.

R129 And those assholes have the NERVE to complain about kids today.

r125

Look at a tiny Kim Fields on "Baby I'm Back." She steals the show. She was the only pro on season one.

She'd get all the prime cock in West Virginia today with that slammin' bod.

For the life of me I don't understand why those whores waited until their mid twenties to lose their virginity. In the real world Blair would have been on abortion 5 by season 3.

r133

Well Natalie got raped, but they couldn't call it rape so they made it a near attack. But it was really rape.

Gay cockin offen yam, OP!

I dont know th at it was ever made clear that Blair or Jo didnt lose their virginity-it just wasnt made a plot point like Natalie's was. I doubt Jo was dating that teacher with a kid and didn't get plowed.

Jo would ONLY lose her so called virginity to another DYKE.

I've always enjoyed Mindy. She seems genuinely nice, she has always seemed pleasant, and she's the only voice that's ever come close to the real Velma from the 60s and 70s.

OP, use your eyes.

[quote]So someone who believes in God is a freak? You're a douchebag.

How God like and Christian of you to say that. Is that part of your teachings?

When FoL changed to Over Our heads was it on the verge of cancellation? Did the show find unexpected new life on Saturday night?

R141 It was part of a swath of shows that went over the top 80s. It’s originating show “Dif’runt (haha) Strokes” and “Silver Spoons” also got new wave rock theme song makeovers. Call it the “Miami Vice” effect.

“FoL” was doing ok, on a hot night for NBC, but the girls were getting long in the tooth to keep the show moving. A spin off with Blair just didn’t work.

Thinking back , there was a lot of hair on NBC’s Saturday night lineup in 85/86/87. FOL, Jackee, Golden Girls and Stepfanie Kramer’s huge electrified afros.

I never like Jo.

Everybody looks fat compared to Stacey Q!

R143 = Cousin Jeri

Off topic but relevant to cousin Jeri, R82 and R99, they had British comedian Rosie Jones (who has cerebral palsy) on an episode of Shakespeare and Hathaway recently. It was... very hard to watch. Thankfully they killed her off pretty quickly.

YouTube used to have a filthy dubbed parody called "Fucked for Life." It dubbed over the Halloween/Rape episode to show Blair and Jo dyking out to win a special lezzie trophy, Tootie talking about her abortion, Mrs. Garrett getting tore-up drunk and hornier than a priest at a day-care center, and Natalie dressing up like Hitler, getting raped, and having a breakdown in a McDonald's lobby at 1am. Then they took a self-defense class with a sexual deviant.

R147, I tried to look for that dub on YT awhile back, but to no avail. It gave me several well-needed laughs over quarantine last year.

Blair: "I'll have you know I shower with Massengil, and my pussy smells like sweet summer rain. Not the tuna-fish sandwich dykes you usually hang out with!"

Jo: (in her usual manly voice) "I LIKE tuna-fish!"

Tootie: "Well, my stuff smells like a Filet-o-Fish Sandwich, so who wants to hop on me?"

Natalie: (dressed as Hitler for Halloween) "Hey Jo, remember when you said you liked the Hitler mustache look? Well, check it out! I'm Fuhrer-face!"

Jo: "I meant for my bush, not my face, you freak!"

R142 yeah and those shows were definitely on their last legs and were cancelled after that last season. Usually a revamp like that signals a show is in trouble and desperate to save it which is why I asked.

I guess FoL wasn’t in the same straits but like you said it probably was getting a bit long in the tooth (although I really like that second Ednas Edibles season) and I’m pretty sure the revamp and move to Sat nite boosted the ratings a bit which gave them another couple years. Pretty impressive actually.

R150 It didn't get great ratings at the end, but it was a known quantity, and probably cheap to produce. Those girls surely didn't make squat, and by the end, weren't in a position to negotiate higher salaries.

Same reason they kept "Murder, She Wrote" on the air for so long, or produced the Ford Taurus as long as they did. There's always enough of a market to cover the very low production costs, and it would cost more to shut it down and replace it with a new option.

Alan Horn, Norman Lear and Charlotte Rae discovered Mindy at that all girls school

In fact, Lear had a teenage daughter who was going to an all girls school , so FOL was based off his real life

I always liked Natalie aka Mindy Cohen but I bet you she eats a LOT of late night snacks.

Didn't Natalie groove on that other Cassidy brother that lived in the attic?

Mindy is real good friends with Deidre Hall (Marlena on Days of Our Lives)

She had Deidre on her Mondays with Mindy Show a few months ago and Mindy called Deidre “One of the most important people in my life”

Natalie was my favorite. I hated that Pippa bitch.

I want to gently stroke Mindy’s dorsal hump

The last three seasons of Facts and last two seasons of Silver Spoons shared the same music aside from the theme song.

Watch as they go from scene to scene. It's identical.

