As anyone over the age of 30 can tell you , the formula is this : You take the good ; you take the bad ; you take ‘em both — and there you haveThe Facts of Life . NBC ’s long - work sitcom is a fondly remembered part of ‘ 80s nostalgia . And as today cross off the thirtieth day of remembrance of the serial ' finale , it ’s time to take a trip down retentivity lane with Blair , Tootie , Natalie , Jo , and right ol’ Mrs. Garrett . To make the journey even more enlightening , here are some affair you might not know about everyone ’s favorite all - distaff ’ 80s sitcom .
1. THERE WERE SEVEN GIRLS IN THE FIRST SEASON: BLAIR, TOOTIE, NATALIE, AND FOUR OTHERS.
thing wererather crowdedat Eastland School during those first 13 episodes , with Felice Schachter , Julie Anne Haddock , Julie Piekarski , and Molly Ringwald ( yes , that one ) in the mixture with the others . A couple of school administrators were even characters as well . Predictably , it before long became apparent that there was n’t enough for all of those characters to do , and the show ’s ratings were shitty . For the second season , producer stripped it down to the element that were working best , dumped everyone else , and brought in Nancy McKeon as tomboy , down - taking into custody Jo .
2. LISA WHELCHEL, KIM FIELDS, AND MINDY COHN DIDN’T KNOW THE OTHER GIRLS HAD BEEN FIRED UNTIL THEY SHOWED UP FOR WORK ON SEASON TWO.
“ Everybody was shocked,”Whelchel said . “ Nobody cognise — that I know of — that they were snuff it to make this major snub . ” Three of the four castoffs came back as invitee star a few fourth dimension in season two and three , and again for a time of year eight reunification sequence phone “ The Little Chill . ” Ringwald was the one holdout .
3. GEORGE CLOONEY WAS JUST ONE OF MANY GUEST STARS WHO WOULD LATER BECOME A BIG-TIME CELEBRITY.
It ’s a widely known bit of trivia that Clooney played a handyman in 17 episodes splosh throughout seasons seven and eight . Other not - yet - famous guest whizz who appeared on the show let in Helen Hunt , Juliette Lewis , Mayim Bialik , Seth Green , Richard Dean Anderson , Richard Grieco , Dennis Haysbert , Crispin Glover , David Spade , andBridesmaidsdirector Paul Feig .
4. WHEN THE SHOW ENDED IN 1988, IT WAS THE LONGEST RUNNING SITCOM IN NBC’S HISTORY.
Nine seasons and 201 episodes were enough to set the record at the clip . ( Yep , it even outlastedDiff’rent stroke , the show from which it was birl off . ) It has since been surpassed in NBC ’s phonograph record al-Qur’an byCheers , Frasier , andFriends .
5. COHN WAS PLUCKED FROM A REAL GIRLS’ SCHOOL TO PLAY NATALIE—A PART CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR HER.
BeforeThe Facts of Lifebegan product , Charlotte Rae and some of the show ’s producers visited Westlake School in Bel Air to note real teens . Cohn was one of several students who volunteer to meet with the telly people and answer their question . ( “ Getting out of class sounded good , and the additional enticement of free doughnuts sound well , ” Cohn laterwrote . ) Rae apparently fall in passion with Cohn , say she cue her of a childhood friend named Natalie . “ She was so cute and had kind of a Judaic sense of humour , so we sound out , ‘ Hey , she ’d be great as one of the girls ! , ’ ” executive manufacturer Jerry Mayerrecalled . “ We got in touch with her mother , and her mother say , ‘ Fine , ’ and the rest is history . But it was rigorously slow fate . ”
6. KIM FIELDS WAS ONLY 10 WHEN THE SHOW PREMIERED.
Mindy Cohn was 13 , and Lisa Whelchel was 16 . ( Nancy McKeon did n’t join until season two , but she ’s the same age as Cohn . ) One of the reasons Tootie was commonly on roller skates in the first season was to mask how much shorter she was than the other girls .
7. IT WASN’T JUST A SPINOFF OFDIFF’RENT STROKES, IT WAS A HASTY SPINOFF OFDIFF’RENT STROKES.
NBC was struggling in the late 1970s . Of the top 30 connection shows of the 1977 to 1978 season , 15 were on ABC , 11 were on CBS , and only four were on NBC ( Little House on the Prairie , Project U.F.O. , and the Sunday and Monday dark motion-picture show ) . So whenDiff’rent Strokespremiered in the drop of 1978 and became a striking — it order 27th for the time of year — NBC moved quickly to capitalise on its success .
The season finale ofDiff’rent accident ’ first season , “ The Girls School , ” had housekeeper Mrs. Garrett helping out at the private school Kimberly attend , and ended with her being pop the question a job as housemother . The Facts of Lifepremiered three month later , in August of 1979 , for a four - episode visitation tally , then refund permanently in March of 1980 . Mrs. Garrett continued to appear on time of year two ofDiff’rent Strokesin the interim before leaving the Drummonds for skillful .
