Facts of Life-related stories
Posted Feb 19th 2009 9:03AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
If you're a fan of '70s and '80s TV, you've probably been having a bunch of a "wha the?" moments over the last year or so. When this particular little white-haired older lady shows up on a show, she doesn't look familiar, but then you hear the matronly but deep voice, and you realize who you've just seen on your screen.
It's Mrs. Garrett! Only by the time you realize it, she's gone, leaving you to wonder if you were imagining things.
Don't worry; you're not going insane. We've been seeing a lot of Charlotte Rae, who played Edna Garrett on
Diff'rent Strokes and
The Facts of Life, on TV lately, mostly playing tiny roles that involve maybe a few lines at the most. In fact, just last night, she played a suspect's mother on an episode of
Life.
Continue reading Mrs. Garrett is all over TV again ... and you probably don't know it
Posted Mar 14th 2007 11:07AM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Syndicated
All those girls living in one house for so long. You knew they were up to nothing good. In Jamie Morris' stage version of
The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode, Eastland is short on funds and looking to axe Mrs. Garrett. Natalie, Tootie, Jo and Blair will do anything to raise enough money to keep her on staff.
Anything.
This campy stage production, making its New York City debut later this Spring, features five drag performers enacting
Facts' fictional lost episode "The Best Little Whorehouse in Peekskill." If you're visiting New York this Spring,
skip Broadway and head downtown. It's just a hunch, but I'm betting you won't see Eastland the same way again. (Not that you thought Natalie or Jo were 100% straight anyway.)
[Via
Lady Bunny's Blog]
Posted Jan 22nd 2007 7:04PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities
There's a quality I really admire in older women. It's the "I no longer give a crap what you think of me" quality. They've seen it all, done it all, been there and back and have no reason not to speak their minds. It's so damn refreshing in a world of publicists and politesse to hear some old curmudgeon honestly and blithely offer their withering assessment of the world.
The now 80 year-old Charlotte Rae, television's Mrs. Garrett of
Facts of Life fame, gave a mouthful to reporters on the red carpet of the LA premiere of
Joan Collins and Linda Evans' theatrical turn in Legends. When asked about Collins, Rae responded, "Joan Collins is a bitch! There's no doubt about it. Everyone says she's an extremely difficult person."
The Insider sprung the tape of Rae's remarks on Collins in a backstage interview. Collins reply: "Who is this cow!" I don't know what it is about these catty old broads, but I love them.
[Via
After Elton]
Posted Nov 20th 2006 8:32AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, FOX, Family Guy, Animation
(S05E06) The story for this week's episode was more involved, which is a good thing. A little plot goes a long way. When the plot gets too thin everything rides on the gags, and it is hard to pull off an episode with just gags. While the sex-ed story has been told many times, I liked the
Family Guy take on it.
It gave them a good reason to bring out slutty Lois, and slutty Lois is usually pretty funny, like when she was trying to explain the wonders of sex to Meg. Or showing up for role-playing night dressed as Grimace? Good stuff.
Continue reading Family Guy: Prick Up Your Ears
Posted Oct 24th 2006 8:43AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD
The Addams Family - Vol. 1 - Batman Beyond - Season 2
- Beavis and Butthead - Gift Set
- Bewitched - Season 4 (color)
- Degrassi: TNG - Season 4
- The Facts of Life - Season 3
- Greg the Bunny - Best of Film Parodies
- Hannah Montana - Vol. 1 Livin' The Rock Star Life
- Justice League - Unlimited Season 1
- The L Word - Season 3
- Little House on the Prairie - The Movies
- MacGyver - Season 7
- Monarch of the Glen - Series 5
- Nightmares and Dreamscapes - Complete Series
- The O.C. - Season 3
- Sabrina and the Groovy Ghoulies - Saturday Mourning Collection
- Saturday Night Live - Best of TV Funhouse
- SCTV - Best of the Early Years
- Sesame Street - Old School: Vol. 1, 1969-74
- Slings and Arrows - Season 2
- The Swan - Complete Series
- That's My Bush - That's My Bush
- Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Season 2, Vol. 1
- Wings - Season 3
Posted Jun 24th 2006 3:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Talent, Celebrities, Obituaries
Just the other day I was wondering what happened to Richard Stahl. He was so funny in so many character parts, and then he seemed to vanish. He had been battling Parkinson's Disease for the past ten years, and
died last Sunday in Los Angeles.
