TV Quote Weekends

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“The Facts of Life”: Closing Time

In 1986, The Facts of Life would suffer its biggest casting change since the post-season one purge. A health scare suffered by Charlotte Rae led her to step away from the show. She would return in guest roles, but Edna Garrett would be replaced by her sister Beverly Ann, played by Cloris Leachman. In a nice tribute, the character was named after Charlotte Rae’s real life sister.

The show, however, was on its last legs. Garrett’s Girls were now women and the show had to come up with increasingly implausible reasons for why these high school friends were still living together. In 1988, Lisa Whelchel and Nancy McKeon decided to call it quits, despite NBC’s desire to keep the show going. Certain that the show couldn’t survive such a huge loss, NBC chose to let the show end. At the time, the networks were infatuated with airing reunion films based on shows from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Many of the films were of dubious quality and some didn’t even bring back the original casts. When The Facts of Life ended, its cast swore that they wouldn’t participate in any similar films.

Except- in 2001 most of the cast did just that. Airing on a different network and produced by The Wonderful World of Disney, the two hour reunion show brought back Mrs. Garrett and three of her girls. Nancy McKeon, who was starring in a Lifetime Network show called The Division at the time, chose not to participate. Her character was represented on the show by Jo’s husband who awkwardly explained her absence by telling the cast that she was busy with her job back home at “the division”. Natalie lamented that she hasn’t seen Jo “in a Lifetime”. Subtle!

Despite Norman Lear’s reluctance to take credit for the show, it became one of his biggest and most profitable successes. The show is fondly remembered by its fans and it still airs in syndication around the world. While the show could be a bit broad and heavy handed at times, its depiction of regular teenage girls with regular teenage problems is what has attracted generations of viewers. Mrs. Garrett’s lessons about the facts of life not only reasonated with her girls but also the world.

“The Facts of Life”: You Take The Bad...

As The Facts of Life settled into its groove, the show sought to be more than just a mindless sitcom. Like other Norman Lear shows, social issues and controversial topics were frequently covered. Even episode one featured a storyline in which Blair insinuates that one of the other girls was a lesbian; a first for any American network show. Long before sex trafficking was on anyone’s radar, the show featured an episode in which Tootie was in danger of being prostituted.

Girls, girls, girls!

The topic of disabilities was covered with a memorable episode in which Blair’s cousin Geri pays a visit. While other shows depicted those with disabilities as saints who everyone loves, if they even depicted them, The Facts of Life  actually showed a more nuanced, realistic relationship between Cousin Geri and Blair. Blair was obviously embarrassed of Geri and the show depicted her struggle to accept a less than normal relative. Rather than sidestep the obvious, the show addressed it head-on.

As the years went on, however, the show had to come up with a way to keep these high schoolers together as they got older, went to college, etc. Midway through the show’s run, Mrs. Garrett setup her own shop- Edna’s Edibles, which sold various foodstuffs. Her girls helped her run the shop, which they all lived above.

Why, Mrs. Garrett- You sure know how to handle that sausage!

A disastrous fire forced them to rebuild; this time they opened up a shop that literally screamed ‘This is the 1980’s!’

What decade is this? The 1940’s?

A sad event would bring about the show’s biggest cast change since season two. Join us tomorrow as we wrap up our Facts of Life week.

“The Facts of Life”: A Real Beginning

When we last left off, NBC had renewed The Facts of Life against the wishes of its producer Norman Lear and despite its dismal ratings. Fred Silverman, the head of NBC programming at the time, saw some promise in the show provided it made some changes. He ordered just 16 episodes for season two and requested that the cast be slimmed down. Instead of seven main girls, he cut the cast down to four. Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields and Mindy Cohn stayed. The rest of the girls were fired. Nancy McKeon was brought in as the tomboyish Jo. Of course, the girls were all overseen by Mrs. Garrett.

Outsiders probably didn’t give the show much hope, but the changes worked extremely well. The Facts of Life went from NBC’s gutter to the very top, ranking among its top five shows. While Mrs. Garrett was a house mistress to the live-in girls at the school in season one, in season two she was a dietician who planned and supervised the preparation of the school’s meals. The four girls constituted her “staff”.

The show earned an easy renewal for season three. In fact, NBC had wished it had picked up the usual 24 episodes it usually ordered for its regular series. Despite the show’s newfound success, Norman Lear still refused to put his name on the series. Despite this, The Facts of Life would become one of his most profitable shows.

“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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