R158 I noticed that too

Facts of Life had a long run. 9 seasons. And it was consistently in the the top 30 for most of its run. NBC planned to renew it for a tenth season but Mindy Cohn and Nancy McKeon wanted to leave the series so NBC cancelled it.

Mindy called Deidre “One of the most important people in *the days of* my life”

stardust!

Yes, she was considered very overweight.

I was a gayling in the 80s and watched this show religiously. I thought Natalie was fat, but not to the point I made fun of her like I did Nell Carter or LuLu Roman-Smith. I didn’t notice the weight gain of the other three at the time. Looking back at reruns now, they all went through different weight stages-like normal teenage girls often do, and I can see why people called it The Fats of Life.

I’ve crossed paths with Mindy several times in LA, and she’s a really cool person. I didn’t notice her to be especially fat or even chubby for that matter. She’s not a size zero, but she’s not a fat whore. I’ve met Lisa a couple of times as well, and she was super down to earth, not an in-your-face fundir Bible beater as she is sometimes viewed. She was kind, funny, a little socially-awkward, bit really beautiful.

These girls spent their most awkward years in the public eye and experienced poor treatment and criticism for things your average person doesn’t at that age - yet all (except maybe Kim, who seems a bit nuts) are leading seemingly well-adjusted, good lives and none of them turned out to be raging cunts. I give them props for that.

I remember on Letterman, around season 5 of Facts of Life, Tracey Ullman said "those Facts of Life girls have gotten ENORMOUS! They're going to come crashing through the roof!"

I always thought her face seemed deformed

Well, for someone on TV she might have been considered "big" but, in those days, everyone on TV was actually much smaller than the average person. In those days, we didn't have large-screen TVs so the people on TV had to be small enough to fit on screen.

We used to call it ‘chubby.’

According to the gals it was Lisa that was always being sent to "fat camp" and they encouraged Mindy to pack on the pounds even though her character wasn't supposed to be the fat one. I guess it's like Jenna on 30 Rock said, “If I can’t be Mo’nique fat, I have to be Teri Hatcher thin. Either way, you’re laughing.”

I saw an interview with Lisa and she said that she was fine with being forced to lose weight because they hired her to play Blair and Blair was supposed to look a certain way. I couldn't imagine ANY actress now saying the same thing without running to People magazine about being fat shamed and having the show shut down.

R170 I remember that too from somewhere and call me crazy but I like that she said that. I thought it showed humility and some self awareness.

Starts about 8:29.

This is brief, but fun. And Mindy looks great. Even with the big-ass baggy clothes & shoulder pads, you can see she'd lost a significant amount of weight since the early years of the show.

R172 I love her comment on that - and her distinguishing between Rivers making that joke as a comedian Vs if she said that to her personally. It’s very astute and I feel like no one would say that today.

I didn’t listen to this whole thing but everything she says makes her so likable to me (I’ve never really watched any interviews with her before).

Because a huge pet peeve of mine is when celebrities who made major $$$ off selling their bodies (like Jessica Simpson ) then bitch when people criticize them after literally gaining 100 lbs. Lisa is aware this is a business and that’s what she signed up for and to me that’s cool.

She also has no time for Christians who hate teh gheys, R174. There's a ton of reasons to like her besides Blair being an icon.

Tasteful Friends:

R175 that too! I listened up until the Survivor - which I really wasn’t interested in. The comments on Jo were funny too.

I don't remember the interview, but she also stated her speaking engagements on the Christian circuit dried up when her views on how homos aren't the devil became known.

R166 Mindy actually looked good and dare I say it… pretty, when she dropped a ton of weight during the later seasons

If her face looked deformed, it was probably because of the excess weight

Mindy & her older sister Pam (and their mother) look a lot alike.

I adore Mindy, she's so cool...but she's needs to chill OUT on the lip injections! Starting to look a little Creature of the Black Lagoon/Lisa Rinna-ish. Please stop fucking up your face, Mindy. We love you!

I don't understand how Jo, Blair and Tootsie got so fat when Natalie was eating the entire buffet?

Really, you bumped this thread from a day ago to post something so stupid? I hope you got a laugh at least.

r183

Mr Kott-TAiR, the ROO-elz, the ROO-elz...Vinny isn't following the ROO-elz

[quote]Was Natalie from Facts of Life considered a great big fat person?

Well, she wasn't considered stylishly thin...

[quote]I don't understand how Jo, Blair and Tootsie got so fat

Who's Tootsie?

And what did she have to do with all of this?

[quote]Also, of the four girls, SHE was the one who almost got raped on Halloween, even though she was dressed as Hitler.

But sadly, her would-be rapist was just a leather queen with a Nazi uniform fetish.

There are two Natalies that don't float...Her and Wood.

It was Charlotte Rae who spotted Mindy on campus of some private school and thought she'd be perfect for FOL. Who know where she would have ended up if it wasn't for Charlotte.