8. THE SHOW TRIED (AND FAILED) TO LAUNCH SIX OF ITS OWN SPINOFFS.
These were all what they call “ backdoor fender , ” where an on the face of it normal episode of an exist show is really a audition for a Modern series . ( The Facts of Life , of course , had started out as a backdoor pilot itself . ) The season two sequence “ Brian & Sylvia ” would have led to a show about an interracial marriage ( feature Tootie ’s aunt ) . Season three ’s “ The Academy ” introduce an all - boys military school near our girls ’ schooling ; they showed up again in a time of year four episode . Also in season three , “ Jo ’s Cousin ” had Jo ’s tough - talking , streetwise relative dwell in a family full of men . The time of year four close “ Graduation ” quiz the idea of air Blair and Jo off on their own , now that they ’d graduated from Eastland . “ Big Apple Blues , ” in season nine , had Natalie hang out with unexpended SoHo quality ( including David Spade and Richard Grieco ) and considering starting a new life story there . And the serial publication finale had Blair buying Eastland , making it co - ed , and basically starting over as the new Mrs. Garrett , in the hope that NBC would greenlightThe Facts of life story : The Next Generation(or something like that ) .
9.THE FACTS OF LIFEPREMIERED AROUND THE SAME TIME AS ANOTHER SHOW WITH A SIMILAR PREMISE.
Dorothy , star Broadway ’s Dorothy Loudon ( Annie ’s original Miss Hannigan ) , was about a loose - bouncy former showgirl who becomes a medicine and drama teacher at a snotty east coast girls ’ schooling . It run on CBS for a total of four episodes in August of 1979 , overlap with the premier ofThe Facts of Lifeby one week .
10. NANCY MCKEON WON THE ROLE OF TOUGH GIRL JO BY … BEING REALLY TENDER.
Her screen trial run was an emotional fit that demand a earpiece call . Director John Bowab laterrecalled , “ I distinctly remember call for Nancy , ‘ Even though it says yell , do n’t exclaim . I need you to hold back and make the audience shout . ’ And she did . Everybody in the control room was shatter . ”
11. PRODUCERS COMPLAINED THAT WHELCHEL WAS GAINING WEIGHT AND COHN WAS LOSING IT.
In a 2013interviewwithPeople , Whelchel and Cohn hash out the challenges producer face in ( in Whelchel ’s parole ) “ judge to visualise out how to handle with our changing dead body . ” “ Weight was always an government issue back then , ” explain Cohn . “ An daily conflict , ” added Whelchel . “ Our bodies were a subject of conversation . There was n’t the Internet , but we knew what the great unwashed were read . Joan Rivers called usThe Fats of Life … The producers send me to quite a few fat farms ! I ’d say , ‘ I ’m lead to Texas on my respite , ’ and they ’d say , ‘ Oh , no you ’re not . We bought you a ticket to the fertile farm ! ’ ” Meanwhile , Cohn was losing free weight . She later on toldE ! reliable Hollywood Storythat the producers asked her to quit it because so much of her character was tied into being fat . The solution : Put Cohn in loose-fitting clothes to make her expect heavier than she really was .
12. BLAIR’S COUSIN GERI WAS THE FIRST DISABLED CHARACTER TO APPEAR REGULARLY ON A PRIMETIME TV SHOW.
She was played by Geri Jewell , a comic with intellectual palsy whom manufacturer Norman Lear had seen perform at the Media Access Awards in 1980 . “ I got a standing standing ovation , and I ran into Norman in the elevator , ” Jewell laterrecalled . “ He said , ‘ You ’ll be get wind from me really soon , kid . ’ Three month afterwards , he call me with the ‘ Cousin Geri ’ episode [ in season two ] . ” Jewell was on the show a dozen time over the next few years . More of late , Jewell was a even on HBO’sDeadwoodand had a client spot onGlee .
13. FOR AS LONG-LIVED AS IT WAS, AND AS FONDLY REMEMBERED AS IT IS, THE SHOW WAS NEVER A HUGE HIT.
It ranked 74th in its first season , barely pull through cancellation . Streamlining the plaster bandage help , and the show was pop from time of year two onward , especially among unseasoned viewers . But while the show often make headway its time slot and had occasional episodes check the weekly top 20,the time of year averagewas never any higher than 24th place . It did n’t get much respect from the tv set honorary society , either , realize just three Emmy nominations ( no wins ) over its intact running play : one for hairstyling , one for expert guidance , and one for Charlotte Rae as lead actress .
14. SNOBBY RICH GIRL BLAIR WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO BE A NAIVE, FAST-TALKING TEXAN.
That ’s how the script read , anyway . But when Whelchel try out , “ There was one line in the hand and I read it very snidely and condescendingly and sarcastically,”she recalled . “ And I did n’t realize until I aim the part and came back later that they had rewritten the eccentric to be the snob . ”
15. THE THEME SONG HAS SEVERAL VERSES.
The raffish opening strain , written by Alan Thicke , Gloria Loring , and Al Burton , only appear in truncated form on the show . time of year one pop off as follows :
Subsequent season used the more familiarversion , the one that ’s been in your headland for virtually 40 years :
But there were evenmoreverses , as discover in the publish tack euphony and on Loring ’s 1984 albumA Shot in the Dark . To witticism :