Stahl was in tons of TV shows over the past 40 years, including
All in the Famly, Columbo, Laverne and Shirley, Benson, Good Times, Maude, Bonanza, That Girl,
Love, American Style,
Happy Days, Soap, Barney Miller, The Facts of Life, the original
Love Boat TV movie, and was a regular on the 80s sitcom
It's A Living. I'll always remember him from several very funny appearances in
The Odd Couple. He was also in several movies, including
Five Easy Pieces, Billy Jack, and
Slaughter House-Five.
(That's him on the right in the photo, being attacked by
Son of Blob.)
Posted May 21st 2006 8:01AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Talent, OpEd, The Five
Being a housekeeper may seem like a simple job, but not if you play one on TV. Housekeepers on TV not only have to make sure everything stays clean, they also have to act as surrogate parents, stand up for the family when they need it, offer sage advice, and occasional scream and drop something fragile when they find a dead body. Who are your favorite housekeepers? I'll tell you some of mine:
Mr. Belvedere: He once worked alongside some of the greatest minds in history, and now he's matching wits with Bob Uecker. Quite a step down, I must say.
Rosie the Robot: I loved the Jetson's sassy robot, even if she didn't always seem to work properly. My only question is, if everything in your home is automated anyway, why do you need a housekeeper? If nothing else, I give her credit for being the only maid on this list who is herself a vacuum cleaner.
Continue reading The Five: Housekeepers
Posted May 8th 2006 7:31PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Daytime
Cast members of the sitcom
The Facts of Life will be reuniting on
Today tomorrow morning to talk about, I assume, how much fun it was to work on the
Diff'rent Strokes spinoff. I'm sure the DVD release of the first two seasons will be mentioned, as well. Cast members to appear include Nancy McKeon, Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields, and Mindy Cohn. What? No George Clooney or Cloris Leachman? And what about Mackenzie Astin, brother of Sean? Is he really that busy these days? Well, actually I did see him on an episode of
House recently, so I guess he's still getting work. The segment will air during the second half of the program. Charlotte Rae, who played Mrs. Garrett, won't be making an appearance, either.
Posted May 7th 2006 2:54PM by Bob Sassone
NBC might have canceled its West Wing retrospective for next Sunday, but EW gathers the cast and crew and goes down memory lane. Among the tidbits: Sidney Poitier was the first person talked about to play the President; producers offered Bradley Whitford the role of Sam, but he wanted to play Josh; John Spencer was the first person cast, but Sorkin had originally seen Judd Hirsch as Leo and had to rewrite the character for Spencer; Eugene Levy auditioned to play Toby; CCH Pounder auditioned to play C.J., as did Janel Moloney; and NBC bought the West Wing only if John Wells agreed to also do Third Watch.
- Paris Bennett says "Don't be sad."
- Gillian Flynn answers the question: what is the worst show to have a long run?
- New DVDs: they give a B+ to the first and second season DVD set of The Facts of Life, and an A- for the Scrubs third season set.
- Funny review of 7th Heaven by Ken Tucker, calling the series finale flashback "creepy."
- Bruce Campbell gives a guest review of Supernatural. He says it's fun, but it's scare factor is too conservative and the lead actors pose too much.
- A look at the new Lost tie-in book, Bad Twin.
Posted Mar 6th 2006 10:06PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: TV Royalty, Talent, OpEd, The Five, Celebrities
George Clooney isn't the first Oscar winner who started
his acting life on television; heck, he's not even the tenth. Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt and Hillary Swank, for instance,
all had significant TV experience before making it big on film (
Bosom Buddies, anyone?
Beverly Hills,
90210?). But has any Oscar winner had the checkered acting history that Clooney has? Yeah, yeah, he came to
prominence in a little medical drama called
ER (whatever happened with that show, anyway? Is it still on the
air?), but what came before that is
a bunch of roles that Clooney
would rather not talk about:
Continue reading The Five: Shows George Clooney wishes weren't on his IMDb profile
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on 'Faces of America' and the Beer Summit
Six Reasons Why '24' Has Jumped the You-Know-What
The Super Bowl Commercials: The Best
