Lisa Whelchel on the cover of American Girl Magazine in 1979. Just before she became another blonde with dark roots.

Wow! This was literally one month before the airing of "The Girls' School"!

LISA was always beautiful with dark or blond hair, and a very talented actress too!
And yes Retro: back then, she didn't know how the pilot from FOL would turn her into a sensational star overnight!!!!

LISA was always beautiful with dark or blond hair, and a very talented actress too!
And yes Retro: back then, she didn't know how the pilot from FOL would turn her into a sensational star overnight!!!!

Yep! She was just days away from network stardom!

Wow! This was literally one month before the airing of "The Girls' School"!
Wow I wonder if she dyed her hair blond for the role of Blair?

Wow I wonder if she dyed her hair blond for the role of Blair?

That's a good question. It definitely seems like the change occurred between that photo shoot and the taping of TGS... but Lisa looks considerably younger in that photo, so I wonder if it was a new photo, or an older stock photo of Lisa from the previous year?

The reason I think this is because Lisa appeared in The Double McGuffin, produced sometime prior to Spring 1979, and by then, her hair was already lighter: sort of a honey blonde. It doesn't make sense that her hair would be brown on the NMMC, then honey blonde in TDM, then brown again for the photo shoot, then blonde again as Blair.

That's a good question. It definitely seems like the change occurred between that photo shoot and the taping of TGS... but Lisa looks considerably younger in that photo, so I wonder if it was a new photo, or an older stock photo of Lisa from the previous year?

The reason I think this is because Lisa appeared in The Double McGuffin, produced sometime prior to Spring 1979, and by then, her hair was already lighter: sort of a honey blonde. It doesn't make sense that her hair would be brown on the NMMC, then honey blonde in TDM, then brown again for the photo shoot, then blonde again as Blair.

That could be. Using an old photo makes sense

That's a good question. It definitely seems like the change occurred between that photo shoot and the taping of TGS... but Lisa looks considerably younger in that photo, so I wonder if it was a new photo, or an older stock photo of Lisa from the previous year?

The reason I think this is because Lisa appeared in The Double McGuffin, produced sometime prior to Spring 1979, and by then, her hair was already lighter: sort of a honey blonde. It doesn't make sense that her hair would be brown on the NMMC, then honey blonde in TDM, then brown again for the photo shoot, then blonde again as Blair.

The photo on this cover looks like how Lisa looked liked in that McGaffigan movie she filmed in January 1978, so I would say this photo was from that time. More than a year before she did Blair.

BLAIR's hair gradually changes over time: on the Pilot 'The girls school' and season 1 FOL, her hair is golden/lighter brown.
By season 2 she becomes ash blonde, season 3 is pretty much the same, but from season 4 onward she turns Barbie blond.