NBC wanted a 10th season of Facts of Life for the 1988-89 season, but 2 of the girls (one being Mindy Cohn) didn't want it to happen.

Check out this Mindy Cohn radio interview - 5:35 is when this topic pops up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5QrR8plESM&list=PL148440142BCDE01C

Thanks,

That's interesting. I knew that Nancy wanted to leave. That was reported quite a lot at the time. Lisa though was set to star in a spinoff That NBC didn't pick up. I was surprised because it seemed like such a sure thing. It was reported that the other girls would make guest appearances in it.

It would have been kind of nice if they had done a 10th season and brought the focus back to just the four girls. The last season, and last episode in particular just felt all over the place. Having the pilot for the new show as the finale was terrible and a poor way to end the show.

I thought the final episode was disappointing. It didn't have proper wrapup with each of the four girls. I don't know, we all knew Blair as "giddy" and "goofy" yet with a real practical sense of smarts and "brilliant ideas", but could we see her as the new head of Eastland? :confused:

But in a tenth episode, what would it have been without Jo?

why would they want to stop making money????????


Was it because they had movie offers or something in the works for another tv series?


Makes no sense to me

That's interesting. I knew that Nancy wanted to leave. That was reported quite a lot at the time. Lisa though was set to star in a spinoff That NBC didn't pick up. I was surprised because it seemed like such a sure thing. It was reported that the other girls would make guest appearances in it.


Well that explains why Lisa didn't want to do it but wonder if Mindy Cohn had other projects?

In all honesty, the show should have not gone on to do another 10th season. The show started to jump-the-shark when Leachman came on board. Did they really need her? No. The girls were maturing and starting the careers and having them stick around in the same show would have stagnated the show. If there WAS a 10th season, it would be interesting if they were able to follow their lives separately, but that would kind of change the format of the show which I don't think fans would have wanted. The show could have had a better close, yes, but I don't think a 10th season or spin-off would have been a good idea. The '80s were coming to a close and the series ran it's course.

What they should have done, when Charlotte Rae left the show, was to move up the timeline a year and pick up the show with Blair and Jo starting their careers back in NYC. Tootie and Nat enroll in school and move in with them. Then, they could have let the "girls" mature and we would have been spared Beverly Ann and Pippa (ugh). There was no need for those four women to need a housemother at that point, or to be sticking around Peekskill.

The other thing they never should have allowed was Irma Kalish as showrunner for the last two years - they stunk compared to the year before she took over.

I thought the first season with Cloris Leachman was pretty good. The second season, not so much.

The 10th Season We Never Got... (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078610/board/flat/202667915?p=1)

What they should have done, when Charlotte Rae left the show, was to move up the timeline a year and pick up the show with Blair and Jo starting their careers back in NYC. Tootie and Nat enroll in school and move in with them. Then, they could have let the "girls" mature and we would have been spared Beverly Ann and Pippa (ugh). There was no need for those four women to need a housemother at that point, or to be sticking around Peekskill.

The other thing they never should have allowed was Irma Kalish as showrunner for the last two years - they stunk compared to the year before she took over.

I wonder if Irma Kalish was responsible for changes like these:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070110061023/http://www.jumptheshark.com/f/factsoflife.htm

I loved the Facts of Life and my favorite seasons were #3 and #5. This show actually improved when they dumped four of the original girls from the first year. The addition of Jo in 1980 was a wise move because the tension between her and Blair was one of the most entertaining aspects of this series. During Season 4 the stories were not as funny and memorable as they had been but they managed to bounce back even when they changed locale and opened Edna's Edibles in Season 5. I'd have to say Season 7 was the beginning of the end. The season debuted with a new, hipper version of the familiar theme song but the most irritating aspect of this season was the background music that accompanied the scene changes and the fake laughter that was used on so many of the insipid sitcoms of this time (Alf, Who's the Boss, Growing Pains, etc.) During the early years, the audience laughter and applause was spontaneous and realistic (like All in the Family and Maude) and this change hurt the show, but it was probably necessary since there weren't many good laughs in the scripts. The cast began to stray from their original interpretations of the characters. All of these changes were for the worse and ironically its the last couple seasons that look the most dated now, even though they were hip and contemporary in the mid-80's when they originally aired. All the fantasy and dream sequences during the last few years were also a clue that the writers were running out of ideas. I think the Facts of Life should have stopped after six years. If they could have compressed the best scripts of the last three years into one it would be ended up a much better show. Having said all this, I really am a fan of FOL and am glad Nick at Nite has decided to show it again.

So obvious! There were a lot of changes during the previous season: new hairstyles, new clothes styling, new set, new video cameras, new laugh track. It was a radically different show in September 1985 versus May 1985. And the change helped for a while: there were fantasy plots with the truck stop thing and the El DeBarge singing contest, along with some weaker entries (Mrs. Garrett's alleged infidelities, Blair's 21st birthday), but on the whole it worked for the year. After Beverly Ann joined the cast and gave more prominence to Andy and Pippa, that's when it really went. Really, the show is about the four girls, and the mother figure to provide support. You don't need anything more than than. Pippa and Andy were useless, but George provided a more mature male counterpoint on the show, as well as some eye candy. But really, kids, it's all about the writing. Linda Marsh and Margie Peters refined everybody's role and added some needed topicality to the show, but after they left (1986, I think), the show got really silly and died a quick death.

Starting in 1985-86 the shows I thought were more entertaining. They featured less conflict among the characters than the earlier shows did. However, in 87-88(the final season) with Blair and Jo both college graduates, Tootie a college sophomore, and Natalie canning smelts, the show began to lose alot of its "mojo". Each show of that season seemed to focus on one character at a time, instead of the whole gang.

In all honesty it was time, they were all women and it made no sense to continue for another season

It would have been cool, but i'm glad we got the 9 years we got. No other female cast has touched Facts of Life with all of these seasons, of course there are shows that came CLOSE, but i don't think there will ever be another female cast that can touch FACTS in this area.

"the most irritating aspect of this season was the background music that accompanied the scene changes and the fake laughter that was used on so many of the insipid sitcoms of this time (Alf, Who's the Boss, Growing Pains, etc.)"

Since when is a live studio audience "fake laughter"?

And I like the music that accompanies the opening scene and scene changes/fade-outs...it's so '80s :)