Do you think "The Facts of Life" would''ve been very different had the other girls from season 1 stayed on?

No, they were removed because they were bland.

Felice Schacter was the prettiest one and she *always* made Liza Whelchel look rather blah and dull when in scenes together. The entire 79-80 first season was pretty silly and I *still* don't buy that Cindy's inner-butch coming out was stopped by meeting boys at a dance. A prime time out baby-dyke woukld have been revolutionary 30 years ago.

I think the show lost something when they pared down the cast-but then again, there were A LOT of characters to keep track of when the show started. I think they could have had the girls in recurring roles if nothing else.

Schacter and Piekarski, maybe even Haddock, appeared in at least a couple of episodes during Jo's first season.

You have to wonder how the writers and producers decided whom to can and whom to keep for the second season.

I sometimes forget these shows were prime time since I use to watch them weekday mornings if I was home sick or if school was closed for some reason.

I think they should of stayed recurring and appeared every so often for episodes that they needed them for continuity(tootie drinking,graduation from eastland, etc). After being fired as regulars they were demoted to being glorified extras in season 2 before being dumped all together! I mean it was a girls boarding school and Blair needed these other girls her age who weren't complete opposites of her (Nancy,Sueann)to interact with besides Jo.Ironically when they all came back (save molly) in season 6 they were all the hot ones compared to the trimmed down cast!

The first season of the show flat out sucked.%0D That corny ass theme. Way too many characters and no attempt at chemistry.%0D %0D They did adress homophobia in an indirect way on one show, where Blair made veiled comments about the one girls butchness that bordered on anti-gay. Blair was quite the bitchy little fox that first year. She was even close to screwing some hot guy in one episode

That first season had Helen Hunt,didn't it? Where worldly Blair went to split a bong with her until Tootie tagged along?

"I think about this a lot." I'm so sorry to hear that.

[quote]I think about this a lot.

OMG. I feel so sorry for you, OP.

As bad as the first season of FOL was it wasn't nearly as bad as the first episode of One Day at A Time. Watch it some time if you can. Franklin played to the cheap seats in that one.

The only thing sadder than OP thinking about this a lot is the fact that a cute little blonde girl had to go through childhood with the surname Haddock (in show biz, so everyone knew about it!).

Felice Schachter was the first girl to get released and she had very little to do in that first season. She actually ended up getting more airtime than Piekarski and Haddock after they were all brought back to appear occasionally in season 2/3.

[quote]As bad as the first season of FOL was it wasn't nearly as bad as the first episode of One Day at A Time. Watch it some time if you can. Franklin played to the cheap seats in that one.

Just the one, dear?

Dammit, R14 and dammit R15!%0D %0D RE: FOL, keeping Natalie was a no-brainer.%0D %0D

What's fun was that Natalie was a student at Westlake who caught casting's eye when the creators went there to look over a modern boarding school.

Christ who cares? Where are you posting from OP? Your Mom's basement?

Fucking Facts of Life was a shit show, it sucked. The set looked like community theatre.

I liked the Over Our Heads set.

I say this as a fan --

The problem with TFOL is that it plays better in memory.

Once you see the cheesy reruns, you get put off until a few weeks pass and they again bloom in the fertilizer of nostalgia

[quote] The problem with TFOL is that it plays better in memory.

I agree. I remember it fondly, but sometimes can't get through an episode.

They needed to tighten the show after that first season, but they sort of dumbed it down a little too much.

Getting shafted from TFOL was the best thing ever to happen to future bratpacker Molly Ringwald! A few years later she actually made the cover of Time Magazine as Miss Teenage America!!

Those season 1 girls were all terrible. I saved the show and everyone knows it.

[quote] I think about this a lot.

I hope OP has gotten help since posting this a few years ago.

[quote]I think about this a lot.

Was OP arrested and lobotomized since this post?

I'm guessing it might have turned out a lot like Glee, minus the music and the boys.

I think about season 1 a lot, too.

It's a good thing Molly was let go, otherwise she might not have gone on to become that '80s icon we all know and love.

OP -A revised opening credits of season 2,how it should of been!

[quote] how it should of been!

Oh dear

My two favorites were the blond, was it Julie? and Lisa and only because I knew them from the Mickey Mouse Club.

[quote]The scripts were the problem: they weren't good enough for Diff'rent Strokes but they were too good for Hello, Larry.

Well, you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and then you have...

My mother once commented that Charlotte Rae's singing ruined any show in which it was heard.

R32 - I love that someone took the time to make such a thing!

Are you the OP r37?

What happened to Felice?

Did anyone watch "Glee" tonight? Sam was watching "Facts of Life" and described it as "some red-haired lady runs a boarding school for lesbians..."

I'm so glad I was canned!