The producers demanded she lose weight when she started to resemble laughing Buddah.

I've always wondered how Kim Fields ever made the cut after the first season. One of the worst and most annoying actresses on 80s TV.

tootie was a cutie with big boobs and bootie.

Tootie benefitted from affirmative action.

r191

Bullshit, Fields was adorable and could act. Really only the characters of Tootie, Natalie and Blair were memorable of the original cast.

There was a point I think around season 6 where Tootie started slyly sending up her melodramatic antics, and it was sort of genius. That’s when I started to like her.

I think Tootie became less likable as the seasons went on. I hated her by the final season. So bitchy and self important.

Tootie turned bitch when she cussed out Charlene from Designing Women for having a latch key kid.

Like when she was invited to see Jermaine Jackson and Mrs Garrett smugly tells her she can't go and she goes all ghetto in her face and tells her "wrong, I'm going, so get your fat ass ready to drive me bitch."

Natalie was considered "pleasantly plump".

[quote]I think Tootie became less likable as the seasons went on. I hated her by the final season. So bitchy and self important.

Which was perfect for the character Kim Fields later portrayed on Queen Latifah's sitcom 'Living Single', a self-absorbed pseudo fashionista who worked on a soap opera set as stylist.

[quote]Which was perfect for the character Kim Fields later portrayed on Queen Latifah's sitcom 'Living Single

She was just doing a poor Jackee Harry

[quote] Was Natalie from Facts of Life considered a great big fat person?

She's considered by everyone as a person who can string a sentence together properly

Kim Fields was whiny and horrible. I especially hated her oversized mandible that caused her a speech impediment. Mrs. Garrett should have backhanded her every time she spoke.

Tootie was really cute the first couple of seasons, especially paired with Natalie as comic relief, but as she grew into adolescent her whole purpose on the show, i.e. being the cute kid and making quips disappeared and then she just became annoying. Natalie at least stayed 'quippy'.

She was tottering on being morbidly obese.

Even as a kid I thought Tootie was annoying as f.

Even her name was annoying.

Buffalo Bill wouldn't have passed her by.

She was not fat but what you would call big boned. She has had an odd shaped body. Hardly Nell Carter big.

Mindy had a hunch back and looked like Mrs Muldoon.

If I were straight I would have fucked the shit out of Natalie. Then after go grab a few dozen burgers and some grape soda to wash it all down.

I worked at a bookstore in L.A. back in the 90s and during the Christmas rush Mindy bought every single copy of "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.

Mindy really is Laughing Budda.

John Lawlor, was the "random guy", he was on tons of sitcoms and TV series years ago. Think he was also on a soap.

John Lawler ruined Phyllis

What was Natalie’s deal? Did she have a family? I wonder this about Tootie, too.

natalie was adopted, but did find her biological mother, her adopted father passed away on the show....

Did you even watch the show? Everyone's families were represented.

The Jame Gumm troll is relentless.

R217, I did. But not as religiously as some, apparently. All I remember are Blair and Jo’s backstory.

No. She wasn’t seen as a big fat person but she was normal ans average and likeable and we all thought she was cool.

r220 well, there was that once episode where she beasted out on Tootie for stealing her role in the musical. She lifted a piece of the set and threatened to smash her.

See? I don’t remember that episode. But r221’s description makes me wish I had!

See, R222! He's lying. All she did was roll some coconuts across the floor. Dont believe anything anyone posts here, especially when they think they're funny.

Actually that did happen, R223. Later in the episode, after the coconuts.

When Tootie insinuated that Natalie wasn't the 2nd choice to play Nellie Forbush but the 12th (out of 12 girls), Natalie picked up a small fake palm tree like she was going to smash it over Tootie's head.

Jo entered & grabbed it out of her hands: "Hey, cool it! Nice girls don't throw trees!"

Has Mindy weighed in on this thread yet?

Yoo Hoo!!! Mindy!!

There must have been some magic at work because all of the girls turned into relatively functional adults. Not a junkie among them. Sure, Lisa was having issues but now she seems happy.

Natalie had the big titties.

r227

Only because she was fat. If she was normal sized she'd have two mosquito bites

Ask her knees, r228!

Mindy Cohn was a mover and shaker. She was the only one of the girls to bare her breasts.

r230

But she never covered up her brother's AIDS death.

Say what you will, but Natalie was jolly as fuck. Excepting, perhaps, her Charlie Chaplin phase.

Back in the 90's a friend of mine lived across the street from Mindy on Highland. She told me that Mindy's "boyfriend" was a golddigger who completely used her. He use to tell my friend that Mindy was so ugly that he practically had to place a bag over her head when fucking her.

[quote] he practically had to place a bag over her head when fucking her.

My wife does that

My husband rolls me in flour.