Ronne Troup was in a later season episode where she plays the wife of a man who kidnaps Mr. Drummond's stepson and takes him home and tells the family that he found him living in a cardboard box on the street because they had a child who died and he wants his wife to be happy again, so what better way to fix things then to go out and kidnap a kid, right? Terrible, terrible plot, very unrealistic, but Ronne did a good job with the role. Her career must have been fading at this point (1985).

I remember feeling so sorry for that character. First her son dies unexpectedly, then she gets attached to a boy whom she had thought that her husband had rescued from a life of poverty only to find out that her husband kidnapped him. Then the revelation that her husband is a monster and he's likely going to prison.

Just a reminder as another good reason why I never watched Dif Storks when it was on. Would still like to see Polly a la 1985 though.;)

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/sams-missing-airdate-september-27-1985-royce-d-applegateronne-troup-picture-id454924424?s=612x612


Same worried face, same domestic servitude, new Big '80s perm, lol.

I dislike "Diff'rent Strokes" most of the time and normally can't even sit through it but this ep was sandwiched in between "The Facts of Life", which I admit to watching from time to time because I used to watch it in the '80s, and M3S on MeTV, so I googled to see if there was anyone interesting in it and found Ronne and Royce D. Applegate, both of whom I like, and stuck it out. :crazy:

It was when DS was living on borrowed time. The show had just been cancelled by NBC, and was given an abbreviated reprieve by ABC, with a shortened eighth season. The only thing good about it was the reworked theme.

It was badly written. Who would let a 7 or 8 year old go to a store alone in NYC? It might have made more sense if Arnold had taken him and they became separated, and then Sam was taken.

Losing Dixie Carter after the seventh season didn't help matters, either.

Thanks for sharing that, I didn't know all of that background information on DS but it sure did get even sillier in those later seasons. I read somewhere that Dixie Carter thought it was corny and regretted doing it, but that was probably through the lens of hindsight after she had found such success and popularity on "Designing Women". I guess it's easy to have regrets as an actor after you have done something much better, but at the time I'm sure that snagging the role of Maggie McKinney on DS seemed like a big deal to her. She was definitely better than Mary Ann Mobley in the role, IMHO.

I never liked that kid that played Sam, he didn't remotely resemble either Dixie or Mary Ann and I thought Mr. Drummond looked way too old to even adopt a kid that age. At least Steve Douglas still looked as if he could pass for someone in his late fifties when Dodie came along, but Conrad Bain looked at least 70 during these episodes. Also, no, Dodie wasn't a dead ringer for Barbara either, but at least she had brown eyes, that was something.

A lot of people (from reading the DS board) dislike the Sam character...the role could probably have been cast better, but the addition of Maggie and Sam freshened things up IMO. And, no disrespect to Mary Ann Mobley as an actress, but she really didn't fit the part...another bad casting job.

The eighth season should never have happened. Mercifully, ABC cancelled it after half a season.

Dodie wasn't a dead ringer for Barbara

The mismatch between Beverly Garland and Dawn Lyn reminds me how seeing Judith Barsi in her television appearances and commercials where she looks decidedly Eastern European next to people playing her parents or siblings or friends who are decidedly *not* "ethnic" always stands out to me.

I did see Ronne in that Diff'rent Strokes episode; her hairstyle and overall appearance were similar when she did an ep of Highway to Heaven.

Mary Ann Mobley was losing her hotness factor by that time, I think. She had been very hot going back about 15 years earlier. I think losing Dixie was quite a big loss.

I was in college when the last couple of seasons aired, and all of the eps have been new to me.

It's fun to watch for M3S actors in other series and films.

On July 4, the Decades channel aired Beverly Garland's 1960 ep of The Twilight Zone.
On July 15, Grit aired the film Escape from Fort Bravo with Wm. Demarest (1953).