Kisses,

Molly, America's Sweetheart xx

R38, no I'm not the OP. I just find it fascinating that people are interested in the first-year Facts of Life girls.

How would it have been different if it were set in an all boy boarding school?

R43 - I think there was an episode where they attempted to make a spinoff featuring a military school for boys. Jo dated one of the boys, I think. Same shit, different gender.

They should have replaced Charlotte Rae with Dorothy Loudon.

[quote]Jo dated one of the boys, I think.

I think it's pretty obvious why that wouldn't have worked out.

They should've done a mashup of Facts of Life and The Jeffersons. The girls could've volunteered at The Help Centah. Florence could've gotten sassy. Telling Blair to STFU. Taking food away from Natalie.

Bump

We're up to Season 5 in DVD releases. What's your favorite of the later versions of the show? Edna's Edibles? Over Our Heads? the Charlotte-free Cloris years?

They should've added Ann B Davis to the cast.

I know I'm the minority but I actually liked Cloris Leachman as Edna's sister.

I thought Mackenzie was adorable. Don't worry--we were similar ages.

8 girls plus Mrs. Garrett. It's just too many regulars for a sitcom. Yeah, The Brady Bunch did it, but if the show wasn't about a particular kid, they got like ten lines and sat at the dinner table or just lined up with the rest.

I admit I have a soft spot for the first season of FOL, but the show really did improve after the big cuts. Molly was so annoying, they morphed tomboy Cindy and Blair foil Sue Anne into Jo and Nancy was a bore.

I thought they should've kept Mr. Bradley on as an arch nemesis for Mrs. Garrett.

Instead of wondering about OP's question, I wonder what Molly Ringwald's career would've been had she not passed on Pretty Woman or Ghost instead of doing shit like Betsy's Wedding

Molly should glean satisfaction in the knowledge that Julia Roberts and Demi Moore have her to thank for their careers.

Who cares about season one. That show meant nothing until Gerri Jewel appeared.

Not quite R61

[quote]They should have replaced Charlotte Rae with Dorothy Loudon.

Loudon preceded Charlotte Rae, in basically the same show, at the link.

Little known fact: when replacing Charlotte Rae, it came down to the wire between Leachman and Marion Ross.

[quote]What's your favorite of the later versions of the show? Edna's Edibles? Over Our Heads? the Charlotte-free Cloris years?

Edna's Edibles. Almost all my favorite episodes come from those two seasons (Blair decks Moon Unit Zappa at the drive-in; they perform a kiddie Christmas show for prisoners; they have to fill 6 hours of dead air at the college radio station; Blair discovers her hot boyfriend is a stripper; Cruisin'!, etc.).

Was the OP including me in the thread title?

No one rocked a collar-length tight perm quite the way Miss Mahoney did.

Very different and also very quickly cancelled. In fact, the network probably made them purge the cast as a condition for renewal.

Wasn't there a deleted scene from the first episode where Miss Mahoney puts the moves on a questioning Cindy?

No r68, give me some credit. I put the moved on a tipsy SueAnn.

I wonder what would've happened on Charles in Charge had they kept the Pembrokes instead of bringing in the Powells. Never cared for the cast changes.

I personally think yes-it would have been a lot different!

The first episode of Season 1 had the best joke. Miss Mahoney admits that she's 32 and goes on a spiel that it's the age when a woman is in her prime, yadda yadda yadda.

[quote]MISS MAHONEY: it's not as far away as you may think. Some of you are about to burgeon into womanhood.

[quote]NATALIE: I thought all of us were virgins?

XD

Alternate opening credits 2

It's fascinating in its weirdness, R73. The regular girls only get to appear in that final scene, no credits for them!

I want to see a fan made opening with the group that would have been at Eastland had it continued with Blair as Headmistress - Juliette Lewis was one of them, Seth Green, Mayim Bialik, etc.

The Lost Girls - about the changes.

It would've been better, they would've had Cindy and Jo become a couple.

It would've been better if they made the lost girls enemies to the regular girls.

[quote]R5 You have to wonder how the writers and producers decided whom to can and whom to keep for the second season.

It's called STAR QUALITY!

That must have been so awkward when the girls were brought back for a few episodes after they were cut and the show had become a huge hit. I wonder if they were shunned by the survivors. I can see Mindy Cohn being a cunt.

Why didn't they keep hot daddy Mr Bradley?

Because he wasn't hot.

r73 = baby dyke Cindy

Felice Schacter took it the hardest, Apparently her agents told her the show would be centered around her character. If it were up to me I would have cut Kim Fields.

^Of course

Before there was Vixen on Legends of Tomorrow, we had Julie Ann Haddock as The Girl From Ilandia!

“Nowadays she enjoys being with her family and in church.”

Old Blair and Sue Ann

I’m wet.

Julie Piekarski's lips are too thin for that dark shade of red. Doesn't look good.