“The Facts of Life”: Ready to Launch

With Garrett’s Girls picked up as a series, Charlotte Rae was definitely excited about getting a show of her own. However, she didn’t want to give up her role on a gigantic hit like Diff’rent Strokes if NBC wasn’t really serious about the spinoff. A mini set of four episodes were ordered and pre-production of the show began in earnest. Charlotte took an active role in developing the show, accompanying the producers on field trips to real life boarding schools for research. NBC had hoped that such research would add authenticity to the show, whose title had become The Facts of Life.

It was on one of these trips that Ms. Rae had encountered a young girl who she became impressed with. The young girl had no desire to become an actress and was solely introduced to the television show executives as someone who could speak with them about her experiences at the boarding school. Charlotte Rae insisted that a character be created specifically for the young girl. Thus Mindy Cohn became an actress and “Natalie Green” was born. 

While Norman Lear wasn’t directly involved with Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, his production company was and he had become concerned with NBC’s increasing desperation for spinoffs and gimmicks. While The Facts of Life was being developed, the network decided to try to give one of its middling sitcoms- Hello Larry- a boost by doing a crossover episode. With the first four episodes of The Facts of Life airing before Mrs. Garrett had actually left Diff’rent Strokes, audiences couldn’t be blamed for being confused by it all. 

The first four episodes aired before the real season had begun. Featuring a cast of seven young ladies, including a young Molly Ringwald, the show didn’t set any ratings records. Despite this, NBC committed to nine more episodes which would air during the second half of the season after Mrs. Garrett was officially written out of Diff’rent Strokes.

The remaining episodes aired with low ratings as well. The Facts of Life was NBC’s lowest rated show and only two shows ranked lower. Norman Lear was relieved. For some reason he was still embarrassed by the show and he assumed that NBC would cancel the show. NBC, however, felt that the show could be salvaged if it was retooled. In what must have been a first, Norman Lear begged NBC to cancel the show. Of course, they refused. While the show became one of the most profitable programs in Norman Lear’s catalog, generating millions of dollars in profits,  he continues to distance himself from it.

“The Facts of Life”: Origins

The late 1970’s and early 1980’s were not a good time for NBC. Few of its shows seemed to become true hits with viewers. While ABC’s comedies and CBS’ dramas were hard to beat in the ratings, NBC’s schedule resembled a wasteland. Going into the 1978 season, its only real hit was Little House on the Prairie, and it was only a hit in comparison to everything else on NBC. Into this void went Diff’rent Strokes, a sitcom about a wealthy businessman who adopted his maid’s sons after her death and raised them as his own. Led by the seemingly precocious Gary Coleman as the smart talking Arnold, the show took the country by storm, becoming a hit by any measure.

The show was one of the first projects produced by the legendary Norman Lear for NBC. His other major successes had all aired on CBS; with his mega hit All in the Family becoming a fertile spawning ground for other hits like Maude and The Jeffersons. NBC was hoping that the same could hold true for Diff’rent Strokes, immediately ordering a spinoff before the first season had concluded. Mr. Lear was not fully onboard with the idea. CBS has always allowed him to try more organic spinoffs of well known characters and only after the original show had enough time to settle in. How could NBC ensure that Diff’rent Strokes wasn’t damaged by a departing character? Who would even get spunoff into a new show?

It was decided that the one character who could probably leave without causing too many problems was Mrs. Garrett- Charlotte Rae. How could she be spunoff? NBC had decided that Diff’rent Strokes was very male-centric- maybe a show with mostly girls could be complementary to it. Thus the network began plans to tryout Mrs. Garrett as a housemother to a group of boarding school girls. She is introduced to the school by Kimberly Drummond, who apparently attended the school while still living with her father and brothers. In the final episode of the season, The Girls School aired, which aimed to be a backdoor pilot- it introduced the spinoff’s premise as a regular episode of Diff’rent Strokes.

The episode aired with Mrs. Garrett getting offered the job of housemother, which she turns down. This would allow her to return to Diff’rent Strokes if NBC didn’t pickup the show, which it was referring to as Garrett’s Girls. To Norman Lear’s chagrin, Garrett’s Girls was picked up, with Charlotte Rae becoming an active participant in its development. NBC was hoping it had another hit on its hands.

Charlotte Rae, 1926 - 2018

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A Bad Decision

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It’s #GoldenGirlsDay!

It was the show that shouldn’t have worked, produced by the studio who shouldn’t have produced it and scheduled on the worst possible night. Despite these strikes against it, The Golden Girls would help turn around the studio that produced it, bring generations together and become a legendary part of pop culture.

The show had been shopped around Hollywood for quite some time. Creator Susan Harris, despite having a successful track record in television, was not getting much interest in a series about four old ladies who were living out their retirement in Miami. There was one studio that she hadn’t taken her pitch to, however- Walt Disney Productions. She had assumed that since her show would feature bawdy jokes and adult situations Disney would not be interested. At the time, however, newly installed Disney CEO Michael Eisner was trying to revive the company’s fortunes and he wanted to start out with something big. The company had created a new label for edgier projects- Touchstone- and it wanted to be seen as a place where ideas of all kinds would be considered. Eisner had heard about Susan’s potential project and invited her to pitch it to him. He was impressed and fought to get the show made.

Others were more skeptical. Who would watch a show about some old retired ladies? After NBC expressed interest, the next big hurdle was to find the right actresses for the job. Disney approached Beatrice Arthur for the role of Dorothy Zbornak, the feisty, sharp tongued unofficial leader of the group. Ms. Arthur, however, wanted the role of Sophia. She felt that Dorothy’s character was too similar to past roles she’d had. Rue McClanahan and Betty White were asked to play sex hungry Blanche Devereaux and dim-witted Rose Nyland, though Betty wanted to play Blanche and Rue wanted to play Rose. The actresses were eventually convinced to take the original roles they had been offered and the pilot was filmed.

At first, NBC was cool to the show. NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff, however, thought it could work. He was able to convince others within NBC to pick up the show, though it was relegated to the television “graveyard”- Saturday nights. 

On September 14, 1985, the show premiered and both Disney and NBC held their collective breath. Would they get the hit that both of them terribly needed? As we now know, they did. The show was an instant smash hit- literally an overnight success. It would propel NBC’s ratings into the stratosphere and gave Disney’s Touchstone Television instant credibility in the world of television.

So why were the naysayers wrong? First and foremost, the show cast the right actresses in the right roles. The show’s cast was stacked with veteran actresses who didn’t need time to settle into their roles. Secondly, even though the most successful television shows often stumble along in their first season,  The Golden Girls instantly found firm footing from its very first episode. 

More importantly, however, the show brought together generations of family members who could enjoy the show together. On a personal note, whenever my sister and I visited our grandmother for weekend sleepovers, Saturday nights always ended with all of us watching The Golden Girls. To me, the show brings back fond memories of laughing along with my grandmother on those long ago Saturday nights. My grandmother passed away earlier this year, so these memories and the show itself have become more important to me. These “girls” have earned a special place in my heart; they gave me a ton of laughs and fond memories with my grandmother. If anyone involved with the show ever reads this article- thank you. Your work lives on in the hearts and memories of the people it brought together.

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