I caught the last 2 episodes from tonight's marathon on Nick. Here are some random thoughts I had from these episodes, both of which were from the final 85-86 season on ABC:

* What was up with furniture arrangement in the living room? The traditional couch in the middle was gone! Those chairs off to the side just didn't cut it!

* What was that thing that crawled up on Willis' head and died? He looked like a Jackson alright -- Jermaine Jackson.

* Could Dudley possibly have done a WORSE job convincing us that it was actually HIM playing that drum set?

* I almost forgot about that annoying kid from the Wonder Years playing Arnold's friend in the final season.

* It was sad to see Arnold, Dudley, Robby, and Lisa starting to get old. There was nothing "cute" about them anymore.

* That updated, synthesized theme song never appealed to me. The original was much better, IMO.

* As lame as the show had become in the end, it was still cool as hell to see those later episodes after all these years.

Also hurting was the fewer interactions and scenes between Arnold and Willis. And where was Pearl in these 2 episodes?

You guys, I loved the synthesized theme from the final season. It's my favorite one. As far as Willis' hair, the furniture and among other things, I honeslty say it was 1985. Everything changed. A lot of black guys were in if they had the geri curl thing going. Believe it or not, the girls actually liked him that that way.

A lot of changes to theme song occured in 1985. Different Strokes, The Facts of Life and Silver Spoons. They did away with the traditional themes and were changing with the times. That's all. You may not see it now because you are used to the traditional reruns, but back then things grew and changed. The Love Boat also changed their tune with synthesized music and Dionne Warwick singing the theme with I prefer better than the old theme. It was just change.

I was around 7 when FOL changed their theme. I was excited. I'm thinking "Ooh. A new FOL on TV"! LOL. My sister saw the credits when they flashbacked Tootie with the pigtails at the chalkboard from the 1st season and said, "now I wanna go home and do my hair that way". Whenever I think of 1985 and TV, it always make me happy. Another thing, Cherry Coke was introduced in the summer of 1985 too.

The last season reminds me so much of when I was younger. I always loved the way the apartment was redecorated, and I thought it was neat in the episode where Sam's missing when throughout the episode the apartment is being redecorated and finally at the end it is finished.
Drmnd 86

The last season was like deja vu for me. When Ds first aired on n@n I was like OMG I remember every bit of this, now that they showed the last season, I was like OMG again!
Also seeing the picture frames and the synthesized version of the song intro was really the ultra 80's. Personally I like them as kids but it was nice to see this again.
Is it true by the last season, Kimberly made only guest appearences? B/c I'm glad they at least show her in some of those frames in the intro. B/c how could anyone forget her? She was like one of the main characters!

I love the last season. The furniature and everything. Did anyone notice that when you download the Season 8 Credits, the theme song and the opening pictures, etc. dont seem as rock and rollish as the TV version. Did anyone notice this?

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Shane Pantellas, the PANMAN!

Also, did anyone notice one of the picture frames when they introduced Pearl? It had Dixie Carter in it! I wish they had shown episodes with Mary Ann Mobely, she doesn't seem to be that bad as everyone says.

That's right. No she doesn't she was terrific.

[This message has been edited by ThomasE (edited 08-17-2001).]

The thing that really struck me when I saw these final season episodes again (I haven't seen them in at least 10 years) is how cheap they seem. The new theme song sounds cheap, and the partial-cast episodes were clearly done to save money. Only Gary Coleman, Conrad Bain, and (I think) Danny Cooksey were in every episode that year. So there were very few episodes that featured the entire family together, which really took away from the show. The original premise was completely out the window at this point. Even the redecorated set looked cheaper than the original.

The redorated set was fine. But I do agree with you about not having the whole cast together. That is where would have drawn the line.

It was great seeing these again. I noticed whenever they showed the inside of the condo, it seemed like it was night outside. It wasn't as brightly lit as the nbc version. This seemed to add a sense of urgency to the scene, IMO.

I have noticed that not everyone is in every season 8 episode.

Like Gimme A Break!, Diff'rent Strokes did the same thing. 1985-1986, GAB was in season 5. Strokes was in season 8. One was on NBC, the other now moved to ABC. Strokes cut their cast by sending Willis off to College and he made rare few appearances. Kimberly was already gone from the cast, I think at the end of season 6, but also came back for a few shows in season 7 and 8. Gimme A Break! copied this in a similar way when they had to make major changes to save the show. They fired Lauri Hendler, Kari Michaelsen, Howard Morton and Jonathan Silverman, and made Lara Jill Miller a recurring character for a few shows.

In GABs final season, if you watch from episode to episode, you'll NEVER see the ENTIRE season 6 cast from the New York episodes all in the same show.

For example, one show, take "Save The Church", had only Nell, Joey, Grandpa and Mama Maybelle. "Mama's Date" only had Nell, Addy, Mama Maybelle, Grandpa and Maggie (and Telma Hopkins had rare or little dialogue, in fact, she could have been replaced with a body double or stand-in actor, because she was under a sheet, sick in bed in the final show.)

What's strange is little Matthew was Joey's brother, and he was missing from "Save The Church". The boys lived with Nell in the apartment, so why were they sometimes missing, especially in the final several shows of that series?


Getting back to Strokes, you'd get some shows where it's only Mr. D., Arnold, Sam and Willis. Some that are them plus Pearl, some that are all of them plus Maggie. It was always a different combination, every show.

The final show, I believe was just Sam, Arnold and Mr. D. Nobody else. The smallest cast EVER, much like what happened on Gimme A Break's last show ever. It was a really small cast in the opening credits, and they always billed the top billed and cut out the smaller cast members from the opening if they weren't in the episode like Joey, Matthew, Maggie, Marty, Mama Maybelle, et. Strokes didn't do that. I know they have a shorter opening theme they used in syndication, and I would love to see the opening credits to that for season 8. That's what I hated about the final seasons of both GAB and Strokes. Unexplained no shows, sometimes they'd give reason as to why, maybe the character was out of town/busy with errands, or sometimes nothing.

On GAB! They had a much larger cast for the 1985-1986 year.

Does anybody have a copy of the final season shorter theme with opening credits? I know it's on Diff'rent Strokes online, but it wouldn't dare match up with the 50+ second long original opening theme credits set up from season 8. Did they just do as You Tube does on some syndicated reruns, and just use stills of the cast and flash them really fast along with that shorter 30 second of so theme, like they do on Minisodes?

Mary Ann is really good. I like the changes except I wish the boys room wasn't that weird green. Each boy having his own space and bed was good. When they introduced Pearl the photo was Mary Ann in the wedding dress I believe. Correct me if I am wrong. That struck me as interesting.

It really was the end of the line...It was obvious that all the actors were fed up (and burnt out after years of hard work) at that point.I like it though, when we get to see a show deteriorate : there are less regrets, less "what ifs...?". The main regret is that there wasn't a proper finale. Although it would have been very sad, I'm sure.